Preview: 2021 Acura TLX

To say that I've been eagerly awaiting this car is a huge understatement. My current job has me working literally a block away form Honda's R&D facilities in Torrance, CA, so I occasionally catch glimpses of the camouflaged test mules roaming around my area. I once even tried to chase one down in the S2000 after work one day. My family has had two third generation TL Type-S (East Brother had a silver 6MT and I had a white 5AT) and it is still, to this day, one of my absolute favorite cars. When Acura finally announced the second generation TLX last week, complete with Type-S variant, I was ecstatic.

From the outside, the car looks fantastic. It takes a lot of its cues for the Type-S concept introduced last year, which is precisely what many people were hoping for. I think my favorite angle of this car is the rear three quarters. It looks like a grown up version of the current ILX, which isn't a bad thing. I like the current ILX A-Spec's look and think it's a a good look to build upon. With the Type-S quad exhaust, it just looks aggressive in the best way possible. The front of the car also looks great, with Acura designers doing a great job of integrating the new corporate front grille into the design of the car.

Now we get to the big one: power, handling, and content. This is where, for the last near decade, Acura has really done a disservice to the brand. In the early 2000s, around the time of the third generation TL, Acura was seen as an equal alternative to the likes of Lexus, and even in some cases, BMW, Mercedes and Audi. Despite being front wheel drive, the third generation TL performed as well and was as luxurious as its class rivals. The second generation RL, which was the first vehicle in its class to introduce torque vectoring all-wheel drive to the class, also blew its competition out of the water in its early years. But as the fourth generation TL was introduced and the second generation RL continued on largely unchanged, Acura began its long downhill slide. Its horsepower figures were no longer competitive, the luxury factor started to fall due to cost cutting, and the looks...oh lord the looks. Luckily, the MDX and RDX crossovers kept the brand alive, and Acura did see a brief resurgence with the introduction of the TLX and RLX. Unfortunately, the TLX was never considered a worth alternative to the 3-Series or C-Class due to its lack of power, and the RLX is effectively dead after this year (which will be discussed in a future article).

However, my biggest gripe with the Acura brand actually has to do with parent brand, Honda. Acura in the last few years has always been one step behind Honda's cars when it comes to new content. The reason why we ended up with at 2016 Honda Accord Touring instead of a 2016 Acura TLX was because the Accord had newer and better content than the TLX, not to mention nearly identical horsepower ratings and more room. Our last article before we bid goodbye to our 2014 Acura RLX highlighted the discrepancies between our Accord and the Acura flagship, showing that for over $25,000 less, you can get an Accord that out classes Acura's flagship in many respects. This is also the reason why I ended up with a 2020 Civic Si instead of a 2019 ILX A-Spec. Sure, the Civic may be missing a few luxury features, but it is in every other way, the superior car compared to the ILX.

With the introduction of the second generation TLX, this will hopefully change. Yes, the base vehicles will share some version of the 2.0 liter turbocharged four-cylinder Honda currently uses in the Accord (and RDX and Civic Type-R), but what I'm more interested in is the 3.0 liter turbocharged V6 in the Type-S. Finally, Acura will get an exclusive engine not previously designed for a Honda application. We don't know how much power it's going to make, but rumor has it that it should make 35% more power than the current 3.5 liter V6 in the TLX. That puts it in the 390 to 400 horsepower range, which will be fantastic. Double wishbone suspension (which is making a return), the latest version of SH-AWD, and an interior featuring the latest technology Honda has to offer, Acura is finally making a divide between itself and parent Honda's vehicles. As far as I can tell, the only piece of equipment that might be carried over from the Accord is the 10-speed transmission, but even that should be significantly different from the Accord's since it'll need to be able to handle far more horsepower and torque.

It's still going to be a while before the 2021 TLX hits the market, but all things are pointing in the right direction for this car. The automotive press is hailing the TLX as a return to its early 2000 sporty roots, and boy I sure hope they're right. Acura needs a new renaissance, and they need it quick. Sure, the NSX brought some attention back to the brand, but Acura needs something more available to the masses, and they needed it yesterday. Let's see how things go...
     

Comparison: 2018 Honda Accord Sport 2.0T vs 2018 Honda Civic Si Sedan

Ever since Honda announced in 2013 that the Accord would come in a Sport trim, with available six-speed manual transmission, I've often wondered if the Accord Sport would be a better deal than the Civic Si. For starters, both cars were very similarly priced and had essentially the same engine. For the price, the Civic did come with more features, a little more horsepower, sharper handling, and a limited slip differential. With the Accord, you got a much larger and more grown-up looking car, and that was pretty much it. Ninth gen versus ninth gen, I would have gladly taken a Civic Si home before taking the Accord Sport home.

