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Acura TL gets its top chopped

The roofless Acura TL you see above is a product of Newport Convertible Engineering. No stranger to taking the lids off of Acuras - and a bunch of other cars, like this Jaguar XJ and this Toyota FJ Cruiser - NCE says it was the first US coachbuilder to produce an Acura NSX convertible.
NCE says the conversion takes about six weeks to complete, comes with a five-year warranty from the supplier and doesn't void the original warranty from Acura. On top of that, the interior fitments like sun visors, trunk space and rear seat belts all remain unaltered. Customers who are absolutely against the B-pillar can have it removed, but NCE says "The vehicle will be designed differently without the center bar."
To our eyes the TL looks pretty all right without a roof, and with stripes. NCE will shortly be preparing convertible versions of the 2013 Range Rover Supercharged Autobiography, Porsche Cayenne and Cadillac XTS. For Acura owners, there's a press release below with information on NCE if you have a TL and an urge to go way beyond the sunroof.

2013 Acura ZDX

What Is, What Could Have Been, And What May Yet Be
History is largely unkind to losers. That's true in the world of politics and sports, and it follows on with a few caveats in the realm of automobiles.
In terms of cars, historic losers tend to be remembered in one of two broad ways. Every once in a while, unsuccessful or oddball models actually make reputational gains after some time away from the new-car marketplace. I consider the Saab 9-2X one of the recent poster children for this group; a car that moved like molasses on dealer lots in the mid-2000s but has morphed into a sort of hard-to-find, used gem in recent years. More often, though, that which was unloved when new remains unloved with tens or hundreds of thousands of miles on the odometer. Pontiac's seriously misunderstood Aztek has king status here (despite the wailings of oddball fan clubs across the nation), so much so that invoking "Aztek" as a pejorative stopped being pithy about a dozen years ago.

Ford tumbles to second worst in Consumer Reports reliability survey, list dominated by Japanese [w/video]

It's no secret that MyFord Touch has had its share of problems since being introduced, but the most recent reliability survey from Consumer Reports shows just how much this infotainment system has affected Ford. Just two years ago, the automaker was in the top 10 for the institute's reliability rankings, but since then, it has tumbled to the second-lowest rung just above dead-last Jaguar. In addition to MyFord Touch, CR also attributes a handful of new products that have had issues right out of the gate.
Compiled from 1.2 million subscriber surveys, this year's auto reliability survey heavily favors Japanese automakers, with eight of the 10 spots hailing from Japan. Toyota brands grabbed the top three spots (Scion, Toyota and Lexus - in that order) with Mazda, Subaru, Honda and Acura filling the next four spots. The only non-Asian automaker cracking the top 10 was Audi at number eight.
Audi climbed a total of 18 spots from last year, and Cadillac and GMC round out this year's top gainers breaking into the top 15. Helping Cadillac's upward movement, the CTS Coupe was named the most reliable domestic car. Lincoln, Volvo and Chrysler join Ford on this year's biggest loser list.