The Acura TLX Advance hits the luxurious notes, misses the sporting ones

The SUV could also be ascendant today, however some automobile makers nonetheless have room of their hearts, or extra precisely their product portfolios, for the four-door sedan. Amongst them is Acura, the high-end arm of Honda in North America, which not too long ago debuted its second-generation TLX. However do not assume it is a case of badge engineering; the second-gen TLX is exclusive to Acura—you will not discover it carrying a Honda brand in Japan or Europe.

Acura is usually generally known as a luxurious model, competing for patrons with Lexus and Infiniti, however the firm’s roots are literally way more sporty than plush. Acura desires to reconnect with that heritage as a approach of differentiating itself from these rivals, and to that finish, it says the brand new $40,000 2021 TLX is probably the most performance-focused sedan it is ever made. It begins with a monocoque chassis that is 50 p.c stiffer general, with even increased rigidity on the bits the place the suspension is connected. There are braces for the underbody, extra inflexible mounts for the entrance dampers, and really stiff middle tunnel. However on the similar time, there’s in depth use of aluminum even in a few of these high-stiffness areas to chop weight over the previous mannequin.

Additional to its sporting intentions, Acura opted for a double-wishbone association for the entrance suspension, which it says has 85 p.c extra lateral stiffness than the MacPherson struts on the first-generation TLX. Meaning the tires’ contact patches do not shrink an excessive amount of below cornering.

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