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Jay Leno finally gets his hands on the 2017 Acura NSX

It has been five years since Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld starred in a commercial about which one of them would get the first example of the new Acura NSX. After a long wait, they finally get a chance, but Leno is the first to check out the coupe in the latest video from Jay Leno's Garage. The denim-clad host spends over 30 minutes with lead designer Michelle Christensen and Ted Klaus, global development chief engineer, to get the full scoop on the hybrid supercar. Leno and Christensen get into the nitty-gritty about the design process for the latest NSX, and she points out her favorite parts of the finished product. She had quite a challenge creating the new supercar. Over the model's long gestation, every adjustment to the shape forced changes elsewhere to direct the airflow correctly, and then the decision to switch to a different engine configuration added even more time. Klaus focuses on the engineering side, like using the Ferrari 458 and original NSX as the major benchmarks for the new one. He also takes a ride with Leno, and the comedian even cracks a grin driving it. Leno doesn't usually show much emotion behind the wheel, so the little smirk is high praise from him. Carve out some time for a detailed walk-through about the 2017 NSX in the latest clip from Jay Leno's Garage. Related Video:

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.

These are the top luxury cars bought by people entering the segment for the first time

Let's say you just got a big promotion at work or the kids are moving out of the house, and you finally have some extra money. You decide to blow it all at once and treat yourself by upgrading your ride. Naturally, you look to a luxury automaker. What do you choose?
Models like the Audi A3 and Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class may be tailor-made to introduce buyers to the premium segment, but a new study finds that they don't garner the highest rates of non-luxury customer conquests. It turns out that a Volvo leads among folks moving up to a premium brand, and it isn't even one that's made anymore, at that.
A recent study by Polk and IHS Automotive looked at what models had the highest rates of buyers upgrading from a non-luxury segment. The information comes from its new vehicle registration data through April 2014. All ten top models boasted conquest rates of over 50 percent, but the Volvo C70 led the field with 68.01 percent of its customers coming from non-premium brands.