2024 Acura TLX Reviews, Pricing & Specs

Acura initially redesigned the TLX for the 2021 model year, and three model years later, it gets a slight update. One quick look at the latest Acura TLX and you might not register the refresh, but it’s there. Most notably, the front grille loses its surrounding frame, and the large, rectangular radar emitter that once covered the Acura emblem has been removed. The new, frameless grille appears a bit more open than its predecessor, and the deletion of the radar emitter gives it a more elegant look.

Acura’s Jewel Eye LED headlights flank the grille, and gaping air intakes round out the fascia’s bottom corners. Along the side, Acura has demonstrated surprising restraint with the TLX’s character lines. One slices up from the upper trailing edge of the front wheel well to the base of the C pillar before leveling off toward the car’s tail. The other arches up from the lower trailing edge of the front wheel, peaks about 20 centimetres high right at the trailing edge of the front door, and curves back down to where it started, this time on the leading edge of the rear wheel. Speaking of wheels, the 2024 TLX comes with 19-inch alloy wheels on the A-Spec, Canada’s base trim, but our top-shelf Type S test model came fitted with 20-inch wheels sporting Berlina black split-spoke rims wrapped in Pirelli Cinturato P7 all-season tires.

Every TLX model receives the Jewel Eye headlight treatment, LED taillights, heated wing mirrors, and a spoiler. The A-Spec also adds LED fog lights. The Type S turns up the visual volume with a gloss black front splitter and rear diffuser, and quad exhaust finishers.

Inside, the TLX looks and feels like a competitive luxury sedan, showcasing leather upholstery in both trims, and offering standard heated and ventilated front seats and a heated steering wheel.

A new 12.3-inch centre infotainment screen takes centre stage atop the TLX’s dash, but below it, some shoppers might be mildly confused by the sports sedan’s busy centre stack. Plenty of physical buttons make adjusting the climate control easy enough, but the TLX also employs a push-button shifter and a rotary knob for drive-mode selection, both of which can take a little getting used to.

Our 2024 Acura TLX Type S test vehicle came equipped with red leather upholstery and Iconic Drive interior ambient lighting, underscoring its performance-focused intentions. (Note this interior colour is available on both trims but only with specific exterior paints, such as Liquid Carbon Metallic or Platinum White Pearl.) We were happy to learn through our driving experience that the Type S is more than just a car that looks fast. It delivers as a true performance car.

Before we get to the Type S, let’s cover the A-Spec. Equipped with a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, the TLX A-Spec delivers 272 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque. Power is routed through a 10-speed automatic transmission to Acura’s Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD), which is standard equipment in Canada. This all-wheel-drive (AWD) system is a genuine performance drivetrain capable of sending 70% of the engine’s power to the rear axle, and 100% of that power to either one of the rear wheels. While some AWD systems, such as those fitted in Subarus, are optimized for traction in slippery or rocky terrain, the TLX’s system is optimized for performance on the tarmac.

To enjoy peak performance, however, you’ll want to spend your money on a TLX Type S. This one hides a turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 engine under its hood, pumping out 355 horsepower and 354 lb-ft of torque, the latter of which is available incredibly early in the car’s rev range–you need to spin the engine up to only 1,400 RPM before you can access peak torque.

The result is blistering acceleration. The 2024 Acura TLX Type S can sprint from zero to 100 kilometres per hour in roughly five seconds. That figure may be a bit slower than some of Acura’s German rivals on paper, but we hardly noticed in reality. The transmission handles shifts smoothly and quickly, and the car’s multiple driving modes are noticeable at each step.

Comfort and Normal modes soften the suspension and loosen up the steering, although the wheel retains a solid heft no matter what mode you choose. Move up the Sport mode and the steering tightens, dropping some of its sluggishness but keeping inputs very accurate. Sport+ mode brings a little extra life to the car, delivering power more immediately when you tap the accelerator; it also seems to hold gears longer and pump up some of the exhaust note.

The Acura TLX Type S benefits from adaptive dampers, more robust stabilizers, and big (and red) Brembo brake calipers. The electrically assisted steering saps a little of the driver’s connection with the machine, but during our test, we didn’t notice any rogue behavior. The TLX carries a bit more weight than its competitors, which we’ll touch on shortly, but it doesn’t suffer undue body roll and managed to feel nimble throughout testing.

The TLX is hard to place neatly within one of the automotive industry’s existing segments. At 4,942 millimetres long, it’s sized right in line with an Audi A6, a BMW 5 Series, or a Mercedes-Benz E-Class. Yet the wheelbase, at 2,870 mm, is closer to an Audi A4, BMW 3 Series, or Mercedes-Benz C-Class. Things get further complicated when you step inside.

