Overview & Reviews

User Reviews:

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  Nice car - 2015 Acura TLX
  By Yaba Dabadoo - September 7 - 3:58 pm

  So far so good. Been getting lot of compliments. The drive is smooth and balanced. Cant speak on much as Ive only driven it 980 miles thus far.

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  Acura TLX review - 2015 Acura TLX
  By Sam - June 14 - 9:43 pm

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  Mid-luxury and good value - 2015 Acura TLX
  By Gerald Gruber - June 7 - 2:58 pm

  Cost of ownership is excellent

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  Smooth and great family car - 2015 Acura TLX
  By Lawrence71 - December 22 - 2:09 am

  After owning a 2007 Accord (best Accord ever built and phenomenal car), I decided it was time for an upgrade that included more modern safety features. I have been driving my new TLX for about 18 months now and have about 16,000 miles on it. Fantastic car and offers great value for the money. This is not a sports car even though handling is superb. Best features: quiet interior, quality of materials, handling/steering, engine, fuel economy, style, transmission, LED headlights, great value for the money, and very solid chassis. Not so good features: front headroom good but not great (wish Acura would offer models without moon roof), no spare tire, automatic transmission sometimes jerks a bit when switching from reverse to drive when car is cold.

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  Vibration at 1500 RPMs - 2015 Acura TLX
  By Randy Atkins - November 23 - 1:13 am

  Ive had the car for about 6 weeks now and bought it after being extremely pleased with my 2016 MDX Advance. It was a CPO loaner car with 4600 miles. After about 2 weeks I noticed when I was cruising along at 1500 RPMs it felt like I was riding on a rumble strip. At first I thought it was the road, but then it seemed to happen on any road I was on. I took it to the dealer and they said that it was due to the VCM system (variable cylinder management). When it reaches a cruising speed it drops back to 3 cylinders for optimal gas mileage and therefore causes a vibration. The dealer said there was no fix which lead me to call Acura customer care. After talking with them and them talking to the dealer, they told me that was how the car is supposed to operate, to which I told them no $40k luxury car is designed to rumble when you are at cruising speed. They were absolutely no help and offered no assistance to remedy the problem, just repeated that was the way it was supposed to operate. I took it to another dealer and they basically confirmed the findings of the first dealer. In addition, I started to have a vibration when braking. They looked at that issue and ended up having to replace the entire front brake system...not very comforting for a car with 7k miles. I will say the gas mileage is exceptional as I got 38 MPG straight interstate on a 300 mile trip; however, I bought it for the ride more than the MPG and would gladly take a lower MPG for a smooth ride. Probably wont keep it long.

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  SH-AWD: Willing Engine but lazy transmission - 2015 Acura TLX
  By Scott - October 25 - 7:53 am

  If you interested in owning a SH-AWD V6 TLX, heres what you need to know. The V6 is a great engine with typical Honda growl and furious acceleration. Unfortunately, the 9-speed automatic gets in the way of truly exploiting what this engine has to offer. The transmission is consistently caught hunting for the correct gear when you dig in for more power, unless your using the Sport + mode which does bring the transmission to life. Unfortunately, Sport + mode also brings with it a "rev matching" downshift program that proves to be harsh for all on board, nothing like a manual heel and toe downshift. Left in Sport mode (not Sport+) the car does a decent job of being sports sedan but leaves the driver wanting more. Its too bad this engine cant be had with Acuras more precise dual clutch automatic (4 cyl only) or a manual transmission. The SH-AWD V6 is best suited in day to day use for people looking for luxury over performance. To that end, Acura does offer an engine start / stop system to improve fuel economy that shutters the engine at a stop light. Unfortunately, engine restarts are a bit rough and do catch the car off guard when you need more than a small amount of power off the line. Additionally, the stop / start feature will kill the engine on occasion, only to restart it 60 seconds later for no apparent reason and then shut it off again after moving a few feet in heavy traffic. Other tech features include Acuras blind spot monitoring system. which is very accurate and can easily tell the difference between a guard rail and a car in your blind spot. Unfortunately, the lane keeping assist seems more like a waste of money than an actual feature. The system can barely detect lane markers and consistently fails to engage. During my week with the car, the navigation system was consistently beat by Waze and Google Maps on my iPhone. Both offering better directions and more accurate arrival times than Acuras system. Apple CarPlay would have been 100 times more useful than another dated navigation system like that offered in the 2015 TLX. Overall, this is a good car. Its quiet. Its fast. However, it sorely needs a better transmission and better technology package. In all, the base TLX with an inline 4 and Acuras dual-clutch automatic provide a much better value as long as youre willing to bring your own Smartphone along for the ride.

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  Horrible Transmission - 2015 Acura TLX
  By Arjun - September 21 - 2:38 am

  After many years driving BMWs, I decided to try an Acura in 2015. This car has a 9 speed automatic and it has terrible shifting. It goes faster when you take your foot of the gas because it slips into neutral and jerks horribly when shifting down into 2nd or 3rd gear. It has to be worth a class action lawsuit for the defective transmission on a premium car.

