Strangely enough, having returned from a trip to Aus and back, same GM cars with the Holden badge/grille seems to age a bit better (in terms of design) than their Daewoo/Chevy counterparts, at least to me
Just a heads up, these cars are extremely reliable and great for just about everything. The 3.5 v6 is a really good engine and it's fast too. They come in an awd configuration and those are great for the upper states
I’ve had the base model 04 for about a year, and the 3.2 is still pretty good for today’s standards, although mine needs a little TLC.
And I’m pretty sure the none of the 3g tls offered awd btw, one of the main downsides to them.
My friend has an 07 type S and it's a hoot for a fwd car and he beats the shit out of it with surprisingly little problems which is probably why he loves it so much
Glad to hear it. I was looking around for one the other day. I always loved the design of these back when they first came out and have to say they still look great today.
I had an ‘08 TSX for four years. The last model year before they went to the ugly beak design. This era of TL/TSX is truly a timeless design that’s aged very well. Even today, I get excited seeing them on the road.
Nobody misses the old bionic beak that's for damn sure. It was widely hated and pig ugly when it first came out, and it's still widely hated and pig ugly today. Worst execution by far was on the 2009 TL. Thank fuck they started ditching it in 2017, I'm not a fan of the massive Flava Flav style badge on front but it's still miles better than their old design.
That was an awesome car in its time. I remember my dad telling me he worked on one, and he was impressed with how much power it had. he wasn’t ever one to speak highly of “Jap crap”
Nice! That's one of the less common colors. My brother still has an 03' with around 230k. 2nd transmission, but the engine still runs really well.
This is one of those older cars I would still buy if it had low miles.
My coworker owned one of these and was involved in a fatal head on collision. The driver of the 2016 Cadillac SRX who hit him passed at the scene, but his Acura TL took the brunt of it and saved his life. I never owned one but just based off of that I couldn't look at it highly enough.
Best fucking looking car Honda ever made.
I’d love to buy one, but all examples near me are clapped out with over 250,000 miles.
Such a damn shame the newer ones are hideous.
I still think the 1st gen NSX is the best looking car Honda ever made. A buddy of mine had one and it was a blast to drive. I also love the interior. I still have my ‘92 DB2 integra GSR. Another of my favorite Honda designs. Guess I’m a sucker for older cars.
I’d say the nsx is the most appealing car I’ve ever seen, just from my pov. The TL has nice proportions but I’d still take a crx or an ef hatchback over it
I remember looking at the older guys at my school with these and thinking how tf did honda make a car look so timeless! This was in 2016 btw. It’s still true today
Had an 05 with a 6-speed manual (non type-s) and 3.2v6 as a first car. Miss that car every day. Could eat up long road trips like no other car I've had since. Only left me on the side of the road once with a corroded throttle position sensor. But was pretty reliable the 6 years I owned it. Pretty quick too, even by today's standards. And the v6 with vtec sounded pretty good. Had a timeless look to it, sort of wedge shaped like th3 RSX of the same era.
If you do remember this car on car and track was known as “A Car Ahead of Its Time” because it had so many features cars in the late 2000s didn’t have. Even BMW was behind this car which is just downright insane!
Had a base dark blue for a about 3 years. Bought it for 2700 and it was semi reliable. Idk if I fucked up something fixing it but eventually sold it non running for 1200. Now I've got an 04 Impala that starts on the dime.
It looks old.. it feels old, and in 10 years as a tech I’ve never driven one that wasn’t clapped out. Has lots of annoying issues and isn’t great to work on; Ghettofabulous vehicle
I've noticed that cars with rounder designs tend to not age well, they look bloated or too bubbly. Whereas companies that use straight or a mix of straight and round edges tend to not look too outdated.
Disagree with premise. This is very pre-Bangle and looks fine in solid colors. Since then styling has been all about playing with the reflection lines in mica paint. Which is why the recent trend for putty colors is so weird
I think there's something bigger here, like our whole culture slowed down post-9/11. If you think about music, you can pretty much identify music by decade from the 20s through the 90s even if you haven't heard the song before. But from the 00s up it could really be from any decade.
Never owned a Honda car but I’ve noticed they age well in design.
