[Stéphane Dumas]

Here PDL AE rant of the week www.autoextremist.com

CHASING GHOSTS OF LEGENDS PAST.
DateTuesday, October 14, 2014 at 10:28AM

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

Detroit. After years of flailing around trying to be something it’s not, Acura, allegedly the best that Honda can muster as a car company has, according to industry sources and confirmed by Automotive News, alighted on a new strategy that will propel it into the future. The answer? All-wheel-drive.

Yes, Acura, seemingly completely out of ideas, has thrown up its hands and decided that it will pattern itself after Subaru and adopt all-wheel-drive across the board.

Wow, that’s some revelation.

Not that there aren’t some markets across the country where AWD is basically mandatory, and any manufacturer worth its salt has to offer it as a matter of course, but really? This is the brilliant idea that will solidify the Acura product strategy going forward?

I don’t get it.

Remember, this is the Honda Motor Company we’re talking about, a car company with a glittering history of innovative ideas and a corporate mantra of pushing the envelope on the race track – on two (Formula 1) and four (MotoGP) wheels – and on the street with advanced technology and clear-eyed future-think that propelled the company to greatness.

As a matter of fact, though it’s hard to believe now, at one point Honda was considered the Porsche of the Asian automakers, a company that mirrored the personality of its founder - an inspired maverick who marched to his own drummer - a company whose innovative mindset stood out in a sea of automakers that moved from one technical progression to the next without rhyme or reason, in lockstep with whatever the current thinking was at the time.

Honda was at once inspired and inspiring in this business, and Acura was supposed to be the best of Honda, so what happened?

Mediocrity happened. And corporate conservatism swallowed the Honda mindset whole. And Acura suffered exponentially because of it. Yesterday’s brilliant Acura NSX and hot Integra models gave way to a mind-numbing parade of forgettable sedans and crossovers wrapped in uninspired sheet metal that said nothing about “the best of Honda.” Instead, they said everything about filling a segment in a rote dance of being present and accounted for in the market, and little else.

 

[AMERICA 123]

Acura from the gitgo had a lot of 'look what Audi's doing'.

Main source of external inspiration actually.


More than all the rest combined .

The second gen Legend and Vigor ( both longitudinal FWD ) for that matter were all set up for awd and then they got fighting amongst themselves, the Yen ratios started changing, Infiniti and Lexus arrived and then...... they flinched while sitting down and then...... the rest is history.


So..... it is not just about Subaru per se.

 

[Neanderthal]

AWD is for sissies anyway. And here I was starting to suspect Acura was a Manly Man car company! So sad, so sad...

 

[Stéphane Dumas]

AWD is for sissies anyway. And here I was starting to suspect Acura was a Manly Man car company! So sad, so sad...

That what Don Cherry would said if he talked about cars instead of hockey.

I spotted a good reader mail on AE emails of the week then I decided to quote because it's both interesting and fun to read.

Honda doesn't get it.

I think the upcoming NSX is more proof that Honda still doesn't know what the frick to do. The original NSX was a near-supercar at the time, but it didn't pretend to be. What it was was a high-performance car with Ferrari-like characteristics, but with reliability and a much lower price. This new NSX looks like typical modern Honda thinking: cram it with whatever tech we have on hand (seriously, V6, Hybrid, *and* SH-AWD?) and have it styled by a 15 year old with a Gundam fetish. It is so far removed from what the original NSX was that it might as well be presented as an entirely different car. Wonder if Paul Verhoeven has a trademark on 6000 SUX...

Jim. Z
Detroit, Michig