Driving the new
TSX doesn't deliver as much fun as an honest-to-goodness sporty sedan could/should for one simple reason: front-wheel drive. Not that it suffers too much torque steer or any of the other dynamics peculiar to front-wheel-drive cars, but that any car burdened with a front/rear weight bias of 60/40 simply cannot deliver the responsiveness and agility of a rear-wheel-drive car, like the two aforementioned BMWs, or an all-wheel-drive car, like the
Audi A4 Quattro or the new
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.
Nevertheless, the TSX is an enjoyable, moderately sporty car. Suspension balance is good, with spring rates and shock absorber tuning well matched at all four corners. The car takes corners at speed with noticeably more confidence and less body lean than the previous-generation model, thanks in part to '09's two-and-one-half inch wider track. Only when the corners start arriving in rapid succession and require quick steering adjustments first one way then the other do the car's limitations become apparent. Adding to the disappointment is the steering's numb feeling. There's no lack of precision or response to steering inputs, just very little tactile feedback from that all-important contact patch between tire and pavement.
Horsepower is down slightly from '08, but torque is up slightly, so any difference between the '08's and the '09's response to the pressure of the driver's right foot on the gas pedal is measurable only by a stopwatch. As in, sprightly, but definitely still not neck-snapping. Interestingly, the '09's fuel economy improves by two miles per gallon, to 21/30 city/highway, over the '08's with the SportShift five-speed automatic; it's unchanged with the manual gearbox, which, strangely, is rated by the U.S. EPA at one mpg less in the city and two mpg less on the highway.
The SportShift automatic's adaptive programming leaves a bit to be desired, however. Although it initially holds a lower gear longer when the car's on a grade or when it's being pushed hard through a series of corners, it often gives up too soon. Time after time, during our test drive on the two-lane roads in the mountains east of San Diego, just as we readied to ease back into the gas during the transition from one corner to the next, it shifted up a gear, dumping the engine out of the sweet part of its power curve. It was similarly impatient on grades, not waiting long enough before shifting up a gear and then shifting back down a moment or two later when it realized its error. Never was there any indication of brake fade on those roads, and ride quality over anything but the worst pavement was better than average. There was little wind noise, and the longer wheelbase and wider track minimized the dreaded rocking-horse effect over freeway expansion joints.
Gear spacing in the six-speed manual easily kept the engine in the best part of its power curve, although we still don't see the need for a transmission this mechanically complex for everyday driving; save for brief periods of testing the car's limits, we mostly ignored second, fourth and fifth gear. Clutch action was smoothly managed, and the curved shape of gas pedal brings its lower portion close enough to the arc of the brake pedal to permit relatively comfortable heel-and-toe downshifts. next page