CNET editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 03/08/2006
- Updated on: 03/14/2006
Materials and hues inside work harmoniously, creating a feeling of comfort, if not quite luxury. The exterior styling of the 2006 Acura TL left us somewhat cold in contrast, looking quite derivative and bland, like sort of a softer, reclining Audi A4. This flat impression was probably made worse by our car's pearlescent-white paint.
Power is plentiful and the ride is smooth, with minimal jouncing and good shock absorption over rough surfaces. However, the overall driving experience isn't exciting in any way, making the 2006 Acura TL memorable more for its gizmos than being especially fun to drive.
With an as-tested list price of $35,940, the 2006 Acura TL certainly represents solid value with its level of electronic sophistication and typically solid Honda build quality. Tech fans will find a lot to like here, but there are some minor shortcomings as well.
The 2006 Acura TL surrounds occupants in neutral tones--in our test car's case, beige leather offset with real wood and brushed-aluminum accents on the console. Seating is comfortable, with four-way power adjustment for the front passenger and eight-way, including lumbar, for the driver. Controls and gauges are refreshingly large and legible. The speedometer and the tach are proper analog instruments, backlit blue even with the headlights off, and share the main dashboard binnacle with a fuel and temperature dial. This gauge also houses a digital display for warnings, trip computations, and status messages.The center stack of the 2006 Acura TL houses the main tech interface: a large touch screen displaying audio and (optional) navigation information. The screen's low resolution and blocky text are perhaps a trade-off for touch sensitivity but one that pays dividends in ease of use. Programming destinations is simple with an onscreen keyboard, which can be set to an alphabetical or a QWERTY layout. A joystick-button control can also be used, but we found this method tedious in comparison, with our usual complaint of difficulty pressing the button without moving the joystick.
Routes are plotted quickly, with a choice of alternatives to select from in some cases. Zooming is relatively smooth, but no bird's-eye view is available. Voice instructions for upcoming turns are helpful and well timed, but the lack of a text-to-voice function makes all streets "the road," as in "follow the road for 2.4 miles." The real-time traffic-integration feature that comes with the pricier RL is not offered in the 2006 Acura TL, unfortunately.
Beyond steering-wheel switches, good, old-fashioned, round radio knobs, and dedicated buttons surrounding the screen, control redundancy extends to voice activation for most major interior systems. Nearly 300 commands are in the system's vocabulary, including responses to what time it is, as well as queries about the nearest restaurants by cuisine (yes, just like in the commercial).
When paired with a Bluetooth phone, easily accomplished by responding vocally to a series of voice prompts, the system can also call points of interest, for which it has phone numbers in its database. Bluetooth operation was very smooth overall with every phone we tried, and while no phone-book information is transferred, the 2006 Acura TL can store 50 names and numbers itself for later voice retrieval. Voice dialing, digit by digit, worked similarly well. The system can pair with up to six phones.
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"Sweet Car, Even better value for money, nothing matches it."
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