2024 Acura TLX

Pros

• There are several pros to the price.
• All-wheel drive is a choice that lets you handle the car more quickly.
• One of the best sound systems available today is the extra ELS system.

Cons

• The touchpad controller for the entertainment system is hard to use.
• The back seats can get packed.
• Not as fast or as good for the environment as some of its competitors.

Where does the TLX’s power come from? We tested the TLX A-Spec’s turbocharged four-cylinder engine. Our car had all-wheel drive, too. It hit 60 mph in 6.5 seconds on our test track, a little faster than other midsize luxury cars with standard four-cylinder engines.

On the bright side, all-wheel-drive technology makes it easier and safer to turn tight curves. Even though the steering doesn’t give you much information, switching to Sport gives the wheel more weight and makes it feel better to move quickly.

Even though it’s not perfect, the 10-speed automatic transmission is a big step up from the nine-speed automatic of the previous model. In Normal and Comfort drive modes, it moves too early and feels slow. But it saves the turbo boost when you switch to Sport mode and needs to speed up quickly.

How comfortable is the TLX? The TLX is comfortable to drive and has excellent speed. The back seats are tilted back to make sitting more comfy, and the front seats are well-padded. Still, the front seats could be more flexible, and the side bolsters offer more support for racing.

Even though sharp-edged road bumps can make an unmistakable thud inside the car, the ride overall is smooth and quiet on a wide range of road surfaces. The amount of noise is pretty decent. Even though instrumented tests show that the TLX is a few decibels noisier inside than its rivals, the car is usually quiet. The front seats of the A-Spec can be set to an automatic mode that changes the amount of heating or cooling based on the temperature outside and the temperature you want inside. The method for controlling the climate is easy to understand.

How does the inside look? There are many appealing things about the TLX’s cabin. The seat has a lot of room to move in all directions, and the steering wheel has a lot of tilt and reach options, making it easy to find a good driving position. Because the doors are big and the roof slopes down gently, you can get into and out of the car with style. The lack of legroom and space in the back is a downside, as tall people will feel uncomfortable being close to the roof.

The primary interaction of the TLX, which is a screen and a touchpad controller, can be annoying and uncomfortable to use. The trackpad acts like a touchscreen, but it’s not big enough or accurate enough to use simultaneously with the many fake buttons on the screen.

How good is the tech? Even though there are a few problems with the keyboard, the built-in navigation system is easy to use and has clear maps. But in our tests, the point-of-interest search on the guidance system sometimes gave us wrong results. Also, there is no direction information, so you can’t tell if the Starbucks you asked for is nearby or more than a mile from where you are standing. Only the ELS audio system makes it worth getting the A-Spec or Advance trim. It’s just incredible.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, but you can’t use them wirelessly. On the other hand, competitors let you connect your phone wirelessly. Also, the back has no USB ports, which is rare for a luxury car. We like that most of the new technologies that help drivers are standard equipment and that they come close to mimicking how people naturally drive. Some things go wrong like the adaptive cruise control system taking a long time to react when the car in front of you drifts out of its line.

What about putting things away? The TLX’s trunk is 13.5 cubic feet, more significant than most of its rivals’ trunks. The trunk’s opening is enormous, making it easy to put long things horizontally. Because the decklid is low, it’s hard to get to the deep end of the trunk, and you have to reach to load and unload things that are against the rear seats. The cabin has a lot of storage room, but most is just about the right size.

A leather strip with Velcro on the back hides car seat lower anchors. If you want your speed sedan also to be a family car, this strip must be taken off. Even though the TLX is small, there may not be much room in the front seats, but the wide doors should make it easy to load a car seat.

How well does it use gasoline? The Acura TLX we drove, which has all-wheel drive, gets a combined 24 mpg (21 mpg in the city and 29 mpg on the highway). This is less than rivals like the BMW 530i xDrive (26 mpg) and Audi A6 (27 mpg). On our real-world test route, our test TLX got a more competitive 26.2 mpg, but overall, the TLX’s gas mileage could be better.

Is it wise to buy a TLX? Starting at just over $41,000, the TLX is cheaper than almost every other small or medium-sized car. Our all-wheel-drive TLX A-Spec cost about $50,000, hundreds less than similar cars. This Acura is a great deal when you think about the high-quality materials and construction.

Even though its powertrain warranty of six years/70,000 miles is better than that of its German counterpart, its bumper-to-bumper warranty of four years/50,000 miles is standard for the segment. Acura has also recently started giving free repair for the first two visits (two years or 24,000 miles).

Because the engine doesn’t have the power you’d expect from an actual performance sedan, only the performance driving mode gives the car the weight it needs to turn correctly. On the other hand, the TLX’s different parts are set up to provide you with a thrilling feeling. The TLX could easily keep up with the BMW 5 Series on mountain roads if it had summer tires.

This beautiful car would look great in almost any yard. This is especially true of the A-Spec model, which makes the whole TLX family look more like the Type S. The inside is made of leather and a material that looks like suede. Even though the TLX doesn’t save money as well as some of its competitors, it’s hard to see why you should pay thousands more for a car that is only slightly better. The annoying touchpad controller on the TLX might be worth the extra money, but you can’t get rid of it.

As of this writing, Acura hasn’t said anything official about the 2024 TLX. If anything changes, we’ll change our suggestion, but based on the TLX from last year, we’d go with the A-Spec model with all-wheel drive. The Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD) technology makes the TLX more stable both when it is wet and when it is dry. It also makes the TLX as agile as its rear-drive competitors. The A-Spec package comes with a high-quality ELS sound system that isn’t too expensive compared to the competition.

Different kinds of Acura TLX

Acura has a base trim level for the TLX and Technology, A-Spec, Advance, and Type S choice packages. All versions Except the Type S have a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine (272 horsepower, 280 lb-ft of torque), a 10-speed automatic gearbox, and front-wheel drive. With the A-Spec and Advance kits, you can get an all-wheel drive. The 3.0-liter V6 turbocharged engine in the TLX Type S makes 355 hp and 354 lb-ft of torque. All-wheel purpose is standard.