The car that started it all. The Acura Legend.

When the Honda executives decided to market its flagship vehicle in the U.S., they made a wise decision to create a new brand. Back in 1986, there was no way that the public would pay more than $20,000 for a Honda. Honda and other Japanese imports still had a stigma of being cheap, reliable cars. Nothing about them said anything luxury. Just think Hyundai about 3 or 4 year ago, in the pre-Genesis days.

They created a new brand and logo by closing the gap on the top of the ‘H’ logo to resemble a set of calipers, and called it Acura. With the introduction of the Legend and Integra, Acura was an instant success. The Acura Legend could be had with luxury amenities found in most luxury cars such as leather interior, sunroof, premium audio, power accessories, and a powerful six cylinder engine. Integra was a fun-to-drive, economical, compact car for those who wanted a little more than a Civic.

The Integra made 'performance-luxury' affordable.

In the late 80′s, being the only Japanese premium marque, Acura marketed itself to be the luxury sport brand. And it worked. Then came Toyota and Nissan with Lexus and Infiniti, respectively. By the mid 90′s, one particular competitor has not only passed them up, but have become a dominant name in the segment. The nameplate was Lexus. Lexus’s wild success made Infiniti go back to the drawing board several times, and Acura was forced into a niche market.

Fast forward to today, and you have Lexus as the best selling luxury marque in the U.S.. Infiniti established itself as the performance luxury brand. What about Acura? Well… They have become a ‘ultra-Accord’ brand.

All of today's Acuras feature the controversial 'shield' grill.

TSX is a European Honda Accord, TL is a fancy American Accord, RL is a larger Accord, RSX is a TSX cross-over, and MDX is an RL cross-over. So the whole entire line-up being a variation of the Accord, can they really be called a luxury brand? Not a single RWD vehicle, nothing larger than a 3.7 liter V6 in their stable, what type of customers are they attracting?

Some will argue that Infiniti is a one-trick pony as well with everything being a variation of a the G-series. That is true, but the Nissan’s premium brand has somethings that luxury buyers look for – rear-wheel drive chassis and V8 engines. What about Audi? All Audis are AWD and offer V8 and V10 engines in the top sedans and coupes.

The plan for the Acura brand, as late as early 2009, was to have a RWD chassis and at least a V8 engine. But they have canceled that development, blaming the global economical downturn. We argue that Honda cannot afford not to develop a RWD chassis and at least a V8 engine to stay competitive in this market. Or, they might as well as change their Acura brand name to ‘Accora’.

-KF