2016 Acura TLX - 10,000 Mile Update

For me at least, it’s hard to believe that 10,000 miles is about to appear on the odometer of my TLX that I bought back in June of 2016 – just 9 short months earlier. But, it also comes as no surprise to me that it’s handled each and every mile with not so much as a wimper. With the TLX closing in on the 10,000 mile, erm, milestone, if you will, it’s time that we take a look back at how it’s fared over the last 9 months.

Let’s start with the good:

For starters, this is by far and away the most fuel efficient car I’ve ever owned. Not being able to remember the last time I went to the pump to fill up has become the norm for me, since gas station visits normally happen on a monthly basis. Even so, the fill-ups barely make a dent in my bank account, since I spend on average between $25 - $30 - and keep in mind, I live in the tax – ridden suburbs of Chicago. Being able to shrug off fuel expenses so easily has certainly been a plus to owning this car – especially since the TLX is almost the same size as the Maxima, which was less than half as efficient.

Next on the docket is comfort. For a mid-size sedan, the TLX offers supreme comfort designed with the long-haul in mind. The seats embrace and coddle your body in a pillow of luxury, and the suspension offers an effortless balance between sportiness and smoothness, being able to tackle the pothole laden roads of Chicago while at the same time offering a silky smooth ride on the highway, as well as allowing me to make quick lane changes and turns on a dime without so much as a squeal from the tires. The dual screen center console system is easy to reach, without having to lean forward from the driver position. The ELS sound system that comes with the tech package is very comparable to, if not better than the BOSE systems I’d had in both my previous cars – offering a variety of listening options, from USB to Bluetooth compatibility. The interior climate control system is fast to react, which helped to cool the car off on hot summer days, and to heat everything up on cold Chicago winter mornings.  

That brings me to my next, and very well most important aspect to go over – the 2.4 liter 4-cylinder engine. It’s no monster, but then again it’s not to be considered a slouch either. The 205hp Honda – derived power plant copes extremely well with the car and my driving style. It doesn’t sound like much worth mentioning, but even in economy mode, the TLX is able to accelerate hard enough to push me back into my seat when merging onto highways, and it can handle 90mph with ease. There are 5 drive modes to select from, and each offers its own unique benefits: econ mode, which is where I normally keep it, normal, sport, and sport +. This being a 4 door 4-cylinder sedan, I had hypothesized that these driving modes were more of a placebo – meaning that rather than actually enhancing anything substantially, it more or less just gave the driver the confidence to drive the car more enthusiastically. However, once I began to test out each mode on the highway, I was proven very wrong.

Econ mode is the most conservative driving option on the TLX, as it’s focused on getting the most mileage possible out of each gallon of fuel in the tank. It does this very well, at times getting the average mpg figures to touch 36mpg, all without sacrificing things like acceleration or handling, which instilled enough confidence in me to want to keep it there as my default driving mode.

Normal mode shift’s the TLX’s focus and starts to consider things like throttle response and handling. When I switched over to normal mode from econ on the highway, there was a noticeable, though not substantial difference in the sharpness of the throttle response. The steering also seemed a little more immediate, but nothing to inspire me enough to want to find the nearest race track. To me, Normal mode was more or less just the “standard” mode for the TLX.

When I upped it to ‘sport’ mode, the TLX seemed to be much more awake than it normally was to me. The throttle response became almost immediate. The 8 speed transmission shifted its focus away from fuel economy and became more dedicated to offering harder acceleration by choosing lower gears when I put my foot down so as to get it going faster, quicker. It was the first time I could honestly say I’d felt my chest grow a little tight and fill with a sense of excitement and thrill that the car’s behavior was giving me. It was letting me know that there was some real life under the hood, and that the engine, while it was small, definitely had some bite.

Then, there is the ‘sport+’ mode. This mode shifts all focus away from economical driving and comfort, and focuses on delivering the most performance possible. When I pushed the IDS selector on the center console to ‘Sport+’, the car shifted down a couple gears and sort of slightly lunged forward in the same sort of way that a small dog on a leash does when it sees another dog just down the street and gets excited. It lets you know that you’re about to see what the TLX is really made of, and that while it can get you places on a budget, it can also deliver quite a performance when you really want to put your foot down.

The throttle response is much sharper, offering a seem-less, immediate, and aggressive response. The same goes for the steering. It’s less wooden and more grounded. Somehow I could feel more of the road when turning the wheel. The engine growls slightly when I put my foot down, and the acceleration was enough to raise my heart rate slightly and push me back into my seat, even while accelerating from 65mph – something that was unexpected to me from such a large car with such a small engine. Hell, by the time I’d let off the accelerator, I looked down to find that my hands had instinctively went to the 10-2 position and my grip on the steering wheel was much tighter than the loose grip I normally have when I drive the TLX. I had genuinely felt this sense of excitement that I hadn’t really felt since driving my old RX-8 – yes, it was that good. I left in in this mode for most of the duration of the drive, and after some enthusiastic driving, I checked the fuel economy figures to find that my averages hadn’t really been affected at all! I’d quickly concluded then that the sport+ mode was by far my favorite driving mode – but that I’d use it like I drink whiskey – sparingly, and only when the mood takes me, and I fancy a romp around my local back roads. Until then, Econ mode is still my go-to mode, because, well, fuel economy.