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  I must be lucky - 2015 Acura TLX
  By Damian - June 1 - 7:44 pm

  None of the problems I have thus far read about in the other reviews have crossed my path. Zero! Even the mention of acceleration not being up to par is far from my experience. One of the outstanding aspects of the 9 speed is the two dog teeth gears, one in the low range for fast departures from a red light, and another for amazing passing acceleration from 65 on up! On a lonely interstate I can easily pass a car doing 80 with a simple touch of the accelerator to a speed of 100. And it is anvil tough and quiet. I have driven the car for three years now with no complaints. The nav system is fun to use when I drive to places I have never been before just to explore new vistas and then hit the Home button. There is never an issue with becoming lost. The best technical aspect comes into play when backing out of a parking spot between two trucks that are parallel parked next to me. I cant really see beyond them whether a car is coming or a person is starting to walk towards the back of the car but the radar warns me in both situations! It sees around both trucks and warns me to stop. That is outstanding! What is simply less effective however, is the lane keeping tech. This is due to the fact that the highway does not maintain its lanes in top condition, so that when the paint ages, the car sometimes does not spot the lane correctly . Also, the self driving mechanism works at most for about 30 seconds at a time at which point it demands that you take control of the wheel for at least a second before it re-engages. However, it was never touted as an autonomous driving machine, like a Tesla, but it is fun to watch it drive around curves on its own. I like the soft material it uses in the interior but the push button mechanisms did at first take getting used to since I previously drove a 2000 TL with the combination manual/auto transmission. (That car also had no squeeks or rattles for the 15 years I drove it!). I also like that you can read the air pressure of your tires on your dash board along with the cars recommendation when to get oil. And as far as creep goes in city traffic, I have never experienced the jerkiness from 2nd gear to 3rd or any other jerkiness ever. It is smooth from first all the way to 9th gear. I am very happy I bought this car and glad the dealership reduced the price $300 simply because I said that would be the only way I could get under my credit limit, which was true. Putting it on my credit card allowed me to get 2% back which I thought was a good deal. As to gas consumption, I got 36 mpg on straight highway driving using sport mode. I like sport mode since it lets me react more quickly in case of emergencies. However keeping it in that mode in city driving I noticed I get less than the 24 (?) its supposed to get, but not by much. And I went with the PAWS because I believe the stop/start driving in the SH-AWD is not good for the engine or the transmission despite the gas saving. Besides, having 4 wheel steer around curves means you can take curves faster without needing to accellerate to keep the car in line. It automatically stays in the correct attitude around curves due to the rear wheels turning. It is simply a fun car to drive, anywhere! In re-reading this I noticed I have left off minor perks like the huge size of the trunk, the ability to lock my car by calling Acura, the rear view mirrors automatically changing to a darker glass if the car behind you is using his brights (admittedly an advantage that has been around a while), heated seats (I did not opt for the cooling seats), leather and one cool car color called Phantom Blue Pearl, where the pearl has to do with tiny specs of gold that show up under sunlight or lamposts at night but you have to look carefully for it. WHat can I say, I am a happy camper!

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  Terrible transmission - 2015 Acura TLX
  By Cole - March 20 - 5:17 am

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  Came up from an Acura TL - 2015 Acura TLX
  By Rick Drew - October 30 - 8:27 am

  The Acura TLX is an excellent replacement to an Acura TL (which I drove for the past three years). In terms of space, it is equal to the TL. I cannot perceive a difference (from the TL) in the available space inside (I am 6 and heavy set) and I am totally comfortable in this car. In terms of performance the car accellerates quite well ( I use the "Sport" setting) and it really knows how to "get out of its own way." I am not agressive enough a driver to benefit from the SH-AWD but I feel totally in control and very comfortable wih the handling. The audio system is just fine (I have the standard setup) and I have no problem dealing with the two screen control. Anyone who says its confusing just hasnt taken a few minutes to learn how to be comfortable with it. I like that I can now "type in" directions to the "Nav system" as opposed to the TL which required me to "spin and select." The soundproofing has been significantly enhanced and it cruises at very low cabin noise levels. I really like the safety features such as the blind spot warning. I also like the Lane Keeping Assistance System (LKAS). It works very well. If you dont keep a light touch on the wheel while it is in use, it will notify that "Steering Required" after about 20 seconds which is fine with me. After all, this is not a self-driving car but the LKAS makes a long highway trip very relaxing just as cruise control does. Mileage is amazing. I get 25 MPG combined city and highway and it will travel over 500 miles on a (17 gallon) tank of gas on the freeway. I have driven non-stop from L.A. To the Bay Area without gettting into reserve. What I would change: I hate the engine idle stop feature (which is the default and kicks in at every stop). I would prefer that the default would be that it is OFF and you would then choose to turn it ON. I also disable the collision warning (that you are over taking the car ahead) because it sets off too many annoying false alarms every time I approach a car ahead of me. I would make this default to OFF as well. Finally, I wish it had exhaust tailpipes to funnel or direct the exhaust away from the back of the car. As it is, the back endof my (white) constantly gets sooty from the exhaust getting caught up in the turbulence behind the car and pulled back towards the car. Finally, it sometimes. "Hangs on" to a gear too long. For example, if I use the downshift paddle shifter to decellerate, it may hold the selected downshifted gear too long when I accellerate out. Summary: hey, its just a car and no car is perfect (at least that I can afford) and overall I am very satisfied with the TLX. It is a real step up from the TL and I am very glad I bought it. I think its one of the best kept secrets sport sedan class and offers terrific value especially when compared to its pricy German competition.