I picked up my 2011 SHO (Kona Blue, 402A, Performance Pack, multi-contour seats, nav) in late January and since then have installed the H&R springs and a Livernois Stage 2 tune. Intended to be a highway car, it replaces my 2006 Acura RL. I've put a little over 2,100 miles on it in the last 5 weeks.
Size and handling: this is a big car, 10" longer and 2" wider than the RL, which wasn't tiny. It can be tricky to park in some cases, and you feel the size and weight just tooling around town. Despite its larger size, the rear seat feels smaller than the one in the RL, although there's still plenty of room for two adults. At highway speeds the car feels smaller and nimbler, especially with the H&R springs. The ride is much firmer than the RL's but is not harsh. The 20" wheels that are part of the Performance Pack make every curb and pothole your enemy, and require very expensive tires (Tirerack.com lists the OE tires at $299 each).
Interior: The fit and finish of the interior is top-notch, much better than I can recall in any previous American car (certainly better than my 2007 Saleen Mustang). Panel gaps are small and perfectly even, and controls have a quality feel. However, compared to the Acura, the quality of the materials is noticeably lower: cheaper plastics, cheaper leather, more "hard surfaces", and a dull, monochrome appearance with little visual contrast. Ford tries to brighten up the interior by putting chrome trim around almost everything, from the instrument needles to the A/C vents to the radio control knobs, but it just comes off looking a little flashy and cheap.
The seats seem a little "pillowy" compared to the more contoured buckets in the RL. The "Miko Suede" (plastic yarn from recycled plastic bottles) seating areas are both comfortable and grippy; hopefully they will be long-wearing. The leather trim on the sides of the seats isn't up to Acura quality, but is serviceable. The faux carbon fiber finish on the console and door panels works well, although the shiny console can reflect the sun in your passenger's eyes in some cases. The multiple cup holders (5 by my count, including the ones in the doors) are very handy. The glove box seems tiny, especially given the size of the car, but this is common these days, sigh.
The heating, cooling, and massage functions in the seats will doubtless come in handy on those cross-country tours. The SHO's very deep-set gauges can sometimes be a little hard to read, especially the tach, which is so deep and off to the side that parallax is an issue.
Electronics and navigation: The 2011 Sync is far superior, functionally, to the 2006 Acura RL's system. It responds much faster and has more capabilities, like sucking the address book off my iPhone so that I can dial people by name, or playing MP3s off a USB stick, or being smart enough to allow me to specify that I only want to see fast food restaurants on my route, as opposed to those in the town I passed through 20 miles back.
However, there are some annoyances. You frequently have to "drill down" through too many command levels to get to what you want. For example, to go to a specific Sirius radio station by voice, you press the command button (bong bong...bing), say "Audio" (bing) then say "Sirius" (bing) then say the name or channel of the station you want. On the 5-year-older Acura, you press the command button (bong) and say "XM channel 131". Also, pressing the voice command button on the SHO always replaces whatever's on the screen with the main menu screen, even if all you want to say is "Navigation zoom in". I understand that the MyFord Touch system addresses many of these concerns, but we won't see it until the 2012 model.
Other features: The rear backup camera and side-looking radar help ameliorate the anxiety caused by the car's size and restricted rear visibility when backing out of a parking space. The split folding rear seats are nice (the Acura's rear seats are fixed). Although the Acura had an active noise cancellation system, the SHO actually seems quieter (the 2011 RL might be quieter still, though), accomplishing with "Soundscreen" glass and lots of acoustic material what Acura tried to do with fancy electronics. Rain-sensing wipers work brilliantly, but a standard intermittent operation mode would have been nice.
Annoyances: No spare tire on the Performance Pack model, and the tire goop supplied may ruin the $300 tire to get you going after a simple nail puncture. Silly audio trills if you start the car before you buckle your seat belt. Manually-adjusted steering wheel. Long reach to Sync touch screen, which quickly becomes covered in fingerprints-- Acura's no-touch screen paradigm just works better. Some Sync screens are poorly designed and crowded with buttons, requiring you to take your eyes off the road for too long. No external trunk button means you have to reach into your pocket to open the trunk, or use the driver's door key pad. Backup camera gets dirty easily. Very poor AM radio reception. And the brakes...well...let's try to forget about the brakes.
The dealer service experience: Local Acura dealer: marble floors, free fresh-baked cookies, expansive waiting room with free WiFi and two large flat-screen TVs, comfy couches, play rooms for small children. Several tables with chairs so you can use your laptop or work. Loaner cars available. The local Ford dealer: three rows of hard plastic chairs in front of a fuzzy TV showing the news. Poor lighting makes reading hard. No point in bringing your laptop since there's no WiFi. No loaner cars, period.
There's a reason a 2011 Acura RL costs $13,000 more than a loaded SHO, and this is where some of that money goes.
Driving Experience: This makes up for all the little things you might not like about the car. Especially with the H&R springs, the SHO dances with a grace that belies its size and mass, and when you punch it, you'll feel as if you're in a car half its weight, since there's never any pause waiting for the turbos to spool up. The enormous grip of the Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar tires, combined with the SHO suspension, lets you place the car with surgical accuracy...in ambient temps above 40 degrees, anyway.
The Livernois tune (certainly the best bang-for-the-buck performance option ever) makes passing on the highway so easy and fast you'll be temped to dawdle along in the slow lane, just to give yourself more opportunities to explode past that geezer in the Audi.
Overall: I miss some aspects of the Acura experience: the Zen-like ambience of the sublime interior, and the dealer experience (although the local Acura dealer does try to get you to pay for stupid-expensive extra services you don't need. $300 to power-flush and change the fluid in each of the RL's three differentials ($900 total)? How stupid do they thing I am?). But overall fun is way higher in the SHO, and as an owner of an original 1990 model, I think I made the right choice.
