2023 Acura Integra A-spec on 2040-cars

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Honda slowing US production due to ports dispute

The labor dispute that idled 29 ports on the West Coast last the weekend, including Los Angeles and Long Beach, CA, is about to make its effects felt on the showroom floor, according to Reuters. Honda, Toyota and Subaru have been trying to work around the labor disagreement, cutting overtime and airlifting parts to factories, but Honda says parts shortages at plants in Indiana, Ohio and Ontario, Canada, are now severe enough to impede production. The lack of transmissions and some electronic components will slow output of the Honda Accord, Civic, and CR-V – as well as unnamed Acuras. The three affected factories will rework their production schedules from Feb. 16-23. The ports have reopened this week, and US Labor Secretary Tom Perez has flown to San Francisco to mediate a new agreement between the 20,000 dockworkers represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the terminals and shipping companies. Talks have been going on for almost nine months and the issues aren't settled; meanwhile, the West Coast ports that handle half the nation's maritime cargo and 70 percent of cargo from Asia are putting all kinds of industries on the ropes, and it's estimated to cost the economy $2 billion a day. Related Video: News Source: ReutersImage Credit: MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images Government/Legal Plants/Manufacturing UAW/Unions Acura Honda Crossover Sedan

2015 Acura TLX

Immediately after landing at Washington's Dulles airport, an Acura representative handed me the keys to a 2014 TSX with fewer than 180 miles on its clock. The four-cylinder engine started and I pointed its signature beak towards a destination in Middleburg, VA. It was a curious move by the Japanese automaker, especially considering that I had flown no less than 2,300 miles to drive the discontinued vehicle's ostensible successor, the all-new 2015 Acura TLX.
Yet spending a solid 40 minutes with a sparkling-new version of the outgoing model that still smelled showroom fresh, allowed me an opportunity to scrutinize the dropped sedan and remind myself why it had never really blown me away - it was good at doing many things, but truly great at doing none.
Time with the TSX also started me thinking about the Acura TL, the second model that the TLX will effectively replace. I have better memories of the slightly larger sedan, especially the SH-AWD 6MT trim - it's a solid driver's car - but it, too, fell short in areas where competitors, including the Audi A4, BMW 3 Series, Cadillac ATS, Lexus IS and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, excelled.

Acura NSX GT3 data 'will inform future iterations' of the street car

Motorsports programs exist to drive innovation in road vehicles, and that's precisely what's happening at Honda. Acura NSX development boss Nick Robinson told Autocar that the company's work on the GT3 racing variant is directly informing future development on the road car. "In North America, we've just unveiled the GT3 version of the car, and the development team of the street car has had some involvement in its development," Robinson said. "What works well on the track will inform future iterations and updates of the street car and vice versa." But Honda is a big company that does more than build cars. Robinson paid tribute to the impact his employer's well-known motorcycle program had on the NSX. Apparently, building stuff like the CBR helped Honda with the NSX's complicated packaging. "For many years our motorcycle development teams have strived to ensure the optimum centralization of mass, ensuring the lowest possible center of gravity," Robinson told Autocar. "This leads to the best possible yaw response." Is this all a sign that a long-rumored lighter, faster NSX, potentially wearing the vaunted Type R badge, will be especially track-focused? Maybe. Robinson's comments indicate that the company is doing something with the mountains of data it collects running a GT3 program. While a pure road-focused NSX-R successor seems like it'd be a waste of that data, an NSX-based rival to the Porsche 911 GT3 RS might make a lot more sense. Related Video: News Source: AutocarImage Credit: Brendan McDermid / Reuters Motorsports Rumormill Acura Honda Coupe Racing Vehicles Performance gt3