As William Stopford stated in his 2005-2012 Acura RL article, the RL’s successor, the RLX, has not improved upon the RL’s microscopic sales figures. In fact, since going on sale in the U.S. in early 2013, the RLX has sold less than 13,000 units total here in the states. Seeing an RLX in the wild is largely a semi-annual sight, though I’ve probably seen more of the RLX than most, having actually been behind the wheel of one.
It was back at the International Motor Press’s Test Days in upstate New York back in fall of 2015, and the RLX I drove was the Sport Hybrid Super Handling All-Wheel Drive model. With combined output of 377 horsepower and 341 lb-ft torque from its three motor system (3.5L V6 in the front and two electric motors in the rear), 7-speed DCT, and its advanced torque-vectoring all-wheel drive system, the RLX actually offered a highly dynamic and dare I say “sporty” driving experience, something uncommon for a car in its class.
Combine that with a smooth ride, comfortable interior, and numerous tech and safety features galore, and on paper, the RLX would appear to be a home run. So why doesn’t it sell in numbers that are at least respectable? Simply put, the RLX is a very nice, well-rounded $35,000 luxury sedan. There’s just one problem with that: the base RLX’s entry price is $55,000, and a fully-optioned Sport Hybrid SH-AWD model will put you within the $70,000 range.
Sure, the hybrid powertrain is advanced, and does warrant a small premium, but $70,000 for a car with an interior no better than a $35,000 TLX, and styling that from most angles actually does look a lot like an even less expensive Honda Accord? It just doesn’t add up.
Loved my 1988 Integra… but it will probably be my last Honda vehicle. Has an 81 Accord LX Hatchback that I kept for 29 years. Augmenting that car was a ’85 CRX and ’89 CRXsi. I loved the si but got really tired of hitting my head on the door frame. Honda no longer caring that tall people could drive their smallest car. I didn’t even fit into the RSX or whatever the after-Integra was called. head hit the ceiling. I did try one last time with the hybrid Insight Hatch, would have liked it far better with a purely gas engine option and a stick. C’est la vie, Honda pushed me out of their fold.
Guessed the dealers didn’t like when I said that Accord really needed Tail Fins because it had gotten far to big. They could have renamed it Legend and shrunk the TSX European Accord down a bit more.
Yeah, agree it is hard to tell what Acura even is anymore. It’s like the difference between GM cars – hard to tell there is any difference most of the time.
Agreed. The slow downward spiral of Acura following…which I think started with the retiring of the Legend in ’96.
Make that: Agreed. The slow downward spiral of Acura…that started with the retiring of the Legend in ’96.
I mentioned it below, but once the RSX vanished, Acura died. Theres no point to the brand. The CL was a nice car, but personal luxury coupes without real performance…meh.
I disagree with the discontinuation of the Legend and RSX being the “beginning of the end”.
The Legend’s best year for sales was 1988 (70K), and though the 1991 redesign brought a sales increase as well (53K to 65K), they would again fall sharply until the bitter end. Yes, the 1996 RL sold worse than the 1995 Legend (15K vs. 18K), but the writing was already on the wall – keeping the Legend name wouldn’t have erased the ~70% sales decrease in a mere four years. The Yen was probably to blame.
RSX sales fell by a lot as well (30K in 2002 vs. 16K in 2006). The new-for-2006 Civic Si (available as both a 2-door and a 4-door) didn’t help the RSX’s case.
See I think renaming the Integra and calling it that alphanumeric nonsense, as well as dropping the sedan bodystyle, caused the Acura brand to spiral downward. The brand died when the ugly numb fourth generation TL debuted.
The discontinuation of the SH-AWD on the base RLX (previously standard on the RL) was a big step backwards.
I agree. $15K extra for the hybrid just to get AWD? Makes German option packaging look like a good deal.
$70K for a basic midsize sedan?!?!? Crack pipe! I gotta be honest, Acura pretty much doesn’t exist at all to me, ever since the RSX’s demise. No sporty affordable coupe. GONE.
I owned a 2001 TL, which was terrific, and love my current 2011 MDX. Have driven current TLX’s as loaners and have been very impressed. The “beak” (which was a huge styling mistake) and other weird styling cues have been toned down and the TLX is now a great car for the money – less than a Lexus ES.
As to why the RL and RLX have never been popular? You hit the reason. While nice cars, they are somewhat bland, little different from the TLX and not worth the extra 15 grand. I drove an RLX and really didn’t see much size and luxury difference over the TLX. Acura should go full upscale on the TLX. Different styling, enlarge it, make the 3 motor 377 hp engine standard, add all the technical goodies and market it as a true flagship. Price the result at $70K and it would be a worthy (and less expensive) competitor to Lexus LS, and a real bargain compared to the S class.
If one has $$ to spend on a luxo flagship, it’s not going to be a fancy mid size Accord. Only die hard Honda loyalists will pony up for an RL, but even then, they wish it was still called Legend.
Acura is doing ok with CUV’s at least.
In U.S. Japanese automobile is regarded as advance and popular among the consumers. But its reputation in near luxury and luxury sectors is eroding due to in surging of German big three luxury bands and under development of the new Japanese cars. Technology wise, Japanese automobile companies are no match with Germans, and real life performance is event worst. Only the reliability Japanese is still holding up. But Germans offer leasing on thier products, that makes reliability non issue. Until Japanese makes the significant advance like it did in 80s and 90s, it will not be surprised to see it will go down futher. Both Acura and Infiniti bands are in the brink of closing its stores.
