Mdx Awd Crystal Black Pearl Advance Entertainment Pkg Low Miles on 2040-cars

Auto blog

We drive the Acura TLX-GT racecar

Don't break the car. As you can tell from the video, that's the theme of the day at Gingerman Raceway in South Haven, MI. After two short lapping sessions in the Acura TLX-GT fear gave way to familiarity, and a second theme emerged: this is awesome. The anxiety was appropriate. There are only two TLX-GTs in the world, and both were at Gingerman that day. A mishap would potentially put either Ryan Eversly and Peter Cunningham out of contention for the subsequent Pirelli World Challenge race. I did not want to be that guy. But back to the awesome part. The TLX-GT is barely TLX, but more Acura that you might expect. The wheelbase, roof, and doors are all stock dimensions, although all the bodywork is carbon fiber. Out go the front MacPherson struts, in goes a special double-wishbone suspension. All-wheel drive comes from an XTRAC six-speed sequential transmission originally developed for Dakar Rally vehicles. The side mirrors are stock. Under the hood lies a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 with a stock block, head, crank, and throttle body. "Under the hood" is a generous term, though, because half of the engine sits inside the cabin. The front end of the block is aft of the front axle - the rest of the hood is taken up with radiators and hoses. To service the turbochargers, the RealTime mechanics remove the top of the dashboard. The front-mid engine location pushes the driver's seat back to the B-pillar, so you sit like Hightower from Police Academy. Only with less visibility. This does not calm the nerves. Nor does the din of 600 or so unmuffled horsepower. My first laps were understandably timid. But the TLX-GT is actually easy to drive. You get used to the low, rearward seating position almost immediately. Once rolling you don't need the clutch for shifts - just bang the right and left paddles to go up and down. I even became accustomed to the acceleration. At more than 3,000 pounds curb weigh the TLX-GT is quick, but not as explosive as cars like the Chevrolet Corvette Z06. Where the TLX-GT blows away road cars is in grip and braking, neither of which I fully exploited. The brake pedal is so hard you feel like you're standing on it just to get the pads to bite. Once engaged, they're like an endless well of deceleration, with ABS somewhere down at the bottom of the abyss. Second lapping session over, car returned intact and adrenaline high in full effect. I had the uncontrollable urge to get back behind the wheel. I mean, I barely had time to get up to speed.

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.

2021 Acura TLX A-Spec Long-Term Wrap-Up | Not-so-long-term car

Been wondering what ever happened to our long-term 2021 Acura TLX A-Spec test car? Wonder no more, for we have answers to share with you in our long-term wrap-up. Last we updated you on our bright Apex Blue sport sedan, it was experiencing electrical gremlins aplenty. We weathered odd issues — random shifts into Park while stopped, infotainment glitching — the car simply decided to not start one day. This led to it being flat-bedded to the Acura dealer where it stayed for an abnormally long time. It was just over two months to be exact. The problems were ultimately determined to be from water intrusion to the fuse box, and some of the wait was for parts that had become corroded due to water being where it absolutely shouldnÂ’t be. Of course, our first question was, how did water get into the fuse box? Acura didnÂ’t have an obvious answer for us at first, but donÂ’t worry, we eventually got one. So, once the parts were in and installed, Acura gave the car a clean bill of health, and we took it back with only a month left in our year-long loan term. Unfortunately, our TLX would not make it that long. Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore took the TLX for this final stint. Two weeks of regular driving went by without any issue, but then the electrical gremlins returned. One afternoon he went out to the car and the dash lit up like a Christmas tree, sending the car into what Migliore said felt like a limp mode. The car technically ran, but it was not drivable. This meant yet another trip on the flatbed to the Acura dealer for another diagnosis. The days came and went, and eventually our original year-long loan term with the TLX expired. Approximately a month after this, Acura finally had answers for what had befallen our poor TLX.  Why so long, you ask? Acura actually called in engineers to try and sort out what had happened with this particular car. The answer? Water in the fuse box, once again. Apparently, the water intrusion issue from before hadnÂ’t been fully solved because the original source of leakage wasnÂ’t found in the first go-round, and water was still making its way into the fuse box. Acura tells us that trying to find the source of the intrusion is quite challenging, and thatÂ’s why it took the dealer and engineers so long to diagnose and sort out.