Well after having the Acura for 10 days now, I am rather thrilled with it. I finished off one tank of gas and got a shade over 26 mpg in mileage. Our driving here is some stop and go and some highway. This is good for a tight engine. The 400E would get 21.5. My track car, the 4 cylinder Porsche, gets 24 if I drive it tenderly. The AMG gets 22+ in the same venue.

My initial feeling about the car is that I really like it. It is quiet, drives nicely, has an excellent stereo. Can't comment on speed as it is in break in mode but it is reputed to be quick. Shifting is silky smooth, and handling is very good.

About the only thing I don't like is a slightly larger blind spot due to the size of the A pillar. It reminds me of my Porsche that has a padded roll cage in it. It has a blind spot at its A pillar due to the bar that parallels it.

Next week we are going to the coast. On that trip if the weather was dry and with warm temperatures, the 400E would get about 27 mpg. I'm expecting 34 with this car. We make that trip several times a year. It is all interstate driving. At first I was sad about trading the old car as I tend to get attached to my cars. But now, I am glad I made the trade.

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Lawrence Coppari

2002 SLK32 AMG
2005 Acura TL
1987 328GTS
1986 944T

Glad to hear that you are happy with your new car. I have a 2nd generation Acura (2001 TL) and I am very happy with it even though Honda has problems with the transmission but volunteered a recall and extended the warrenty to 100K miles. I had my original trans replaced at 83K miles and Acura replaced it without question and even gave me a free loaner car. Mercedes still won't recall the faulty harmonic balancers in the US.

Comparing my 98 E320 with my 01 TL, which are similar in size, I prefer the E320 which has more power (torque), its rear wheel drive, transmission shifting is more race-like when heavy on the throttle, and handles better then the TL. The TL however comes in at a close second. Both vehicles have a 3.2L engine and get similar gas milage (27 MPH mostly highway).

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Ray
1998 Mercedes E320, 200K Miles
2001 Acura 3.2TL, 178K Miles
1992 Chevy Astro, 205K Miles

Ok, we arrived in Williamsburg for the LPGA golf tournament. On the 400 mile trip from home to here, the computer in the new car indicated we averaged 34 miles per gallon. The first 36 miles of the tank were around town at home before we left. I filled the tank but did not reset the computer so we'd be able to have an overall mpg number for the trip. When I filled the tank and did the arithmetic. the result was 33.6. Pretty good mileage, I must say. However, there is a prevailing wind on I-81 so we did have a tail wind. We have always gotten less mileage on the return trip. Plus there is a 1200 foot elevation change, and it is uphill homeward. We drove a steady 70 in the interstate.

I did not reset the computer because my wife and I have a bet about the overall mileage for this trip. She thought 29; I predicted 31. She took the car shopping and is probably, as I type this, flogging it in first gear to ruin the mileage so she wins the bet.

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Lawrence Coppari

2002 SLK32 AMG
2005 Acura TL
1987 328GTS
1986 944T