I’m not gonna swear to ATP being high, or fleet numbers being particularly low, but 2017 is on track to be Infiniti’s best sales year ever. They will probably overtake Acura this year. And this year is down a bit from last year for Acura, but only by about 5,000 units, so nowhere near their worst year. Very, very far from dealership-closing low sales numbers.
Acura has done nothing but lay eggs the past 15 or so years. New NSX is yet another example af Honda’s lack of understanding. That this has been allowed to go on for so long is a real black eye for what was once a very promising premium brand.
This car looks like the makers of Grand Theft Auto commissioned a “generic luxury car” model for one of the games, and then Honda went and built it.
IMO the last great Acura was the 04-08 TL. That design has aged really well.
Very soon this site will start the deadly sin of Toyota, Honda, Nissian,/Datsun …..
For 70k You Guys Probably Can Buy 2 New Avalons.Same Reliability&perhaps Even Higher Resale value.
Yes. The Avalon is a darn nice car for the money.
One of the buttons on the dash is surely for a “Cloaking Device”, I never see these. Actually, the last one I recall seeing was at the Denver Auto Show a couple of years ago, I think I took a pic and posted it here. Before that I saw one in NYC but that was almost five years ago now (So maybe it was actually one of the last RL’s)…And I’m a fan of these cars (but not at that price).
What I have noticed is that the handful of RLXs I have seen are perpetually very dirty and covered in minor damage from parking (dings, bumper scuffs, etc.). Seems like most PA RLX owners bought them as transportation devices and beat the sh*t out of them.
I think the first picture at the top is exhibit A in my campaign to ban white cars. Yes, the car is invisible, but for the illuminated tail lights. Bland, yes, but the white finishes the job. Add blowing snow/fog to the mix and voila! Gone. I do understand that there are things like distant climes to the south where white may offer some advantage against the hot sun. But don’t we, and our future automaton mobility facilitators, need to see the obstruction in front of us?
PS. How do we get people to turn on their lights?
You’ve touched upon an issue that has annoyed me for years: motorists not turning their lights on in inclement weather.
I was always taught that whenever you turn your windshield wipers on, you turn your headlights on as well. In fact, a year or two ago they did enact a law in Massachusetts requiring just that. Unfortunately I haven’t seen it enforced once.
It’s really a matter of safety, for other drivers to see you in addition to pedestrians. I was out running the other morning when it was rainy/foggy and I almost crossed the street right into the oncoming path of a silver pickup truck with no headlights/DRLs on.
We’ve had that law in IL for years and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it enforced.
This could be a very easy fix on the part of auto makers. They should do like BMW does with their automatic wipers. If the wipers cycle more than just a few times over the course of a given number of seconds, the lights should automatically come on. I’m sure this can be done fairly easily.
This should also apply to the regular nighttime operation of the car’s lights. Ever since electroluminescent gauges became commonplace, people often forget to turn their lights on at dusk (or later, somehow).
Finally, why can’t auto makers agree on which side to place the fuel filler door?!
Sorry…rant over.
The Chrysler 300C I had a couple of years ago would turn the lights on automatically whenever the wipers were on which I thought was an excellent, simple, easy, and cheap to implement feature. I believe it also locked the car into AWD at the same time. (The default was for it to be in RWD if the outside temp was under 40F until slippage was detected).
Aside from inclement conditions, I’ve long been convinced that part of the reason that people don’t remember to turn their lights on when it’s dark is that stock headlights of so many cars suck so bad that it is far from obvious if they are on or off especially in a city environment.
GMs going back to the 1990s would pair the lights and wipers, so long as the lights were in “auto,” and would sound the annoying “bong” noise and flash “HEADLAMPS SUGGESTED” on the DIC if not left in “auto.” And, so help you if you left the automatic wipers in their auto mode, because the lights would be ablaze at all times, regardless of outside circumstances.
I have used my full head/tail-light system at all times when on the road for over 40 years. This is the best approach. When I was taking private pilot flying lessons this was taught as proper practice. I just applied it to my driving as well. Shutting off the lights is habitual when I get out of the car. My two Saabs do this on their own. Another pet peeve is that if you forget, the car should shut them down automatically. My neighbour’s Toyota Camry did not, resulting in a flat battery several times.
Poor Acura. The original version of the Legend was great, and I think they hit their zenith with the 2004-08 TL. Since then it’s been downhill. The release of the TLX gave me some hope that they’d found their way again, but after having one, I can tell you they haven’t. My 2013 Volkswagen CC was a much better car overall. It’s sad, really…I so wanted them to make a strong comeback.
Their historical sales numbers seem to support this view via the wider audience of the car market. Their 3 best years were the first 3 years of that (3rd gen) TL body style, which also included the first 2 years of 2nd gen RL and the first 2 years of 1st gen TSX production. By last year, that peak (200-210k sales/year) had fallen by 35% to about 130k, and the car market at large was smaller in 2004-06 than it was last year.
Yawwwn… no passion or character. No hook to bring me in. All this for a low low price of 70 g which is like equivalent to 200k, Canadian.
Sold! ?
I recently bought a new daily driver, which the subject of a later COAL so I won’t divulge it here….but I came within a hair of selecting a CPO RLX instead. The new ones are very overpriced at $55K for the “base” version. The “Technology” version with a lot of goodies I wanted is $61K. But, I talked to several dealers and they were willing to do $12,500 off a new one just in response to an email! So, that helps. But even with that discount, it seemed overpriced to me. CPO ones are a pretty good deal I think, high $20’s for 2014’s with 30,000 miles or so. But at the end of the day I fell for a competing Japanese make, which has been Acura’s problem for too long.