Fifty Percent Of Acura Owners Would Not Buy Again If They Had The Chance

An older female friend of my wife has an RLX. It's been nothing but trouble (electrical issues). The local dealer changed hands a year or so ago partially due to angry customers lighting Acura up over customer service.

The problem for Acura is that every brand (premium and non-premium) is stepping up their game and churning out product after product. And many of them are introducing great products. After renewed interest in the brand with the TLX and the pending NSX, Acura did almost absolutely nothing with that and now remain fairly stagnant. This is extremely frustrating for a brand (both Honda and Acura) that has introduced some of the best cars in history: Prelude, S2000, Integra, original NSX, original Legend coupe, 3G TL, original MDX. I just can't wrap my arms around what's going on over there. While Honda seems to be on an absolute roll with the Civic, Ridgeline, Pilot, and forthcoming Accord, Acura is pretty damn complacent with their current lineup. There's no question Honda has the engineering knowledge, resources, and funds to create amazing products for the Acura brand, but who is telling them not to? The Civic should make the current ILX obsolete. The next Accord should make the TLX obsolete. The RLX is already, virtually, obsolete. What now?

Acura, it's ride or die time. If you dont' want to step up your game, then rebadge the NSX, MDX, and RDX as Hondas and call it a day.

They've lost touch on who their buyer is - they've become a budget alternative to luxury, but offer most of the same accoutrements as their lesser brand, Honda. While Lexus figured this out 15 years ago that they need to go all in and separate themselves from their entry-level brands, Acura and Infiniti both seem to struggle with this. Additionally, Acura has sort of lost their identity. Are they sport? Are they luxury? They have the red button on their engine starter like they're fast, but they put a base Civic Si engine in their entry level cars. When Audi introduced their flagship R8, they used it as an opportunity to reinvent the brand, and make them relevant again - Acura has missed the mark on this.

And that is my point. When Acura introduced the NSX, they completely missed the opportunity to reinvigorate the brand through new products and new approaches.

But to your point of Acura "becoming" a "budget alternative", that's untrue (but not in an argumentative sense). They have always been a budget alternative, which is the problem. While they are trying to maintain that budget alternative status, their Honda brand has had to step up their levels of refinement, luxury and quality in order to compete with the other non-premium brands who are stepping up their game. Therefore, we now have overlap between Honda and Acura that isn't helping Acura's cause.
Acura needs to make the decision on competing head-on with the other luxury brands, or just absorb into the Honda brand.

Acuras just aren't special. A fully optioned Accord is every bit as good as Acura's version--the TLX-and you can save a bundle by getting the Accord all while driving by far the more stylish car.

The RLX is laughably bad. If you park it next to an Accord, you can see just how much of the body structure is identical to the Accord.

When the RLX came out, Acura did very aggressive leasing because the RLX arrived DOA and of the people who leased, many simply did not replace the RLX with another Acura. I honestly think that people caught on that Acura was selling a $25K Accord with a pinch more wheelbase and some awkwardly dull styling for nearly 3X the price.

Their SUVs seem like they are doing ok...

Still a Japanese Mercury.

Yes the problem is that Acura never really upped the gap in specialness over a Honda. The ILX is a primary example. Honda is just trying to milk the stupidity of the buying public. They assume that if they give it a minor restyle on the same chassis and the same engine that people will go and buy it even if it costs 10K more. Plain and simple Acura needs to be up there with BMW and Audi in terms of interior quality and driving dynamics. For one they should offer only AWD on every model. Nothing should come with FWD. Second their ILX should start at 250 HP for a 2.0 turbo four. Third ride and handling should be of an order above what you get in a Civic. Fourth it should be significantly quieter than any Civic in terms of road and wind noise. Honda is more than capable of producing such a car. Until they do Acura will continue to wallow.

Honda should call Cadillac and reskin Cadillacs as Acuras.

We've been leasing MDX's since the original. No mechanical or electrical troubles though have never had one for more than 30-35K miles-- 2016 model (our 4th)is just OK compared with the older generation vehicle. The older one drove better - I can overcome the annoying habits of the new 9 speed auto transmission by driving it in sport mode and/or manually shifting but this clearly does cause the engine to rev higher and burn more fuel. Also if your closing speed to the car in front of you is above some threshold or you follow a bit too closely the display alarms and flashes BRAKE. Too many electronic nannies in the newer vehicle but this is of course true of other makes as well.