[SoCalAltima]

Hey guys, im new to the boards and am looking into buying a TSX. But as always i love to do my homework...

So I am wondering what do you love and hate about your TSX?

Thank you so much for all of your help!

 

[TSX 'R' US]

Hello and welcome to the site!! :wavey:

Love: interior/exterior styling and very roomy
Hate: I have to drive an hour just to get my car serviced....

 

[larchmont]

HATE:
HEADLIGHTS! Worst I've ever had. (Most people disagree.)

That's about it.

MILD DISLIKE:
Hard to parallel-park because it's hard to see behind you.
Should have power passenger seat. (The '05 has it.)
Should have power-retractable side mirrors.

COULD BE BETTER:
Ride is a bit rugged over rough surfaces, speed bumps, expansion joints etc. but very good otherwise.
Could use maybe 5% or 10% more power, but really quite good.

LOVE:
Everything else.

 

[ChinchillaX]

Pros: styling inside and outside is nice, quite roomy, great audio system, smooth ride, and good fuel economy,

Cons: requires premium fuel (89 octane or higher) slightly underpowered for its size. little quality issues here and there (my TSX has been in the shop five times fixing these problems). Acura Service has been spotty/not so great.

Overall the TSX is a great car w/ great styling, a lot of standard features for the price. Well worth it despite the lil quality issues I've had, I love my TSX!:thumbsup:

 

[larchmont]

Regarding quality: IMO it's better than the "old" TL, for whatever that's worth.

I had an '03 TL-S before the TSX, and the TSX quality seems clearly better.
And about the new TL: I test-drove it, and IMO the TSX quality is better than that too although both are excellent.

 

[farkingicehole]

to add to Larchmonts should haves

seats with memory
Passenger side mirrors that automatically tilt downward when reverse is engaged

 

[bob shiftright]

LIKES: The engine, transmission, handling, quality and reliability. Servicability looks generally good, although a lot of stuff looks like it was never designed to be taken apart.

HATES: The mirrors (HUGE blind spots!), the headlights (I have e-code Halogens on two other cars, they're light-years ahead of the TSX's "state of the art" HIDs, I can't tell you how many times I've missed a turn because I couldn't see the landmark with the TSX headlights), the brittle paint and the seats. The TSX-Accord ergonomics in general are sort of a bargain-basement 1993 Volvo 850, never actually bad but often counter-intuitive vs. Volvo's. Sometimes it looks like they just reversed the action or position of something so they wouldn't be charged with patent infringement. (Not actually bad ergonomics like Saturn's. I think I'd go postal if I had to look at this dashboard setup every day.) Just annoying. I'm not gonna sell my Honda stock anytime soon, but the car's not a 200,000 mile "keeper", either.

*EDIT* Another HATE: no room for a full-size spare tire in the spare tire well. In the summer I keep a winter tire loose in the trunk, in winter I keep a summer tire loose in the trunk. I'd hate to need to drive 1000 miles on that tiny donut spare.

 

[Tsx05Gurl]

I also love the navigation and the XM Radio! I just love everything about my car! No dislikes for me!

 

[JT2k4TSX]

The only dislikes I have is the fold down mirrors. Once they are down its hard to see b/c they cover up most of your vision to see the road! Other than that I have no dislikes for the car!

 

[Duke]

Hello, Altima, and welcome to the Club. Here's some brief rundown on our experience with the '04 TSX we've owned for about 3 months.

LOVE:
The styling, the handling, the overall quality of the car. Ride is firm and well-damped, just like I like it; I hate squishy cars. Quality of buttons and controls feels good. I have no serious ergonomic complaints, just a few I'll get to later. I love the auto transmission - it's probably the best I've ever driven. Shifts are firm and it almost seems to anticipate what gear you'll want. I've never driven the manual but people love it too. People say it's a little underpowered but in 95% of your daily driving I never think that.

MILDLY ANNOYED BY: People complain about the headlights but I think they're OK, except the left side headlight was killed by leaking water and it took weeks to get a new one because they were on national backorder. Perhaps they've revised the part design for '05. Bob, if you're comparing US lights to E-code lights, US lights are going to lose every time. E-code lights are not road legal by US federal standards and they're both brighter and aimed differently than US-legal lights are allowed to be.

I'm mildly annoyed by the door locks - the power switch is in a different location on the driver and passenger doors, for no good reason. Also, the plungers for the rear doors are at the latch side of the door rather than the traditional hinge side, so you can't pop open the front door and reach around to unlock the rears. Since there's only one keyhole (driver's front door), if the battery dies, it's going to be a PITA to get into or out of the car.

I LOVE that the power windows stay powered for a few minutes after you turn off the car... but I HATE that they forgot to add the sunroof to that circuit. Same with the door-key window operation. So this balances out to a 'mildly annoyed'.

I'm mildly annoyed by the fact that the CD players holds 6 CDs but the storage bin directly below it only holds 5 jewel cases.

HATE:
There's only one thing I truly hate about the car. If you have a navigation system (which overall I like well enough), there's no way to automatically restrict its searches to, say, a hundred mile radius. You can tell it to prioritize by distance, but that takes an extra step, and you can't make it default to ignore locations that are several days' drive away. If I type in "Home Depot", for instance, it starts the list with Store #276 in Anaheim, California, even though I live in Delaware and am not likely to drive 2800 miles for a box of drywall screws and a gallon of white latex paint.

 

[Rmatic09]

love everything , except the fact that i feel its underpowered...i would say rattles, but there gone now...

 

[robert_tg]

The only dislikes I have is the fold down mirrors. Once they are down its hard to see b/c they cover up most of your vision to see the road! Other than that I have no dislikes for the car!

what fold-down mirror ? you mean teh rear-view mirrot ?

 

[JT2k4TSX]

LOL man my bad. I was asleep when I wrote that. What I was talking about was the fold down visors in the car. When you are driving and the sun is in your face and you pull the visor down its so long you cant even see in front of you with it pulled down. Drives me crazy!

 

[spyguy]

Hate: I hate how the doors sound so cheap and flimsy when you close it.


LOVE: Everything else about the car & the fact it's a HONDA.

 

[robert_tg]

welcome to the club SoCalAltima :wavey:
I agree with most points up above.

Love:
Styling in/out is great. The material used make you feel like you're in a lux car. Whether the material really is great or not is another matter.
Stock audio is very good in its category - fits most people i'd say.
General built quality is excellent. I have no rattles.
Navigation is excellent - best $2k I ever spent.
Smooth and quiet engine (but need to rev to get power). Transmission is great.

Hate: No hates but just cons:
AT here: Slightly underpowered. little torque - unless you really step on it & and rev it.
To keep the TSX looking great I feel one has to be extra carefully & dilligent - this points to material quality and durability - I feel one really has to make a conscious effort to "baby" this car to keep it the looks up.
Paint is thin. panel easily dentable/scratchable, interior panel dash easily scratchable.
High belt line make it hard to see the rear.

HTH

 

[larchmont]

.....I can't tell you how many times I've missed a turn because I couldn't see the landmark with the TSX headlights.....

That happened to me the other day. Almost wound up in someone's bedroom.

Good points by everybody.

Duke talked about the door locks, but I don't think anybody mentioned about how those manual door lock plugs (or whatever they're called) stick up and get in the way of your elbow. Those really suk.

 

[bob shiftright]

Bob, if you're comparing US lights to E-code lights, US lights are going to lose every time. E-code lights are not road legal by US federal standards and they're both brighter and aimed differently than US-legal lights are allowed to be.

I thought DOT finally threw in the towel on this. Also thought some US market versions of imported cars have the headlights imprinted with the "e" and some don't have anything imprinted now.

I've been using e-code halogens for years and had absolutely no problem, zero, with state inspections and people do not flash me, (unlike larch with his TSX HIDs). People do go nuts with the extra-bright "off road" light bulbs that the ricers favor, but I use standard watt (DOT approved) highway bulbs. Other drivers don't notice the e-code lenses which actually scatter less light to the left than the old DOT lenses did. On most Euro imports, the headlight "capsule" was the same for both e-code and DOT headlights, continental European manufacturers just took the "cheap" route by adding some fluting to the glass lenses to degrade performance, deleted the electric aiming motors and "City Lights" that are required in Europe, rolled 'em up the gangplank and sold 'em here. So they're actually inferior to a decent DOT headlight on a US domestic car. And since this is crying out as an upgrade, the e-code lenses are available for most of the popular European imports with no more than a couple of mouse clicks.

Are the TSX headlights imprinted anything, either DOT or e-code? I don't think so. My wife's Odyssey's lights aren't.

Consumer Reports has started testing headlights for performance and the best headlights they tested included halogens and the worst headlights included HIDs. CLICK HERE

Volvo e-code lens (top) DOT lens (bottom)

 

[flfungirl]

It seems I'm the minority here but I LOVE the headlights. This is my first car w/ HID's so maybe I don't have much room for opinion on them but I feel you can see SO much more than w/ halogens!! Also I love the gauges and the blue back lighting.

The only thing I dislike is that the rear access is a little hard to get out of. I mean the leg pass through is a little narrow and I've had a couple people trip getting out of my car. I actually thought it was kinda funny....except for the scuff mark they left behind....that made me mad LOL!!

 

[robert_tg]

The only thing I dislike is that the rear access is a little hard to get out of. I mean the leg pass through is a little narrow and I've had a couple people trip getting out of my car. I actually thought it was kinda funny....exept the scuff mark they left behind....that made me mad! LOL!!

yup yup

 

[billyapd21]

I like pretty much everything about the car except the paint. It just seems like you have to drive so far behind other cars to prevent getting chips on your front bumper and hood. Before I bought my TSX I owned an 02' RSX and I had the same problem. I didn't really realize it until I got into a fender bender and had to replace the front bumper of my RSX. I had it painted at a local body shop and the paint they used was a lot more durable. I had 90% less scratches and chips with the paint used at the body shop. I'm not sure if they used different paint or if they just put it on thicker.