We Finance 11 Sh-awd Sunroof Leather Heated Seats Xenons Cd Changer Back-up Cam on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2021 Acura TLX A-Spec Long-Term Update | How's it handle?

A couple of months have passed since we took delivery of our new 2021 Acura TLX A-Spec long-term tester, and the miles are starting to pile on — the odometer just clicked past 6,000. I was particularly eager to get behind the wheel of our TLX, as my first go-round in AcuraÂ’s new sports sedan left me feeling good about where Acura was headed with this car. That said, I only spent about an hour in the saddle during my first drive experience, and that time was on unfamiliar roads. The stint I just completed was a full month, and in that time I treated the TLX as if I owned it. So much so, that I completed the same mini road trip with it that I took in my 2001 Acura Integra GS-R last fall. The destination was southern Indiana, an unexpected but heavenly place to test the handling of a car. Just go south or east from Bloomington, Ind., on the squiggly lines you see on Google Maps. I promise you wonÂ’t be disappointed. Photo evidence of both trips below, including my friendÂ’s Alfa Romeo Giulia(s). The TLX was an absolute peach on the hundreds of miles of winding pavement. Despite its BMW 5 Series size, the TLX handles like a compact car. Its chassis is rigid and unbending through every kind of corner. This isnÂ’t the Type S (nor is it an Advance trim with the adaptive dampers), but itÂ’s all the chassis you could want on a backroad. ThereÂ’s enough give from the dampers to smooth out the bad spots, but itÂ’s dialed in to provide unwavering stability in big weight transfers, too. Acura struck a happy balance. Credit for this carÂ’s poise under stress on less-than-ideal roads should also be given to the new independent double wishbone front suspension design. You can sense it sorting out dips and changes in the road as youÂ’re battling through a rough corner. The big 255-section-width tires stay confidently glued to the pavement, communicating grip levels through the wheel and chassis as you go. The super-quick steering ratio from the new electric rack does a decent job of simulating road feel, but the best part about it is the rackÂ’s sheer speed. Acura takes full advantage of this sedanÂ’s rigid chassis with that quick, precise turn-in. ItÂ’s not quite as fast as the Alfa Romeo GiuliaÂ’s energetic steering, but the end result is a car that changes direction the moment your brain decides it wants to. What really ties this carÂ’s handling together is AcuraÂ’s torque-vectoring SH-AWD system.

This is why Acura hasn't yet announced its EV strategy

Despite parent company Honda's green and friendly brand image, luxury marque Acura hasn't made a grand statement about electrifying their lineup. Even as brands like Jaguar, Land Rover, Bentley, and Infiniti pledge to entirely electrify their lineups in the coming decade, Acura has held back. The reason, according to Acura head honcho Jon Ikeda, is that it's focusing on reestablishing itself as a performance brand. In a wide-ranging interview with Automotive News, Ikeda says Acura came out of the gate strong in 1986 and did well for the first 20 years, but when the bottom fell out of the market in 2008 the brand experienced "growing pains." That spawned a period of self-reflection and, as Ikeda puts it, "What are we about?" The decision was made to go back to Acura's roots as the performance division of Honda. "That's what Acura is. That's what I fell in love with," Ikeda says. Ikeda joined Honda in 1989, but his promotion to Acura boss in 2015 was a surprise to many, including himself. That's because Honda had a tradition of putting engineers at the helm, and Ikeda was a designer, responsible for the looks of such cars as the FSX concept, 2001 Civic Coupe, and beloved 2004 Acura TL. 2021 Acura TLX Advance View 38 Photos When asked by AN whether Acura is worried that luxury competitors are putting stakes in the ground to claim EV brand identities, Ikeda says no. "For us as a brand, we needed to kind of refocus and reestablish ourselves as a performance brand... We want everybody to understand where we are, what we're about first. Even if we go electric we will continue to be a performance division of Honda and performance will be our focus." To earn its performance street cred, Acura poured resources into the second-gen NSX hybrid supercar, which served as testbed for how electricity can work harmoniously with performance. They will continue to campaign IMSA race cars to earn trophies as proof, and Ikeda also wants to bring more Type S models to the lineup. Ikeda says Acura is still in the process of rebuilding its foundation, but when he's done he expects people to associate Acura with performance. That sure seems ambitious to us, but products like the new TLX are a helpful stepping stone. It also explains why Acura is investing in different platforms to differentiate itself from Honda. To be clear, Ikeda isn't ruling out electrification.

Acura files for Integra Type S trademark

It's only been a couple of weeks since Acura dropped the news bomb that it was bringing back the Integra. In that time, though, the company has quickly applied to trademark the name "Integra Type S" with the US Patent and Trademark Office. The filing, discovered by CarBuzz, was submitted on Aug. 20, a little less than a week after the Integra revival was announced. Curiously, it's under the category of "Apparel and headwear, namely, caps, hats, T-shirts, shirts, sweatshirts, knit shirts, polo shirts, jackets and vests," rather than automobiles.   It seems unlikely, though, that Acura would trademark Integra Type S for shirts and hats if it didn't plan on building a car to go along with it. So the Integra may come in standard and hotted up versions. The last time Acura offered an Type S in North America, it wasn't officially called that. During Acura's switch to an alphanumeric naming convention, the Integra name was dropped in favor of RSX, built from 2002-06. There, the Type S moniker, while not as hard-core as the previous-generation Integra Type R, still meant a considerable bump in performance. Regular RSX models had 160 horsepower, but the RSX Type S cranked out 200 to 210, depending on the year. The Type S was also available exclusively with a manual transmission, and had improved suspension and brakes. While a similar improvement in hardware would be more than welcome on an Integra Type S, we don't want to get too excited over what could just be a logo on a T-shirt. The wouldn't be the first time in recent memory a carmaker trademarked a familiar name for swag. Earlier this year Nissan trademarked Fairlady Z — the original name for the Nissan Z-car — for usage on anything from cuff links to wall clocks. Meanwhile, Ford stepped in and trademarked the name Skyline for the category of cars and trucks. So Acura should probably just go ahead and get the trademark for cars, even if it doesn't plan on offering it at all.