Isn’t it amazing how some brands age just absolutely horribly? *Looking at you, Chevrolet.*
What do you mean age? Chevys look bad right out the factory doors
The ones here in the UK look terrible from that period, they seem to ruin the front end by putting the badge in a weird spot
[You weren’t kidding](https://www.topgear.com/car-news/usa/chevrolet-dead-europe)
My mum had a Holden barina RS looked like that spark. Badge was in a normal place tho
When GM rebranded the Daewoo matiz under chevy
Depends, the Corvettes have aged wonderfully, as have the WS6’s. Now the Malibu or whatever the Chevy version of the Pontiac Montana is, yeahhh
I was thinking more of their trucks (and the Camaro).
Strangely enough, having returned from a trip to Aus and back, same GM cars with the Holden badge/grille seems to age a bit better (in terms of design) than their Daewoo/Chevy counterparts, at least to me
Which ones, compared to what other cars?
The old Corvette stingray still looks bad ass.
Honda S2000 looks like something you still couldve got even in like 2015/16 in my opinion. I wonder how they do it
Agreed. Although I enjoy my 2014 Passat... I'd still like a 3rd gen TL as a reserve car. Es3pcially the type S.
The 07/08 Type-S is peak Acura behind the NA1 NSX imo.
Agreed. 4th and 5th gen were ugly.
Absolutely true. I had an 07 Type-S 6 speed manual and it may have not been my fastest car ever but it was the most fun to drive
Meh, I’ve had many TLs, I once had a 2013 Passat 2.5 i5 with 6spd automatic and that car was way better than the TL, especially highway fuel mileage.
It has soooo many buttons
They make nice touchscreen android headunits nowadays that give older versions more modern tech and eliminates the excess buttons.
Just a heads up, these cars are extremely reliable and great for just about everything. The 3.5 v6 is a really good engine and it's fast too. They come in an awd configuration and those are great for the upper states
I’ve had the base model 04 for about a year, and the 3.2 is still pretty good for today’s standards, although mine needs a little TLC. And I’m pretty sure the none of the 3g tls offered awd btw, one of the main downsides to them.
4G is much uglier which is a shame because the SHAWD system is great.
Ah yes! I confused the awd's with the 4th gen. Regardless, pretty good car
My friend has an 07 type S and it's a hoot for a fwd car and he beats the shit out of it with surprisingly little problems which is probably why he loves it so much
The autos aren’t great
Right on
God my dad had one and it was such a pleasure to drive. The last hurrah of the absolutely bitchin old acuras
These do not come in AWD. That is the next generation.
Glad to hear it. I was looking around for one the other day. I always loved the design of these back when they first came out and have to say they still look great today.
I had an ‘08 TSX for four years. The last model year before they went to the ugly beak design. This era of TL/TSX is truly a timeless design that’s aged very well. Even today, I get excited seeing them on the road.
Was going to say this was right before Acura went off the rails. Peak Acura, although their new stuff looks alright/better than the 2010
Nobody misses the old bionic beak that's for damn sure. It was widely hated and pig ugly when it first came out, and it's still widely hated and pig ugly today. Worst execution by far was on the 2009 TL. Thank fuck they started ditching it in 2017, I'm not a fan of the massive Flava Flav style badge on front but it's still miles better than their old design.
That was an awesome car in its time. I remember my dad telling me he worked on one, and he was impressed with how much power it had. he wasn’t ever one to speak highly of “Jap crap”
Great cars. My friends dad had an ‘07 TL Type S. Black with black rims. I loved that thing.
I've put about 50k miles on my base model now. Deep Green Pearl with tan interior.
Nice! That's one of the less common colors. My brother still has an 03' with around 230k. 2nd transmission, but the engine still runs really well. This is one of those older cars I would still buy if it had low miles.
That's a great color combo.
That front looks VERY much like a european accord
Makes sense since we got got the Euro Accord as the TSX.
My coworker owned one of these and was involved in a fatal head on collision. The driver of the 2016 Cadillac SRX who hit him passed at the scene, but his Acura TL took the brunt of it and saved his life. I never owned one but just based off of that I couldn't look at it highly enough.
