CHICAGO - Acura RL, the maverick among high-end luxury sports sedans, gets a thorough makeover for 2009 with its introduction here at the 2008 Chicago Auto show. But on first glance, two challenges carry on from the 2005-2008 Acura RL we raved over and honored in both our first and second annual Digital Drive Awards: Tthe center stack remains a button-crazed place despite more legible buttons and not one but two control knobs, and the larger back seat (Acura says) still doesn't feel like you're sitting in a big Audi, BMW, or Lexus (based on a few minutes sitting in back). There's now a USB port for audio connections, paddle shifters, the superb navigation system has been upgraded with XM NavWeather in addition to real-time traffic information, and the voice input uses a multiple-microphone array for better recognition.

On the center stack and console, I counted 40 buttons and two knobs (cockpit controller and radio volume), two displays (LCD and supplementary dash-top info display), and on the steering wheel more than a dozen buttons. The climate controls do appear easier to fathom. The RL will likely remain one of the world's most imposing cars technically, but you've got to buy into the Acura mantra: five speeds is good enough for the automatic transmission when others have six to eight, six cylinders not eight is good enough for the engine now that it's bumped up to 300 hp, and a mid-size sedan is the right size to be your flagship when the premium German makers plus Infiniti and Lexus have much larger vehicles.

The RL arrives this spring in three flavors, as requested by dealers who didn't want to sell what was (before 2007) essentially a no-options $50,000, all-tech-features-included model. Now there's a base model; a technology package version with voice activated navigation, real time traffic, real time weather, traffic re-routing, back up camera, steerable headlights, and ventilated front seats); and a premium technology package that adds adaptive cruise control and Acura's Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS) that slows the car when an accident is unavoidable. Acura says Super Handling All-Wheel Drive, its industry-first torque-vectoring system, which provides extra power to the outside wheels to help steer them around corners, especially in slipper conditions, has been reworked to be more effective. Some reports say it provides addition power to the outside rear wheel to make the all-wheel-drive RL feel a bit more like the rear-drive vehicles it competes against.

Acura says the 2009 RL has a more athletic stance. That may be; the first thing I noticed with the big solid grille shield also on the Acura MDX SUV and its appeal is a matter of personal taste. Acura has its work cut out with the 2009 RL. It's a superb vehicle and getting more exclusive by the year, but not by choice, with just 6,262 sold last year vs. 11,501 in 2006.