You knew it was coming – The Bad:

Well, ‘Bad’ might be the wrong term to use for this segment. I’d prefer “questionable”, “niggles” (no it’s not what you thought you read) or “drawbacks”. Let’s start with the transmission.

During the warmer months, the 8-speed gearbox performed without a hitch. It was smooth and silky, and it handled itself well by being able to pick the most efficient gear and sticking with its choice, as opposed to other similar systems that seem to endlessly reconsider its selection, constantly sorting through the gears to find the best one, only to then change its mind seconds later. It wasn’t until things started cooling down that I noticed an issue when slowing down. As I’d come to a stop at an intersection, the gearbox would seem to forget that it was still in second gear just before stopping, and would suddenly and somewhat violently lurch me forward just before I came to a complete stop. The worst thing about this problem I’m having, is that it’s sporadic. 95% of the time, it’s a non-issue. But the other 5% of the time, I’ll slow down upon coming to intersections and I’ll get nervous, wondering if the gearbox will decide to forget what gear it’s in and lurch me forward. Currently if a car is in front of me, I make sure to leave a bigger gap between myself and the car in front in fear that if it did lurch me forward, it might accidentally bump the other car, which, honestly, when I think about trying to explain that to the insurance company, they would probably write it off as a laughable excuse for my lack of attentiveness that resulted in my front bumper trading paint with the rear bumper of the car in front.

Another thing that I find extremely finicky is the Navigation system. Earlier on, I reported that I’d noticed it wasn’t exactlyuser friendly, but that I’d use the system more in the coming months to reallyget a full idea of what it’s like to live with on a day-to-day basis. Sadly, my opinion hasn’t really been swayed at all. It’s not as difficult to use now that I’ve gotten used to it for the most part, but it’s still frustrating when it comes to entering destinations into the system, partly because I know the challenge I’m in for if I say something incorrectly or inaudibly, or whether or not it will even recognize the address at all.

The voice command option works well most of the time, but every so often, it will act like I’m speaking a completely different language, and no matter how many times I’d say the destination, it would still come back to ask me what I meant, offering options that are nowhere near what I’d spoken into the voice command system to begin with. To combat this issue, I’d enter the address manually with the touch screen keyboard. But, even then, the TLX’s keyboard has an autofill option that is less than ideal. You’d think it would work in the same way like what you’d get on a smart phone text app, but instead the TLX’s autofill doesn’t offer suggestions, so much as it just goes ahead and assumes that it knows what you’re entering, and once I would put a few letters in, it would just decide to take over on its own merit and fill in the rest of the letters, resulting in an incorrect input and an endless game of hangman between me and the system. This would result in me just pulling out my cell phone to put the destination into google maps – inducing a similar feeling to the frustration that results in someone flipping the monopoly board after having played for 5 hours straight. It’s sad that it got that bad, but let’s hope that Acura’s next generation system addresses these issues and makes for a more user-friendly interface.

The Ugly:

This segment focuses on random issues I’ve had over the past 9 months. Let’s start with that tire that got punctured a couple months into my ownership of the TLX. If you recall, earlier on I reported that my tire hadsomehow begun to leak air. Originally, after speaking to a few fellow TLX owners, I suspected that the rim itself was what would have been causing the issue, but a quick appointment and trip to the dealership revealed that it was in fact just a nail that had found its way through the rubber. So far, the patch job has proven to be one of quality as it hasn’t given way to leaks yet, and has gone unnoticed since it was repaired. And because it was covered under my warranty, the fix costed me $0.

But the MOST heartbreaking thing to happen to the TLX happened just last weekend, when some a-hole decided to scuff the front passenger side headlight and bumper and run without leaving any information. Thankfully, the damage is extremely light and for the most part, unnoticeable. I’ve made an appointment with the dealership to have them take a look at it, though I’m not exactly hopeful that anything can be done without having to go through my personal insurance. We’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, I am accepting quotes for repairs!

Summary:

Over the past 10,000 miles, the Acura TLX has held up very well, presenting very little in the way of actual problems with important aspects such as reliability or over all functionality of the components such as the engine or electronics. However, this being a Honda – based car, this should ideally come as no surprise to anyone who knows a thing or two about Honda’s reputation in the auto indsutry. As far as Honda is concerned, 10,000 miles on one of their cars is like breathing – effortless and not even noticeable. Until then, We’ll be keeping up with the TLX over the next 20,000 miles and beyond.