BMW Top Cars: 2011 Acura TSX Specs And Review

Sunday, April 3, 2011

2011 Acura TSX Specs And Review

2011 Acura TSX has a new wagon body style called the Sport Wagon. All TSXs also benefits fuel economy slightly, improving exterior design, improved acoustic insulation and a new system of hard-drive-based navigation with a higher resolution display.

2011 Acura TSX continue in his role as a gateway to a premium brand model Honda, steady if somewhat ordinary players in the sedan, four-cylinder sport sedan trim and more interesting when equipped with a V6 available. However largest news for rows TSX in 2011 is addition model barrows. Offers more cargo room than competitors, ample storage and a flat load floor can accommodate items up to 70 inches, TSX Sport Wagon adds welcome flexibility and panache to a model that has frankly less interesting every year.

Cars are often set their wagons up to fail with their higher prices than comparable SUVs, but Acura does not make a mistake here. On the reasonable $ 31,820 (base price), TSX Sport Wagon is actually cut with a little price compact crossover Acura, the RDX.

The problem is that Acura Sport Wagon is offered with only one powertrain: 2.4-liter four-cylinder with automatic and front-drive five-speed wheel. V-6 and manual transmission is available on the TSX sedan can not have here, who cut a small subset of potential buyers but enthusiastic cart.

The problem is more worrying, though, is the lack of all-wheel drive. Train station people are concentrated in the Northeast, where all-wheel-drives are very popular. Of premium-brand wagons other, each offering all-wheel drive. This is standard on the Audi A4 Avant wagon and Mercedes-Benz E-class, and it is optional on the wagon 3-series BMW, Saab 9-3 SportCombi, the Volvo XC70 and Cadillac CTS wagon.

Unfortunately for the disabled TSX Sport Wagon this way, because this car is very nice to drive. Chassis tuning is really well-sprung suspension is taut, with exceptional control body movement, but enough to glide over bad pavement chopped. also well weighted steering.

The five-speed automatic doesn�t hesitate to rev the four-cylinder engine, but this big Honda four is so smooth and so quiet you barely even hear it until it gets to 4000 rpm, and above there is gets growly not thrashy. The powertrain combo is lively and agreeable, and returns an impressive 22/30 mpg (according to the EPA).

The all-black interior in my test example seemed of stout quality and ample plushness, although it�s a little dour, unrelieved by even a bit of bright trim. The driving position is quite nice and the seats have a lot of lateral support, but a bit too much lumbar. The TSX dash has a lot of buttons, but once you learn where things are most commands are a one-step operation, rather than a multi-step process of wading through on-screen menus.

With its tech package, the TSX Sport Wagon features very modern navigation, phone, and stereo systems. Acura fits a hard drive into the dashboard to store maps for the navigation system as well as reserving some space for music storage. The result is a system that responds quickly to user input, and quickly recalculates routes after a missed turn.

Sitting below the car's LCD is the familiar Acura interface controller, a protruding joystick/dial that, though ugly, is very usable. Past Acura models have an addiction to buttons across their dashboards, but the TSX Sport Wagon shows an honest commitment to cut down.

Some particularly nice things about the navigation system are the Zagat restaurant guide included with the points-of-interest database and the listing of scenic routes throughout the country. Both of these features make the TSX Sport Wagon an excellent road trip car. Weather data is also a useful feature.

The Bluetooth phone system is full-featured, downloading a paired phone's contact list and making it possible to dial by name with the voice command system. And another advanced feature Acura has been rolling out in its various models is what it calls Song By Voice, a feature that lets you request music from a paired iPod or the car's own hard drive by artist, album, or song name. This feature works well and had no trouble with a difficult artist name such as Blitzen Trapper.

Base Specification: