Well, after a little over two years, it was time to say goodbye to our leased 2006 Acura TSX. For those who don't know the TSX is basically the Honda Accord that is sold everywhere except the US. We get a bigger, softer Accord here in America because alot of us are bigger and softer. The first generation TSX was released in 2004 and revised slightly by our 2006 model year example. New for this year is an all new TSX based on the all new Euro Accord.
We picked up our TSX in February 2006 as a new lease. This was our first experience with leasing a vehicle and it was a pretty simple process. Only thing was that since the car was not ours, I was even more anal about taking meticulous cars of it, much to the detriment of my marriage. Since it was primarily my wife's car, I was always bugging her to take better care of it.
I've always liked the styling of the TSX. It's classy and subtle. Very understated good looks that attract my eye every time I see one on the road (don't ask me about the styling of the new 2008 model). I also like the approach Acura has with the optioning of their vehicles. The only option on their cars is the navigation system. Everything else comes standard. On the TSX that meant our non navigation equipped car came with leather seats with memory, mp3 connection, 17 inch wheels, sport suspension, hid headlights, top shelf stereo system, metallic paint, multiple airbags, traction/stability control, dual zone automatic climate control, sunroof and bluetooth connection. All this for a base price of under $30,000. That's pretty good when you think that a comparable BMW 328 from 2006 did not come standard with most of that equipment and adding it to the car brought the BMW's price up to around $40,000.
As I said before, this car was for my wife but I pretty much directed her choice. She really didn't know or care much what she got as long as it had the right name on it and it looked good. I suggested the TSX because of it's reputation as a fun nice driving semi-sport/luxury sedan. I have been and probably always will be a big Honda fan so that was a big influence as well. Mostly, I wanted something that I would also enjoy driving when I got the chance. The only compromise though was that the car had to be an automatic since my wife doesn't drive stick.
I've read that the TSX looses a lot of it's friskiness when equipped with the 5 speed automatic instead of the wonderful 6 speed manual. I'm sure that's the case and had it been my car it would have been the manual. That being said, the automatic was not too bad. It is an electronically controlled auto with the option to manually shift via the console shifter. Unfortunately it's a bit outdated compared to some of the more modern autos in that the shifts are still fairly slow even in manual mode and it does not "blip" the throttle on downshifts. Steering wheel paddles would have also been a nice plus. Ideally, the TSX would really benefit from some sort of sequential "clutchless" manual like VW/Audi's DSG. Most cars would.
On the road, the TSX's suspension does a decent job of finding a mid ground between handling and comfort. The biggest limitation of the car in the handling department is the standard all season tires. Stickier performance tires would really help take advantage of the nicely balanced chassis. Even with the auto, the TSX was a good amount of fun to drive. I can only imagine how great it is with the manual. On long trips like our two summer drives to Florida from New Jersey, it was a more than adequate comfy long distance cruiser. On top of that, it managed to average well above it's rated 31mpg highway. In fact, our average for last year's trip was over 34mpg.
The 2.4l 4cyl i-VTEC engine in our 2006 TSX was rated at 205HP and 164TQ, not bad but this is a 3200lb+ car. Acceleration is decent but not breathtaking. As is standard for most Honda engines, particularly 4 cylinders, you really have to work the engine to get the power out of it. Peak HP comes at 7000RPM and you can hear and feel the VTEC changeover that takes place around 5000RPM. Honda engines are so smooth and sound so nice in the higher RPMs that you want to keep the engine in that zone all the time.
The cabin is nicely appointed with leather seats with memory as I mentioned earlier however Acura overlooked adding the side power mirrors to the memory setting. It would have been nice to have them adjust to each driver as well as the seats. Interior detail and plastics were above average quality and fit and finish was good. Everything was well laid out and easy to reach. The stereo was more than sufficient however the 6 disc changer did not read mp3 CDs. For that, you had to plug in your mp3 player of choice into the aux input concealed in the center console. The dual zone climate control worked nicely but every time you turned it on whether to use just the vent or heat the AC automatically turned on requiring you to turn the AC button off. A minor annoyance. Trunk space was decent and the rear seats split and fold. Rear leg room was also OK. I'm not very tall and I didn't have many opportunities to sit in back but our rear seat passengers never complained.
All in all we really enjoyed the car and it served us well. There were never any issues that required warranty service. The only time we were without the car was when the Acura dealer accidentally scratched the car while giving it a free wash after an oil change. I immediately noticed it and pointed it out. I was contacted the following week by the service manager and he agreed to have the small scratch repaired by their body shop and provide us with a loaner. All professionally handled with no hassle. We had no complaints regarding the dealership. My only other complaints about the car aside from the small things already pointed out are the somewhat hollow tinny sound the doors made when closed. They sounded sort of cheap. Also the steering wheel stalks felt somewhat flimsy and cheap as well and the power windows on the front doors occasionally made awful noises like there were rocks in the doors. We never brought it to the dealer's attention because it was intermittent and they never stopped working.
We wanted to buy the car at the end of the lease but the price just wasn't right. The leasing company would not negotiate their price. I guess they don't need to since the TSX has been near the top of the list in resale value since it was introduced. The first generation TSX is a pretty good used car to pick up if you're in the market. There should be a decent supply of them around too because Acura sold lots of them. More than they even expected. There should be even more of them around as leases expire and people who have to have the latest trade them in on the new generation TSX.
