Acura: A Waste of Dealer Space

"Mike Farber" (mikefarber) 03/23/2016 at 21:51 • Filed to: acura, overpriced, honda, luxury, industry news

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Honda’s been doing some pretty damn awesome things, lately. They’ve made back-up cameras standard on every base model, they’ve come out with trim levels that have luxury features for a generic price. Hell, they’ve even made the new Civic fun to drive! (Si not included) Who knew? Which begs the question—what’s Acura still doing here?

You can buy a 2016 Honda Accord Touring with full LED headlights, heated leather, navigation, adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring and active lane as well as brake mitigation for around $30k. For a few thousand dollars more, you can spend your money on a smaller Acura TLX with less features. As in no navigation, no active safety technology or anything else. I know what you’re about to say, “Well BMW and Mercedes also under-equip their cars at base price too. But the logo’s worth the price.” Well, the thing is, Acura’s become less and less of a desirable name, so what’s the point of keeping it alive?

Step inside a base Mercedes C-Class. Then step inside a base Acura TLX. Spot a difference? Unlike Mercedes, giving you quality materials and solidity standard, Acura slaps on too many components from Honda’s parts bin. And not like Infiniti, either, where they do the same thing, but actually then give their cars features that make them worth the money. The feel of the materials in any Acura makes it feel like you’re sitting in discount luxury (and in a way, it is, it’s significantly cheaper than the Merc), but you can get discount luxury at a better value with an upper-trim Accord. Hell, even the Civic Touring comes with more features than a top-of-the-line ILX! Why buy an MDX when you can buy a Pilot for less with the same features, dual screen and all?

The most history Acura has at all is with Ludacris, but that’s about it. Back the, when Luda got his Legend, Acura had considerable differences between it and its parent company, as did Lexus and Toyota, Infiniti and Nissan, and so forth. But as Infiniti and Lexus got more premium over the years, Acura just started to give up on putting any effort into making their cars any more upscale than their mainstream counterparts. They just overprice ‘em, call it luxury, and roll ‘em out for mindless suburban consumers to leech on.

Just do the math! RDX? Overpriced CRV Touring. MDX? Overpriced Pilot EX-L. TLX? Hell, I don’t even know. It’s too small to be midsize yet too big to be compact. It’s just overpriced for what it is. Do a presto-comparo with Lexus. NX? Luxury RAV4. GX? Luxury 4Runner. IS? Sportier, far more upscale Corolla. Acura is in a deep necessity of learning from its competitors.

So what do you think, Oppo? Do you think Acura needs to step up its game, or do you think its blip should just wipe off the radar? Comment! In the meantime, I’ll be driving my 185,000 mile ‘06 Volvo V70 to the nearest Shell station for a can of Arnold Palmer so I can write more material. Ciao!

Nibby > Mike Farber 03/23/2016 at 21:52

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Rather have a loaded Accord than any vehicle in Acura’s lineup.

Slant6 > Mike Farber 03/23/2016 at 21:54

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Back up cameras are federally mandated now, so it’s nothing special that Honda has them on base models.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > Mike Farber 03/23/2016 at 21:59

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despite Acura ownership having a long history in my family (my mother owned 1, I’ve had 2)...I wouldn’t honestly go buy an Acura these days over it’s competition. Granted, I loveeeeeeee the TLX and have nothing but good experiences with my local Acura dealer, I cannot justfiy buying one over say a Q50.

Until the day they bring back a real successor to the RSX or Integra, I will not buy a new Acura

Worth noting, an Accord Touring is 35k OTD and a FWD TLX is at 32k OTD and it does get everything the Accord Touring gets...

dogisbadob > Mike Farber 03/23/2016 at 22:00

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Backup cameras are going to be required soon anyway.

But yeah, Acura seems superfluous. They had a 4-year head start over Lexus and Infiniti, then totally blew it!

The writing was on the wall 10-20 years ago, when Acura started making some big mistakes. First, getting rid of the names, then getting rid of the Integra/RSX, by far their best-seller (and just as the Fast and Furious empire was building, creating demand for cars just like it)

wafflesnfalafel > Nibby 03/23/2016 at 22:02

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completely agree - I saw my first new Accord in the wild today - white with those wheels that are getting ripped off. Good looking, sporty sedan. Better looking than every single Acura currently.

PorkchoPlissken > Mike Farber 03/23/2016 at 22:06

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Acura is currently pointless, as well as missing the point. But that reminds me that I saw a really nice Vigor today.

