1999 Acura TL review from North America

Instrument cluster replaced before I purchased the car (unknown as to why).

Great driving dynamics... Suspension is great and when viewed with car on lift, resembles a work of art. No cost cutting beam axle here. It is tuned to be sporty yet very comfortable on road trips. Steering, brakes and handling are all top notch.

"TL" is for "T"ouring and "L"uxury, both of which this car embodies quite well.

3.2 Vtech V6 provides great performance and great mpg. Step on the accelerator and listen to the beautiful sound as the engine hits its power band up over 3 grand.

Excellent driving ergonomics. Nice gauges, auto climate, steering wheel controls, it all adds up.

Excellent gas mileage. 30+ mpg on interstate trips! Beats out most 4 cylinders, so why bother with them?

Quality looking interior. Not overdone with too many switches, buttons, or otherwise.

Surprisingly, no dual climate control for front driver and passenger.

Audio system is excellent in sound with Bose speakers and rear deck mounted subwoofer. Pioneer based OEM head unit does not like CD-R's however, most will not play. Those that do take forever to track when starting or changing tracks.

Note that for '98, the TL was made in Japan. For '99 and newer, they are made in the US. One of the reasons for the radical design change. Although resembling a Honda Accord, only 15% of the parts are interchangeable, and that is mostly fasteners.

Rear windows go ALL THE WAY down for some nice open air motoring.

The '99 TL has a 4 speed auto tranny with the Sportshift. The '00 and newer has a 5 speed which has been prone to failure at such a high rate that Acura extended the powertrain warranty on TL's up to 7 years or 100K. From my research, the 4 speed does not suffer the same failure rate issues as the 5 speeds.

This car is deceivingly fast. No matter how fast you go, it begs to go faster. And faster it does go without additional noise, vibration, or harshness (NVH).

Would have liked to have seen a full size spare. Storage space in trunk is not deep enough for one.

Nice styling... no major changes from '99 to '03 (only real visible change is the "round" high beam accents on the newer models and the addition of fog lights) so car does not appear 5 years old.

Speaking of fog/driving lights, they would have been nice and there is a blank plug in the dash where the switch resides on the newer models.

HID headlights work very well, but do not know how much to replace when needed. High beams are standard halogen and appear very yellow compared to low beam HID's.

Roomy interior considering overall size of car. Very cozy in front with buckets and center console.

Trunk is HUGE. Went to Florida for a week and packed 4 large suitcases, a stroller, a full size cooler, portable file cabinet, and a large laptop case.