Who Is Next? Acura Scales Back - Officially Shelving Tier One Aspirations

Hard to go Tier 1 when your vehicles are based on FWD Accord platforms and you only offer 4 bangers and V6's.

Audi has V8s and V10s. Or am I missing something?

There's nothing wrong with 4 bangers, FWD and Accord platforms. Acura had the chance. I strongly emphasize "had" the chance. I felt the previous non-beak TL was out they were building enough momentum to break into Lexus range. The TL build quality was up to par and the MDX I felt was good as well. However the rest of the line up stunk!

As for the FWD and 4 banger engines it could all be implemented into their lineup with different variants. 4cyl can get FWD. V6 and V8's can get RWD and everyone stays happy within their own price range. They had something good going with the development of the next gen. NSX and the V8 motor development. Honda is fully capable as shown in F1 that they got what it takes to make a proper racing engine. It's a shame they can't do it on the consumer level.

I'm hugely disappointed in them. YOU CAN ONLY BLAME THE RECESSION FOR SO LONG. IT'S POOR MANAGEMENT AND TIMING!

Badgewhore - The FWD based second class maker like AUDI is kicking ass during this down time, Acura is viewed in the same class as AUDI"

This is your distorted opinion. What facts do you have to make this statement? Is Bentley and Buick in the same class because they both make RWD cars?

Badgewhore - you can rationalize your distorted thinking all you want. Anyone who cares to research the facts would know that your statements are nothing but biased personal opinions.

Badgewhore...do you actually read what you type? I don't know anyone who puts Acura in the same level as Audi - a few of the cars...maybe. Also, Acura uses AWD in just about all of their vehicles now - that's about as close to Audi as it gets.

Every day Acura becomes more irrelevant.

Agreed. Any time the President of a car company says "big engines are dead," there's a fundamental disconnect between that company and the North American luxury car market. If I'm going to spend $50k+ on a car, it damn sure better be fast...and that means a V8 once you get into a mid-size.

It seems they plan to go after Buick and Volvo...

Rumors persist that Lexus might follow suit, but I tend to disagree, they have too much invested in models with V8's and have successfully carved a niche (albeit a precarious one) in some areas of tier one. These models also are no longer selling nearly as well so if profitability does not return soon could they be next?

With Audi's recent resiliency in the market despite the downturn, the real market may be along their model. Somewhere between Volvo and hard core luxist Mercedes-Benz.

Where do you get your info from? Lexus never had intentions to "follow suit" like Acura.

Lexus has never had any intention to follow Acura. However the experts are indicating they may NEED to follow the same plan if the market continues to shift. Make no bones about it, Lexus is all about money not really about image. If another image makes them more profitable then they will gladly shift.

Agent009, using your logic, every premium car manufacturer will have to alter their plans if market conditions shift.

I suspect that V-8s will be only very expensive cars in the future......smaller, more efficient powerplants will keep up the horsepower fix.
GM has cancelled the successor to the Northstar, and you can bet that Mercedes and BMW are re-evaluating future V-8s.

Acura needs to officially shelve their exterior design team.

Good start, previous generation Acuras had nice crisp styling.

Acura is done. Put a fork in them.

Acura? LOL! They might as well just call them Hondas. Lexus and Infiniti kicks Acura’s tail when it comes to delivering premium cars. All Acura does is recycle the Accord V6 engine and platform for virtually every vehicle in its lineup.

Underperforming 300hp vehicles should also make them reconsider what the heck are they doing. A 2001 BMW 330i is faster than a 2010 Acura TL. Sad! Not to mention the Butt whupping that a G37 will give the Acura TL. I'm Sorry but people who purchase Acura TLs are car dumb. Either that or they are Honda Loyalists who cannot see past thier biases.

LexSucks you are right. Oh wait.....
year to date North American sales as of Sept. 2009
Acura- 76,628 units
Cadillac- 73,024 units
Infiniti- 59,866 units
Audi (north america)- 59,518

I guess there are a lot of Honda Loyalists who can't see past there biases. More than Nissan loyalist can see past theirs.

Sorry, but a lot of you who say that Acura is done needs to look past the beak and look at the sales #s. That is what manufacturers worry about, selling cars. And in our country, Acura outsells them all with the exception of Lexus, MB and BMW.
Acura is far from done.

You have to admit that the beak is horrendous and likely to impact future sales. And you have to know that someone at Acura is combing through these blogs. Don't give them the fodder they need. Call the beak what it is, an abomination.

- Owner of 3 Acuras.

They used to sell double of what they sell now. They have taken a big step backwards. It does look like the new plan will make Acura of tomorrow closer to Acura of yesterday, maybe sales will increase to what they did in the past. Maybe.

oh....forgot to add...that's selling fewer models than all of their competitors also.