Things are different with the tenth generation though. Both cars are much more feature rich than their predecessors, and the Accord Sport now actually has two engine options: a slightly up-tuned version of the 1.5 liter turbo four from the Civic coupe, sedan, and hatchback, and a de-tuned version of the 2.0 liter turbo four from the Civic Type-R. Unlike the previous generation though, the price difference has become much more significant. The Accord Sport 1.5T starts at an MSRP of $25,700 while the Civic Si stars at an MSRP of $24,100. I actually looked at the Accord Sport 2.0T, which adds an additional $4,580 on top of the base MSRP, making the Accord Sport 2.0T a $30,000 car. So the question isn't so much which is the better car for roughly the same price. The question has now become, "is the Accord Sport worth the extra $6,000 over the Civic Si?" As luck would have it, a local Honda dealer had both an Accord Sport 2.0T and a Civic Si Sedan available, so I decided to take a look at the cars side-by-side to determine if the Accord is worth the extra money.

Test Drive: 2016 Acura ILX Tech Plus A-Spec

When Acura announced it would be refreshing the ILX last year, I was actually excited, but skeptical at the same time. As was mentioned in our reviews of the ILX, it is a car that I want to like, but find it difficult to like. The 2.0 liter inline-four equipped model was extremely underpowered for its own good, and the 2.4 liter equipped "performance" version was basically just a tarted up Civic Si. Looking to further differentiate itself from its parent company's vehicles, Acura made some major changes to the mid-cycle refreshed ILX. What I wanted to know was whether or not these changes would be enough for it to actually compete in the growing entry-level compact luxury car segment.

Drawing Board: BMW M7

Alpina's B7, the closest thing to a M7 you can get
at this time (image courtesy of Autoblog.com)

BMW's M division makes some pretty amazing vehicles, and they do make some questionable ones too. Cars like the M3 and M5 are consistently lauded for their incredible performance while vehicles like the X5M and X6M make people scratch their heads and wonder "why?" In all the years the M division has been creating monster machines though, BMW has never taken it upon themselves to create a super version of the full-sized 7-series sedan. As it stands right now, Mercedes Benz and their S63 (soon to be S65) AMG, and Audi's S8 have no competition from BMW. While you could compare the S63 AMG and Audi S8 to vehicles from Rolls Royce and Bentley, would it not be more interesting if t were the German big three slugging it out?

"But guys, there's the Alpina B7!" Yes, the Alpina B7 could be considered BMW's super luxury barge, but it is not built by BMW or its M division, but rather by Alpina (a separate company that builds their own cars based off of BMW's vehicles). Enter the BMW M7. This would be BMW's super luxury barge built by their own in-house tuning arm to take on the Mercedes S63 AMG. While the car does not actually exist, and is questionable whether it ever will, its non-existence allows us to imagine what the car would be like. BMW claims there is no market for such a car, and that buyers wanting a performance version of the 7-series would just buy the V12 equipped 760Li. We believe the Mercedes S63 AMG and Audi S8 prove otherwise.

Editorial: We should all shed a tear for the impending demise of Holden as we know it

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Recently, we found out that Holden, that quirky car maker from Down Under, would be ceasing its manufacturing operations in 2017 and have its vehicle lines replaced with re-badged Buicks that will likely be manufactured in China. This is sad news for the motoring world as Holden, even throughout its ownership by the folks at GM, has always been a bastion for rear wheel drive and big push-rod V8 motors. The Holden brand has been synonymous with fast cars even for American car enthusiasts since the final generation of the Pontiac GTO, the ill-fated Pontiac G8, and the current Chevrolet SS are all vehicles derived from vehicles that were a part of the Holden line-up. Of particular interest were the cars of the Holden Special Vehicles group, an in-house tuning arm that took the already relatively powerful cars and cranked up the engines, suspensions, and appearance to 11.

For our friends down in Australia, this is a particularly deep blow as Ford has already announced earlier this year that it would be eliminating the Ford Falcon from its line-up and would no longer be replacing that car with another rear wheel drive sedan. The fabled Falcon vs. Commodore rivalry seems doomed to an early demise as the V8 Supercars racing series will be losing these two major competitors, even as it gains the likes of Mercedes Benz and Nissan.

So as this means another blow struck for V8-powered RWD 4-door sport sedans, we slowly see the segment shrink to a very few competitors. In fact, once Holden passes into the annals of history, only BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Cadillac are left producing cars in this category and even the long-term existence of those cars may be called into question as a result of ever increasingly strict emissions standards, a greater emphasis on fuel economy from consumers, and the steadily advancing march of AWD technology.

As enthusiasts, we should take a moment to salute the demise of a storied brand's true identity and hope that we can all be forgiven for allowing such a travesty to pass. That said, it is a damn good thing that forced induction has made for some increasingly fun and dynamically intriguing performance cars in the last few years.