So a lot of you probably saw my thread about the IS and the new TL-Type S. I wanted to make this thread instead of continually bumping the old one. My plans for this car are very mild; unfortunately I wasn't anticipating buying another car for at least another year and a half. The accident changed all of that so I decided on a TL-S simply because it had more options even than a base TL which comes pretty loaded (TL-S's have no options, they all come fully loaded) and I worked out a great deal on it.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
This is a whole lot more car than my IS300 was in a lot of ways. It's wider and longer which has been an adjustment in terms of pulling it into my garage (have to go nice and slow :P ) and finding parking spaces etc. But on the positive it has a TON more rear room than the IS does and is far more comfortable in the driver's seat. It also has a built-in backup camera displayed through the nav to help when reversing.
The car brakes tremendously with the front Brembos and the car also has an automatic rev-matching engine braking feature when you slow down to help you save your pads / rotors. This has taken some getting used to and it almost feels a little too controlling for my taste, but I'm learning to live with it. The engine has a lot more torque than the IS did which creates some FWD torque steer, but having recently put a tank of 93 octane in I've noticed that power delivery is a lot smoother...the dealership was probably filling up with lower grade. The bottom line is that this car has PLENTY of power for anyone..any more and I could see myself getting a lot of tickets like I used to :lol:
The 5AT tranny version of this car has gotten a lot of flak on the Acura forums for being limited to 135mphish top speed while the 6MT is not. I laughed when I read this; when the hell is this car ever going to see speeds like that?? I'm not going to track it and I'm certainly not going to push it anywhere close to that on the highway. Changing the speed limiter is usually nothing more than a reflash away (when someone makes a programmer for it) but I see no need for it nor does that influence how I feel about the car. If I wanted a sports car I would have gone even more into debt and bought a Corvette; this car just happened to be the exact car I wanted (TL) that has a stiffer suspension, a little more horsepower, more included features and better brakes.
INTERIOR
The interior is great, heated leather seats (which look thin, I'm likely going to try to keep these conditioned frequently), carbon fiber bits everywhere and Type S logos embossed into the steering wheel and headrests. At night there are red lights that illuminate your feet and match parts of the guage cluster, which is very modern yet neutral (a GREAT change from the pumpkin orange of the IS). The nav interface is amazing, I'm still figuring out all of the commands but everything you see on the touch screen can also be controlled by pressing a button on the steering wheel and just saying it... i.e. "How long until I arrive?", "XM Channel 80", etc. The climate control system and pretty much everything else electronic is controlled in the same way. The odometer has several settings including tire pressure monitors and fuel mileage indicators. The sound system is amazing, it's got a built in sub-woofer and should be more than what I need.
EXTERIOR
I love the exterior as well. The only glaring flaw to me is the small strange wheels, but even those are growing on me. There are a bunch of light to medium scratches in the clearcoat that I don't trust the dealership to get out so I'm going to give it a go with the orbital buffer when my hand is healed. I've already changed out the license plate light bulbs to hyper white LEDs to give it that look that the new Lexus's have... the yellowish light on license plate lights really bugs me. Here's a pic. Install was very easy, pop out the pop-rivets in the trunk liner, pull it out, unplug the wires and pop in the 5 light LED.

FUTURE PLANS
1. Replace interior dome lights, vanity lights, door lights and reverse lights with similar hyperwhite LEDs. I got the ones for my license plate for free from my buddy who had extras, but we're going to go in together on a lot of them so we can do his Tahoe too. Here's what it will look like:



2. Rockblocker tint on headlights and tails, going to go for 35% this time to help match the already tinted from the factory sidemarkers on the TL-S
3. Acura stickers to cover up the ugly airbag stickers on the visors. These could be removed with goo gone but there would likely be a faded spot. Stickers will look like this:

4. Progress adjustable rear sway bar. Easily the best bang for the buck mod for these cars.
5. Eventually: A-spec or Ron John body kit, some kind of black multispoke wheels with a chrome lip
Ron John in foreground, A-spec in middle and rear (I think)


6. Maybe if I ever get brave and decide to add some power, P2R throttle body spacer and thermal gaskets:

and power plenums:

All pretty cheap and free up some easy power.
The power mods are very unlikely, I'm really happy with how much it has now (can you believe you would ever hear ME saying that??) I must be getting old.
All in all I'm warming up to this car more and more every day and constantly learning more about the features it has that make it amazing. More to follow!