Agreed. The reviews need to come out. The original NSX totally outperformed its HP and price and changed the game upon its initial release, but that was a long time ago.
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The Car Thread ... !
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Agreed. The reviews need to come out. The original NSX totally outperformed its HP and price and changed the game upon its initial release, but that was a long time ago.
True, but that was when Acura actually made stand-out products. They haven't made a stand-out product for almost a decade now. I miss the 3rd gen TL.
Acura needs a serious performance model.
The gap between the NSX and the RLX is obnoxiously large.
They need like a step down or something.
How about next time you try and be less vague. When you talk about the QX80, refer to it as the "QX80", instead of saying QX56 because that's what it's called now. And I specifically stated in one of my posts that I was referring to the 2015 Infiniti QX80 but for some reason you had to bring in the QX56. And why the attitude every time you reply to my posts? You seem annoyed for some reason so please don't bother replying. I won't bother posting here anymore anyway.
The Jaguar XE disappoints... I am a fan of Jaguars. The XF and XJ are nice vehicles. The F-Type is a gorgeous looker. And their engine notes sound mean.....
But man..... the interior...... Would have probably would be a great one back in 2002.
http://www.carscoops.com/2015/01/new-jaguar-xe-makes-north-american.html
But man..... the interior...... Would have probably would be a great one back in 2002.
http://www.carscoops.com/2015/01/new-jaguar-xe-makes-north-american.html
Interior is trash. Not to mention, this car won't be out in the US until mid-to-late 2016. By that time, the competition will have moved on.
Great article on the NSX designer
For new NSX, Acura's designing woman
For new NSX, Acura's designing woman
chelle Christensen wanted to get into the automotive design program at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design. So admissions officers asked her for a portfolio of car sketches.
She had none.
Christensen had designed prom dresses in high school. She didn't even know car design was a career until her second year of community college in Cupertino, Calif.
Apparently she's a quick study. Now 34, Christensen has designed the new Acura NSX, a Ferrari-fighting supercar making its world debut Monday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
"It looks fast even when it is parked," said Acura General Manager Mike Accavitti. "It is the ultimate expression of the Acura brand."
Cars weren't completely foreign to Christensen when she started a night school class in car design in 2002. As a teen, she hung out with her father in the garage of their San Jose home, watching him tinker with hot rods and muscle cars and eventually learning how to do the work herself.
"I developed a passion for mechanical things," said Christensen, who now lives in downtown Los Angeles. "I like the noise of an engine and the way cars smell."
This second-generation NSX Acura sold its predecessor from 1990 to 2005 will produce an entirely different noise from the roar of a 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle, which has been Christensen's dream car for decades.
The new NSX will be an all-wheel-drive hybrid. A twin-turbocharged, mid-mounted V-6 engine sits behind the two-seat cockpit and powers the rear wheels. Two electric motors, one mounted near each of the front wheels, add additional power and control. A third electric motor is integrated with the engine to supply extra power.
The car is expected to produce 500 horsepower, though Acura hasn't given official figures. The price won't be announced until it goes on sale next year, but is likely to fall in the $120,000 to $180,000 range. It will serve as the "halo" vehicle for the upscale Honda division, Accavitti said, meant to imbue the entire brand with a performance image.
Christensen understands that great design takes more than a great image, said Tisha Johnson, a car designer at Volvo Car Group in Sweden who once taught at Art Center. Designers have to craft a compelling story to sell the design language to those with the power to greenlight ambitious projects, she said.
Although she may have started with no portfolio, Christensen's early car drawings earned her an internship at Volvo's Camarillo studio, Johnson said.
John Krsteski, an Art Center instructor and manager of Hyundai Design North America in Irvine, also saw Christensen's skills develop. He understands why Acura hired her in 2005, then gave Christensen the task of styling its sexiest, most sophisticated car three years ago.
He recalled a performance car concept for Chrysler that Christensen created as an Art Center project.
