They should start be eliminating the CSX, which basically a Civic with leather. The CSX really connects the Honda and Acura brands. They need a high end sports coupe and sedan with rear wheel drive if they want to gain the snobbyness of the other brands.

Luckily the CSX isn't sold in the US.

i think it has to due w. service. acura is lousy. lexus has been awesome.

Acura Wants to Rival Bentley and Maybach... Lol. That will be the day. They're not even close.

What Acura really means is: We want to be able to charge $200k for a civic with leather and a different badge because people are suckers.

They need to understand what it is that makes Bentleys, Jags, Astons special first. Even then they still won't ever get there.

They are not even close to Maybach and Bentley.

While a TSX with a turbo 4 and sh-awd sounds great to me, it's probably not going to further the cause of moving toward Maybach and Bentley.

I test drove a TL, and while it was a nice car, it was pretty much just a slightly nicer Honda Accord. Good, but not very exciting.

I recommend to Acura, RWD with AWD as an option, and serious power and torque upgrades. Get some DSG style transmissions also. Take a little risk on the exterior styling. The interiors are great, but the exteriors of the sedans are pretty much Accords with different headlights.

Also, make a flashy convertible as an image car. Something to compete with the Lexus SC430.

Darmok:

IMHO the SC430 is not flashy. In fact its quite fugly in a boring conventional sort of way.

Back in 2004 when the current generation RL first came out, we were planning to trade our 2001 CL Type-S for the RL. Howver, for some unknown reason, Acura Canada (we are from Canada) decided to price it at just under C$70,000. This is more than C$15,000 higher than the outgoing model and the gap between the then new RL and the TL was a whopping C$25,000. At the C$70,000, the RL was up against some very stiff competition from Lexus, Infiniti and BMW. As for ourselves, we ended up with a fully loaded (including navigation and all options) FX45 for C$65,000. To this date, I still do not understand wht Acura Canada priced the RL the way they did. As the article here has already mentioned, Acura is still being perceived as a 2nd tier luxury nameplate and it simply cannot charge the same 1st tier premium price and expect the car to do well. Just my two cents.

Acura builds a very nice car, but they need to have a much quicker turnaround time in redesigning the model line. Lexus does a great job at keeping the line current and changes models more frequently to keep the public's interest. I don't know why you throw BMW into the fray. Lexus, Acura and Infiniti are the luxury brands from Japan. As far as quality is concerned I'd rather have my '05 Acura TL over most BMW cars. I'll be three years old soon and it hasn't missed a beat or needed a single repair. It's so nice to have a car and not need to use the warranty. If you doubt this just check Consumers Reports for the reliability ratings of Benz and BMW. The high cost German spreads are very low when it comes to quality.

compared to the others, ACURA is mostly Front wheel driven. that's the problem. they need Rear Wheel Drive in the TSX and TL!!! and ditch the i4, get the v6 into the TSX then it can complete with the 3 series.

I've owned two Acura Legends, one of each body style, and they were great cars.

I'm not sure I'd stop at an Acura dealership on my way to see the Infinity guys.

t

Hmm... if Acura wants to compete against Bentley and Maybach, they should simply add another zero to the price tag and take a few random parts out of the engine to get the reliability down a notch or two... DONE!

[quote]
compared to the others, ACURA is mostly Front wheel driven. that's the problem. they need Rear Wheel Drive in the TSX and TL!!! and ditch the i4, get the v6 into the TSX then it can complete with the 3 series.
[/quote]

FWD is not a problem since, on the street, it is superior to RWD in, essentially, all situations.

"IMHO the SC430 is not flashy. In fact its quite fugly in a boring conventional sort of way."

I agree. It looks like an inverted bathtub. But I see a lot of them with big chrome wheels. It's meant to be a flashy car. So competing with an ugly but good convertible shouldn't be too tough of a market segment. I still say they need a competitor there.

