Acura to make ‘huge-shift’ to tier 1 luxury, will offer Acura-only vehicles

aiming a little too high!

the RL is horrible. Oddly my friend's 2004 rl drives and looks better than the current and next model.

i think they should scrap the RL and bring back the Legend Sedan & Coupe. Modernize them with powerful engines, technology and amenities found in all competitors and price both cars the same as Infiniti and lexus.

possible sports car/convertible is definitely needed.

how do they expect to compete with a 4 car lineup?

i mean it works for land rover because its land rover, its prestige its class its a good product.

Acura is not class and not prestige. At one point a acura RL w/ nav lease was $490 a month with 2k @ signing. and they barely sold any. i sold 1 and at the same time 10 g35 sedans w/ nav for the same money.

i hope they make it. i remember when acura was a great brand. the legend couple is still one of the hottest cars of all time!

Isn't it funny that AutoSpies.com was the ONLY automotive site in print or on the web that panned the RL from day one saying it would flop?

Tells you how the others opinions are all paid off by advertising or how little expertise and insight the supposed experts truly have...

001

Read the comments as well...from 2004

http://www.autospies.com/news/The-most-disappointing-cars-we-saw-this-year-2426/

001

and as i read this, and see the plethora of lexus ads on this site, i must ask.... how's that LS460 001?

Check out the BS and incompetence in these reviews...

The RL made a Car and Driver 10 best! LOLOL!!!!

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/best_worst_lists/2005_10best_cars_10best_cars/2005_acura_rl_10best_cars

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/coupe/112_0409_2005_acura_rl

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/sedan/112_0411_2005_acura_rl

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/performance_files_tested_by_c_d/acura_rl_road_test

Even the supposed expert David E. Davis blew this one rotten....

http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews/sedans/0410_acura_rl/index.html

And my favorite

Check out THIS quote from Shaun Bailey of Road & Track!

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=6&article_id=1495

People who refer to their car as the "Ultimate Driving Machine" may need to reconsider what that means.

001

Dallas MR2,

All manufacturers advertise with us including Lexus.

But we NEVER give anyone a pass if the car sucks.

The LS460L is a fine auto and we are now testing the LS600h.

As well as BMW's, Mercedes, etc., etc., etc.

001

001,

Please stop bringing up other reviews. If autospies is confident in their belief, that should be enough.

This new trend of "I know more than they do" posts is sophomoric and silly.

We don't normally do that but in this case the truth needs to be told becuase it is SO wrong and it exposes the methodology of the major auto publications which is if they advertise, they get positive reviews.

Which in our opinion is SOOOOOOOO wrong!

001

Makes my blood boil!!!!!!

001

"Modernize them with powerful engines, technology and amenities found in all competitors"

They already have. Except for a V8. Which i think is OK if the company doesn’t want to do it. As Honda is very committed to Fuel economical cars/engines. But i am sure they'll work out and bring the alternative of V8 soon. Which will be both fast and Economical.

"price both cars the same as Infiniti and Lexus."

U mean they should increase the price as an Acura already costs less than it's respective rival from Lexus, Infiniti, BMW...etc or at max the same.

and btw in the above pic, Black RL doesn't look bad. In fact looks very good, curvy and unique to me.

JUGNU

I've always considered this pathetic site a good time-waster, but there's not enough boredom in the world to justify clicking on Acura threads anymore. This Acura bashing is beyond old and past retarded, it's just plain sad. And this agent goofball pulling up other reviews and scoffing at their opinions of the RL is probably the saddest thing I've seen here. At least those reviews are found in RESPECTED publications, not on some juvenile website that's all factpinion.

"We don't normally do that but in this case the truth needs to be told becuase it is SO wrong and it exposes the methodology of the major auto publications which is if they advertise, they get positive reviews."

lol. yeah you do. you've been called on it since you began posting. puffery, cockiness & arrogance that i've only seen on this automotive site, mostly by you; you love patting yourself on the back even when it isnt warranted.

yet how much of the material presented by you is original? hardly any except for your own big opinion of your professed expertise and automotive speculation ability.

those that have the apparent skill or knowledge hardly need to talk about it. it speaks for itself.

A lot of talk, but no product yet to back it up. I'll believe it when I see it.

Show me the beef.

So true. Right now, Acura is having a pipe dream....

Honda will have a tough time beating the value proposition of Hyundai's new Genesis sedan.

