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Acura built just 91 examples of the ILX last month, here's why

The short life of the Acura ILX has been vexed by one glaringly odd standard equipment choice, mediocre reviews, getting outsold by its competition as it posted slower-than-projected sales and a pledge by Honda to upgrade its supposedly upgraded offering. Therefore, when Automotive News reports that just 91 of the Civic-based Acura sedans were manufactured last month - after a string of production months in double-digits - it would be easy to press the button for the alarm bells.
But that would be hasty, because it is actually the 2013 Honda Civic that is crimping the production pipeline of the ILX. The vastly higher sales numbers of the Honda meant that all three North American plants that produce it needed to crank up output to satisfy dealer inventory needs, including the Greenburg, Indiana plant that makes both the Civic and the ILX. As the classic guns-vs-butter Economy 101 lesson taught us - in which making more of one necessarily means making less of the other - well, the Civic is the gun.
Honda prepared for this eventuality by cranking out the Acuras while it got ready for Civic production. The ILX has held steady at about 500 units shy of company projections every month, and the current inventory represents about 90 days worth of sales. That makes Greenburg's ostensibly low numbers in line with the realities of the ILX, and the situation probably won't change much as Acura gets ready for the improved 2014 ILX.

Junkyard Gem: 1987 Acura Legend Sedan

Honda beat Toyota and Nissan in the race to bring a luxury marque to North America, introducing us to the Acura brand for the 1986 model year. Acura shoppers could buy a luxed-up, more powerful Civic (the Integra) that year, while the real high-rollers went for a smooth-looking, V6-powered luxury sedan co-developed by Rover and Honda: the Legend. That was quite a leap for a company that had been selling tiny cars with two-cylinder motorcycle engines just 15 years earlier, but the 1973-1985 period had been spectacularly good times for Honda. The early Legend sold very well in California, and that's where I found this high-mile '87 a couple of months back. While the Legend had the same underlying chassis structure and engine family as the Rover 800 (known as the Sterling in North America), the Honda-grade build quality and non-Lucas electrical components of the Legend meant that it outlasted its Rover cousins by decades and hundreds of thousands of miles. This one didn't quite make it to 300,000 miles, but 281,032 miles blows away the readings I see on most 1980s junkyard cars not made by Mercedes-Benz. It's hard to imagine a prestigious luxury sedan with three pedals these days, but plenty of the early Legends were sold here with the five-speed manual transmission. Starting in the early 1990s, though, nearly all U.S.-market Legends had slushboxes (though the manual could be had all the way through the final Legends of 1995). Every Legend ever made came with a V6 engine. This car has a 2.5-liter DOHC rated at 151 horsepower, while the 1987 Legend coupe got a 2.7 making 161 horses. Other than the worn-out front seats, the interior in this car looked fairly decent when it arrived in its final parking space. Most super-high-mile cars I see in junkyards aren't very trashed-looking, presumably due to owners who took good care of them for decades (I do see the occasional exception to this rule, of course). The body shows no rust, as you'd expect in California, but the paint hasn't fared so well over its 33 years. It's the performance sedan making European automakers uncomfortable. Unlike many of the wild Japanese-market car ads of the 1980s, Honda pitched the JDM Legend in a most dignified manner. Featured Gallery Junked 1987 Acura Legend Sedan View 15 Photos Auto News Acura Automotive History Classics Acura Legend

Acura touts full-line Top Safety Pick+ achievement in new ad

When a vehicle scores a Top Safety Pick+ in Insurance Institute for Highway Safety testing or a five-star rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it's a darn big deal. But when an automaker's entire lineup earns the TSP+ honor and gets top marks from NHTSA it's a, um, well, it's never happened before. So congratulations, Acura. The premium Japanese brand is the first automaker to score top marks on the latest IIHS testing while also earning five-star NHTSA ratings across its entire range of vehicle. This, of course, is not the first time it's earned such a distinction – in 2009, and well before TSP+ existed, Acura was the first automaker to boast a lineup filled with TSP and five-star vehicles. With this new, five-vehicle lineup of TSP+ and five stars, Acura certainly has something worth crowing about. That's why it's preparing a new marketing campaign to crow about super-safe ILX sedans and MDX crossovers. Expect to see it on your TV starting on October 18. If you simply can't wait to see what Acura's up to, though, we've got a 60-second spot that features some very disturbing crash-test "dummies." Take a look at the top of the page, and then scroll down for the official press release on Acura's lineup.Related Video: Acura Underscores Industry-leading Safety Performance with Emotional New Marketing Campaign • Acura is the first and only automotive brand to earn 5-star Overall Vehicle Score from the NHTSA and TOP SAFETY PICK+ rating from the IIHS across its model line • High impact and emotional national advertising campaign brings to life Acura's dedication to safety performance • The brand's first-of-its-kind campaign launches digitally on Oct. 15 and on national broadcast television on Oct. 18 TORRANCE, Calif. (Oct. 15, 2015) – Acura has taken a safety leadership position as the only automotive brand to earn a 5-star Overall Vehicle Score in the NHTSA New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) and a TOP SAFETY PICK+ rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) across its entire model line . Based on the brand's commitment to the latest safety design and implementation of advanced safety and driver-assistive technology, Acura earned top overall safety ratings from the U.S. government and the IIHS across its model line. Acura will showcase its leadership in a new high impact and emotional national advertising campaign highlighting the brand's dedication to safety performance.