2009 Acura TSX

Rarely do five seats find themselves in such a sharp-edged handler as this. Acura has resisted the natural choice of a V-6 here, and what with volatile gas prices, they could be right.

Meager rear legroom (and footroom beneath the front seat), low-end torque, controversial grill.

Remember the old advertising shill, "It's longer, lower, and wider"? Well, in the case of the 2009 Acura TSX, make that longer and a whopping three inches wider. Based upon the redesigned European-spec Honda Accord, the TSX has gained loads of interior elbow room, somehow lost a cubic foot of trunk space, gained 160 pounds in weight, and has improved its already modest rear legroom by-drumroll-0.1 inch.

Yes, the 2009 Acura TSX swells by a parking space filling three inches in width and 2.4 inches in length. It's now wider, taller, heavier and way roomier than the original Acura Legend. At least by building half the body structure out of high-strength steels (up from 39 percent), the curb weight balloons only by about 150 pounds.

During a brief sprint up the base of the Laguna Mountains before a freak blizzard halted all driving fun, the car displayed admirable cornering grip, superb shifter/clutch feel, the delightful trademark Honda engine note, and familiar Acura TSX performance. Lifeless steering was our only major complaint.

As Acura's entry-level sedan, the TSX has always thrived on its value-conscious pricing and premium sport sedan image. For 2009, Acura has reworked the TSX into a slightly larger animal, but one that promises even more performance.

In the name of safety, Acura's Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body structure, introduced for the first time to the 2009 TSX. This will provide more efficient dispersal of frontal crash energy through load-bearing frame structures to spread the force of a frontal impact more effectively. Six airbags are standard on the 2009 Acura TSX, and a new Active Headrest Restraint System is included for the first time to reduce the likelihood of neck and head injuries in the event of a collision.

The big 2.4-liter four in the TSX is so smooth, well-mannered, and potent that it could easily be mistaken for a six. It shrugs off the car's roughly 150-lb weight gain. I drove the 2009 Acura TSX in the rain, and torque steer was kept under control only because the traction control system is hyper intrusive.

The suspension dampening is very impressive, the gearbox is still one of the best in the business, and the engine is incredibly tractable for a normally aspirated four-cylinder hauling this much mass. Unfortunately, you can feel the slight weight gain, and it dulls the driving experience.

The engine still has only four cylinders, and its displacement remains 2.4 liters. Power is actually down slightly, from 205 hp to 201 hp, although torque is up a bit, from 164 lb-ft to 172 lb-ft (with the manual transmission).

Its high-revving engine requires more attention and input from its pilot to maximize performance than many of its more powerful competitors do, but this proves to be a rewarding, rather than onerous, task.

It's true, though, that the new Acura TSX does not avoid the seemingly inevitable progression that afflicts all new cars these days: it is both bigger and heavier than before. The wheelbase, at 106.4 inches, is 1.3 inches longer; overall length is up by 2.4 inches; and the vehicle is a substantial 3.0 inches wider, with wider front and rear tracks. Curb weight has increased by about 160 pounds, although Acura saved about 40 pounds by using more high-strength steel in the car's body.

Inside the 2009 Acura TSX, you'll find evidence of Acura's desire to provide TSX buyers, 50% of whom historically have been women, with the opportunity to have all the same goodies you can get in Acura's other products. Bluetooth, a USB port, and a 7-speaker CD stereo are standard. The optional technology package includes a navigation system with traffic and weather reports and traffic re-routing. And, of course, the Panasonic-engineered, ten-speaker surround sound ELS stereo system that debuted several years ago in the Acura TL is also part of the technology package.

The second-generation Acura TSX is here. You can buy one now, that is, if you want what Acura thinks you want. This would include more room inside, a car that's longer, wider, taller, and inevitably heavier, but no more powerful than its predecessor-things that are not all that bad if you have a family to tote around or tend to grocery shop only once a month.

It has an iPod hookup and GPS, but that's so five-years ago, so Acura made sure theirs was more up-to-date. Plug your iPod into the '09 Acura TSX and prepare to see your entire playlist displayed on the navigation screen. Speaking of the navigation screen, cue up an address and get real-time traffic updates, even weather.

With the 2009 TSX, Acura has done a full remake of its entry-luxury level sedan. More than just bolting a slick new body on an old platform, the TSX is new from the ground up, as in, longer, wider and lower. In a couple measures, it's roomier, too.

The TSX stays with a front-wheel-drive configuration, whereas true sporty sedans are rear-wheel drive. That said, the 2009 TSX is one of the better-handling front-wheel-drive sedans and in its class, hard to beat as an everyday driver that can still be fun on a mountain road.

The 2009 Acura TSX is a four-door, five-passenger sedan with a 2.4-liter, 201-hp four-cylinder engine and a no-cost choice of either a six-speed manual or a five-speed sequential SportShift automatic.

Of all the stuff shoved into the new TSX (dual-zone climate control, a multi-function display, digital compass and Bluetooth cell phone connectivity, among many others) it's the sound systems that are most impressive. Standard kit is a seven-speaker system with a USB controller port that is flat fantastic-sounding and even interfaces well with an Apple iPhone. But stepping up to the Technology Package brings a spectacular 10-speaker set-up that probably sounds better than most live musicians. It's awesome.