Happened to see one today and it struck me that I hadn't seen one in years. When they first came out (I was in high school and drove an old Integra) I thought they were pretty cool cars but can't say I knew anything about them.
I also always assumed that they were RWD since they had such a short front overhang and long rear overhang (the shape of the Lincoln LS always reminded me of the Vigor years later). But I guess they have the engine mounted in a RWD position (e.g. behind the front wheels) and then a front diff in front of the engine?
For 1992 they had about 175hp which was pretty respectable back then (more than a Maxima V6 put out, for that matter) and the oddball 5cyl.
So was this just a car that didn't have a niche (e.g. it wasn't that much cheaper or smaller than a Legend), or did the unusual drivetrain arrangement cause problems, or something else?
Just curious.
Don't recall remember anything bad about them. I think it was just one of those cars that never really caught on and not for any particular reason. IIRC they are available with a manual trans which is a GOOD thing.
My dad test drove one when they were new, it seemed like a decent car. I remember seeing some for sale with oil pressure issues, but other than that I haven't ever heard anything bad about them.
It's more or less a 2-door Legend.
They're nice luxocars. The 5 cylinder engine was prone to breaking the camshaft though. (I think when the distributor would sieze, the cam was the weak point. Never investigated further)
My boss's brother had one, and a 3.2(RL?) that he did a 6 speed conversion on. Earlier this year, he swapped a 3.5l engine into it, keeping the 3.2 intake manifold and cams and installing headers and some other goodies (Remember Remus exhausts?). Sounded wonderful. Definitely not a bolt-in operation though.
irish44j wrote:
But I guess they have the engine mounted in a RWD position (e.g. behind the front wheels) and then a front diff in front of the engine?
Nope - longitudinal 5 banger with tranny behind, and then the diff routes power back towards the front so that the countershafts head to the front wheels underneath (more or less) the middle of the engine (cyl #3). Do some image searches and you'll see the front strut mount lines up pretty close with the middle of the engine.
They were a bit weird from the service standpoint. Nice car to drive. They lived on for a few more years as the 2.5TL, after everybody decided alphanumerics were much more sexy than actual names...
Wikipedia says the TL was also known as the Sabre or Inspire. I'd rather drive a 2.5 Sabre than a 2.5TL, I think.
They also leaked like sieves. Similar to the narrow angle V6s in early Ackure-ughs
My cousin bought one used, high mileage one back in the day and tried to kill it for a decade or so. He failed. Decent car. Looked like a baby Legend
Thought about one for LeMons, but there were very few (no?) manuals, and it was no faster than an Accord EX due to extra weight and drag.
chaparral wrote:
Thought about one for LeMons, but there were very few (no?) manuals, and it was no faster than an Accord EX due to extra weight and drag.
Manuals were available, I've seen a few for sale.
Eric the Car Guy bought one recently and the big problem with them is that no one bought them so they weren't produced for any long period of time which makes small body damage repair really expensive.
All I remember about them is that when I used to sell auto parts, some kid came in with one that had a tail light out. I went out to give him a hand and spent about 45 minutes of my shift trying to get the tail lights working, but that didn't happen.
It's one of those cars that has the circuit board behind the tail light that controls everything. Being a New England car, everything was corroded to hell. I would have suggested to go to a junkyard and get a new circuit board, but there were probably 7 of them still on North American roads at the time (around 2004), so that wasn't happening.
Poor guy...
At the time those came out the techs did not like them because they were too "different" from other Acuras. 5 cyl engine parts have always been expensive for these. Exhaust manifolds would crack, distributors would wear and leak oil. And of course, now all of them are old and have all kinds of issues cropping up.
