Acura 101 West

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Driving Impressions

The Acura RL is smooth, responsive and enjoyable in everyday driving. On winding roads, it delivers agile handling and a taut, poised feel. It grips the corners, has excellent transient response and stops in a short distance. The ride is a nice balance, firm enough to feel expansion joints but not so firm as to be harsh. The RL cruises easily and comfortably. The cabin is quiet, benefiting from a noise cancellation system that reduces road noise and tire noise but especially boom from the engine exhaust.

Super-Handling All-Wheel Drive improves the handling of the RL considerably. SH-AWD distributes power not only between the front and rear wheels but also between the left and right rear wheels. The system controls this distribution of power precisely to enhance handling. Essentially, the system overdrives the outside rear wheel in corners to reduce the understeer that is inherent with all-wheel-drive layouts. As a result, the RL doesn't plow in corners. It simply motors around them.

We found this all-wheel-drive setup particularly helpful in tight corners where it keeps the nose of the car tucked in. The car seemed to respond well to throttle in the corners. The effects of overdriving one of the rear wheels is most noticeable at competition speeds, but the system improves handling feel even at a moderate pace. The RL just feels precise. It goes exactly where you want to go. The SH-AWD improves handling stability on dry or wet roads and the all-wheel drive improves traction and stability on snow and ice. The system is biased to the front. When cruising along, 70 percent of the engine's power goes to the front wheels, and 30 percent goes to the rear wheels. Stand on it, however, and up to 70 percent of the power goes to the rear wheels. That means little or no wheel spin when accelerating.

The driver can sense the front-wheel-drive bias of the RL. The rear-wheel-drive BMW 5 Series sedan feels livelier than the RL, making it more fun to drive. With its firmer suspension, the BMW feels more taut than the RL. However, the RL is easier to push to the limit in unfamiliar corners. So the RL would be an excellent choice if you had to choose a car to try to outrun bad guys over an unfamiliar mountain road, and that would be particularly true if the conditions were slippery or unpredictable. The styling isn't flashy enough for James Bond, however.

The 3.5-liter V6 engine generates plenty of acceleration performance and the RL responds quickly to jabs at the throttle. The V6 delivers impressive power, rated at 290 horsepower at 6200 rpm and 256 pound-feet of torque at 5000 rpm. Luxury cars with V8 engines offer more power and more low-end response, but the RL delivers solid performance. The Acura RL can accelerate from 0-60 mph in less than 7 seconds, so it can compete with a BMW 530i. Acura's 24-valve, single overhead-cam, aluminum VTEC V6 combines strong power with low emissions and reasonable fuel economy: The RL meets the government's stringent standards as a LEV2-ULEV Ultra-Low Emissions Vehicle and earns an EPA-estimated City/Highway 18/26 mpg.

The five-speed automatic transmission is excellent and aids the RL driving experience considerably. Shifting is crisp and quick but super-smooth, making the RL more responsive and more enjoyable. It seems to shift up early, but never seems to hunt for gears. The driver can shift manually using the shift lever (located on the center console) or with paddle shifters located on the steering wheel. Using this Sequential SportShift feature is fun, but we usually prefer to put the transmission in Drive and let it do the job it does so well, allowing us to concentrate on braking, steering and accelerating.

We found the brakes to be excellent, with a good, firm pedal. The brake system employs big, ventilated brake rotors with four-piston aluminum calipers in front, with ventilated discs in the rear. Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD) automatically adjusts

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