2005 Acura RL Price, Review, Specs & Road Test

Even though it now boasts 300 horsepower, the RL's V-6 still comes to the party two cylinders short of many competitors offering available V-8 power. All-wheel drive is standard--serving up that much power through the front wheels isn't that sporty. Acura has resurrected the SH (Super Handling) moniker from the old Honda Prelude and mixed it with AWD. SH-AWD distributes torque between the front and rear wheels (up to 70 percent to either the front or rear) and between the left and right rear wheels. While cornering, the system overdrives the outer rear wheel and sends up to 100 percent of the rear torque to that wheel to enhance stability and cornering prowess. You can feel the system working while assaulting aggressive corners. With BMW and M-B in a technology war, Acura needed its own arsenal of electronic countermeasures in the form of a nav system with voice recognition (560 commands) and Real Time Traffic via XM Satellite Radio. Active Front Lighting swivels the inboard Xenon HID headlamp up to 20 degrees outward under specific steering and speed conditions to enhance lighting while cornering. No luxury sport sedan is complete without a powerful audio system, and Acura's Bose 10-speaker DVD audio setup claims to provide 500 times the clarity of a CD with AudioPilot noise compression technology that compensates for wind and road noise by monitoring the cabin noise and adjusting the sound.