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Daily Driver: 2015 Acura TLX

Daily Driver videos are micro-reviews of vehicles in the Autoblog press fleet, reviewed by the staffers who drive them every day. Today's Daily Driver features the 2015 Acura TLX, reviewed by Seyth Miersma. You can watch the video above or read a transcript below. Watch more Autoblog videos at /videos. Show full video transcript text Hey all, this is Seyth with Autoblog and I'm here in the 2015 Acura TLX. Right off the bat I can tell that the TLX doesn't feel anything like as sporting a sedan as the TL it replaced, at least not in the versions that I last drove, which admittedly were TL's with V6 power and the SH all wheel drive. This TLX has got a 2.4-liter, four-cylinder engine, it's making 206 horsepower, and 182 pound-feet of torque, and it is connected up to a eight-speed, dual-clutch transmission. As you can tell by the power output this isn't an impressively fast car. It weighs about 3,500 pounds so it's lugging around some weight. At the same time the eight-speed transmission is really responsive especially as you go through the selectable gear programs, you can make the throttle response pretty good. It is a throttle by wire as well and I haven't noticed any weirdness there, it feels very linear, and like I said, when I turned the system into the sport plus mode the gas pedal becomes really responsive. The exhaust note is muted, you really have to get up over 5,000 rpm before you start feeling like the engine is really pushing you. One of the things that struck me first about this Acura when I got in it was how quiet it was at speed. I feel like in the luxury segment, Acuras have historically done a little bit better for being sportier versions of cars in their segment and not necessarily more refined, but that seems to have been changing a lot on the last few generations of Acura. What it lacks in athletic ability it makes up for in composure. I'm on a pretty good right now, there are plenty of bad ones around where I live so this suspension soaks up a lot of the impacts and it dampens the sound of them as well too. Acura is clearly going after a much more mainstream customer these days and I think a car like this could be very attractive, more attractive than ever for a shopper of something like a Lexus ES. One feature I did play around with was Acura's active lane keep assist which works actually by moving the steering wheel to a degree to keep you centered in your lane if your hands are off the wheel.

2016 Acura RDX arrives with freshened styling, powertrain enhancements [UPDATE]

UPDATE: The 2016 RDX comes with a six-speed automatic transmission, not a nine-speed. The text below has been edited to reflect this. Launched in 2012 for the 2013 model year, the second-generation RDX is hardly an old vehicle, and the luxury crossover is coming off its best sales year ever, according to Acura. Still, three years after the debut, the Japanese automaker is giving the CUV a thorough refresh with a facelift and bountiful new tech at the 2015 Chicago Auto Show, with sales set to kick off this spring. The most obvious update at the front for the 2016 RDX is Acura's Jewel Eye LED headlight array already found on some of its other models, but the improvements go a lot further than just the lighting. All of the fascia's lines appear just a little sharper and the added chrome helps grab the eye. The refinements are similar at the rear, where there are now LED taillights. While not obvious on the surface, the structure underneath is supposed to offer better frontal crash performance, too. Acura's engineers turned their attention to the RDX's powertrain for some tweaks, as well. The crossover now benefits from a nine-speed automatic gearbox to replace the previous six-speed. The 3.5-liter V6 with cylinder deactivation also gets a slight upgrade to make 279 horsepower and 252 pound-feet of torque – up 6 hp and 1 lb-ft over the 2015 model. The changes benefit fuel economy by one-mile-per-gallon on the highway with ratings of 20 mpg city and 29 mpg highway for the front-wheel drive version and 19/28 with all-wheel drive. The 2016 RDX is also packed with new tech to improve drivability and safety. Active front and rear engine mounts should improve NVH, and the all-wheel-drive system has more rear bias. Inside, the cabin trim sees an update, and heated front seats are standard. The optional Technology Package now gets an eight-way power front passenger seat, the company's dual-screen multi-info display and both blind spot and rear cross traffic monitoring. However, for those looking for a ton of gadgets to brag about, the new Advance Package option is the place to be. It includes rain-sensing wipers, front fog lights, remote engine start, ventilated front seats, front and rear parking sensors, an auto-dimming driver's side mirror and the full suite of the AcuraWatch safety assist functions.

Honda celebrates 30th anniversary of the NSX with a look back at how it began

In 1989, the baseball-loving Japanese dipped their bats in pine tar and came to the U.S. to take gigundous swings. That single year launched five legends: Lexus LS400, Infiniti Q45, Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo, Mazda MX-5 Miata, and Acura NS-X concept. The Chicago Auto Show (!) hosted the global debuts of the Mazda and the Acura. While Mazda celebrates the bygones with the 30th Anniversary Miata, Acura's reminiscing with a look at how the NSX — a car Motor Trend described in 1990 as, "[The] best sports car the world has ever produced. Any time. Any place. Any price ..." — came to be. The development yearbook opened in 1984, a year after Honda returned to Formula One as an engine supplier for the Spirit team, and for the second Williams chassis in the last race of the season. For the first time in the automaker's history, Honda wanted to build a production car with the engine behind the cabin, one that would demonstrate Honda's engineering prowess and "deeply rooted racing spirit." The sports car would also serve as a halo for the not-yet-launched Acura brand. The engineering team built the first test vehicle in February 1984 on the bones of a first-generation Honda Jazz. After four years of formal development, Honda parked the NS-X Concept in a conference room at Chicago's Drake Hotel in February 1989. This is where the media would meet the red wonder before the public show-stand debut. The F-16 Fighting Falcon-inspired coupe was built on the world's first all-aluminum monocoque, and its SOHC V6 ran with titanium connecting rods. Before the press conference, then-Honda president Tadashi Kume got in the NS-X, started the engine, and revved to the 8,000-rpm redline — a noise felt by everyone in the adjacent conference room attending a Ford press conference. Honda's PR man at the time yelled, "Mr. Kume, stop it! They're gonna hear this!" When Kume got out, he asked Honda engineers present why they didn't put their new VTEC technology in the NS-X. (What's Japanese for, "Why didn't the VTEC kick in, yo?!") They told him VTEC had been created for four-cylinder engines. Kume told them to work on a V6 application. More suggestions came from journos who drove the early prototypes at Honda's Tochigi R&D Center, who said the NS-X "could use more power." The development team had grabbed the SOHC V6 from the Acura Legend for the NS-X concept, and it put out 160 horsepower in the luxury sedan.