Test drive: 2006 Acura TL

I never really thought of Jason Fogelson as a touchy-feely guy, but in his test drive of the 2006 Acura TL, that's exactly what he claims to be. He enjoyed some of the best bits of the TL through his fingertips. That may sound trivial, but it's the bits we interact with -- the fabrics, the plastics, the buttons, the dials, the switches, and so on -- that influence people's opinions of their cars, often more than they realize. Not that Jason spent his week sitting in his driveway touching things in the TL. (Two or three days, maybe, but not an entire week.) He drove the car more than enough to enjoy its creature comforts and battle with torque steer (the demonic tendancy of high-power front-wheel-drive cars to pull to one side under acceleration). I can understand why that troubled Jason... with two hands on the wheel, there was less stuff touch. On the car, that is. -- Aaron Gold