Size and handling: this is a big car, 10" longer and 2" wider than the RL, which wasn't tiny. It can be tricky to park in some cases, and you feel the size and weight just tooling around town. Despite its larger size, the rear seat feels smaller than the one in the RL, although there's still plenty of room for two adults. At highway speeds the car feels smaller and nimbler, especially with the H&R springs. The ride is much firmer than the RL's but is not harsh. The 20" wheels that are part of the Performance Pack make every curb and pothole your enemy, and require very expensive tires (Tirerack.com lists the OE tires at $299 each).
Interior: The fit and finish of the interior is top-notch, much better than I can recall in any previous American car (certainly better than my 2007 Saleen Mustang). Panel gaps are small and perfectly even, and controls have a quality feel. However, compared to the Acura, the quality of the materials is noticeably lower: cheaper plastics, cheaper leather, more "hard surfaces", and a dull, monochrome appearance with little visual contrast. Ford tries to brighten up the interior by putting chrome trim around almost everything, from the instrument needles to the A/C vents to the radio control knobs, but it just comes off looking a little flashy and cheap.
The seats seem a little "pillowy" compared to the more contoured buckets in the RL. The "Miko Suede" (plastic yarn from recycled plastic bottles) seating areas are both comfortable and grippy; hopefully they will be long-wearing. The leather trim on the sides of the seats isn't up to Acura quality, but is serviceable. The faux carbon fiber finish on the console and door panels works well, although the shiny console can reflect the sun in your passenger's eyes in some cases. The multiple cup holders (5 by my count, including the ones in the doors) are very handy. The glove box seems tiny, especially given the size of the car, but this is common these days, sigh.
The heating, cooling, and massage functions in the seats will doubtless come in handy on those cross-country tours. The SHO's very deep-set gauges can sometimes be a little hard to read, especially the tach, which is so deep and off to the side that parallax is an issue.
Electronics and navigation: The 2011 Sync is far superior, functionally, to the 2006 Acura RL's system. It responds much faster and has more capabilities, like sucking the address book off my iPhone so that I can dial people by name, or playing MP3s off a USB stick, or being smart enough to allow me to specify that I only want to see fast food restaurants on my route, as opposed to those in the town I passed through 20 miles back.
However, there are some annoyances. You frequently have to "drill down" through too many command levels to get to what you want. For example, to go to a specific Sirius radio station by voice, you press the command button (bong bong...bing), say "Audio" (bing) then say "Sirius" (bing) then say the name or channel of the station you want. On the 5-year-older Acura, you press the command button (bong) and say "XM channel 131". Also, pressing the voice command button on the SHO always replaces whatever's on the screen with the main menu screen, even if all you want to say is "Navigation zoom in". I understand that the MyFord Touch system addresses many of these concerns, but we won't see it until the 2012 model.
Other features: The rear backup camera and side-looking radar help ameliorate the anxiety caused by the car's size and restricted rear visibility when backing out of a parking space. The split folding rear seats are nice (the Acura's rear seats are fixed). Although the Acura had an active noise cancellation system, the SHO actually seems quieter (the 2011 RL might be quieter still, though), accomplishing with "Soundscreen" glass and lots of acoustic material what Acura tried to do with fancy electronics. Rain-sensing wipers work brilliantly, but a standard intermittent operation mode would have been nice.
Annoyances: No spare tire on the Performance Pack model, and the tire goop supplied may ruin the $300 tire to get you going after a simple nail puncture. Silly audio trills if you start the car before you buckle your seat belt. Manually-adjusted steering wheel. Long reach to Sync touch screen, which quickly becomes covered in fingerprints-- Acura's no-touch screen paradigm just works better. Some Sync screens are poorly designed and crowded with buttons, requiring you to take your eyes off the road for too long. No external trunk button means you have to reach into your pocket to open the trunk, or use the driver's door key pad. Backup camera gets dirty easily. Very poor AM radio reception. And the brakes...well...let's try to forget about the brakes.
The dealer service experience: Local Acura dealer: marble floors, free fresh-baked cookies, expansive waiting room with free WiFi and two large flat-screen TVs, comfy couches, play rooms for small children. Several tables with chairs so you can use your laptop or work. Loaner cars available. The local Ford dealer: three rows of hard plastic chairs in front of a fuzzy TV showing the news. Poor lighting makes reading hard. No point in bringing your laptop since there's no WiFi. No loaner cars, period.
There's a reason a 2011 Acura RL costs $13,000 more than a loaded SHO, and this is where some of that money goes.
Driving Experience: This makes up for all the little things you might not like about the car. Especially with the H&R springs, the SHO dances with a grace that belies its size and mass, and when you punch it, you'll feel as if you're in a car half its weight, since there's never any pause waiting for the turbos to spool up. The enormous grip of the Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar tires, combined with the SHO suspension, lets you place the car with surgical accuracy...in ambient temps above 40 degrees, anyway.
The Livernois tune (certainly the best bang-for-the-buck performance option ever) makes passing on the highway so easy and fast you'll be temped to dawdle along in the slow lane, just to give yourself more opportunities to explode past that geezer in the Audi.
Overall: I miss some aspects of the Acura experience: the Zen-like ambience of the sublime interior, and the dealer experience (although the local Acura dealer does try to get you to pay for stupid-expensive extra services you don't need. $300 to power-flush and change the fluid in each of the RL's three differentials ($900 total)? How stupid do they thing I am?). But overall fun is way higher in the SHO, and as an owner of an original 1990 model, I think I made the right choice.