100tnega.... I know the grill is hideous. You know the grill is hideous. All the automotive community knows the grill is hideous. But I am glad Acura is ditching the Tier 1 dream. They never had a shot for it. With that said, BMW, MB, Lexus and Audi are not considered Tier 1 either. The majority sales of their products are for cars WELL BELOW 50k. Ask the gentlewoman driving the Bentley Continental GT if the 6 series BMW is on the same level as her car. Or the gentleman driving the Aston Martin Rapide if he considered a Mercedes when he purchased his car. Acura needs to get with the MAJORITY of the buying public and that is NOT Tier 1.

Let the deboosting begin here at BMWspies

Why does Acura need a V8 if anything rear wheel drive and more unique components just for Acura. Right now everything they make is some variant of a Honda product, and their interiors really dont look or feel luxurious in anyway from shiny plastics to tons of fake wood, or the lack thereof in the TL and tsx which just have tons of plastic trim everywhere that looks pretty downmarket. I just dont get their appeal they no longer offer alot of technology for the money, and the TSX V6 runs just as high as the TL, and the TL runs very close to RL pricing the brand simply makes no sense and all three cars are based on an Accord.....

bmwdrvr- while the grill is a monumental misstep that will go down in automotive history, however the interiors are very nice and better than most of their competition, considerably better than the bland bmw interior that "graces" all of their cars. The TL and TSX interiors are actually pretty outstanding, have you ever sat in one?

"BWM interiors are on Ford levels"

This tells me you havn't been in a BMW.

pretty outstanding lol, you would be the only person that agrees with that and im the bias one. Tons of "aluminum tone" trim in the TL, dark silver plastic trim everywhere in the tsx, gobs of shiny plastics in the RL along with shiny obviously fake wood in the RL, and MDX their interior horrid they are downmarket. Not to mention the swarm of buttons and low quality leather, I wont even start on the low rent RDX. BMW interiors of the "past" may have been traditional and somewhat boring but "quality" was never a question they always offer high qality interiors and materials but the latest acuras are just garbage....

lol I needed that laugh "Acura better than most of the competion" what a bias bunch of bs...

I want to post a question:

Did Lexus just built next generation NSX for Acura with its 9000 rpm engine?

GT-R and LFA really make it difficult to position next NSX. 911 turbo and GT3, which will you take? Is GT2 the only way out for Acura?

If you think about it, Infiniti in the same respect (on the Accord platform comment), made themselves out of the VQ engine. It is available on most of the models as the standard powerplant and has proven worthy, build a nice car around it and you have success.

As for Honda, there is nothing wrong with offering 4cyl. engines and V6 engines, but do it in the right combinations with the right power. Having a TSX that only scrapes above 200hp in base form is not going to cut it. It needs a turbo at the very least. They offer a V6 version now, but the car clearly suffers from the weight gain as the performance numbers do not justify the move up to a V6, at least not the standard 3.5L used here in its current form.

The other BIG problem as everyone is clearly aware of is the design department. How the green light was given for the new designs that appeared is beyond my grasp. And given they are moving away from the V8 architecture, the RL may face the same future as the last gen Infiniti Q and be dismissed. Having a flagship that is similar in size to your main V6 sedan with little power advantage and a host of weight and technological upgrades is not going to drive showroom business.

Acura is lacking in many ways, the cost of the models over their Honda counterparts is hard to justify for many people, whatever the cause may be, people are just not finding the offerings appealing enough to spend the money on the brand.

The failure to offer a coupe or a roadster is also to me a major loss. They could have easily moved the S2000 upscale with a redesign and slight power changes potentially, but instead are letting it die following the Toyota model of bland branding. Why buy new when you can get one used from years back with low mileage and same exact design. And the death of the RSX/Integra may have been warranted in their trek to move more upmarket and have the traffic for the Civic Si in Honda dealers instead. But a new model should have come out to be more competitive against the others. I remember the good 'ol days of Acura when the 3.2CL Type S was a nice flashy long coupe. Back when the RL even though it wasn't big on power, was large, bold, big fendered and competed very well against that current LS from Lexus.

They really need to go back to the roots and follow the paths of where they faltered as it is in many places this has occurred. Maybe they will soon blend Acura dealers into Honda dealers similar to Ford/Lincoln to cut costs and help keep traffic flowing for the brand. Who knows.

I would never take a hyundai genesis over an NSX...oh wait unless my name is hyundaismoke.

Hyundaismoke, cut it out, there is no way a brand new genesis coupe would be in the same comparison as enen a 2005 NSX! You can't be serious!