'99 Acura TL offers more for less

Honda slashes the price tag of its flagship sedan.

Honda had its eye on one major goal when it developed the 1999 Acura TL series - cut costs but add more features and more power. It did just that. The loaded TL will sell for less money than Acura used to charge for the TL 3.2 and, perhaps most importantly, less than what other companies are charging for competitive brands.

This legerdemain, if you will, is largely due to the fact that 75% of the TLs parts are sourced in North America and assembled in the Marysville, Ohio, plant Interestingly, the supplier count at Marysville has gone up from 408 to 414.

But keeping costs down also involved an early decision to lower prices through design and assembly methods. Chief among these is modular assembly of the instrument panel. Changes such as this helped Honda put the TLs no-options sticker at $29,950, setting a significant mark for the competition to beat, or even match. Without the single option (a navigation system), the fully-equipped cost of a new TL 3.2 falls closer to $27,950, which is about $5,000 less than the model stickered for in its last iteration. This puts the TL 3.2 many thousands below fully-equipped models from Audi (A6), BMW (328i), Infiniti (I30), Mercedes-Benz (C280) and the Lexus ES300.

By keeping the price down, Honda's Acura division hopes to increase sales of the TL by 60%, to 40,000 units a year. There'll be some growth of the entry-lux market, but for that growth to happen it will have to mean conquest sales.

For the money it's asking for the 1999 TL, Acura believes, it is "breaking new barriers in standard features." Interior volume exceeds that of most cars in the class. Standard features include leather, Bose audio system with CD, heated seats, a moonroof, a Prince-supplied Homelink system, an automatic day-night mirror, high-intensity discharge lamps, and a sequential SportShift transmission. The car does not have side airbags.

But the Acura TL 3.2 is much more than a collection of standard features, since it also includes one of the most aggressive engines in the segment. Using Honda's impressive VTEC variable valve timing system, the 3.2L V-6 delivers 225 hp (up 25 hp from the previous V-6) at 5,500 rpm and 216 lb-ft of torque (up 7 lb-ft) at 5,000 rpm Power is delivered to the front wheels through a smooth 4-speed automatic. For more aggressive drivers, the SportShift function allows for passable semi-manual control.

Over and above what it hopes to sell in the U.S., Honda expects to produce 30,000 additional TLs for export to Canada, Japan and other Asian countries.