Gallery
Pros
Cons
There’s a school of thought that says being able to delay gratification is one of the biggest predictors of future success.
By that logic, the 2025 Acura TLX Type S has seemingly been engineered for only the truly enlightened, because this is a car whose biggest failing is that it doesn’t immediately spark joy. It’s heavy, doesn’t drive as flamboyantly as its looks suggest, and Google Maps is hard to navigate and weirdly overexposed.
Give it time, though, and it reveals itself as supremely comfortable, laden with amenities, more powerful than anyone realistically needs day-to-day, and an admirably tenacious handler. In short, it doesn’t take long to turn into one of those cars where if you know you know.
Styling 9.5 / 10
Let’s start with some clear positives, because I do adore how this thing looks inside and out. Stylized yet subdued, the TLX Type S oozes luxury tuner vibes with its long hood, wide rear haunches, and four huge exhaust tips. Red Brembo brake calipers peek out from behind 20-inch wheels that have been painted gunmetal and look ripped straight out of the back pages of Super Street magazine. [Pour one out.––Ed.]
The interior, meanwhile, is an interesting mix of tasteful brightwork, stitched leather, and concave surfaces all subtly following a Honda design philosophy that tries to minimize the amount of physical real estate taken up by the car. The dash vaguely looks like it belongs in a luxury spaceship — button-heavy, but ergonomically sound and stylistically purposeful — and the TLX also hails from an era when it was the norm for distinct models to get their own distinct cabins. Unlike its newer, mostly copied-and-pasted German rivals, you won’t find this design inside any other Acura.
Features 9 / 10
As of 2024, the TLX has been consolidated into just two trim options: the A-Spec or this Type S. The latter is, of course, sportier and more powerful, but it also gets a few more toys and gadgets such as 16-way power-adjustable front seats, ambient interior lighting, and a surround-view camera system. Standard equipment includes two 12.3-inch screens, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, four USB ports, parking sensors, a wireless charger, heated steering wheel, heated and ventilated front seats with an auto setting, and a 17-speaker stereo that sounds pretty great.
User-Friendliness 6.5 / 10
Good news first: I enjoy (almost) all the buttons and knobs. A row of switches controls the climate, a big silver knob lets you change drive modes, wiper and signal stalks are straight Honda parts and therefore simple, and the volume knob is placed where it’s easily accessible to both front occupants.
If anything, there are too many buttons. There’s a dedicated track-seek rocker when it could’ve been incorporated into a volume knob, there’s a power button on the steering wheel that turns audio on and off when most vehicles let you do this by pressing down on the volume controller, and this car still features Honda’s last-generation button-operated gear select module. Owners will likely get used to it, but from an objective, comparative lens, it is tactually unsatisfying to use, and the momentum of pulling for reverse and pushing for drive is backwards and unintuitive.
This brings me to the worst “button” in this car of them all: the infotainment touchpad that’s about as nonsensically hard to use as almost everyone says it is, and Acura’s already in the process of abandoning it in favour of regular touchscreens.
Practicality 7 / 10
From the outside, the TLX is actually kind of a big sedan, but you wouldn’t really know it sitting inside. About on par with other midsize luxury sedans, the rear seats aren’t cramped per se, as there’s decent legroom, but headroom will feel tight if you’re any shade of tall. Similarly, the 382-L trunk is usefully spacious but nothing to write home about.
Comfort 8.5 / 10
With its adaptive dampers set in comfort or normal modes, the TLX Type S rides really quite nicely, almost to the point of being floaty. The seats are very adjustable (even the bolsters can be configured just so) and consistently comfy, although having the ventilation function on high didn’t seem to do much to combat sweltering summer heat.
Power 7.5 / 10
Now, for some serious Type S talk. The big headline with this car is a turbocharged 3.0L V6 engine pumping out 355 hp and 354 lb-ft of torque. This and the MDX Type S are the only vehicles to use this engine, so it’s a bit of a rare gem.
