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All Around, a Sound System
2004 Acura TL Sedan

The 2004 Acura TL sedan has four wheels and an engine. It runs fast and handles well. It is a car. But it is so much more.

It is a motorized Carnegie Hall, a communications center and an office replete with secretary. It is a refuge.

I stopped thinking of the new TL as an automobile during my week behind its wheel. It became my place — a destination in itself.

The Acura/ELS Premium Surround Sound System had much to do with that. Let me tell you about this thing.

It is a sound system beyond stereo, beyond the ordinary two-channel delivery of bases and trebles. The Acura/ELS system, with DVD-Audio, has six different audio channels. The sound is recording-studio quality. It comes at you from all sides through eight speakers, including a rear-mounted, eight-inch subwoofer. Instead of driving to the concert, you’re driving with it.

And should you choose not to listen to one of your CD or DVD-Audio discs in the six-disc changer, or to a tape in the Dolby cassette, you’re still in a good place. The new TL comes with XM Satellite Radio integrated into the AM/FM tuner.

XM gives you 100 music and news/talk channels, 36 of them commercial-free. But the primary benefit is satellite reception, which means you can begin listening to your favorite jazz or 1940s big-band station in Virginia and keep listening to it all the way to California.

You’ll have little chance of getting lost on that trip if you choose one of the few options, the Acura Navigation system, offered in the TL. It is the best navigation system offered in any car, regardless of price.

Acura Navigation is intuitive. It thinks like you think. You want to get to a certain place? Call up the “destination” screen. After a few easy prompts, an on-screen keyboard appears. Type the destination address the same as you would on a computer keyboard. Hit “OK,” and off you go.

Acura Navigation is accurate to within a few feet. Its on-screen graphics are clear, precise, helpful. Are you listening, BMW and Mercedes-Benz? I hope so. By comparison, your navigation systems are ridiculously complicated, inaccurate and substantially below the usefulness of a paper map. Why don’t you ditch your systems and buy one from Acura? Most consumers won’t care. They simply want a navigation system that navigates.

What else? Well, there’s this Bluetooth-enabled cell-phone thing. Bluetooth is a radio-frequency technology that allows wireless communications between devices such as personal digital assistants, laptops and mobile phones. The TL uses the technology in its patented HandsFreeLink phone system that allows the Bluetooth-enabled cell phone to communicate wirelessly, securely — and flawlessly with the car from a maximum distance of 30 feet.

That means you can receive a call on your cell and answer it without ever picking up the phone or putting on one of those silly little rock-star headsets or Secret Service ear pieces.

If the phone conversation doesn’t end by the time you get to where you’re going, there’s no problem. Push a button on the steering wheel and transfer the call to your handheld cell.

You can dial calls by voice in this car. In fact, you can operate a variety of functions by voice in the new TL. And that includes the optional ability to operate the Acura Navigation system.

There’s also visual information aplenty, thanks to the TL’s standard Multi-Info Display (MID) screen and its push-button controls, located on the right side of the instrument cluster. The screen, a cleverly designed LED strip, tells you everything you want to know about the car and its functions. It even gives you the name of the tunes you’re listening to on XM (which carries a subscription fee of about $10 a month).

It’s amazing. Getting into the TL at the end of the day, an e perience enhanced by supple leathers and tasteful aluminum accents, was like getting home miles before actually getting there. Well done, Acura. Well done.

Nuts & Bolts

Downside: The new TL, built on an extended Honda Accord chassis, is front-wheel drive. That compromises some of its road performance. It can be skittish up front during hard acceleration. I would prefer rear-wheel drive with this one.

Ride, acceleration and handling: Excellent in all categories, with the exception of super-quick, accelerator-stomping starts. It will please most regular drivers. Recalcitrant throttle jockeys are advised to spend an extra $5,200 (plus dealer-installation charges) to get the high-performance TL A-Spec package with track-tuned shocks and springs and 18-inch wheels.

Head-turning quotient: Hallelujah! Here’s a Honda Motor Co. product that has genuine visual emotional appeal — aggressive front end, substantial side flanks and a well-shaped rear. The interior is boss, too.

Engine-transmission: There is no base or TL Type-S for 2004. That means one engine, a rather impressive 3.2-liter V-6 that develops 270 horsepower at 6,200 rpm and 238 foot-pounds of torque at 5,000 rpm. The engine can be linked to a five-speed automatic or to a six-speed manual gearbox.

Body style/layout: Front engine, front-wheel-drive, four-door, five-passenger sedan.

Capacities: Cargo capacity is 12 cubic feet. Fuel tank holds 17 gallons of required premium unleaded gasoline.

Mileage: I averaged 26 miles per gallon in mostly highway driving.

Safety: Standard side bags, head bags and anti-lock brakes.

Price: Base price on the tested 2004 TL with Acura Navigation is $34,650. Dealer invoice is $31,575. Price as tested is $36,195, including a $545 destination charge and an estimated $1,000 in options.

Purse-strings note: Probably the best value in the “near-luxury” category for mid-size cars. Compare with 2004 BMW 3Series, Cadillac CTS, Lexus ES 330 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class.