With a price range of $52,300 to $54,450, I believe the tlx type s is the finest luxury car value in the United States right now.
However, does it mean the tlx type s is the ideal vehicle for you and that this is the best small performance vehicle in the United States? Let’s take a look at what the type s is and isn’t.
When I first heard about the tlx type s, I admit to being a little disappointed, and I ended up talking to a few people at Acura who reminded me that the type s has never been full on m or full on amg, so it’s not designed to compete with the bmw m3 or the c63 amg, which is why it’s significantly less expensive.
how much less costly is a similarly equipped vehicle? When you account for the standard feature content in the type s, it’s also going to be about 10,000 less expensive than the bmw m440i or the mercedes-benz c43 amg, that entry-level performance model from the german competition that’s what acura is targeting with the tlx type s, not the full on m product line.
So instead of thinking of the tlx type s as a fire breathing bmw m3, just think of it You could look at the Lexus is 500 as a direct competitor to this, but the last one I drove was over 61 000, so it’s definitely in a different price category than this vehicle.
In fact, for the price of a lexus is 350 f sport, you could get a tlx type s with significantly more power under the hood now because type s isn’t a complete reimagining of the tlx all the shapes going on up front are A mix of planned realities and a desire for lengthy hood aesthetics has resulted in the long hood profile.
You’ll notice that we still have a long front overhang, despite the fact that acura has done a good job of hiding it with a rounded front end.
The front axle is right about there, the entire engine is in front of the front axle, and then acura decided to give this a long dash to axle ratio, really stretching this distance out right here to help give this more of a rear wheel drive proportion in the back there’s also a little bit of visual trickery The type s features an active exhaust system, which is a great touch.
The outer exhaust vents are used in normal and comfort mode; however, if you engage any of the sportier modes, a flap opens and the inside exhaust tips are used, which is why there’s more condensation on the outside vents than on the inside ones.
This has been idling in normal mode; however, I just switched it over to sport acura decided to go in an interesting direction with the new type s lineup not only are we going to get a tlx type s we’ Instead, they decided to design a new 3-liter turbocharged v6 engine.
If I accidentally call this a twin turbo at any point in this video, I apologize.
This is a single turbo, and the turbo is right here on the driver’s side of the engine.
Although there are some common engine designs between the three liter and the three and a half liter in the acura lineup, this engine is almost entirely new.
It shares mechanically very little with the three liter and the three and If you’re wondering why acura went with a single turbo instead of twin turbos, the obvious answers are cost and dependability.
The whole engine sits right here in front of the front axle, and it’s coupled to a conventional 10-speed automatic gearbox.
A single turbo unit like this has a little bit less piping going on, less weight, and it’ll be simpler to squeeze under this hood.
The super handling all-wheel drive system and every version of the tlx type s will earn 21 miles per gallon combined, although the highway fuel efficiency score will decrease to 24 from 25 if you choose the summer tire option.
The type s gets acura’s latest super handling all-wheel drive system, which requires a little explanation.
You’ll notice that the engine is sitting transversely across the engine bay rather than longitudinally like the g70 or the lexus, and that’s because this uses the same 10-speed automatic transmission found in front wheel drive tlx models.
Obviously, it’s been beefed up for duty in the type s, but the general design is the same.
The rear axle has a different final drive ratio than the front axle, and when the clutch is engaged, the rear wheels spin slightly faster than the front wheels, resulting in a rear power bias that is not possible with Volvo’s mechanical all-wheel drive system.
If you want to drive this vehicle harder out on your favorite winding mountain road, you’ll notice that you have yaw motions in the rear end, which feels like it’s turning the vehicle around.
On the inside, we find acura’s latest front seat design which includes a 4-way adjustable lumbar support inflatable side bolsters an extending thigh cushion two position memory over there on the driver’s door and a tilt telescopic steering column that helps save about 20 pounds on the vehicle overall.
If you’re taller than me, you might not have enough headroom.
I prefer sitting in a more upright seating position and have about half an inch of headroom left.
My hair is definitely brushing the ceiling.
When you jump into the back seat, you’ll see what I mean about this being a compact luxury stand.
However, as you can see, you can’t really fit an adult in here, and if I try to squeeze over here on the right side where this front seat is all the way back in its tracks, I can’t actually put my legs behind the seat, and my feet are definitely cramped in that footwell.
You should also know that thanks to the sportback-like roofline, rear seat headroom is a little bit less than some of the competition.
I had to tilt my head to one side to get my head back there to the headrest.
Rear seat passengers enjoy air vents in the center console and a full-down center armrest with two cup holders.