"She nailed it," Krsteski said. "Michelle showed a solid design sense of proportion and profile in the overall stance of the car."
Krsteski would have liked to hire Christensen for Hyundai, but by then she already had a good relationship with Honda.
Honda recruited Christensen during her last year at Art Center. She also had interest from Chrysler, but that would have required a move to Detroit, not ideal for a California native.
There was another powerful reason to stay in California. Within days of entering the Art Center's car design program, Christensen met fellow student Jason Wilbur, now her husband. They started work at Honda on the same day. He heads Honda's Advanced Design Studio, not far from the couple's downtown apartment.
She is the first female exterior designer at Acura but doesn't believe that gender makes much difference in car design. "Even the guys here will talk about shoes," she said.
Christensen also was given the Women on Top Award by Marie Claire Magazine as an up-and-coming female professional.
Christensen says her life pretty much follows a set pattern. Workout at the CrossFit gym, work and sleep. On the weekends, she participates in CrossFit competitions, plays golf and hikes.
Before the NSX, Christensen worked on Acura's ZDX, a low-slung crossover the automaker scuttled last year. She also contributed to a refresh of the Acura RLX sedan.
The NSX was the first project she headed, and it proved an entirely different challenge.
Christensen had to make a pretty car, but also ensure that the exterior enhanced the NSX's performance. Every curve had to serve a purpose, such as producing aerodynamic down force to push the car toward the pavement to improve traction and cornering. The vehicle needed large but graceful vents to feed the twin-turbo engine and cool the brakes.
"The design had to enhance the function of the car," Christensen. "It forced me to grow as a designer."
The result had what Christensen terms "emotional surfaces" that demand attention and imply movement. At the same time, she wanted an aggressive stance.
"That comes from my background as an American woman who grew up with hot rods," Christensen said.
There were practical considerations, too, such as leaving enough space in the trunk to fit two carry-on bags or one set of golf clubs.
"As a designer, I used to fight that," she said. "Now that I play golf, I understand."
Christensen also took some cues from the previous NSX, including a black roof and tail lights that span the entire width of the rear deck.
Finding other automotive inspiration elsewhere was easy, said Christensen, who commutes to Acura's design center in Torrance in a Honda Pilot.
"Since we are in L.A., we have supercars crawling everywhere," she said, including Ferraris, Bentleys and even an occasional Lamborghini in her building's parking garage.
Elsewhere, Christensen draws inspiration from a touch of fashion design the shoe business and architecture.
She's an admirer of Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-British architect whose buildings employ honeycomb structures, curves and flowing lines to exude movement. Hadid's design for the King Abdullah Financial District Metro Station in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, resembles a cruise ship gliding over the sea.
Cars, it turns out, are not so unlike buildings.
"You have a skeleton," Christensen said, "that you have to wrap up with a beautiful form."
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Oh yeah? You mean like semi-perm unbolted it for walk through convenience?
Stunning. I imagine, the production version will dial in some of the usability considerations (I recall the original *** proto-drawings having some unlikely details, that in fact did not make into production just to make it reasonably “street able”) - in looking at the actual reveal (though still probably not 100% final production), it looks pretty usable, not nearly the clearance issues the other photos seem to indicate!
Love the previous *** too, worth going out of your way to drive if you get a chance - definitely one of those cars that overall experience is better than the sum of the parts.
Yeah, when a main-stream Japanese manufacturer shows up with a $150K+ product, I’m generally not impressed. At that price it of course will (and definitely should) perform well, but I’m more impressed with a $75K, or $55K product that kicks ass in its market segment. I think we had this conversation about the C7Z06 eclipsing the $100K mark.
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Is there another sport hybrid in the $150,000 range? This thing gets over 550 HP but can run as an EV as well.
And I don't by AutoUnion's criticism. If it had four rings on the front instead of calipers, he would think it's fantastic.
Don't forget they hired some 32 yr old bimbo thats going to change the brand. Moving to NY will do nothing to help them. They are a dying brand, their a$$ has been kicked and they can't get the younger buyer they so need.
