2015 Acura TLX voted to ‘Best Cars for the Money’ by automotive press

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Acura continues its “E-Ticket” ride to near segment domination as Honda’s premier car and light truck division celebrates 2015 “The Year of Honda.” Now, “U.S. News and World Report” names 3 Acura marks to top "best Car" honors in their respective segments. Could Acura TLX truly be that good?

The short story

2015 Acura TLX, on the market for less than 6 months, has moved into the top sales spot for Acura performance sedans. Granted, Acura doesn't produce a wide lineup of sedan variants; but, what they do design and manufacture is now smoking all comers in the domestically produced metric compact executive and mid size premium performance sedan class.

While the premium luxo-cruiser RLX is missing somewhere between here and Japan, the first year 2015 TLX and now “substantially refreshed” 2016 ILX grab the ring and run for the finish line. We've spent much seat time in TLX and agree with the journalist that voted it one of the “Best Cars for the Money,” in North America, along with the best selling 3 row SUV, MDX and RDX, the best selling premium 2 row. How did U.S. News and World Report measure overall value in a vehicle selected for consideration?

The who, how and why of the “Best Car for the Money” award

While we don’t tend to read too much into automotive related industry accolades, we like this one. The award results, generated through the answers of seasoned, road hard, seat-time- weary journalist are based on the selected car or truck’s overall performance, interior features, comfort, reliability and safety rating; 2015 Acura TLX excels in all categories.

According to U.S.N.: “The U.S. News 2015 "Best Cars for the Money" awards help take the guesswork out of car shopping by highlighting the cars, trucks and SUVs with the best combination of positive reviews and long-term ownership costs in 21 different automotive classes.”
“To find the award winners, we combined the average price paid from TrueCar, Inc. and five-year total cost of ownership data from Vincentric, LLC with the U.S. News Best Cars rankings data. The U.S. News rankings are based on the opinion of the automotive press about a car's performance, interior features and interior comfort, along with reliability and safety ratings.”

Fair enough! In looking to the results we discover that 2015 TLX took Hyundai Genesis and Lexus ES Hybrid for top honors; both exceptional cars presenting their own take on comfort and premium performance. However, when looking to the $ bottom line and superior standard features, Acura TLX takes the podium with exceptional initial purchase value, anticipated Acura reliability and future high residual resale value. Congratulations Acura.

Submitted by Geek (not verified) on April 5, 2015 - 12:43PM

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I thought I would chime in after 6 months of driving my TLX. First (we) really still like the car with zero regrets. Comfortable, quiet, an exceptional ride and drive. The only annoyance has nothing to do with how well the car performs, there is nothing to complain about how the car performs and much to applaud. The only thing about the car that is an annoyance is the complexity of the Nav system and other electronic features, but I know that is not a issue that is unique to Acura. Syncing bluetooth devices is a chore (including the phone) and I have taken out the owners manual more times in the past 6 months than I have in years. In all fairness I have had to do the same thing on my other car (BMW) and understand that the blending of smart electronics into cars has some growing pains.

In short the TLX is the car both my wife and I enjoy driving and it was a solid performer on the snowy roads.

Welcome back Geek. Thanks for the update. Yes, the next generation personal electronic connectivity and voice command Nav can be a bit of a challenge. We have noted a bit of an improvement in 2016 MDX connectivity. Hopefully, this will carry throughout the lineup. Wishing you happy and safe driving.