The demise of Acura's RSX means that the brand offers nothing for enthusiasts. Discuss.

Wow,..... being that I am a true Acura fan I almost got offended by this article. Okay the RSX is gone, so what, that was the least like Acura anyway. As long as they maintain/upgrade the TSX, TL, and RL they will do just fine.

Personally I think the TL is the "bread & butter" sedan of Acura. Its not too pricey its reliable, sporty and refined. And they referred to it as a "gussied-up Accord". Yes, the TL is made from the Accord's platform/chasses, but it is not a rebadge Accord (let's not confuse the two). The feel much different, the Accord is nice, the Acura TL is superb.

I just read it in Car&Driver about it, they said how it won its 10 Best many times. Sometimes magazine awards do not translate into sucess, kinda like when Motor Trend declared the Thunderbird its Car of the Year in 2002 or the Ridgeline its truck of the year. BTW, Acura doesn't really need enthusiasts to buy its cars, it needs relatively wealthy people to buy its sedans and SUVs. Also, isn't the new NSX coming in the near future.

I suspect we'll see something sporty coming out soon.

They will be replacing the RSX with a TSX coupe to further advance the TSX as an all around competitor to the BMW 3-series, Mercedes C-class, and the Lexus IS-Models.

Personally, I think it's a better move for Honda/Acura because after the CL, they didn't really have a luxury coupe that attracted buyers who were looking for a more sophisticated coupe than the RSX.

i loved the RSX-Type S, but the lack of an upmarket and true luxury feel made me opt for my BMW 3-series Coupe. It will be interesting to see where they go with the TSX coupe. Personally, Honda needs to step up their Acura nameplate and compete more directly with Lexus and Infiniti. Sales will boost up more directly than they have in the past.

I hope Acura makes the TSX coupe a bit more sporting than the sedan. The RXS bit the dust because of the bland styling and its performance was too close to the new Civic SI. The RL is pretty non descript in it's styling and it's underpowered in it's price class. The TL has nice crisp styling but needs AWD to compeat with the BMW 3 series and A4. It has too much torque steer. Acura also need another halo car like the NSX was. The TSX is a bit too underpowered in the torque department. It would be worth sacrificing a bit of it's top end for more usable low down torque.

what is an rsx? like a honda nsx at all?

I last Acura I owned I purchased new in 1991 - it was a Acura Legend Coupe. At the time it had styling, luxury, road presence, and relatively decent performance, reliability and a pretty good price (transaction price was about 25% less than a 1992 Lexus SC300 although MSRP was only a few percent less).

Since then there hasn't been an Acura that screams to me "buy me".

Incidently my next vehicle was a Lexus SC300. However while Acura discontinued large coupes, Lexus did the next worse thing and went 10 years without a significant redesign. In the meantime I switched to SUVs. I'm ready for nice coupe again now - problem is Acura probably won't build it; Lexus is caught not updating the SC430, BMW's 6 is bloated and ugly which leaves Mercedes - I don't like the tiny CLK, but will be watching the new Mercedes Benz CL closely.

Rupert,

It is easy to go to the acura.ca or .com website to see! I thought you were a wee bit smarter than that. Anyways, to make it easy for you, it is a Civic hatchback/2-door coupe with leather basically.....

why is it i forget the existance of google? thank you for telling me and i'll stop asking annoying questions,

whoa you guys are missing out on the civic hatch, looks way better than the saloon.
http://www.honda.co.uk/car/

MercBasher... for the love of God, buy the CL. The car is absolutely gorgeous!

... Acura is a dead brand... Thanks to Lexus and Infiniti...

I must agree....Acura is definitely headed downhill at this point. The TL simply isn't selling as well as they would like it...It fared well when first introduced, but the style aged quickly and the car simply wasn't updated enough to keep it competitive. Infiniti and Lexus have a stranglehold on that market now, and both have new models (IS and new 07 G) to maintain their market share. Acura/Honda's stubborn refusal to embrace RWD is killing them, as most critics agree taht the TL would be fantastic if only it were RWD. Also, IMO the TL looks plasticky and insubstantial in comparison to the G and IS. Also, the loss of the "type-s" monicker is a major blow for acura performance.

Other than RWD, Acura also needs a 4.5L+ V8. They don't even have a V8 for RL flagship. Honda has beaten I-4 engine to death which revs high to get final horsepower but it's never gonna give you enough torque to make the cars sporty. Beside nobody wanted to drive constantly at 6000 rpm. Recently they add turbo to I-4, we'll see how that goes regarding reliabilty and maintenance.