You can put cargo from the trunk into the passenger area through this trunk pass-through but it’ll be a lot more limited than in the regular tlx behind the trunk lid we find 13.5 cubic feet of cargo space that definitely puts this in line with the rest of the compact competition under the load floor we find a really huge foam divider where we find the tire pressure monitoring system We do have a helpful assist handle to help you seal the trunk lid, but the aperture is quite tiny, and the seats are covered in a mix of leather and faux suede.
It loses points for not having a spare tire and for that cargo space surrounding the 12 volt battery not being adequately utilised.
If I concentrate on the back seat, you’ll note that it has the same overall design as the four outboard seats.
The central piece, which is made of faux suede, is shaped like a bordeaux wine bottle.
The rear seats are not heated or ventilated, but the front seats are.
There’s also black contrasting stitching with this interior.
Moving over to the front doors, we have a lot of soft touch materials some carbon fiber trim located right there under that glossy coating soft touch materials down lower on the door as well.
the panel itself is excellent and huge very high quality certainly simple to use Apple Carplay only takes up the left two-thirds of the screen; it does not take up the full screen.
Below that are the buttons for the dual-zone automatic temperature control, heated and ventilated seats.
If you like, there’s also an auto mode.
This is the dynamic mode toggle, which you may use to change the driving modes.
sport + comfort typical sport Individual mode is activated by pushing the button, and you may then press and hold to alter all of the characteristics individually.
I’ll go ahead and do that so you can see what we can adjust up here.
You can see we can adjust the engine, steering, suspension, idle start stop whether it’s on or off, and of course the theme lighting in the vehicle.
This vehicle has a lot of accent lighting strips that run right here down the center console across the dashboard, and it’s a two-color setup so you can have a different color here and a different color in the footwell like we see in some other vehicles.
Moving over to the driver’s side, we don’t have the full lcd cluster that we see in the new mdx instead we have a partial lcd design that is perhaps a bit more fitting for a performance vehicle we have these very distinctive analog gauges on each side and then that multi-function display in the middle that gives us things like our turbo readout we have a g gauge status of th This model took five seconds to accelerate from zero to sixty miles per hour, which is significantly slower than the bmw, Mercedes, Genesis, and others.
In many ways, the best way to think of the tlx type s is as a direct competitor to the 330i, because for the price of a 330i, you could get one of these.
It’s also in the same price range as an is350f sport, and this is definitely going to be faster and more fun, and you’ll really notice The super handling all-wheel drive system and the fact that we have more curb weight up front make the handling incredibly predictable in the tlx type s.
Yes, it definitely tends to understeer in the corners no doubt due to the extra weight up front, but we also see that in something like the volvo s60 or the audi s4 because the s4 engine is also entirely in front of its front axle, so this is not unique in that respect.
Because of the torque vectoring nature of all-wheel drive, if you’re in a corner and feel like the car is understeering a little, simply add more power and super handling all-wheel drive will correct it.
So, if we’re going around this corner here, adding a little more power actually helps you steer around the corner like you would in a rear-wheel drive vehicle, and that’s the dynamic thing that’s interesting about super handling all-wheel drive.
The firmer springs mean that when this is in comfort mode, it has a really good ride for a luxury stand this is still going to be firmer than something like an honda accord, but it doesn’t have that same sort of bottoming out feel that you can sometimes get in the regular tlx if you were worried about that fear, not that happens in the type s if I move this over to the firmest setting found over here in sport or of course if I turn and hold all the I’m not sure why that is because I would have thought that with the summer tires on this and the exhaust, it would be a little bit louder, but the truth is that when you’re in comfort mode and it’s only using the outer exhaust tips on this vehicle, it’s a very pleasant to drive and a very easy to live with vehicle the suspension is comfortable, the exhaust is quiet, there’s plenty of power when you want it, but it’s never obnoxious the other way around If you want greater fuel efficiency than this, you’ll have to acquire a hybrid or a plug-in hybrid, both of which are available in this sector, but they’ll cost you more and come with the added complication of a hybrid system.
I love how acura tuned the type s, and I hope that some of these tweaks make their way into the regular tlx model at some point.
This steering ratio is just about perfect for the vehicle; the one in the regular tlx was fine at first, but now that I’ve sampled this and had the opportunity to compare the two, I wish that they all had this steering ratio.
It’s speedy, but not as twitchy as a Tesla Model 3’s motor.
It has a solid balance to it, and the suspension tuning is also well-balanced, so even in the sportiest driving settings, it won’t be as harsh as some of the German choices.
This is always going to be daily driver livable, and while that may mean sacrificing a little bit of performance on the track, the reality is that most people aren’t going to be driving this on a track; instead, they’re going to be driving it on a road like the one I’m on right now, and on this kind of road surface, you don’t want something as rock hard as a bmw m3.
