German Car Zone

- Sorry, Acura dealers: V8, RWD dropped for "low-growth period" — Autoblog

Just a sorry, really sorry brand. Ugly, made over Hondas. Delaying product launches? They don't have anything to "launch" it seems.

M

Acura needs to move more upmarket...it's useless thinking that Acura can be a relevant luxury brand without a V8 or a RWD car.

I don't know about Acura. I like the TL, but they just don't have anything that people would leave the Germans for..

They really need to come out with more aggressive and interesting design that people (at least a wide range) will actually like. The need a strong entry level car as well as a good E/5/A6 competitor as well as a V8 POWERED flagship sedan. Then a smooth luxury coupe as well as a NSX that could rival the GT-R in performance, if not better.

Honda as a whole keeps leaning towards this "greener" side and forgetting that Acura is a luxury company that needs to be competitive to survive.

Without a clearly define strategic direction, Acura really is swimming against the current here, and if their new strategy doesn't work, then they may well be in serious trouble.

Acura used to be a sports-luxury company much like Infiniti has now impressively become. They definitely can't compete head-to-head with Mercedes and Lexus in becoming an all-luxury focused brand, so IMO, their best bet is to get back to their sporty image of yester-years....BUT, Honda wants to move on with the green-dream, so I guess a long-term positioning strategy for Acura could well be what BMW is gunning for, enviro-friendly sports-luxury.
If anything, making these hardline decisions now (as BMW is doing with their red-light policy for exotic models) may pay dividends in long-run because they'll be right there with BMW in offering a whole range of enviro-friendly hybrids and electric vehicles and what-nots, while their main sports-luxury rival Infiniti is still playing catch-up.

In some ways it's a good thing that Acura is stalling because there's just not that much promise of launching new and important models in the current climate. It's a tough and very risky decision, but I think they know it's gonna take some time to get their brand identity back on track, so they're willing to be in the wilderness in the short-run, but come out guns blazin' down the track when the eco-movement really becomes important (if it becomes that important).

Just look at how Honda has/has not/has/has not cancelled the much anticipated NSX. The move to green has forced them to currently go lean. I guess they're Jenny Craig-ing at the moment.

I'm cross-posting from the other Acura thread since this seems like a better place to rant...

Ahem...

I sometimes get angry thinking about what a listless bundt cake Honda has made out of its once healthy and desirable Acura brand.

Ok, Acura looks towards a future defined by efficient products and innovative, eco-conscious technologies - Let's just take this at face value and not take the cancellation of their RWD and V8 projects as a bearish reaction to the post-Lehman Brothers economy. If this is where Honda truly believes their Acura brand will differentiate itself and realize a competitive advantage I have to stop and wonder how they've come to presume that this is their strong suit.

For starters, Toyota has been hard at work greenwashing Lexus for the past 3 years, and they've done a very good job grabbing mindshare in that niche; the introduction of the HS 250h being a massive step in the direction of developing sincerely green luxury cars.

BMW is staking out the other side of the turf, and I believe their "Efficient Dynamics" campaign will make more and more sense as time wears on.

So where does this put Acura? A fleet of 4 and 6-cylinder cars an ecologically conscious brand does not make. And to that point - How do Acura's priorities differ from Honda's? Technology and efficiency are core traits of Honda's persona. Advanced Technology, however, is not Acura's wheelhouse - nor is that the overall perception from the man on the street. In the US, that bag is shared between MB, Lexus and possibly BMW.

And oh boy - That ZDX. I hope I'm wrong - But there's a big problem coming down almost every luxury automaker's sales channel in the form of crossovers that were born and raised for an entirely different, much more exuberant market, than the one we know today.

I like the sound of a TSX wagon - That sounds like territory Acura could steak out and make their own, if they package it right.

I can buy that Acura can build a future towards being a new kind of "Tier 2" luxury brand, with a different MO than the typical bigger, louder, more model that has been the norm for the past 20-odd years. What I don't buy is that "technologies" will separate Acura from the pack.

I understand that Honda wants to establish Acura as a "green luxury" brand, but you can still have V8 engines and rear wheel drive no matter what your environmental strategy is. For instance: look at BMW and MB; both are pushing Efficient Dynamics and BlueEfficiency. However, they also realize that they are luxury brands and need to fulfill their roles as these brands, not just as environmentally conscious brands.

For some reason, Acura seems to think that being environmentally friendly means that every model needs to be a showcase for efficiency. Acura needs to look more at the "big picture" of themselves and their potential instead of wanting to look environmentally friendly with each model.

It's really a shame, too. Acura IMO makes solid looking cars (just my opinion ) with incredible interiors. But so do Lexus and Infiniti, which leaves Acura in the position that they're in right now; forcing themselves to become a tier 2 luxury brand, when they have the potential to play with the big brands.

It's not for a lack of chops that they are a Tier 2 brand - It's because they've stubbornly refused to treat Acura as a different company with a point of view independent of Honda and, in the post-Integra period, have brought the wrong products to market.

If the Acura RSX was developed as medium-sized, RWD premium sports coupe with available V6 instead of a cute, sporty Civic-plus Acura would already find themselves in a different spot. They were poised to move upmarket but didn't seize the opportunity.

It's goes to show that if you build it, they won't come. They've decided to carve out their own niche by ignoring the desires of Acura intenders, and now they're suffering the results.

The bottom line is that "Acura" is still "Honda" and Honda thinks small and that simply won't result in a true luxury brand like Mercedes-BMW or Lexus. You have to have something for everyone and a broad choices. All sedans and suvs won't cut it, nor will all hybrids, V6s and FWD/AWD. You've got to offer something...a coupe, convertible, or something with some real power.

M

And something with real luxury. If you lack a proper coupe, convertable, roadster and full-sized V8-powered sedan how are you supposed to build anything resembling brand cache? Maybe on planet vulcan this shit flys, but even the most sensible people require some measure of an aspirational halo to make them feel good about the what's in their driveway.