2004 Acura Rsx on 2040-cars

Auto blog

The Aston Martin DB11 leads this month's list of discounts

We've got something of a broken record to report this month. The 2020 Acura NSX and 2020 Aston Martin DB11 have swapped places atop the discounts leaderboard for a fourth month in a row. For the month of March 2011, it's the British entry again in the lead. The DB11 earns top billing with an average discount of $24,614 off its sticker price, meaning buyers are paying an average transaction price of $177,206. That still a large suitcase full of bills, but at least it means buyers get to stare at a drop-dead beautiful coupe in their driveways with as much as 630 horsepower underhood. And if you love Aston Martin's svelte sense of style but don't want to spend quite so much money, you could always choose the 2020 Vantage that's selling for around $143,000. That's nearly $13,600 off that car's sticker, which is enough to land in seventh spot overall. Up next, as we've come to expect, is the Acura NSX. The hybrid-powered supercar from Japan is selling for $137,663 on average this month, which represents a $22,340 discount and seems like an exceptional deal for a 573-horsepower technological marvel that can scoot from 0-60 in just 2.9 seconds. That also represents the largest percentage of savings off the sticker this month. In third place for the month is the Audi R8, making March the second straight month that this trio of supercars has led the list of discounts. Buyers are saving $18,331 off the R8's sticker, which equals an average transaction price of $175,508. That's awfully close to the selling price of the DB11, for those lucky enough to be deciding between the two. Related Video: Driving Iron Man's Favorite Supercar, The Acura NSX | Translogic 215

Nice car seeks Millennials | 2018 Acura TLX First Drive

The Acura TLX has a new face. And a rear diffuser. There's also a new A-Spec version with stiffer dampers, quicker steering, a snarlier engine, and snazzy red leather. Plus, every TLX has a revised touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. That pretty much sums up the refreshed 2018 Acura TLX entry-level luxury sedan, which didn't exactly drop into the market with a splash when it launched originally. Is all of that enough to make a difference? Probably not. After a day driving it around southern Indiana and the outskirts of Louisville, Kentucky, the TLX continues to be a perfectly nice car. It's refined and the cabin is well built, but otherwise the sedan is unremarkable. Ah, but there's more going on here than just a mid-cycle refresh. The 2018 TLX is Acura's latest effort following the revised MDX to recast itself as the maker of "precision-crafted performance" cars, inspired by both the NSX and the Precision Concept car shown at the 2016 Detroit Auto Show. It's a top-to-bottom, R&D-to-marketing attempt to better appeal to today's holy grail of customer: the Millennial. To do that, it goes beyond the cars themselves. New Acura commercials are a far cry from an authoritative James Spader rationally extolling the virtues of this and that. There are fast cuts and three images perpetually on screen. There's pulse-pumping music, bright colors, and words like "Geek + Chic" and "Super + Sonic." There are many not-exactly-subliminal images of the NSX. There's a red Power Ranger. It's hip! It's young! It's Millennial! It's also a marketing campaign that has apparently connected with its target generation – well, at least in focus group ratings. "If you look at what the other brands are doing, and particularly the luxury brands, it's so serious," said Jon Ikeda, Acura vice president and general manager. "We're trying to make it more inclusive, not intimidating, more youthful, more optimistic, and more fun. We want to have fun with it. "[The commercials] are trying to set the tone of Acura in general, to make people go, 'OK, I'm interested in that, I want to go drive that.' Now it's up to us to make sure the product reflects that." And Ikeda is actually in a position to make that happen. He's not a business guy or a Mad Men marketing sort – he's moved upstairs after spending decades in design, a tenure that included penning the third-generation TL, the best-selling Acura model of all time and one of the best-looking.

Heritage-inspired Long Beach Blue joins the Acura NSX's color palette for 2021

Acura announced it's expanding the NSX's color palette with a heritage-inspired hue named Long Beach Blue for the 2021 model year. The color was inaugurated during the 2002 model year by the first-generation NSX. Shake the thoughts of the Pacific Ocean and its sandy beaches out of your head; the color is named after the Grand Prix of Long Beach, which Acura sponsors, not after a surfing spot. It joins other motorsport-themed colors, including Indy Yellow and Thermal Orange, and is a reformulated version of the first Long Beach Blue released some 18 years ago. It looks a little bit lighter than the color that inspired it, though it's just as eye-catching. It doesn't sound as if Acura is making any major mechanical modifications to the NSX for 2021. Power still comes from a gasoline-electric hybrid drivetrain that consists of a twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6, a nine-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, and three electric motors. The system's total output checks in 573 horsepower and 476 pound-feet of torque, and the NSX reaches 60 mph from a stop in three seconds flat.  Acura will begin delivering the 2021 NSX in early 2021, and pricing starts at $159,145 once a mandatory $1,995 destination charge enters the equation. 130R White, Curva Red, and Berlina Black are the only colors included in the aforementioned price. Enthusiasts who want Long Beach Blue will need to pony up and extra $1,000 for it. Colorful past Acura offered the original Long Beach Blue from 2002 to 2005. It replaced Monaco Blue Pearl, which was offered in 2000 and in 2001, but buyers shunned it. Only 88 cars were ordered in Long Beach Blue, according to the company's archives department, so it's one of the rarest first-gen NSX colors. Time will tell if it's more popular in the 2020s, or if it will be remembered as one of the rarest second-gen NSX colors, too.