The front seats offer plenty of space, albeit not meaningfully more than a luxury compact sedan. The rear seats fall well short of midsize sedan territory, with only 886 mm of legroom (a compact 3 Series offers 894 mm). In the trunk, the Acura affords 382 litres of cargo space, plenty when compared to a compact sedan, but well short of the midsize competition.

The crux of this spatial mystery is the TLX’s long hood. Although it gives the car an outstanding visual presence, it also puts it closer to a midsize sedan in terms of maneuverability and footprint. Shoppers who regularly drive and park in tight, urban areas may find this a poor use of space. For them, we’d recommend the Acura Integra, the brand’s other compact sedan, available with only front-wheel drive (FWD) and only four-cylinder engine options, but with a more useful liftback cargo area and a terrifically entertaining high-performance Integra Type S trim level.

To be sure, the happiest person in an Acura TLX will be the driver. The front seats are supportive and comfortable, the cupholders are within easy reach, and the steering wheel offers thick, comfortable ergonomics.

The tech story in the Acura TLX is a little bit of great news and a little bit of bad news. First, every model sold in Canada gets a fabulous 17-speaker ELS Studio 3D premium audio system that we count as one of the best sound systems in the segment. Further, Bluetooth connectivity, wireless Android Auto and wireless Apple CarPlay, and a wireless charging pad are all included as standard infotainment system features. For 2024, the TLX also gets Amazon Alexa built-in, meaning the tech giant’s voice assistant is available to handle myriad requests (once you’ve set it up and linked it to your Amazon account, that is).

The 2024 Acura TLX also showcases new, dual 12.3-inch displays–one for the driver’s digital instrument cluster and one for the centre infotainment screen. Both offer crisp graphics and fast response times, and the gauge cluster can be lightly customized. The centre screen, notably not a touch screen, can serve as a pain point depending on how it’s used.

Instead of a touchscreen, which Acura uses in the Integra, or a rotary controller, which competitors including BMW and Mazda employ, the TLX gets the True Touchpad Interface, or “TTI.” This device looks like a simple trackpad, like what we see on laptop computers. In reality, it’s far more sophisticated. The TTI is mapped with one-to-one positioning on the centre display. That means that a finger on the bottom right corner of the TTI equates to touching the bottom right corner of the screen. Likewise, touch the middle of the TTI and you’re touching the middle of the screen. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s a clever–if over-engineered–solution.

Where the TII falls apart is phone projection. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto don’t use software engineered with the True Touchpad Interface in mind, so the trackpad de-evolves to a simple swiping device when running those systems. Worse, each requires many, many swipes to reach the items you likely want to access. It’s both a frustrating and, candidly, unsafe experience.

We may have found Android Auto in the TLX to be a bit unsafe to operate, particularly when driving, but the TLX itself appears to be an impressively safe sedan. Acura includes an impressive array of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) as standard equipment. This includes automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assist, lane departure warning and road-departure mitigation, blind spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic monitoring, adaptive cruise control, and front and rear parking sensors.

ADAS are becoming commonplace in the car market, but interestingly, the luxury segments still often offer them only as optional extras. It’s reassuring to see that Acura includes it all with every TLX, no additional purchase necessary.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has awarded the 2024 Acura TLX five out of five stars overall in its crash test ratings. The IIHS has not announced the 2024 model as a Top Safety Pick+ yet, but it’s worth noting that it still received the top score of “Good” in all tests, and it was previously awarded that honour in 2022.

For the 2024 Acura TLX, Natural Resources Canada estimates fuel economy for the A-Spec trim at 11.3 liters per 100 kilometres in city driving, 8.1 on the highway, and 9.8 combined. In the TLX Type S, this figures go up to 12.3 L/100 km city, 9.4 highway, and 11.0 combined.

Whether you compare the TLX Type S to a BMW M340i or a base 5 Series, it looks like an enthusiast bargain. This is a stylish and capable sports sedan offered with an impressive equipment list and excellent safety features, as well as a four-year/80,000-kilometre bumper-to-bumper warranty with roadside assistance. Skip down a trim level to an Acura TLX A-Spec, and it remains a compelling value proposition.

Although it’s a bit of an in-betweener compared to its more conventional rivals, the Acura TLX–particularly in Type S trim–looks like an outstanding choice for anyone who values style, performance, and safety.

Note: Images show a US model.