2009 Acura TSX Consumer Reviews

Disclaimer (my own) - I have owned many American, Japanese and German cars over the years, and I have a particular fondness for the German engineering, so bear this in mind when reading my review that follows. Where do I begin? First, there is very little "sport" to this sport wagon. Steering is less than communicative, and handling is so-so. Sportwagon is a minomer in this case. The interior materials are, unfortunately, typical Honda, i.e., look nice from a distance and feel good at first touch, but much lower quality than is appropriate for this price point. The leather on the driver's seat is already showing abnormal wear, and I'm by no means overweight. The door panel material is too soft/sueded, so it has developed a glaring shiny spot where you typically rest your elbow. The outside temperature guage seems to be confused, as one day it's telling me the temp is 74 (when it was actually 60), and another it's 10 degreees cooler than actual outside temp. I should point out this is NOT at startup, but after the car has been running/driven a good 15-20 minutes. The car has 201 hp and a 5-sp automatic, and it's just not a good pairing for a car this size. There have been more than a few times when merging w/highway traffic was a little exciting, and not in a fun way. Of course, with torque of only 175 bhp, I'm not sure how a 5-speed could do anything useful with so little power. This brings me to the transmission; with only 5 gears and a NON-turbo 4-banger, the engine noise of this car gets seriously irritating above 65 mph. Getting this car to track straight was a joke for the first 6k miles, although that could have had something to do with the tires not having been broken in; but seriously, other auto makers seem to be able to account for that, so why can't Acura? And then how about added options? Well, seat heaters are great when they work well - but they don't in this car. They take forever to heat up (compared to Audi, BMW, and even GM vehicles), and then once they do I swear you can feel every heating element wire as it coils through the seat - it's a targeted "hot wire" feeling, like an old heating pad with a worn-out cover, not a nice, overall enveloping warmth that you'll find on the other vehicles mentioned. The toggle switches for the seat heaters are mindlessly placed on the horizontal surface next to the gear selector, where they can easily be switched "on" without realizing it. Any idea how much fun that was on an August day in Georgia? It ain't pretty... I say all of this as a cautionary tale: if you have ever driven anything with a sporting flair- or anything German- and enjoyed the experience, then you will NOT be happy with this car. If, however, you are accustomed to Honda or Toyota vehicles and are a fan (and I'm not knocking those that do - there are folks who prefer Japanese engineering over German, and vice versa), then this may be a worthy addition to your home. But when the service advisors at the local dealership point out that this car really wasn't well thought-out by Acura, what can you infer from such statements?