In March 2006, the Honda Motor Company celebrated an important milestone: the 20th anniversary of their luxury brand, Acura. Created to give Honda backers a luxurious make that they could be proud of, Acura has successfully expanded the organization’s reach far beyond more prosaic models such as the Civic and the treaty. Today, Acura is a completely different brand than the company that was birthed in 1986. We’ll take a glimpse at Acura’s past, their present line up, and what the next 20 years may bring for this esteemed Japanese automaker.
Back in 1981, Honda saw a possibility opening up for itself that no-one in Honda’s headquarters wanted to miss out on : building and selling expensive cars to Yankee clients. Mercedes and BMW were both gaining traction in the U.S. As Yankee luxury brands Cadillac and Lincoln sputtered and lost market share. Honda was receiving widespread customer acceptance and critical acclaim for the three models it was then selling in the U.S, so the decision to market dearer and upscale cars was viewed as a powerful possibility.
When Honda management made a decision to go with the upscale brand, they did this knowing that the cars would ultimately have to stand apart from Honda to order the higher costs. Simply selling up market Hondas as Acuras would not work. Instead, each automobile was fitted out and retuned to compete directly against the leading luxury cars of that time.
The first 2 models to be sold as Acuras were the Legend, a V6 powered sedan and coupe, and the Integra, which was essentially a three door coupe based on a Honda Civic platform. Later, the NSX two seat dragster was brought out to fight Porsche and the Vigor sedan was introduced to fill the opening between the Integra and the Legend.
Over time, the assorted model names were dropped and replaced by vehicles with two or three letter designations. The Vigor became the TL, the Legend became the RL, and the Integra the RSX. Today, the MDX SUV, RSX sport compact, and TSX sedan, join the three other models to comprise the current Acura line up. A slightly smaller SUV, the RDX, will be joining Acura’s line up later in 2006.
The future of Acura looks bright in spite of powerful worldwide competition. Though Honda jumped into the market a few years before Nissan rolled out it Infiniti division and Toyota its Lexus line, Acura has trailed its Japanese competitors for more than a decade now. Some critics have said this misstep has hurt Acura, while others see it as a characteristic conservative Honda call to expand the Honda brand instead.
Future changes for Acura are sketchy, but model changes will probably include the introduction of diesel powered vehicles and more hybrid offerings. Some automobile critics have recommended that Honda has the capacity of outflanking BMW and Mercedes by manufacturing super luxury sedans and sports cars. Renowned Honda quality mixed with European styling, luxury, and engineering have fueled Acura’s success so far. An expansion of this theme to even larger and/or sportier models could vault Acura forward.
Truly, Acura has helped reshape the first perception that many motorists had about the Japanese brands, by delivering vehicles that are high in luxuriousness, tops in engineering, and strong in refinement. If the last 20 years have proved anything it is that fans can expect much more from Acura over the next twenty years. Kudos to the Honda Motor Company for developing a brand which has been so well received.
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