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MotorWeek remembers the 1993 Acura Legend coupe

When discussing classic Acura models, the Legend, particularly as a two-door, doesn't get brought up nearly as often as the Integra or NSX. Perhaps that's because those sporty models were brash for their time, whereas this bigger car came off as a more conservative ride. For a MotorWeek Retro Review, John Davis and crew have looked back at a 1993 Legend coupe to give us a chance to remember Acura's luxury GT. In 1993, the newly revised 3.2-liter V6 managed 230 horsepower, and this one had power routed through a six-speed manual. It also came packed with luxury features, including automatic climate control and traction control. However, the Legend turned out to be more of a comfy cruiser than an all-out sports coupe for the reviewers. MotorWeek wasn't happy with the performance through the slalom, and the shifter wasn't perfect, either. Still, this clip is a great refresher on a model that's often overlooked. Related Video:

Acura recalls 2013-2014 ILX, ILX Hybrid over fire-prone headlamps

The Acura ILX just can't seem to catch a break. The Japanese automaker recently decided that the ILX Hybrid would no longer be offered in the US for the 2015 model year. Now, a possibility for fires has also cropped up in the compact luxury sedan. Acura has announced a recall of 14,078 examples from the 2013 and 2014 model years because the headlights could overheat and ignite the car. The company also issued a stop-sale for examples still at dealers until they can be repaired.
The campaign covers ILX and ILX Hybrid models with halogen projector headlights from specific build dates. The problem is that the headlights aren't cooled sufficiently when the cars aren't moving. After several hours of sitting with them on, it's possible for the lights to build up so much heat that they melt and potentially cause a fire.
To Acura's knowledge, there was only one case of an ILX actually catching fire due to this problem, though. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration defect notice, a car was idling at a dealer for about two hours when the model went up in flames. The automaker brought the vehicle in for a detailed investigation to find what caused the blaze.

2019 Acura RDX infotainment first impressions | A first step into the touch pad world

One of the greatest design challenges in the modern automotive industry is an infotainment system that provides loads of capabilities, but is also easy-to-use and not overly distracting. Touch screens have been leading the way as the favored option, but Acura is trying a new design that relies on a touch pad with some unique tweaks to separate it from similar systems, such as those seen in competing Lexus models. And we got to try it out in the first production application, the 2019 Acura RDX compact crossover. The key feature of the touch pad is its one-to-one position functionality. What that means is that, if you have a grid of function buttons on the screen, tapping on, say, the upper left corner of the pad will highlight the button in the same area on the screen. And if you were to take your finger off the pad and tap in the opposite corner, that section of the screen would immediately be highlighted. You don't have to slide your finger across the pad to reach selections if you don't want to, and you don't have to slide back from the last function you highlighted. It basically does away with the need to move a cursor around like you would on a laptop with its mouse pad. In practice, it's a little odd to use at first because we mentally connect using a touch pad with the traditional cursor interface of the laptops we use day in and day out. As such, we forgot that we didn't have to scan the screen for the cursor every time we needed to select something. But once we remembered we could skip that, we found it quick and easy to drop our finger down and slide to our preferred function quickly. We could occasionally even pick something on the corners without having to slide at all. This is partly because Acura designed the interface to work with this pad. A representative from Acura's R&D center explained that they tried to put common functions on those corners because they're easy to reach without looking or thinking much. Another bonus to this system is that you don't immediately go to the function the second you press the pad. Instead, the feature is highlighted and still needs a physical click to enter. This is enormously helpful, since it virtually eliminates the chance of going to the wrong selection because you hit a bump or just got lazy with finger placement. Instead, you can get your finger in the right spot and then commit with a button press.