This car’s looks and exhaust tip count may suggest some wild screamer of an engine, but this just isn’t that. I do like it, though — it doesn’t set your hair on fire with revs or kick you in the back of the head with torque, but it’s smooth, reasonably effective, and makes a refined, mature, sonorous noise. For engine nerds, it frankly reminds me of a more reserved, somewhat nerfed version of BMW’s much-lauded B58 straight six-cylinder, and for most spirited everyday driving situations, it’s capably, sufficiently powerful.
The 10-speed automatic transmission is fairly smooth and smart left to its own devices, but paddle-operated manual shifts are slow for a car of this calibre. I also take issue with the throttle reflexes, at least in normal mode. I distinctly remember getting caught in one of those awkward yellow-light situations, where it can be too late to stop safely but early enough to accelerate through without breaking any laws if the car guns it right freakin’ now.
Driving Feel 8 / 10
This slightly flawed but quietly, ultimately competent nature applies to how the TLX Type S handles as well. On its face, the steering is precise and well-weighted, and the NSX-derived by-wire brake pedal is strong and tippy-toe responsive. Primed in sport+ mode and on perfect pavement, the Type S rips and grips with stoic, almost brutal confidence. But there’s simply something missing here that keeps it from being a truly class-leading performance car, let alone a transcendent one.
At 1,915 kg (4,221 lb), it’s about a couple hundred kilos too heavy for fun. There’s also a lackadaisical slant to how the suspension behaves over undulating pavement, and you can even feel it in the way it subtly wobbles when you come to a stop. It doesn’t carry itself with either the panache or rock steadiness you’d expect from the most powerful gas car Honda makes right now. It carries itself like a Japanese Audi S5.
Seen as a daily-friendly luxury sedan first and a speed machine second, and it makes a lot more sense. Live with it, sit with its sensibilities beyond the occasional back road hoon, and the TLX Type S reveals itself as one of those cars that gets more appealing the more you drive it.
Safety 9 / 10
The TLX comes standard with Acura’s whole gang of advanced safety and driver-assist features, and, just like the Honda tech I’m sure it’s all based on, it all works quite well. Adaptive cruise control with low-speed follow and lane-keeping both work admirably. Acura makes a medium-big deal about its decidedly strong body structures, and when the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) last crash-tested it, the TLX scored “Good” in all main areas.
Fuel Economy 6.5 / 10
According to Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), the TLX Type S gets 12.3 L/100 km in the city, 9.8 on the highway, and 11.2 combined. Not terrible figures if you can get them, considering this is a performance-oriented V6 with no hybrid capabilities, but I averaged 13.0 L/100 km over the course of this test.
Value 8 / 10
The 2025 Acura TLX Type S starts at $67,935, including destination ($2,595). The one you see here costs $69,435 thanks to a $900 paint charge and $600 for the red leather interior. This makes it less expensive than the BMW M340i, which starts in the mid-$70,000 range and crests $80,000 when similarly equipped, and it’s a similar story with that new S5. The TLX Type S may have its flaws, but perhaps you’ll be more willing to forgive once you see the smaller payments it commands.
The Verdict
If hot Hondas were Taylor Swift albums, the Acura TLX Type S is The Tortured Poets Department. Polarizing at best when new, objectively overstuffed, and kinda falls apart under the weight of its own chassis and myth. Sit with it for a while, let it marinate, and its flashes of quiet, comfortable brilliance make themselves known.
For non-Swiftie readers, the 2025 Acura TLX Type S suffers from what I like to call the M5 Syndrome. Measured by the expectations set by what this car would’ve been 20 years ago, it is absolutely too heavy to be anything but a mild disappointment. Take it for what it actually is, though — a plush, powerful, pragmatically priced sport sedan made for the everyday grind here and now — and it becomes way more endearing. Enjoyable, even.
Unfortunately, however, time has run out for the slow-burn TLX, because Acura recently announced that production is winding down. I liked the TLX Type S on my seventh day with it way more than I did on my first, and I have a feeling that’s how history will feel about it once it’s gone. And you know what? I miss it already.
