Blog / Random thoughts and musings.
2007 Acura TL Type-S
After 5 years with my second Audi A4, I decided it was time to give up driving stick and switch to an automatic transmission. I still loved the A4 and originally planned on getting a third, but when looking at new ones, decided that the price had gone up way too much.
A week before Christmas 2006, I started shopping for a 2007 Acura TL Type-S. Whereas my last three cars were custom ordered (and I had to wait up to 6 months for delivery), the nice thing about the Acuras (and some Hondas) is that there are usually no options – everything’s included. All I needed to do was pick the color and drive away from the dealership.
I’m starting a gallery of photos but it’s still pretty sparse.
Mods
I don’t plan on making many modifications to the car, like I did with the Audis. It’s already got far more power than either A4 did, even after chip-tuning the A4s.
- A few days before Christmas 2006, I got the windows tinted by LA Tint in Sterling, VA. Once again I tinted to the legal limit of Virginia, which is pretty conservative at 50% light transmission on the front doors and 38% on the back doors and rear windshield. Whereas on the 2002 Audi they used a fully metallic tint, I needed to upgrade to ceramic tint for the Acura so as not to interfere with the navigation system reception.
The Car
There were only six exterior color choices for the Type-S… white, black, silver, bronze, red, and blue. The first three were right out, as not really my style. The bronze actually looked better than I expected, but was still not for me. The red was a beautiful color, and I seriously considered it, but decided I didn’t like the way it looked with the grey-painted alloy wheels. The blue was also a beautiful color, and looked great with the wheels. If the car had come with traditional silver wheels, I probably would have ended up with the red car. The two interior color choices were black with taupe (tan) leather seats, or black with black and silver leather seats. The taupe looked great in the red car, but definitely didn’t match the blue, so black and silver was the winner.
Some interesting facts and features about the car:
- 286 HP 3.5 liter V6 VTEC engine
- 5-Speed automatic transmission with manual paddle shifters on the steering wheel
- Brembo brake calipers and large ventilated discs
- Tire pressure monitoring system
- Xenon high intensity discharge headlights
- Rear-view camera
- Power seats and mirrors with two-driver keyfob memory
- Touch-screen and voice-controlled navigation system with live traffic updates
- Bluetooth telephone link
- ELS Surround 8-speaker stereo with subwoofer, 6-disc MP3-CD, DVD-Audio, and Aux-In
- Two-tone heated leather sport seats
Problems
Feb 2007: Car and steering wheel would vibrate when driving over 45 MPH since it was new. Took the car in and they rebalanced and rotated the wheels, and the problem seems to be gone now.
Apr 2007: Several consistent and annoying rattles from the steering wheel, instrument cluster, and dash board. Acura fixed the steering wheel rattle but I need to bring the car back in for the others.
June 2007: Steering column still rattling, worse than ever. Acura replaced the airbag and it’s quiet for now. Also the back of the passenger seat came off and wouldn’t snap back on, so they replaced that.