Bingo, 43. I'm a pretty big Honda/Acura fan, but I won't be holding my breath for a "huge shift" anytime soon. Not a good time right now for an Acura fan and I believe this is just more hot air coming from a dealer...shocker, huh?

I never drove either the current RL or the TL, because my head hit the ceiling when I sat in them in the showroom, so I can't vouch for their handling. But they seemed like very nice cars. As they are a subsidiary of Honda, they should be quite reliable. (I owned a second-generation Accord coupe a number of years ago, and was quite happy with it.) I don't know why Acuras should sell so poorly.

There's nothing really wrong with the new Acuras' styling, but they aren't very distinctive either. They look a lot like the current Honda Accord, which will make it hard to justify their hefty price premiums over the Accord. Such a task is not impossible - Lexus has had no trouble selling a gussied-up Camry as the Lexus ES 350 - but it is difficult. It will be an uphill fight.

Someone mentioned the fact that Acura doesn't offer a V8 engine. Perhaps that new turbodiesel Honda is developing will solve that problem.

Oops - the Honda turbodiesel is a 4-cylinger engine, not a V8. My bad.

I thought Acura folded after they stopped making the Integra. Did they or do they make other cars? I have never heard of another model at Acura.

Well-I think it's good that Acura finally is getting the message. Honda is certainly known as a technologie company. They make great engines and the AWD system is very sophisticated and advanced. The problem is if your going to compete with Audi,Lexus,Infiniti etc. your product has to be on par. I mentioned those makes specifically because they are all owned by a larger conglomerate that created their own luxury division of cars. They have been successful due to the fact that their products have been different enough from the what the parent company has to offer. Honda up until this point has simply not differentiated enough with it's Acura division. So this is good news.

Audi was around before Volkswagan came about.

Please rethink your comments... Audi is not VW's creation. Lexus and infiniti are Toyota and Nissan's creation, but Audi is owned by VW, not a mear division.

But yes, Honda has not been able to differentiate Honda and Acura too well.

Audi was NEVER create by VW unlike marketing gimmicks such as Lexus and Infiniti. Audi is close over 100 year old with a strong heritage and tradition in automobile building and racing. Audi is its own separate company called Audi AG under the umbrella of the VAG business conglomerate that also is linked to Porsche. It is very different from anything VW including trading on its own shares, its own shareholders, and board of directors. Audi reports its financials separately from the VW brand and is listed as a separate company in the German registers. This type of facts are pretty basic. It is NOT a division either. It represents its own company. So using the term division is not correct either. Audi has its own R&D, marketing, PR, culture, racing, business pland, development, manufacturing plants, etc. So, not a Division either!

I stand corrected in regard to Audi in terms of the historical.The bottom line is Audi is one of the luxury divisions of VW in present time. Further their products are different enough from VW even on the lower end to justify differences. And I think that was my very point. You must offer enough of a difference to justify paying the higher price over what the parent company offers.Honda has simply not done that well enough with Acura.

Yes, I do believe that in order to make a luxury division successful, you must really differentiate the materials/quality of build that the high-end and low end cars have.

When you think about it Acura offers AWD on the RL and then their SUV's. The TL and TSX are essentially a variation of the Euro and American Accord. They gave up on the RSX. They should have come out with a coupe version of the TSX and only offer in AWD. With the right styling that would be quite a car. The TL should also only come in AWD.When your charging over 30 grand fwd is a really a weak argument for any car buyer. When people buy luxury or near luxury they expect a clear step up in what you get.

More crap for the amazin' nothing.

A little confused as the model that they are starting with, the TSX is not an Acura only product.

Wacura

Acura is doing great on the SUV segment i.e. MDX. Now, RL was a crud from the day 1 but that dun't mean, all Acura lines are putz.

Acura first become a 2nd tier auto manufacturer, then aim for Lexus...

Stop using hand-me-down platforms from Honda, stop worrying about offending anyone with their car designs and once that's done, create a performance division similar to M and AMG.

Then, and only then, can Acura truly talk about going "tier 1"

Although Acura sells are down from record numbers since the releases of the TSX and 3GEN TL, the only luxury brands that out sell Acura in the US are BMW, Lexus, and maybe Benz. Acura is only dead to people who like to street race and drift on public roads. Your average consumer still buys Acura. Heck, you can’t throw a rock in the DC metro area without hitting a TSX, TL, or MDX.

Anyway, I’m glad to hear of this “huge-shift”. I hope this means moving away from the raceboy crowd (i.e. people who thought the Integra and RSX were good for Acura’s image).

