Acura introduces six-speed manual gearbox on its 2010 SH-AWD range

I have to give props to Acura for offering this car with the manual. Sadly, manual transmissions seem to get rarer by the day. While they will sell only a handful of 6MT's, it does give them some performance cred in my book.

That being sad, I still don't get why ANYONE would buy this 6MT TL over a 6MT 3-Series or G37 sedan. Those are far more dedicated sport sedans. Plus they don't share the "odd" (trying to be nice) looks of Acura's current styling theme.

— HSCenterconsole (View Profile)

Posted on 9/23/2009 4:34:02 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 8   

"In a release, Jeff Conrad, Acura sales vice president said that the new manual transmission equipped TL SH-AWD allows the driver to take full advantage of the performance of Acura’s SH-AWD system."

After which he was overheard whispering "Now if we could just get our design team off drugs."

Good job offering the 6 speed manual. It was long overdue in the last generation TSX. Wonder how much longer they will make you wait to get AWD in the TSX. Or make another coupe CL, or roadster, or V8 MDX, or an RL similar in size to a L, S, or 7. Or bring the CSX down from Canada.

Sorry, not a fan of Acura anymore.

— Whelan (View Profile)

Posted on 9/23/2009 4:47:34 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

MikeyDred, Blakura,

What the hell has happened to Acura? Your Brand has gone to Crap!

— LexSucks (View Profile)

Posted on 9/23/2009 5:15:07 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

looks pretty nice but its not like your ever going to go into 6th gear

— lambo98 (View Profile)

Posted on 9/23/2009 7:27:44 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -3   

Looks like the car has a need for speed front bumper kit on it. Change it, and it would have better sales.

— veyron1001 (View Profile)

Posted on 9/23/2009 9:00:41 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

What's the point? When people wanted a manual in the cool looking last gen TL, Acura gave them the finger, now they're trying to woo those same people back with a manual in a super ugly car.

Acura did the same thing back in the 90s when the import scene was 85% Honda and acura, their people refuse to acknowledge these enthusiasts and went ahead and changed the names of the Integra/Legend into some stupidazz letters so they can copy Lexus and further distance themselves from the boyracer image. On the HOnda side, they uglied up the last two gen Civics and mediocred the accord for mainstream. Look at how sad they are now without enthusiasts support.

— Badgewhore (View Profile)

Posted on 9/23/2009 11:33:49 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

You can fix the grille slightly, get it painted to match the car. The only one in the lineup that doesn't look compeltely stupid and horrid would be the MDX, it somehow fits the car nicely. But the TL over-exagerates the grille and on the TSX it just doesn't belong. Look for most if not all the Acuras to get a MAJOR fix on their grille design in the upcoming refresh.

Just think Subaru did it with the B9 Tribeca looking to hit their aiprlane heritage, now the Tribeca looks like every other SUV with a bland plain slotted grille. They missed the mark with the new grille, then missed it again making it TOO plane(plain :-))

— Whelan (View Profile)

Posted on 9/24/2009 10:09:14 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

The car is pretty amazing to drive with that 6 spd gear box. Also, check out the Motortrend test a few months back where the manual TL was quicker than a 335xi around Honda's 1.1 mile proving ground track. Now I'm sure there's tracks that will favor certain cars but this at least proves that the TL certainly belongs in the conversation of sport sedan.


http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/sedans/112_0809_2010_acural_tl_sh_awd_manual/index.html

— golfer38 (View Profile)

Posted on 9/24/2009 10:17:12 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

This is a good move for Acura, but I don't think it will be able to stand hang with the G37 and 3 series.

— PerformanceGuy (View Profile)

Posted on 9/24/2009 1:13:40 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Gonna take more than a 6-speed to make it compete.

— LexSucks (View Profile)

Posted on 9/25/2009 7:41:33 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2