Acura Introducing Diesal Cars
Written by man on September 12th, 2009 in Other.
In March 2006, the Honda Motor Company celebrated a crucial milestone : the 20 th anniversary of their luxury brand, Acura. Created to give Honda aficionados an opulent make that they could be proud of, Acura has successfully expanded the company’s reach way beyond more prosaic models such as the Civic and the Accord. Today, Acura is a completely different brand than the company that was birthed in 1986. We’ll take a glimpse at Acura’s past, their present line up, and what the next 20 years may bring for this esteemed Japanese automaker.
Back in 1981, Honda saw a break opening up for itself that no-one in Honda’s HQ would have liked to miss out on: building and selling luxury cars to Yank patrons. Mercedes and BMW were both gaining traction in the U.S. as American luxury brands Cadillac and Lincoln sputtered and lost market share. Honda was receiving widespread consumer acceptance and critical commend for the 3 models it was then selling in the U.S., so the call to market dearer and upscale vehicles was viewed as a robust possibility.
When Honda management decided to go with the upscale brand, they did this knowing the automobiles would ultimately have to stand apart from Honda in order to command the higher prices. Simply selling up market Hondas as Acuras would not work. Instead, each car was fitted out and retuned to challenge without delay against the premiere top end cars of that time.
The first two models to be sold as Acuras were the Legend, a V6 powered sedan and coupe, and the Integra, which was essentially a three door coupe based on a Honda Civic platform. Later, the NSX 2 seat racer was brought out to fight Porsche and the Vigor sedan was introduced to fill the opening between the Integra and the Legend.
Over time, the numerous model names were dropped and replaced by vehicles with 2 or three letter designations. The Vigor became the TL, the Legend became the RL, and the Integra the RSX. Today, the MDX SUV, RSX sport compact, and TSX sedan, join the three other models to comprise the current Acura line up. A touch smaller SUV, the RDX, will be joining Acura’s line up later in 2006.
The future of Acura looks bright despite strong worldwide competition. Although Honda jumped into the market a few years before Nissan rolled out it Infiniti division and Toyota its Lexus line, Acura has trailed its Japanese competitors for over a decade now. Some critics have said this misstep has hurt Acura, while others see it as a characteristic conservative Honda decision to grow the Honda brand instead.
Future changes for Acura are dodgy, but model changes will likely include the arrival of diesel powered vehicles and more hybrid offerings. Some automobile critics have recommended that Honda has the capacity of outflanking BMW and Mercedes by producing super luxury sedans and sports cars. Renowned Honda quality combined with EU styling, luxury, and engineering have fueled Acura’s success so far. An expansion of this theme to even larger and/or sportier models could vault Acura forward.
Truly, Acura has helped reshape the original perception that many motorists had about the Japanese brands, by delivering vehicles that are high in luxury, tops in engineering, and robust in refinement. If the last twenty years have proved anything it is that fans can expect much more from Acura over the following twenty years. Kudos to the Honda Motor Company for developing a brand which has been so well received.
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