Call it the curse of competence. The perils of being good all around, but never standing out in any individual area. The 2015 Acura TLX is an entry-level luxury car that has been charged with replacing two under-performing models – the TL and the smaller TSX – and re-invigorating the Japanese brand in the affordable premium segment. It’s not that there was anything particularly ‘wrong’ with either of the departing Acura sedans, but it was definitely confusing for customers to walk into showroom and see two similarly-sized automobiles offering comparable power and features at different price points.
With the 2015 Acura TLX great effort has been made to take what was best about the models it is replacing (the TSX’s smaller exterior footprint, the TL’s more engaging driving experience) and combine them into a single, palatable four-door package that will theoretically snag the same 50,000 buyers or so a year that had been attracted to its predecessors. Unfortunately, after having spent time behind the wheel of this all-new sedan, it seems unlikely that it will have the same success in convincing owners of other luxury cars in its class to switch allegiances. The Acura TLX is a perfectly good daily driver that doesn’t rise above the fray in any recognizable way, a straight-B student guaranteed to graduate but unlikely to be voted ‘Most Likely To’ do anything other than keep existing Acura customers happy and provide years of faultlessly reliable service.