BURNING UP
LOUISVILLE, KY. » The 2018 Acura TLX is officially just a mid-cycle refreshed model, but there is more changed to it that you’d expect.
More importantly, the folks at Acura want it to be something special, something that represents the direction they are taking the company with all its coming models. The difference is that the brand is going to be more performance oriented and the redesigned styling focuses on premiumness.
Precision Crafted Performance is what they call the theme for marketing, and company officials say they are focused on being “us”. So lots of work went into tuning and refining the car for quickly recognizable performance improvement. The same can be said of the premiumness, which is made up of luxury materials and styling and all the electronic assists, whether for safety or connectivity.
But there is a lot of change to the TLX specifically to differentiate the car even more from the flagship RLX. More importantly to buyers, this refresh also brings the technology features up to date.
For example, all models are Apple Care and Android Auto compatible and the two-screen vehicle interface is reworked and is now touch-controlled. The eightinch upper screen is high in the instrument panel, on the driver’s sight-line. The seven-inch lower screen gets rid of bunches of buttons on the dash.
Even more valuable, all models come standard with AcuraWatch, which includes a suite of safety features. These are autonomous emergency braking, forward collision warning, adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assists and roaddeparture mitigation.
The interior is attractive, and Acura says they’ve focused on quality, wanting to create an even more premium experience. But they won’t ignore their reputation on high-end technology. Perhaps the coolest of these to me are Active Noise
Control and Active Sound Control. These systems use microphones and an electronic processor as well as the car’s speakers to reduce some of the sound coming into the cabin. It’s based on the Bose sound-cancelling technology used Bose’s headphones
The front end of the car is more attractive, in particular using a new pentagon-shaped grille. This is a fine change from the previous Acura-family grille of which I was not a fan. Headlights are the five-element LED, which both look and operate well. The hood and front fenders are more three dimensional, and create a much more aggressive impression. The TLX also gets, depending on trim level and customer wishes, new alloy wheels running from 17 to 19 inches.
The TLX’s two direct injected (DI) engines combine power and efficiency. The 2.4-liter four-cylinder produces a peak 206 horsepower and 182 lb.-ft. of torque. It’s mated to an eight-speed Dual Clutch Transmission with torque converter. The other engine is a 3.5-liter V6 making 290-hp. and 267 lb.-ft. of torque flowing through a nine-speed automatic transmission.
Honda says it has given this transmission a more “refined” feel, with fully electronic control. The only thing I really noted was that when gently accelerating the shifts are barely felt through the comfortable leather seats.
Both the four and six-cylinder engines come in both FWD and AWD. Acura says that the 2018 model is the first time the AWD has been an option on all trim levels.
While this isn’t a new platform, high-strength steel now makes up 52 percent of its body structure. But bringing down the weight is helped by using aluminum for the hood front and rear bumper beams and front subframe are aluminum.
The Acura’s new 2018 model, the TLX A-Spec, uses different exterior fascias and engineers have modified the suspension tuning. It comes in both front- and all-wheel drive powered by the V6.
One of the nice things about electric power steering is that you can adjust its response to input, and the A-Spec gets a more aggressive setup with a new steering wheel at the top of the steering column. Inside the cabin the instrument panel gets a reworked touch screen.
For 2018 Acura wants to create more separation among their models and trim levels. When it comes to the TLX, the four-cylinder models are at the bottom of the lineup and market. At the top, appealing to the Millennials is the A-Spec model.
But Acura faces the same problem that all manufacturers must now deal with – people aren’t buying many cars. In fact, according to Acura, only 40 percent of Acura sales are sedans. Frankly the entire luxury sedan market is flat, making it challenging to refocus a car within its segment. That segment, by the way, includes the Audi A4, the Mercedes Benz C300, the BMW 330i, the Infiniti Q50 and the Lexus IS.
Pricing for the Acura TLX begins at $33,000 MSRP for the TLC 2.4L to $43,750 for the Advance V6. The New ASpec V6, which is based on the $39,900 Tech V6 begins at $42,800.