2011 Acura TSX Sportwagon

Regular Car Reviews is back with an Acura TSX Sport Wagon: a blend of postmodernism and hyperreality that takes a Honda Accord and adds a dash of luxury sport aspirations. But does the Acura TSX Sport Wagon fall short of its ambitions? Or does it earn its passionate following? RCR employs literary theory to get to the bottom of a mystery that isn't all that mysterious.

Submit your car to be reviewed, sign up for exclusive content and enjoy more RCR brilliance here:


New 2nd channel "Regular and Roman"

[mkecarconnection]

I’m 12 hours into a 14 hour shift and seeing this video pop up awoke something in me. Thank you for doing what caffeine fails to do anymore. Brown.

[HenrySchecker]

The reason I bought a TSX wagon is that I wanted something reliable, but unique. I wanted something practical and efficient with lots of cargo capacity that would get me to work and back without issue or drama. And that's exactly what this car does. It has comfortable seats, is fat person friendly, has a nice sounding exhaust and has enough bells and whistles to make me feel like I'm driving something nice.
Everytime I leave work and walk up to it I get a feeling of happiness. I feel like I made it from owning this car.
I had a fwd 2008 VW passat wagon with the turbo I4 from the golf GTI that I owned for 4 months before a Pennsylvania buck leapt out in front of it and it was totaled by my insurance company and a garage that over quoted the repair costs. I was heartbroken. I wound up in a 2010 5 speed manual Kia Soul that helped me out through tough financial times and got me to work reliably. Then I lost both my parents. Mom in 2020 from congestive heart failure and Dad in 2021 from covid. I started a new job, took over paying the mortgage on my parents house, am tied up in getting said house in my name and paying it off cause neither parent had a will.
Last 2 years have been impossibly difficult. But I'm doing it. I'm working on losing weight, working on getting my life under my control, working on being a better person. I'm proud to say I got this car with my own money, this was my reward to myself for going through the shit. And once I found a TSX wagon I could afford my friend pointed out that it was like the ghost of my passat, hence the little ghost on the front.
I'm proud of it, and I consider myself incredibly fortunate to be where I've gotten. It's a symbol of hard work.
And personally it's all I really need out of a vehicle. The K24 with the dual exhaust sounds good. The Vtec does the vtec screamy thing and its a barrel of laughs. It has a ridiculously powerful sound system with a factory subwoofer in the trunk. It can carry my band equipment without complaints. On sunny days its nice to drive with the sunroof and windows open.
I love it, and I'm not actively interested in modifying it. But if the transmission did fail then I would definitely go to a junk yard and find a 6 speed manual. I've got a 2 year warranty on it that I dont want to void so perhaps in 2 years I'd consider putting a small turbo on it, given the k24's reputation for being the LS of the 4 cylinder world

[Deschain-umjz]

This is my kinda episode of RCR. So much literary and philosophical concepts.

[dattomcat]

This is reminding me of the Accord Crosstour reveal. Years of people yearning for the wagon to return. Instead Honda dropped a chunky butched up Accord and defiantly insisted it was what we all deserved.

"Honda (or Nintendo): if we ever happen to give you want you want, it will strictly be coincidence and never because of your pleas"

[CJL]

This was the first brand new car I ever purchased. The ELS stereo is one of the best factory systems that can be had an any price. It's not the most exciting car in the world, but it's 100% classic Honda in the sense that I put 90k miles on, then sold it to a friend who has it up to 160k miles. The interior still looks perfect and the only piece of maintenance done outside of oil changes and tires has been front brake pads. Owners can genuinely expect 250-300k worry free miles with these.

[splewy]

My mom had one of these in that press car blue with the tech package. It was a great car. Quiet and comfy on road trips with plenty of luggage space. The headlights were amazing for the time, as was the ELS sound system. The K24 and 5AT weren’t actually that bad either once you figured out how it wanted to be driven. It definitely would have been better with the V6 and/or the manual though. I’m sure we’ll see swaps at some point, since both the J35 and the 6MT were offered in the sedan version of the TSX.

