Archive for the ‘TL’ Category

If you own a Honda Accord—and there are plenty of you out there, it being a longtime mid-size sedan favorite—there’s a small chance that your airbag might detonate with an unpleasant bonus: some shrapnel.

In some isolated incidents in specific Hondas and Acuras made earlier this decade, inflators can over-pressurize the airbag, causing the inflator itself to rupture and projecting metal fragments that could puncture the airbag material.

“Metal fragments could pass through the cloth airbag cushion material, possibly causing an injury or fatality,” Honda states in a release.

A Honda spokesman told CNNMoney.com last week that the defect has...

The good times for Hyundai keep on rolling: J.D. Power and Associates has given top marks in its Vehicle Launch Index to the 2009 Hyundai Genesis. The Index "quantifies how well new vehicle models -- including new entries to the market and all new redesigned models -- perform during the first eight months after launch." Among the many criteria that J.D. Power considers during the evaluation process are vehicle revenue, dealer gross profit, residual value, and data imported from the company's Initial Quality Study. In short, the Vehicle Launch Index offers a kind of holistic assessment of the vehicle, measuring how well it performs for the...

A member of our staff dubbed the new 2009 Acura TL "The Polynesian War Canoe". An apt handle: the newly redesigned sedan is swift, strikes awe (or fear) with its collection of angry angles, and stomps purposefully down the road.

Many have criticized Acura's new beaky prow; Honda's luxury division seems to have taken this styling cue to a new extreme on the 2009 TL from front to rear. Whereas the Cadillac CTS' crisp design theme harks to angular supermodels, the TL's just seems to be trying too hard. Picture Janet Jackson's shoulder pads back in Rhythm Nation days. With such a polarizing design, the TL definitely draws attention in a...