"I don't know why you throw BMW into the fray. Lexus, Acura and Infiniti are the luxury brands from Japan. As far as quality is concerned I'd rather have my '05 Acura TL over most BMW cars. I'll be three years old soon and it hasn't missed a beat or needed a single repair."

The quality is not really the problem here. Acura is saying that want to move upscale, waaay upscale toward Maybach and Bentley. Hyundais also have good quality now, but they're not really in the same class as an Acura.

"The interiors are great, but the exteriors of the sedans are pretty much Accords with different headlights."

This statement seems to forget the fact that all new Lexus cars look 90% the same as the Camry, and the Infinity G series looks 90% the same as the Altima.

Lack of power and RWD/AWD are the most common complaints about Acura. FWD may be better in practical situations but anything over ~280hp to the front wheels gives massive torque steer. When you're paying $30K+ for a car I don't think you're expecting a fore arm workout to be needed to control it when having fun.

I'd say Acura has a long, long way to go if they want to match Maybach. Someone commented on the Maybachs reliability: the Type 52 is as fast as a C6 Corvette (not the Z06). The fact they made 4 door sedan that is longer, wider, and heavier than a Corvette run that quick is flat out incredible. If something that runs that hard has some reliability problems, so be it.

And back to Acura: if they want to rival cars people would actually pay above MSRP for (not to mention the MSRP is in the mid 6 figures), then they need to go one of two routes: first match BMW and Infiniti, or discontinue offering cars in the luxury segment and immediately begin production of cars that match the segments of Maserati and/or Aston Martin. To jump right into the territory of Rolls Royce, Maybach and Bently, thats just not happening. A total image makeover like that is just not happening all the time.

I test drove an Acura RL... I have to say that the chassis is highly cabable and the handling and feel is great.

It's so good that you don't really feel like you're going that fast... but you know you are because you're leaving everyone in the dust.

The chassis felt like it could easily handle an extra 100-200HP.

But having the top of the line RL competing with Maybach?

They'll have to stretch the car a couple of feet, stick two of those very nice V6 engines together to make a V12 (500-600hp) and do something extra with the interior and exterior styling.

From my point of view, that's the minimum of what needs to be done if they want to be comparable to Maybach.

One other thing... the smallest Acura is not the TSX, it's the CSX which is sold in Canada. The CSX is based on the Civic.

And as long as models like the CSX exist, there is no way that Acura will be comparible to Bently or Mayback in terms of prestige.

I test drove an Acura RL... I have to say that the chassis is highly cabable and the handling and feel is great.

It's so good that you don't really feel like you're going that fast... but you know you are because you're leaving everyone in the dust.

The chassis felt like it could easily handle an extra 100-200HP.

But having the top of the line RL competing with Maybach?

They'll have to stretch the car a couple of feet, stick two of those very nice V6 engines together to make a V12 (500-600hp) and do something extra with the interior and exterior styling.

From my point of view, that's the minimum of what needs to be done if they want to be comparable to Maybach.

One other thing... the smallest Acura is not the TSX, it's the CSX which is sold in Canada. The CSX is based on the Civic.

And as long as models like the CSX exist, there is no way that Acura will be comparible to Bentley or Maybach in terms of prestige.

“We want to rival Bentley and Maybach in performance and design,” said Dave Marek, chief designer for Honda R&D Americas, in an interview with Automotive News.

I'm not sure design is what people first notice while looking at a Maybach. Maybe the Bentley, if you go for the "my other vehicle is a transatlantic sailing yatch" look. Will these people pay for an Acura? Maybe the 2011 NSX, but that's it.

I think this Honda Chief Designer got his priorities wrong, and is looking at the long competition.

Is it so difficult to make a V8? What is wrong with Honda? Even KIA will soon have one.

I predict that we'll see a v10v12 Hyundai (in its then new luxury brand branch, Highdaxus? lol) first than we'll see a V8 Acura. I believe that will happen way before 2011.

I had a TL for over three years. I never had a repair or any problem with it. I cannot say the same about the BMW 528xi I currently own. My next car will definitely be Japanese!

Germans have forgoten a term called "reliability".