What Would It Take To Bring Acura And Infiniti To The Same Level As Lexus?

Great designs over a period of time...cars that cause you to say "I've got to own one right now!" Can their design teams and hire an Italian design house instead. Also give up on alphanumeric system of naming cars and give them names that spark emotions. Do you remember how popular the Acura Legend was...great style for the period with an appropriate name. Acura's are now fuddly ugly. Infiniti's are trying too hard and look like they are designed by a committee not to mention a naming system no one understands. People have taken a chance and built the Korean brands because of great style/design (European designers were hired) at a great price. Its the way to go.

Acura needs to completely kick the bean counters to the curb and start making products from an enthusiast perspective (again!). Their is a significant disconnect in the brand now with the NSX representing high-performance and the rest of the lineup not even close. They need to close that gap sooner than later.

For Infiniti? I honestly have no idea. Maybe they should start building extremely competent luxury cars along with their Red S lines. Lexus once dominated the pure luxury market (and in some ways, the ES still does) so it's an almost-vacant segment at the moment, at least until the Lincoln Continental comes out.

Everyone is trying to enter the near premium market from below -

This is the NEAT premium BUICK Segment - that Lexus is in - and the others are as well - so it would take better designs and better reliability. Infiniti and Lexus are strange looking vehicles. Acura is finally going away from the Beak look - but that will take time. Acura already has the reliability down - what they need is product. However - I believe that Nissan would be better off renaming the Infiniti as a Nissan - and using them as an upper tier to Nissan.

Anyone who considers the ES a LUXURY car - doesn't understand what Premium cars are - and the ES is not one of them. It is simply the replacement for the Big Buicks that disappeared - and now that the LaCrosse will have better styling - I suspect Buick will get back some of those sales too.

I think you are confusing luxury vs. premium.

Stop making every car based off the Honda Accord platform.

Acura

It needs to stop building Japanese Mercurys.

It needs every model to be an attractive, gotta-have product.

Honda should cut a platform-sharing deal either with Cadillac or Genesis for RWD architectures and offer Honda's engine/hybrid technology in return.

Acura needs names and RWD badly. Alphabet soup is idiocy.

It needs an Integra (3 Series), Legend (5 Series), a Legend coupesedan with a different name, and then C/D/E segment crossovers.

The NSX needs to be reformulated into a Corvette competitor.

Infiniti

The brand is now and has always been a mess. It needs to become 10,000% Japanese.

With Infiniti, I'd do NO SEDANS.

Nissan should give the GTR to Infiniti where it could become the Infiniti Skyline GTR in coupe and coupesedan forms.

I'd then do an Infiniti Godzilla which would replace the 370Z and the Q-whatever coupe and be aimed at the Mustang GT/GT350 segment.

Then do Japanese-named performance crossovers. Infiniti needs to focus on Macan and Cayenne competitors.

Infiniti needs to throw sales volume out the window and concentrate solely on excellence in delivering blistering performance.

divine intervention

Make a "ES" sedan. Softly sprung, quiet V6, foam insulation, thick carpets, etc. Plenty of interior "wood" and soft plastics. Priced to sell. Same formula for RX competitor. Eat into Lexus bread and butter vehicles.

Right. Both Infiniti & Acura are missing a nice big comfy sedan.

This leaves room for the RLX to still be slick, nimble, fast(er) & for the M56...err Q80 to become a bit more competitive to the GS/LS/7-series/A8/E-class/XJ/etc.

Most important to this discussion is that niether brand has a global luxury brand. When Honda sells a version of the TLX as an Accord in Europe, that creates a huge disconnect about what their luxury brand is supposed to be. And when you have a popular Nissan or Toyota or whatever mainstream vehicle in Europe or Asia & then rebadge it a bit to sell it as a luxury model in the US, the global perspective is not very cohesive.

The RLX doesn't sell because it's so obviously an Accord with a tiny bit of wheelbase added to make the rear seat bigger. If you put Honda and Accord badges, people would assume it was an Accord. The RLX is Acura's Lexus ES that pretends to compete with the LS.

First thing first, Acura and Infiniti needs to have a FULL line up like Lexus to be taken seriously.

Starting with a flagship V8 sedan and a midsize luxury alternative to GS, E, 5-series, A6. Acura needs an off-road luxury SUV, and Infiniti needs better CUV.

Design is only part of the issue
Manufacturing quality is the bigger issue.
The Lexus 350 is built on a unique line, just for Lexus, with a takt time of 120 seconds or more.
Any Acura built in North America is built on a multi-purpose line with a takt time of around 60 seconds.
Acura just is not up to the same standard as Lexus and won't be until they decide to build it with more attention to quality.

They only need one thing....MONEY!!! Product development cost's lots and lots of money.