2021 Acura TLX Type S Pricing Revealed [UPDATED]

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

Ford’s Lightning has stolen the spotlight this week, but another hotly anticipated vehicle is jumping around and waving its arms (metaphorically speaking, as cars don’t have arms) to remind buyers it exists and goes on sale soon. That vehicle is the 2021 Acura TLX Type S.

Pricing will start at $52,300, not including the $1,025 destination charge, when the sport sedan goes on sale on June 23. $800 more gets you a high-performance wheel and tire package.

Only 2,000 of the cars, which have a 355-horsepower turbo V6, sport suspension with a double-wishbone front setup, Brembo brakes, 20-inch wheels, 10-speed automatic transmission, and Acura’s Super Handling All-Wheel Drive system, will be sold.

Update: That 2,000-unit limit is just for 2021. There will be a 2022 model year with unlimited sales. We apologize for the error.

A build-and-price site is up for consumers, and interested buyers can plunk down a reservation.

It’s no electric truck, but it’s exciting in its own way, especially for those of us who still hold a flame for luxury sport-sedans in what’s become a crossover world.

It’s also about the same base price as a Lightning XLT. And on sale a year sooner. What’s the better deal, huh?

[Images: Acura]

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • Dal20402 Dal20402 on May 21, 2021

    A bit more reflection on this and I realized that I feel more want for that $9k manual 2005 TL we discussed last week than this new $53k car. I think I've convinced myself that automatics are for EVs and beasts of burden, not sporty gas cars.

  • Dal20402 Dal20402 on May 21, 2021

    And now there's an even rarer manual Acura for sale in my neck of the woods, although the price is a bit out there and the factory body kit is an unfortunate addition. https://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/ctd/d/lynnwood-2010-acura-tl-sh-awd-tech/7323293020.html

    • See 5 previous
    • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on May 24, 2021

      @28-Cars-Later MY12 Acura TL AWD for $9,800. For my money, a stick and Pac Northwest climate are not a $6K premium. https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/cto/d/pittsburgh-2012-acura-tl-sh-awd/7326388734.html

  • W Conrad I'm not afraid of them, but they aren't needed for everyone or everywhere. Long haul and highway driving sure, but in the city, nope.
  • Jalop1991 In a manner similar to PHEV being the correct answer, I declare RPVs to be the correct answer here.We're doing it with certain aircraft; why not with cars on the ground, using hardware and tools like Telsa's "FSD" or GM's "SuperCruise" as the base?Take the local Uber driver out of the car, and put him in a professional centralized environment from where he drives me around. The system and the individual car can have awareness as well as gates, but he's responsible for the driving.Put the tech into my car, and let me buy it as needed. I need someone else to drive me home; hit the button and voila, I've hired a driver for the moment. I don't want to drive 11 hours to my vacation spot; hire the remote pilot for that. When I get there, I have my car and he's still at his normal location, piloting cars for other people.The system would allow for driver rest period, like what's required for truckers, so I might end up with multiple people driving me to the coast. I don't care. And they don't have to be physically with me, therefore they can be way cheaper.Charge taxi-type per-mile rates. For long drives, offer per-trip rates. Offer subscriptions, including miles/hours. Whatever.(And for grins, dress the remote pilots all as Johnnie.)Start this out with big rigs. Take the trucker away from the long haul driving, and let him be there for emergencies and the short haul parts of the trip.And in a manner similar to PHEVs being discredited, I fully expect to be razzed for this brilliant idea (not unlike how Alan Kay wasn't recognized until many many years later for his Dynabook vision).
  • B-BodyBuick84 Not afraid of AV's as I highly doubt they will ever be %100 viable for our roads. Stop-and-go downtown city or rush hour highway traffic? I can see that, but otherwise there's simply too many variables. Bad weather conditions, faded road lines or markings, reflective surfaces with glare, etc. There's also the issue of cultural norms. About a decade ago there was actually an online test called 'The Morality Machine' one could do online where you were in control of an AV and choose what action to take when a crash was inevitable. I think something like 2.5 million people across the world participated? For example, do you hit and most likely kill the elderly couple strolling across the crosswalk or crash the vehicle into a cement barrier and almost certainly cause the death of the vehicle occupants? What if it's a parent and child? In N. America 98% of people choose to hit the elderly couple and save themselves while in Asia, the exact opposite happened where 98% choose to hit the parent and child. Why? Cultural differences. Asia puts a lot of emphasis on respecting their elderly while N. America has a culture of 'save/ protect the children'. Are these AV's going to respect that culture? Is a VW Jetta or Buick Envision AV going to have different programming depending on whether it's sold in Canada or Taiwan? how's that going to effect legislation and legal battles when a crash inevitibly does happen? These are the true barriers to mass AV adoption, and in the 10 years since that test came out, there has been zero answers or progress on this matter. So no, I'm not afraid of AV's simply because with the exception of a few specific situations, most avenues are going to prove to be a dead-end for automakers.
  • Mike Bradley Autonomous cars were developed in Silicon Valley. For new products there, the standard business plan is to put a barely-functioning product on the market right away and wait for the early-adopter customers to find the flaws. That's exactly what's happened. Detroit's plan is pretty much the opposite, but Detroit isn't developing this product. That's why dealers, for instance, haven't been trained in the cars.
  • Dartman https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-fighter-jets-air-force-6a1100c96a73ca9b7f41cbd6a2753fdaAutonomous/Ai is here now. The question is implementation and acceptance.
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