Our former tech king has lost its shine. In the two years since the Acura RL won our Tech Car of the Year award, some of its tech has become dated, while its performance leaves a lot to be desired.
Acura's top model comes loaded with innovative technology, but it doesn't perform or feel like a luxury car. The RL should fit with people who are uncomfortable with more ostentatious cars.
There are strong similarities between the design of the front of the RL and some Mercedes-Benz models, most notably the way the hood dips down and the tightly-framed trapezoidal grille.
The 290 horsepower 3.5-liter V-6 is transversely mounted, in keeping with a front-wheel-drive configuration. We found the fuel economy of this engine mediocre, barely averaging 16mpg in our tests.
The RL's voice command system is one of the best we've seen. It is fairly intuitive, controls many of the car's systems, and does a good job of understanding spoken commands.
Cell phone integration doesn't display on the car's main LCD, a serious drawback. Instead, it offers some information on the instrument cluster display.