2002 Acura Mdx Touring Package Suv Mini Van Rx Lexus Ml 320 on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2016 Acura NSX: Everything there is to know [w/video]

The road to supercar stardom is littered with missteps. For every slam-dunk like the McLaren F1 and Ferrari F40, there are contenders that never quite reach their full potential – think Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and Jaguar XJ220. Fear of building a mediocre halo car is why automakers take costly detours like reverse-engineering a carbon fiber chassis when aluminum just won't do (we're looking at you, Lexus LFA), and it's often those second, third, and even fourth major redirects that can make the difference between has-been and hero. History has been kind to the late, great Acura NSX. Though its final years saw it lagging in power, ballooning in price and burdened by unsightly bubble headlamps, the NSX went to pasture in 2005 with a reputation for being an innovative, driver-focused ride that also happened to be practical enough for daily use. Despite its lofty aspirations and attainable price point, fifteen years of production saw just under 9,000 NSXs on the road, which begs the inevitable question: was Acura's mid-engine top dog too tame to be great, yet too ubiquitous to be exotic? Considering how the NSX redux has been worked (and re-worked as a stillborn front-engine V10 GT, only to return to a mid-engine layout), it's safe to say Acura is intent on securing supercar greatness. While the essential spirit of the original NSX program targeted the "New Sports Experimental" idea, Large Project Leader Ted Klaus says that Shigeru Uehara, the man responsible for the original NSX (and Honda S2000, among others) advised the US-based development team that they ought to be "... open-minded to doing things for the emotional benefit of the customer," and not come from a place that was "hyper rational." In other words, build a car that makes the heart skip a beat. View 8 Photos As such, the next-generation NSX has departed from the 2013 concept and assumed a more emotional, expressive design language that hides a more engineering-intensive drivetrain. Gone is the naturally aspirated, transverse-mounted V6, replaced with a longitudinally mounted, turbocharged, dry-sump V6 that produces "north of 550 horsepower," according to Acura brass. As before, the internal combustion mill works with three electric motors to deliver power to all four wheels. Super Handling All-Wheel Drive, indeed – or, as Acura refers to it in this application, Sport Hybrid Super Handling All-Wheel Drive. Why the shift?

2023 Acura TLX adds a couple of service amenities, price increases

The Acura TLX busted out an all-new second generation for the 2021 model year, one-upping that with a TLX Type S, and ringing the bell with the TLX Type S PMC Edition for the 2023 model year. With the fireworks still echoing from all that, 2023 will be an otherwise quiet year for the sedan range. The upgrades are service oriented, the automaker throwing in three years of AcuraLink and the Security and Remote packages free. The Remote Package can speak directly to the car with commands like remote start and stop or lock and unlock, or owners can give the car commands through Amazon Alexa Auto. Alerts like Find My Car and Stolen Vehicle Locator can keep tabs on the car's location, worried parents can keep tabs on teens with features like Geofence Alert and Speed Alert. The Security Package handles matters like crash notifications, calls to emergency services, and roadside assistance. Acura's also added its Maintenance Package to the stock offering. This gets two years or 24,000 miles of scheduled maintenance like oil changes and tire rotations. Any remaining balance can be transferred to a new owner if the car is sold before the time or mileage limits are reached. Finally, it's not mentioned in the press release, but the 2.0T in base spec with SH-AWD and the 2.0T with the Technology Pack and SH-AWD are missing from the 2023 price list. That leaves eight models in the range thanks to the addition of the PMC Edition.  Prices for the holdovers are up, surprise, surprise. MSRPs for the 2023 TLX range, including the $1,095 destination charge for the standard sedans and the $1,995 destination charge for the PMC Edition, and the changes from 2022, are: TLX 2.0T: $40,745 ($750) TLX 2.0T Technology Pack: $44,745 ($750) TLX 2.0T A-Spec Pack: $47,495 ($750) TLX 2.0T A-Spec Pack SH-AWD: $49,695 ($750) TLX 2.0T Advanced Pack SH-AWD: $51,945 ($950) TLX 3.0T Type S SH-AWD: $56,445 ($1,650) TLX 3.0T Type S SH-AWD with Performance Wheels and Tires: $57,245 ($1,650) TLX 3.0T Type S SH-AWD PMC Edition: $63,995

Acura NSX owners receive custom short teaser movies of their personal car

In a neat bit of fan service for those who've ordered Acura's new NSX halo car, the company will make a short film that reflects the way the car's been configured. Those films are on their way to future owners as you read this. In addition, they'll get a 1:18 scale custom model of their own car, reflecting every appearance option inside and out. That's neat. So neat, in fact, that we decided to commission our own video. We got together and configured a car in the lovely Nouvelle Blue Pearl, and sent our build over to Acura. They put together a video that's mostly representative of what an owner would see. You can see our build plate (hint: it says "Autoblog – Precision Crafted By Performance Manufacturing Center" on it), and that's "our" car on the dyno starting about 22 seconds in. If you want to check out someone else's film, you can compare our build to Jay Leno's. The reason Acura can do this is that there simply aren't that many available configurations for the NSX. This is at the root of one of the main criticisms some of our editors have about the car. An NSX starts at darn close to $160,000, and there are eight paint options (not too bad), four interior color options, and three seating options. All well and good, but compare that to the 16 paint and 12 interior color/material choices in a 911 Turbo, for example, choosing a similarly high-performance car at a similar price range. And there's a further wrinkle: Porsche will paint your car to match a sample you provide, so in reality the ability for an owner to make the car uniquely theirs is infinite, if you don't mind paying for it. See also the BMW Individual program, or McLaren's MSO one-offs. We're not just talking about the MSO Defined options, but the MSO Bespoke program itself, which will basically do anything you want to the car as long as it's road legal and your check doesn't bounce. We've been to MSO, and they're not kidding: they'll build anything. So yes, these custom videos are nice fan service, and they'll certainly jazz up the buyers who've already ordered one of these dynamically impressive cars. It's a move that builds loyalty, and certainly doesn't have much of a drawback. But for us, already a bit sensitive to Acura's conservative option list for the NSX, it serves to highlight the gap between Acura and the more established brands in catering to well-off customers' desire for bespoke range-topping creations.