For 2022, the tlx starts at $37,500 The tlx type s is going to be a lot more expensive than the base model.
It’ll start at $52,300, while the base model starts at $37,500.
This is because most of what you’ve seen in this video is standard on the tlx type s.
The only option package is the lightweight wheels and summer tires for $800, which is definitely the option that I would choose.
When you compare the type s to the competition, you’ll see that although some of the alternatives have a lower base price than the type s, they’re typically more costly when compared to the type s.
The type s is all about value, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best option.
First up, the audi s4 acura was very upfront that the s4 was one of the vehicles that they were benchmarking very directly when they were creating the type s.
The s4 is a little bit less expensive starting at 51 900, but if you want to compare it to the type s that I was driving, it’d be around 64 000 so consid The weight balance in the audi and the acura is really pretty close both vehicles have their engine entirely in front of the front axle even though the drive trains bear very little resemblance in terms of their design they both have turbocharged six-cylinder engines up front but the one in the acura is rotated 90 degrees from where we see it in the audi.
the key thing going on with audi’s quattro system in their s4 and the a4 a5 a6 a7 a8 etc is that the transmission and the front differential are integrated into the same case but it uses basically the same eight-speed automatic transmission that we find in the bmw 3 series so in terms of power delivery capability front to rear it’s actually pretty similar to the bmw and the mercedes it’s just that the weight balance ends up being a little bit more like the acura because of where the engine is placed in the overall platform let’s move on to the is-500 when the is-500 launched it was right around the same time as acura was launching the type s and I honestly hoped that the is 500 would be about the same price unfortunately that didn’t happen and the is500 ends up being fairly expensive it starts at 56 500 it’s rear-wheel drive only and if you want the premium package that’s 61 000 that gets you the upgraded sound navigation etc pretty comparable to where we see the base tlx type s and it will top out at 68 000 with just a hair more features than we find in the tlx type s so comparably priced the lexus is going to be at least 10 000 more still you’re not going to get all-wheel drive on the other hand you do get a fantastic sounding 5-liter naturally aspirated v8 472 horsepower and 0-60 in 4.4 seconds when it comes to handling the is-500 definitely wins over the tlx type s and it certainly wins when it comes to feel lexus has a really great steering rack and you should of course know that the is 500 is lighter than the tlx type s even yes with that large 5 liter v8 engine under the hood and again even though that engine is big and up front the weight balance is actually a little bit better than we find in the tlx but again you’re going to pay a lot more for it now let’s take a look at something that you won’t necessarily pay more for the genesis g70 this has received a mild refresh for 2022 you can get 365 horsepower out of its 3.3 liter twin turbo v6 for some reason the g70 doesn’t get the newer 3.5 liter twin turbo engine and it is considerably lighter 3774 pounds for rear-wheel drive The all-wheel drive system adds about 200 pounds to the vehicle, but it is still lighter than the type s.
It will accelerate from 0 to 60 in about 4.5 to 4.6 seconds depending on the options you choose, and it will cost you $44,200, which is quite a bit less than the tlx type s.
However, 44,200 will get you a model that isn’t as special as the type s, so if you want that, you must get the sport prestige pack The interior also feels more premium than the one found in the tlx type s, but the final caveat to know about the s60 is that it will be equipped with the new Google infotainment system in 2022, and it honestly comes across as half baked.
I believe it needs a little more time in the oven.
Volvo has said it has a lot of promise, but so far they haven’t delivered on quite all of that promise.
The absence of Apple Carplay and a number of integrated applications, which supposedly will have a future bottom line for the tlx type s, remains a major omission.
This is one of the greatest performance values available in the luxury market, but when it comes to that performance value equation, I have to say it ties with the genesis g70 since the g70 3.3 liter turbo will provide you somewhat more classic driving characteristics in a little more compact vehicle.
It will surely feel more agile and lighter weight, plus it will come with a longer guarantee than the Acura.
I really like the aesthetic of the tlx type s, and I’d love to hear what you think about it in the comments area below.
It’s still unclear how the tlx type s and the genesis g70 will compare in terms of long-term maintenance costs.
If you’re looking for a good performance vehicle and you’re looking to spend just barely over 50 000 dollars, the tlx type s and genesis g70 would be my top picks.
They’re definitely going to be better value than the bmw m340i, the s4, or the c43 amg but I suspect that if I had my own cabriolet, the tlx type s and genesis g70 would be my top picks.
You can get shirts like this one on Facebook.com alex notice.
You can also check out all of my other social media platforms to see what I’m driving this week.
I’ll see you later.