[MrWhatsHisFace]

The TSX Sportwagon will always be on my list, despite how little it may deserve to be there

[CMSMrDeuce]

It always bums me out when a car company gets so close to having something really special but misses the mark. I owned a 2004 TSX with a 6 speed manual and it was FANTASTIC. It was a lovely car to drive. Had Acura put a manual in this car, I might very well have gotten one. Oh well, maybe next time Acura.

[andrewc]

Dude, I have one of these wagons and we love it. I understand your need for a manual trans and speed but we've put 50, 000 miles on it in 2.5 years and it's great. We get nothing but complements..

[jaball]

It makes me sad to see a car like this judged on the unrealistic expectations of pundits rather than on its own merits. This was never meant to be a 3-series competitor. It wasn't a sports car. If you look at it without the badge and without the snark, it's perfect. Enough power to get out of its own way, it's not a behemoth that's hard to maneuver, it's a WAGON, it has Honda reliability, and it has a nice interior. It was perfect and we rejected it. And now it's dead. We didn't deserve it.

[FlamingSkulls]

Your raw unadulterated, unapologetic comedy is absolutely undermined. Thank you for making entertainment, something YouTube seems to lack.

[raybirdman]

The K24z3 in this car is NOT the standard K24 from the 4 cyl. Accord, Element, or CRV. Those all have VTEC that only operates on the intake cam and is meant for economy. This has VTEC on both cams. It’s also the go to for most K series swaps because it’s basically a stroked out K20Z3. It’s the transmission that lets the great engine down.

[sinfullXIII]

As someone who owns a 2012 TSX Sportwagon I love mine. I've done a lot of work to get it where I like it. I daily it during good weather and autocross it full time in the STX (Street Touring Extreme) class. The biggest thing I wish it had was a manual transmission. If you ever get the chance to buy one or drive one arou d a course take it. You wont regret it. These cars are truly underrated if you're a wagon enthusiast. Love the video. Wish he discussed more of the car, but love me some good philosophy.

[drewdederer]

The TLX is just an evolved TL which (more or less) replaced the Accord Wagon, as in they are built on the same Marysville line. The Accord Wagon died when the US market Accord grew a size. The wagon was made in the US, but most of its sales were overseas (it was the single most-exported to Japan car for a couple years). Back in town (Columbus/Dublin), seeing an Accord Wagon was a fairly sure sign of an overseas Honda Family. So when they re-sized the Accord, the Coupe stayed in the US, but the Wagon went with the JDM size (and eventually came back as an the TSX). And the TL became US made and replaced the Vigor (and a couple of JDM nameplates).

[ZetaFuzzMachine]

I've never been so sociologically and philosophically compelled by an Acura Sportwagon review in the entire week!!
Good job Mr. Regular!!

[JustJay]

Seemed like when it came to engine and transmission choices, Honda was unsure how well it would sell, so they went for the safe option. So the sport wagon ended up being an enigma, not enough performance for enthusiasts and the "sporty" design sacrifices too much practicality for soccer moms.

[ra]

I enjoy how Mr. Regular can combine car reviews with philosophy all the while not sounding pretentious while doing it. The more I listen to him and Roman, the more I appreciate the combination and their respective styles.

[joshhalterman]

Someone out there swapped a J37, a manual, and the AWD system from a CRV into one of these. I forget the Instagram @, but damn its so cool.

[ruvindap]

THIS is a return to form. Probably my favorite episode since the cayman episode.

[jasper_saberwolf]

Watched this while barely awake sipping my coffee and got lulled into absorbing all the philosophical breakdown of the Acura TSX Sportwagon that when he emphasized it had 26mpg, I started typing 26 in place of the date for my daily report files without even thinking. Another excellent review tho RCR!