April 11, 2005 - Day One
Introduction
The Acura brand sure has made a turn-around in the past couple of years. For a while, it seemed that buyers completely forgot about Honda's luxury brand - and for good reason. Almost every vehicle in the manufacturer's line-up was bland. And that's putting it nicely. Quick: name an Acura vehicle besides the Integra or NSX. It took you a few minutes to do it, huh?

In fact, many people argue that the Integra kept the company afloat. This sporty coupe's peppy engine, nimble handling and attractive price made it a very popular ride. However, the Integra was nothing more than a more-expensive Civic. There was really nothing "luxurious" about the car, which is odd, as Acura is the "luxury" brand.

Any who - all that has changed. First we got the TSX and TL: these sedans took the sporty nature Honda is famous for and wrapped it in a luxurious shell... er... shells. The Acura brand was now able to have a fighting chance in the sport/luxury market. As good as these vehicles are, Acura still needed a "flagship" ride. You know, something that can be large and in charge. Oh yeah, this "flagship" also needed to be the most technologically-advanced vehicle in the fleet, as well.

Well, guess what? We got that flagship vehicle from Acura, and it's called the RL. Guess what else? We get to drive one of these for the week! We're gonna live it up in the lap of luxury -- Acura-style.

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Pricing
As this is the flagship vehicle in Acura's fleet, there is only one trim level available. If you want to save some money and get cloth seats or lose the power windows -- go get an Accord or something.

Like every single new RL out there, our test car comes with an incredible amount of standard features. Some of these features include: Acura Navigation System with Voice-Recognition; power-adjustable heated leather seats; 10-speaker, 6-disc Bose sound system and dual-zone climate control.

Of course, these features are expected to be found on a flagship luxury ride. But performance is important, too. So Acura also added a 300 horsepower V6 engine, 5-speed automatic transmission with a sport-shift option (with F1-style paddle shifters!) and its all-new Super-Handling All-Wheel Drive system (or SH-AWD for short). We'll talk about the performance in Day Two of this review, so just be patient for now. We've still got to talk about one more feature.

You don't need a key for this car! Seriously, just keep the key fob in your pocket and you're good. One only needs to touch the door handle to get it to unlock. Same goes for the trunk. Even better: one just has to turn the ignition switch to start the car - no key needed! In fact, we didn't even get a "proper" key. It makes us wonder what would happen if the key fob's battery dies... Oh well, no time to ponder that for now, we've got to tell you the price.

All of this luxury can be yours for $49,470. This included the $48,900 base price plus $570 for destination and handling charges. That seems really cheap to us, especially considering all the features found on this car.

Styling
It doesn't really matter how cheap or how expensive this car is. No one will ever buy a luxury vehicle if it's ugly. (Bangle-haters: keep your mouths shut for now!) There's that whole image/status thing that goes along with buying a luxury vehicle. It just has to look nice, you know?

So we could be lazy and just say that the new RL looks great. Or maybe we can use a more colorful word like "sexy". But we won't. We've affectionately dubbed our test RL "the shark". Why do we call it the shark? Well with its pointed nose, aggressive-looking headlight clusters, Carbon Gray Pearl color, and XM "fin" antenna, it looks like a shark. Seriously. We're not crazy. Go look at one in person, and you'll think the same thing.

"Shark-ness" aside, we love the RL's look. The headlight clusters are seriously awesome. They have this whole super-mechanical look to them thanks to the dark gray housing and sculpted projector housings. The 17-inch alloy wheels also add to the overall sporty look of the car. These are not too crazy, but they also don't have that "old man" look to them. "Tasteful" is the word we're looking for.

The RL isn't crazy like some of BMW's offerings, nor is it bland like Acura sedans of the past. We do wish it looked a little more sporty, though. But then, we're still young'uns. By the time we can actually afford one of these rides, its sleek understated look would appeal to us a lot more.

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