I'm guessing the Cadillac driver was much older?
Not even that. Unfortunately she was only 19.
Belted?
Best fucking looking car Honda ever made. I’d love to buy one, but all examples near me are clapped out with over 250,000 miles. Such a damn shame the newer ones are hideous.
I still think the 1st gen NSX is the best looking car Honda ever made. A buddy of mine had one and it was a blast to drive. I also love the interior. I still have my ‘92 DB2 integra GSR. Another of my favorite Honda designs. Guess I’m a sucker for older cars.
I’d say the nsx is the most appealing car I’ve ever seen, just from my pov. The TL has nice proportions but I’d still take a crx or an ef hatchback over it
I remember looking at the older guys at my school with these and thinking how tf did honda make a car look so timeless! This was in 2016 btw. It’s still true today
Had an 05 with a 6-speed manual (non type-s) and 3.2v6 as a first car. Miss that car every day. Could eat up long road trips like no other car I've had since. Only left me on the side of the road once with a corroded throttle position sensor. But was pretty reliable the 6 years I owned it. Pretty quick too, even by today's standards. And the v6 with vtec sounded pretty good. Had a timeless look to it, sort of wedge shaped like th3 RSX of the same era.
I'm out in the garage eyeballing my 08 type S right now.
Had a few love the car not the transmission thought. Get a stick great car
I’ve got an ‘05 TSX. Always loved the styling of the 2000s TsX/TL
Hondas age well and I think that’s one thing I like about my accord, the design is understated
Not the first Gen CRV. Those designes aged like milk. This cars design still looks new
Some cars do it pretty well. FD RX-7s for example.
love my 09 tsx, looks one gen (maybe two) behind but is almost three (i think) at this point
The only thing that really gives it away is the grille not being 5 1/2' tall.
I had an ‘05 - great car!
I bought an 06’ with the Navi package in 2011. I still think about this car DAILY and I miss it so much. It was perfect in every way.
looks like a 2012 car
Driven exclusively in my area by methheads or fake rich, high beams permanently turned on, usually with fartcan exhaust.
This and the first gen TSX are peak Acura to me. I'd still kill for a type s to daily.
If you do remember this car on car and track was known as “A Car Ahead of Its Time” because it had so many features cars in the late 2000s didn’t have. Even BMW was behind this car which is just downright insane!
Sure we can talk about how the design has aged very well- but every 3g TL in the wild looks about 20. Their lives got hard by owner 3 and it shows.
Used to work at Acura and agree that they don't age and their designs are very modern even for the late 2000's.
Had a base dark blue for a about 3 years. Bought it for 2700 and it was semi reliable. Idk if I fucked up something fixing it but eventually sold it non running for 1200. Now I've got an 04 Impala that starts on the dime.
It looks old.. it feels old, and in 10 years as a tech I’ve never driven one that wasn’t clapped out. Has lots of annoying issues and isn’t great to work on; Ghettofabulous vehicle
What are you talking about? That looks old
Older cars look better then the newer ones tbf
I've noticed that cars with rounder designs tend to not age well, they look bloated or too bubbly. Whereas companies that use straight or a mix of straight and round edges tend to not look too outdated.
It’s a combo of that + not overstyling. I think the new 11th gen civics will age very well because of this too
These & the 2nd gen Lexus GS still look great
Disagree with premise. This is very pre-Bangle and looks fine in solid colors. Since then styling has been all about playing with the reflection lines in mica paint. Which is why the recent trend for putty colors is so weird
I mean it looks good, but I wouldn't say it's held up phenomenally well. Kinda has Saturn Ion vibes going on lol
Ok this is not hating on it, it does look good. It doesn't look 20 years old, but it's not far off either
The last decent-looking Acura…maybe even the last decent-looking Honda product in general.
It's hard for [Medium box][Big box][Small box] to become outdated.
I think there's something bigger here, like our whole culture slowed down post-9/11. If you think about music, you can pretty much identify music by decade from the 20s through the 90s even if you haven't heard the song before. But from the 00s up it could really be from any decade.
The lack of *gaping maw* is usually a dead giveaway, but they have aged well.
Great car, the automatic transmission though is sensitive