Under the hood of the 2009 Acura TL is a 3.7-liter V-6 putting out 305 hp while returning 17 miles per gallon in city driving and 25 mpg on the highway.

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One of the best things about moving to Los Angeles from North Carolina was discovering the outrageous cadre of TV weathermen with vaguely meteorological-sounding names: Dallas Raines, Johnny Mountain, Fritz Coleman.

If I were a weatherman I would call myself Rod Lightning.

The Acura TL threatens to put these guys out of their shiny suits. This car offers real-time weather graphics, just like your local newscast. The service, bundled with the car’s XM satellite subscription (the Ford Flex has a similar service), comes as part of the car’s technology package.

Technology — the sheer, dizzy, LED mass of it, piled high — has always been Acura’s “raison d’être.” And the new, fourth-generation TL doesn’t disappoint.

There are two versions of this car: the base model TL, with a 280-horsepower engine and front-wheel drive, starting around $34,000; and the well-favored, if hilariously named, TL Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD) model. The SH-AWD — the one I tested — pushes all the techno-chips onto the table for $43,995.

Under the hood is a 3.7-liter naturally aspirated V-6 putting out 305 hp — a good trick right there — while returning 17 miles per gallon in city driving and 25 on the highway with super-low emissions.

This bit of arrow-smithing is attached to a five-speed sequential automatic gearbox, with paddle shifters behind the steering wheel. Finally, the torques emerge through Acura’s signature SH-AWD system.

Think of this as front-wheel drive with benefits.

In normal, shoot-me-I’m-commuting driving, up to 90 percent of torque is directed to the front wheels, for better fuel efficiency. When you start to thrash the TL, accelerating hard and sawing at the wheel, the system’s computer says, “Aha, he’s gone mental.” The torque distribution slides toward the rear wheels, up to a maximum of 70 percent, for better dynamic performance.

Now here it gets interesting, because not only is the torque distribution optimized front to rear (like all AWD systems) but it is also optimized side to side in the rear. This “torque vectoring” will process all the sensor data and apportion torque to the outside rear wheel, effectively overdriving it, nulling out understeer and helping turn the car in the direction you want it to go.

Got that? How about I just say this: It corners harder.

However, this is a much bigger car than it used to be, a full 6 inches longer over a wheelbase stretched 1.4 inches. The TL SH-AWD — schwaddd? — is nearly 2 tons, about 300 pounds heavier than the previous carand it feels less lively than before.

Second of all, the TL is buried up to its nose in the kind of hyperfocused refinement for which Acura is known. The engine has the emotional timbre of a Pentium 4 processor, whirring silkily in the ample bosom of its electric motor mounts.All that honeyed refinement tends to smother the sportiness.

And then there’s the car’s astonishing buck-toothed visage, like a very large anime robot beaver. Hah! I shall pound you flat with my electro-tail! Bliss!

Otherwise, the top-shelf TL is an amazing car, loaded to the gills and priced thousands below a similarly equipped Bimmer.

You can’t say Acura doesn’t know which way the wind blows.2009 Acura TL SH-AWD

Base price: $43,235

Price as tested: $43,995

Powertrain: 3.7-liter SOHC, direct-injection, 24-valve V-6 with variable valve timing and dual-stage intake manifold; five-speed sequential automatic transmission; all-wheel drive.

Horsepower: 305 at 6,200 rpm.

Torque: 273 pound-feet at 5,000 rpm.

Curb weight: 3,962 pounds

0 to 60: 6.5 seconds.

Wheelbase: 109.3 inches.

Overall length: 195.5 inches.

EPA fuel economy: 17 miles per gallon city, 25 mpg highway.

Final thoughts: The quiet storm.