2008 Acura Mdx With Third Row, Under Limited Warranty on 2040-cars

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2013 Acura ZDX

What Is, What Could Have Been, And What May Yet Be
History is largely unkind to losers. That's true in the world of politics and sports, and it follows on with a few caveats in the realm of automobiles.
In terms of cars, historic losers tend to be remembered in one of two broad ways. Every once in a while, unsuccessful or oddball models actually make reputational gains after some time away from the new-car marketplace. I consider the Saab 9-2X one of the recent poster children for this group; a car that moved like molasses on dealer lots in the mid-2000s but has morphed into a sort of hard-to-find, used gem in recent years. More often, though, that which was unloved when new remains unloved with tens or hundreds of thousands of miles on the odometer. Pontiac's seriously misunderstood Aztek has king status here (despite the wailings of oddball fan clubs across the nation), so much so that invoking "Aztek" as a pejorative stopped being pithy about a dozen years ago.

2013 Acura ILX 2.4

Going Mainstream Has Its Privileges
Acura's experiment with niche models has failed. Competing in the luxury car business by filling white space with product just didn't work for the Japanese automaker. In place of slow-selling models like its ZDX and quirky first-gen RDX, the mindset at Acura has recently switched to more conventional products with vastly improved volume potential. The redesigned 2013 RDX, for example, sold almost as many units in 2012 as it did in 2010 and 2011 combined, and the all-new 2013 ILX has sold more units each month - since going on sale in May - than Acura sold in ZDXs and RLs in all of last year.
While the redesigned RDX is a crucial product to compete with luxury compact crossovers, the ILX might be the most important new product for Acura, as a growing number of premium makes are starting to realize the importance of upscale entry-level compact cars. Ironically, this segment was a pivotal part of the brand's success in the 1980s and '90s thanks to the Integra, but Acura completely abandoned the genre when it killed off the RSX coupe in 2006. The addition of the ILX not only gives Acura a competitive small car again, it also drops the brand's entry price by almost $5,000.

2019 Acura ILX gets a makeover with more standard safety features

The 2019 Acura ILX compact luxury sedan has finally been redesigned to fit the look introduced by the TLX and RDX. According to Acura, the entire nose from the A-pillar forward and the whole rear fascia have been changed. Up front the car has the pentagonal grille and angry LED lights that are Acura signatures, and they're complemented by crisply creased sheetmetal across the rest of the car. The results are a far sportier, far less anonymous machine. The car will continue to be available in normal and A-Spec versions, with the latter consisting mainly of appearance items such as 18-inch wheels, dark trim and lights, and a rear spoiler. Exterior enhancements are the primary change to the new ILX. The interior is nearly unchanged except the A-Spec has some stylish sport seats similar to those in the RDX A-Spec. Acura also says the infotainment system has been upgraded to be faster, and it has fresh graphics and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility. But this is not the system found in the completely new RDX, just an updated version of the current infotainment. The last big upgrade to the ILX is the inclusion of the complete AcuraWatch suite of safety features on all ILX models. This includes automatic emergency braking, lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control and road departure mitigation. Aside from these changes, the ILX is still pretty much the same as the old one. Under the skin is the same naturally aspirated 201-horsepower 2.4-liter four-cylinder as the current model. It's still coupled to an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission and powers solely the front wheels. The 2019 ILX goes on sale in October, but pricing has not yet been announced. Related Video: