1999 Acura Integra Gs Hatchback 3-door 1.8l on 2040-cars

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2021 Acura TLX vs. luxury sedans: How they compare on paper

The 2021 Acura TLX has been revealed, and it looks superb. We also have a handful of hard numbers, so you know that we've got to take a look at how they compare to the competition. As we only have numbers for the base turbocharged four-cylinder model, we're only looking at similarly equipped competitors. And with the small to midsize luxury sedan segment burgeoning these days, we've selected a mix of rear-drive, front-drive and all-wheel-drive options to compare to this front-drive-based sedan. You can see the raw numbers below, and a summary of them under that. Engine and transmission The Acura's base engine is a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder, just like the vast majority of cars in its segment. It's an especially powerful base engine, though, with 272 horses. That tops every base engine in this group, and is only topped by Volvo's mid-range turbocharged and supercharged four-cylinder that makes 316 horsepower. Its torque rating is strong, too, falling short of the aforementioned Volvo engine and the BMW four-cylinder. You'll note that we've included two four-cylinder engines for the Audi and the Volvo. With the Audi, the entry-level engine is seriously underpowered versus the competition, whereas the higher-output version is more comparable, so we felt it should be included. As for the Volvo, since the turbo and supercharged engine isn't quite comparable to each of these model's six-cylinder alternatives, we felt it should be mentioned, here. Many of these cars have substantially more powerful alternatives available, including the Acura. The Acura will have a twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6, but we have no specifications for it. It will face off with the 382-horsepower BMW M340i, 400-horsepower Volvo S60 T8 hybrid, 365-horsepower Genesis G70 3.3T and 349-horsepower Audi S4, among others. The Acura is available with either front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, and every version gets a 10-speed automatic, giving it claim to the most gears. All the other cars here make do with an eight-speed automatic. The Genesis G70 is the sole offering with a manual transmission, something that's offered on the Sport trim with upgraded brakes and a limited-slip differential. The Audi is unique in making all-wheel drive standard. On the Volvo, all-wheel-drive is only available if you upgrade to the higher-output engine, another reason why we wanted to include it. Size On the outside, the Acura is the largest, or more specifically, the longest.

2019 Acura NSX vs. 1991 Acura NSX | Respect your elders

A car that forces the competition to head back to the drawing board does not come around often, especially when that competition happens to be Ferrari. Honda achieved such a feat back in 1991 when the original NSX was set loose in the supercar world. Not only did the NSX smack its contemporaries down in terms of performance and technological prowess, it also forced the Italians to make supercars with some semblance of reliability and manners. Spend only a few moments in an original NSX, and its specialness is palpable. The lack of power steering is acutely noticeable at low speed as I roll over little cracks and dips in the road, while the sticky rubber chucks small rocks up into the wheel wells. A near 360-degree view is at my disposal with the bubble-like canopy, and the ground right in front of the nose is visible from my vantage point. This is what control feels like, and we haven't even gotten to the reverie-inducing VTEC noises getting piped right into our eardrums yet. There are no dials to change the throttle response, no buttons to make the steering artificially heavy, no shift paddles behind the wheel to tell a computer to swap cogs. To my right is a manual shifter that can legitimately be described as perfect. This is a 1991 Acura NSX, and it is glorious. For some of the reasons I've briefly described, and plenty more, this car has reached legend status amongst enthusiasts. In the early 2000s it was a sales disaster, outgunned by pretty much every other supercar in the space. Honda/Acura was only working with a 3.2-liter V6 making 290 horsepower when that car finally met its maker after the 2005 model year. As collectable modern classics, the relatively low power output doesn't seem to bother folks spending close to, and over, six digits on low-mileage examples of these cars. What changed? Well, the passage of time tends to be the biggest factor in these things. Also, there's a new NSX out there, reminding the world that the old one exists. And just like when Acura discontinued the original, the new one is mighty expensive, selling in extremely low numbers, and generally regarded as lesser than other options in its class. This time around it has to deal with standout cars like the 911 GT3, McLaren 570S and Audi R8 V10. But perhaps even worse than that, the new NSX must withstand comparisons to the original. Can you think of any other legendary Japanese car with a similar image problem today? Yeah, the Toyota Supra.

Nice car seeks Millennials | 2018 Acura TLX First Drive

The Acura TLX has a new face. And a rear diffuser. There's also a new A-Spec version with stiffer dampers, quicker steering, a snarlier engine, and snazzy red leather. Plus, every TLX has a revised touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. That pretty much sums up the refreshed 2018 Acura TLX entry-level luxury sedan, which didn't exactly drop into the market with a splash when it launched originally. Is all of that enough to make a difference? Probably not. After a day driving it around southern Indiana and the outskirts of Louisville, Kentucky, the TLX continues to be a perfectly nice car. It's refined and the cabin is well built, but otherwise the sedan is unremarkable. Ah, but there's more going on here than just a mid-cycle refresh. The 2018 TLX is Acura's latest effort following the revised MDX to recast itself as the maker of "precision-crafted performance" cars, inspired by both the NSX and the Precision Concept car shown at the 2016 Detroit Auto Show. It's a top-to-bottom, R&D-to-marketing attempt to better appeal to today's holy grail of customer: the Millennial. To do that, it goes beyond the cars themselves. New Acura commercials are a far cry from an authoritative James Spader rationally extolling the virtues of this and that. There are fast cuts and three images perpetually on screen. There's pulse-pumping music, bright colors, and words like "Geek + Chic" and "Super + Sonic." There are many not-exactly-subliminal images of the NSX. There's a red Power Ranger. It's hip! It's young! It's Millennial! It's also a marketing campaign that has apparently connected with its target generation – well, at least in focus group ratings. "If you look at what the other brands are doing, and particularly the luxury brands, it's so serious," said Jon Ikeda, Acura vice president and general manager. "We're trying to make it more inclusive, not intimidating, more youthful, more optimistic, and more fun. We want to have fun with it. "[The commercials] are trying to set the tone of Acura in general, to make people go, 'OK, I'm interested in that, I want to go drive that.' Now it's up to us to make sure the product reflects that." And Ikeda is actually in a position to make that happen. He's not a business guy or a Mad Men marketing sort – he's moved upstairs after spending decades in design, a tenure that included penning the third-generation TL, the best-selling Acura model of all time and one of the best-looking.