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 03/23/2016 at 22:10

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The Infiniti’s quality has gone to crap in the last 5 years though. A 2006 M35 is one of the best cars you can buy meanwhile the new ones are having all kinds of trouble. Acura is still not worth it but you might as well buy German instead of Infiniti

-this space for rent- > Mike Farber 03/23/2016 at 22:54

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Just the MDX would rank 11th at 58k units. I’d wonder more about why Volvo is still around than Acura.

Luxury car sales in the United States in 2015

1) BMW - 346,023 - up 1.8 percent
2) Lexus - 344,601 - up 10.7 percent
3) Mercedes-Benz - 343,088 - up 3.8 percent
4) Audi - 202,202 - up 11.1 percent
5) Acura - 177,165 - up 5.6 percent
6) Cadillac - 175,267 - up 2.6 percent
7) Infiniti - 133,498 - up 13.8 percent
8) Lincoln - 101,227 - up 7.1 percent
9) Land Rover - 70,582 - up 37 percent
10) Volvo - 70,047 - up 24.3 percent
11) Porsche - 51,756 - up 10.1 percent
12) Jaguar - 14,466 - down 8 percent
13) Maserati - 11,697 - down 9.6 percent
14) Bentley - 2,686 - down 10.6 percent
15) Rolls-Royce - 1,140 - up 2.6 percent

Nibby > Mike Farber 03/23/2016 at 23:25

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WHO WANTS A $50,000 FWD “FULL SIZE LUXURY” SEDAN? AWW YEAH

flyingmetalbird > Mike Farber 03/23/2016 at 23:26

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Thank you! Acura hadn’t been anything good since they had the Legend Integra NSX line up! They used to be a special car company and now they’re just a fucking joke! It’s sad to say but I just wish they’d go away honestly. The new NSX is cool but their actual cars are jokes now.

ClassicDatsunDebate > Mike Farber 03/24/2016 at 00:03

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The new Accord is great value, as is most of the segment. Having said that, compare the Accord Touring to the TLX elite and it’s no contest. They don’t share many drivetrain parts; 6speed auto vs 9speed, 300HP vs 279HP etc. The ride, road noise, “sportynessss” don’t compere. The Accord has great new technology with Apple Car Play and has great looks and there will be cannibalization for sure, but you can say the same for the top of the line Maxima and the G50.

spanfucker retire bitch > Mike Farber 03/24/2016 at 07:23

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For a few thousand dollars more, you can spend your money on a smaller Acura TLX with less features.

The TLX isn’t smaller, it’s based on the same platform as the Accord. The ILX is the only vehicle in Acura’s lineup that’s smaller.

hike > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars 03/24/2016 at 07:31

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This is unfortunately true. I’d say most Nissan products have become crap in their attempt to grab market share. I have an 06 G35 which was an incredible car and had incredible value when I got it, with the standard HID headlamps, Bluetooth, and keyless entry (3 things my dad’s c class doesn’t have even though it’s 6 years newer). It barely even shared visible parts with Nissan. Nowadays they make decent looking cars with overly complicated systems and they lost their sporty identity.

I'd say they're not as bad as Acura because there isn't a lot of parts shared between the two, but it's in a similar group.

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > hike 03/24/2016 at 08:10

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Very true. I think Lexus lost there way around the 2007-2009 range(the recession didn’t help) but have since rebounded and the design is fantastic(I know that’s controversial), the technology is getting better, and they are definitely making strides to get back up where they should be.

hike > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars 03/24/2016 at 10:19

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I'd say Lexus lost their way in the early 2000s after the first IS and GS went away. They're doing a great job making themselves relevant again (even though I hate the styling and interiors).

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > hike 03/24/2016 at 11:19

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Even if I looked at it unbiased I would say the Lexus now have some of the best interiors. If you have not seen the LX570 yet that’s all you need to know. The 3rd generation GS is still one of the prettiest cars ever in my opinion but all the others of that era are kind meh.

StudyStudyStudy > Mike Farber 03/24/2016 at 11:37

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I would love to see a baby NSX or an S2k type car added to the lineup. They do need a little bit more sport injected into the lineup and hopefully the NSX will bring that.

I like Acura in the fact it feels like the engineers/designers are given a little more time to work on a car. I feel like they just cranked out a pilot, whereas with an MDX they get to work on a bit of the interior more, do a little better programming on the entertainment system, include more things standard etc. Kind of like mcdonalds vs a gourmet burger. Essentially the same thing, bun, meat, veggies, but using a non frozen patty, some fresh veggies, and a nice bun can make a real difference that I would be happy to pay for on occasion. Add too much and you can go a little too opulent, agreed.

I got an ILX recently, I had the choice of a civic, but for a little bit more a month, I get more features standard, nicer comfort, and the dealership is also close by so better service.