2004 TL - get Auto or 6-speed????

[1BADNSX]

Leigh and I will probably be buying a 2004 TL. The six-speed has the Brembos, limited-slip differential, firmer ARB’s, and weighs almost 100 pounds less. The automatic transmission is nice to commute with and we already have two other performance cars to drive if we want the higher performance.

Does anybody out there already have the six-speed? Any regrets?

I am sure there are many folks with the automatic transmissions on board, what are your thoughts?

We will be moving to Colorado in 1.5 years. How do they do in the snow?

Thanks,
Bob

 

[Joel]

Personally, I'd opt for the manual tranny. However, given that you already have other cars, auto is very convenient to have. I make it a point to have at least one car an automatic for daily driving. In my case, it's because of L.A. traffic.

For snow driving, I'd go with the BMW 3-series AWD.

 

[O-Ace]

Depends on the type of driving you have to do. But, considering you already have other high-perf cars, I would go with the Auto.

-awais

 

[Da Hapa]

Two thoughts -

1) Honda/Acura has had some serious problems with the 5 speed sportshift auto tranny in the TL. Knowing Honda, they've probably fixed that by now, but... it's something to consider.
2) The MT car is undeniably more fun to drive but its going to be worse in the snow than the auto (given the higher peformance summer tires) unless you spend the $ to buy some steel wheels and winter tires.

 

[NetViper]

I would go for auto for 2 reasons.

1) the manual is supposed to have pretty bad tq steer and FWD does not make it a great handling car anyway.

2) I would rather just get in a nice luxury car and cruise. Why worry about shifting.

 

[1BADNSX]

We decided on the anthrocite/ebony with an automatic transmission since the car was replacing our 3.0 CL. I was surprised that the dealers were dealing as much as they were on a new model. The car is very solid and joy to drive.

Bob

 

[FuryNSX]

That's such a nice looking car. I like the color!!

I still can't definitely say that I won't trade in my '99. What kind of deals are they making? On the previous generation, they didn't wan't to come down from MSRP for quite some time.

-Randy

 

[1BADNSX]

What kind of deals are they making? On the previous generation, they didn't wan't to come down from MSRP for quite some time.

-Randy

Many dealers claim MSRP because the car is so hot, but I have eight dealers within 150 miles, and there are many cars at every lot. The Navigation models are harder to come by, we bought a non-nav automatic. I think the six-speeds could be discounted further based on my perception of how many are sitting at dealerships.

Anyway, I negotiated $1000 over invoice, this is about $2000 below MSRP. As it turned out, it wasn’t that good because they added a dealer fee (built into the contract) of $499 and wouldn’t budge off of this fee. So really the price was $1500 over invoice which is about $1500 below MSRP. I felt it was fair for a new good selling vehicle.

Bob

 

[FuryNSX]

Anything off of MSRP seems better than what was going on five years ago when I got my TL. There's so many different places for dealerships to make money (like that dealer fee, installed accessories, etc.) that there's gotta be some place to cut a customer some slack.

I guess I should check around the local dealerships and see who want to deal.

Thanks.

 

[brahtw8]

I have had my TL/6mt/Nav since 12/5/03.

I would not have considered the car if it was automatic only, as I am a die-hard manual fan.

The car does need snows if winter driving is an issue. The stock Turanza EL42s are garbage. I had the car delivered with Blizzak LM22s. Great snow tires.

You should be on www.acura-tl.com

 

[FuryNSX]

Or Acuraworld. Either site can be a source of good TL information, as long as you can sift through some of the B.S., bickering, and hyperbole on both sites.

Neither forum (or any other for that matter) is as good as Prime.

 

[brahtw8]

Or Acuraworld. Either site can be a source of good TL information, as long as you can sift through some of the B.S., bickering, and hyperbole on both sites.

Neither forum (or any other for that matter) is as good as Prime.

Agreed. It is funny listening to people get all bent out of shape on the kill story threads, i.e. TL vs. G35 or TL vs. GTP.

Reminds me of the NSX vs. F-body days.