I don’t know if the editors this site is on the take, but they sure do bash Acura at every chance.

TLDude, I agree with you 100% and yes the agents do appear to have a serious bias against Acura, but to me that just shows that they are aware of the fact that Acura is a success with the general consumer which is shown by leading sales numbers despite the recent decline, but also they know what Acura is capable of. If there was as many acurazine members on this site to match the number of fanboys from some of the other makes, the things said about Acura would be more positive than what we see on here now.

I could care less about sales numbers and I’m not the average customer. Acura’s are nothing more than glorified basic transportation IMO. Just because the “average joes” are buying them in numbers doesn’t mean anything to the car enthusiast. The average car buyer has been proven to put handling and performance way down their priority list. Why the heck would I want to purchase a car based on the average joe’s criteria? Those types of vehicles are blandsville.

And why are folks here knocking Autospies for pointing out the fact that they predicted that the RL would be a failure? It seems to me that Autospies were much more accurate in their assessment of the RL than the “RESPECTED publications”.

There is nothing wrong with liking Acura. They make great vehicles for the average car buyers. But the folks who value handling and performance tends to not like the dynamics of FWD vehicles. Acura is what is it is. They are not a car company that builds cars for the enthusiasts; they build cars for the average joe.

If Acura is attempting to enter in the area that I think that they are attempting to enter in. They need to cater to more than just the Average Car Buyer.

ridiculous. the prediction by agent is equivalent to a person saying the lakers had sucked at the time it had shaq and kobe and had been winning successive championships during its following years only to say i told you so several years later after they begin to start losing.

different than saying that the team or in this case, automaker, will likely be unsuccessful in five years.

wow.

Poor analogy. The Lakers still had Kobe and Shaq (when they were winning) and didn't show any signs of losing Shaq at the time. They were strong and at the height of their powers. On the other hand, Acura wasn’t winning any automotive championships when they released the current RL, and did not have 2 cars in their lineup that were the automotive equivalent to Shaq and Kobe. The RL was no Shaq, the TL is no Kobe, and Acura (at the time) were not the automotive equivalent to the Lakers.

Enough with the basket ball analogies. Acura’s lineup (at the time) was beginning to show weakness. They had no halo car (the nsx). They didn’t, and still do not produce a vehicle with a V8, yet they were expecting to compete with Lexus, MB, BMW and Infiniti, all of whom offer V8s in their lineups. Honda...Um, Acura released their flagship vehicle (the current RL) that was based on the Honda Accord platform (complete with V6) and priced it at BMW/MB levels. The Accord platform is good but it isn’t that good. Anyone with a brain was predicting that the car would fail. And if you didn’t, you were either a blind-fanboy that refused to acknowledge the fact that their favorite brand is no longer creating cars that are buzz-worthy, or someone who really doesn’t know anything about cars.

Only a fool would have thought that the RL was going to be a success (and boy were they plenty). The smart ones knew better (which were very few). Even now, there are folks here that refuse to acknowledge the fact that the RL was a failure. Instead they choose to knock Agent-whatever and call him an Acura Basher. What that tells me is that some folks here are taking their brand preference way too personally. It’s all a testament to what Acura used to be. Acura dropped the Legend and started building Hondas with an “A” on the grill. It’s at that time when I jumped off the Acura Bandwagon.

Some people seem to have a stronger emotional attachment. They remind me of the mother of an ugly child. In her eyes the child is beautiful, while the rest of the world thinks otherwise.

Let it go guys. Acura isn’t what it used to be. And even back then they were only just approaching greatness. They quickly screwed that up. Too many Karaoke Bars I guess.

KILL THE BEAST

i had friend who was working for honda at Ohio plant, he said, this was 4 years ago, they made A-spec model for Canada mrket on RL OR TL it cost honda about $80.00 abd custmer abot $4000.00, that is the same trick they tried with current RL

Acura makes good, practical, premium priced cars. The problem is, fewer people are buying good, practical, premium priced cars. They'll pay more to get a great car, or a sexy car, oor... you get the picture.

I've always liked Acura's technology focus and price/content ratio, but Acura has a LONG way to go to get to Tier 1. Hopefully they realize it will be a long, multi-year journey with a LOT of marketing commitment, not a quick 1-year shift--and that they will NOT be able to do it with this generation of styling.

BTW, in my opinion, BMW should buy Acura from Honda--it would be a fantastic combination of performance/technology/luxury/reliability.