2004 Acura Rl 3.5 No Reserve on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Acura replaces chief Accavitti with designer Ikeda

Acura is shaking up its senior leadership, as Honda ushers the current chief of its luxury division out the door and replaces him with a new one. Exiting stage left is Mike Accavitti, who held the reins at the premium automaker as its senior vice president and general manager of the Acura division. Taking his place will be Jon Ikeda, one of the Japanese automaker's most senior designers. Accavitti (pictured above at left) had been promoted to the job from his previous position as senior vice president of auto operations after Honda separated the Acura brand into its own division. He had previously served as a senior executive at Chrysler, rising up the ranks to run the Dodge brand, and joined Honda in 2011 as its chief marketing officer. At this point it remains unclear why Accavitti is leaving and where he might land, but Honda says he's leaving the company altogether. To replace Accavitti, Honda has named Jon Ikeda (pictured above at right), a veteran designer with the company. A graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, Ikeda has worked for Honda on both sides of the Pacific since 1989. He previous headed up the design and product planning divisions at Honda's American R&D operations, and was instrumental in creating an independent design office for the Acura brand, separate from Honda's. This isn't the first time we've seen Accavitti replaced in his role as a senior executive by a design veteran. After only four months at CEO of the Dodge brand, he was replaced by Ralph Gilles, who retained his role as senior vice president of design for the entire Chrysler group in parallel. Gilles was ultimately replaced as head of Dodge as well, but was recently promoted to serve as head of design for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Related Video: Acura Announces Leadership Changes TORRANCE, Calif. July 27, 2015 – Acura today announced that Jon Ikeda has been promoted to Vice President and General Manager of the Acura Division of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. In this role, Ikeda will oversee all Acura brand activities including sales, marketing and parts and service. Ikeda was formerly Division Director of Auto Design at Honda R&D Americas, Inc. (HRA). He began his career at Honda in Japan in 1989, joining the advanced design studio in Tokyo, where he worked on the award-winning Honda FSX show car. After six years in Japan, he returned to Los Angeles in 1995, to continue his career at Honda R&D in Torrance, California.

Motorweek goes retro with '80s hot hatch shootout

Motorweek's decades of history on television make it the perfect medium to look back into the automotive past and see how things are different now. It recently added old road test videos to its YouTube channel of the Acura NSX and Toyota Supra, as well as the Ferrari F40. For one of its newest flashback clips, Motorweek has exhumed an affordable five-car challenge of 1986's premiere hot hatches.
By today's standards, this is an eclectic field that features fondly remembered classics like the Volkswagen GTI 16-valve and Acura Integra. However, it also throws in some nearly forgotten contenders like the Dodge Colt Turbo and Ford Escort GT. The angular Toyota Corolla FX16 GT-S rounds out the group.
It's fascinating to watch Motorweek run the quintet through the slalom, down the drag strip and on various roads. What's most striking in this clip is the difference in the definition of a performance car between then and now. With its 16-valve, 1.8-liter four-cylinder, the GTI is the burliest of the contenders with 123 horsepower, but it still takes 8.8 seconds to reach 60 miles per hour. By today's standards, that would make it a plain-jane economy car, and not even a particularly quick one.

2023 Acura RDX gains convenience features, costs $750 more

The 2023 Acura RDX has made it to dealer lots boasting a couple of new add-ons and a higher MSRP. Honda's luxury arm rejigged the equipment list for the 2022 model year, addressing the omissions that many, including us, griped about. Beyond the styling tweaks, the RDX got a quieter cabin, reworked drive modes and a retuned active suspension, standard wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, Amazon Alexa compatibility, and a USB-C charging port. Enhanced convenience and safety gear counted blind-spot warning, automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, and chassis reinforcements to improve crash performance. For 2023, Acura has made three years of AcuraLink and two years of the Acura Maintenance Package standard. AcuraLink includes the Security and Remote Packages. The former notifies a help center in case of a collision or emergency, and provides "enhanced roadside assistance." The latter gives owners smartphone control of the vehicle from a distance so they can start and stop the engine, lock and unlock the doors, find their vehicle whether it's simply been parked or if it's been stolen, and geofence a driving area. The maintenance package takes care of scheduled care for two years or 24,000 miles, whichever comes first. The 2023 version of the two-row crossover starts at $750 more than it did in 2022. This isn't bad considering AcuraLink runs $359 for a three-year commitment and a maintenance package would easily cost a few hundred more — or about the price of a bag of groceries lately. MSRPs for the 2023 RDX range after the $1,195 destination charge are: RDX: $42,545 RDX with Technology Package: $45,195 RDX A-Spec: $48,195 RDX with Advance Package (AWD only): $52,545 RDX A-Spec with Advance Package (AWD only): $54,545 Adding AWD to the three lower trims costs $2,200. Every RDX gets powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder with 272 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque, shifted through a ten-speed automatic. Related video: