The 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon is a rare bird parked on today’s Crossover and SUV heavy new car dealership showroom floor.
It sits almost alone on the floor with only the Audi A4 Avant and BMW 328i Sport Wagon for company and of course competition.
Yet is offers something that many of of it’s heavier, taller, bigger and more popular Crossover and SUV rivals can never match.
It’s fun to drive.
Actually, when the road turns twisty and the traffic thins it is very fun to drive.
With naturally athletic and precisely balanced steering, a rev happy 201HP 2.4-liter inline-4 mated with a paddle-shift 5-speed automatic, the Acura TSX Sport Wagon will put a huge smile on the face of any driving enthusiast.
Best of all, since the Acura TSX Sport Wagon is 1.3 inches longer and 130 pounds heavier it also carries more of it’s weight further back which means it now has 57/43 front/rear weight distribution, versus roughly 59/41 for a similarly equipped TSX sedan.
That means that on a glorious Colorado Monday morning driving from Steamboat Springs to Kremmling, Colorado the Acura TSX Sport Wagon tore up the winding country mountain miles like a 7-year-old going through chocolate Sundae at Dairy Queen.
Even with three people and all of their stuff loaded in and on top of the car, the Acura TSX Sport Wagon made easy work of the long drive home after a very active Labor day weekend.
The comfortable and sporty seats made the miles melt away as the Acura’s misery, yet rev-happy engine returned a real world and real respectable 24.5 MPG.
There is of course a price to be paid for such commendable fuel economy. The Acura TSX Sport Wagon’s acceleration times are, as the old Rolls Royce marketing line goes “adequate”.
Crossing Rabbit Pass in Colorado at just below 10,000 feet of elevation the normally aspirated acceleration was down to just a barely passable 170 HP which in means passing slower moving traffic was something that needed to be planned well ahead the actually mountain pass.
Of course the 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon crisp paddle-shift 5-speed automatic made for quick jaunts into the car’s powerband, such as it was due the the elevation, a snap.
Other notable omissions, at least from a Colorado point of view, is the lack of an all-wheel-drive option. This is probably a deal killer for many high country mountain residents who have to put up with snow for at least 8 months of the year.
However with its 60/40-split rear seats folded down, there’s a generous 60.5 cu. ft. of cargo space in the wagon making for easy hauling of bikes, skis, snowshoes or any other tools the the active lifestyle arsenal.
At an as tested price of $35,470. (that includes the heated leather seats, and the tech package the comes with a 460-watt ELS 10 speaker sound system, hard drive storage for thousands songs, a power tailgate, GPS navigation, real time traffic, Bluetooth, etc) the 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon comes generously equipped with everything that a modern amateur athlete would want to get to their favorite mountain bike trial.
Acura says it only hopes to sell about 4000 TSX Sport Wagons this year. Which means that you’ll most likely be the only guy or gal on your block to own one if you decide to forgo the sport utes and crossovers that offer only the mere pretense of off-road capability, and instead opt for a athletic fun-to-drive ride and truly useful cargo capacity of the 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon.
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