It does't sound like you want to have a serious conversation when throwing out sexist remarks like bimbo.....
Plus who is that anyway? Johan de Nysschen is the head of Cadillac.
The Car Thread ... !
Let's see what happens.
As someone who is actually considering cars in this price range, an Acura badge doesn't carry enough weight to ask that sort of price. There's much more to a sports car purchase than people think. The people in this price range already own Audis, MBs, Lexii, Porsches, Jags, etc. Try convincing them to buy a fancy Honda.
That isn't going to work. It doesn't matter how much you love your Acura. The fact of the matter is simple. If Acura can't even get people to buy their luxury RLX, how will the NSX do?
Badge carries a lot of weight in the $100k+ bracket. Just look at Aston Martin. People still buy the V8 Vantage even though it's outdated. Why? Because it's an Aston Martin. It's an emotional purchase.
And I don't buy the reliability argument that all the Honda fanboys are giving now. Reliability is not an issue at this price point. The owner most probably has a garage of other cars to drive daily.
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You might want to read up on Johan...
Let's see what happens.
As someone who is actually considering cars in this price range, an Acura badge doesn't carry enough weight to ask that sort of price. There's much more to a sports car purchase than people think. The people in this price range already own Audis, MBs, Lexii, Porsches, Jags, etc. Try convincing them to buy a fancy Honda.
That isn't going to work. It doesn't matter how much you love your Acura. The fact of the matter is simple. If Acura can't even get people to buy their luxury RLX, how will the NSX do?
Badge carries a lot of weight in the $100k+ bracket. Just look at Aston Martin. People still buy the V8 Vantage even though it's outdated. Why? Because it's an Aston Martin. It's an emotional purchase.
And I don't buy the reliability argument that all the Honda fanboys are giving now. Reliability is not an issue at this price point. The owner most probably has a garage of other cars to drive daily.
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You might want to read up on Johan...
Yup. It needs to be closer to base 911 money. Not 911 GT3 or Turbo money.
The GTR is the perfect example. It cost around $70k when it first came out and was unbelievable. It wouldn't have been taken seriously if Nissan threw a $120k price tag on it when it released. They slowly increased the price as their popularity went up.
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Ok?
That was in direct response to how the other poster was talking about some 32 year old bimbo. I'm pretty sure Johan isn't 32.
That being said, he doesn't deserve all the credit at all. VAG pumped billions into the brand and brought the right people in. Look what Johan did at Infiniti. It's a train wreck. He's trying to use the Audi method everywhere and it isn't working.
Infiniti was a mess before and is still a mess. He wasn't there very long. 2004 Audi and 2014 Audi are completely different in a good way, and Johan is responsible for a large percentage of it.
All the German brands and Cadillac are currently at a race to the bottom in terms of price. Cadillac is struggling with the ATS because you can now buy a goofy CLA with a Mercedes badge and no other worthwhile features for $30,000, which is less than the base ATS (The CLA is atrocious with front wheel drive and no good standard features).
This will all stratify quite a bit when Cadillac's naming structure comes to fruition. The ATS is probably going to become the CT2 or CT3, with the bargain basement CT1 becoming a thing.
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About time
Honda to Introduce New Turbo VTEC Four-Cylinder Engines By End of 2015
Honda makes good, reliable machines. Hopefully the VTEC turbos live up to that. The next ILX, TLX, RLX will probably all have them for some performance variant in the Acura lineup. I would imagine tuned down versions would make the Honda lineup, as well.
Honda to Introduce New Turbo VTEC Four-Cylinder Engines By End of 2015
Honda makes good, reliable machines. Hopefully the VTEC turbos live up to that. The next ILX, TLX, RLX will probably all have them for some performance variant in the Acura lineup. I would imagine tuned down versions would make the Honda lineup, as well.
This is pretty damn tasty. Massive brakes, mag suspension, decent use of carbon fiber ... oh yeah, and 640HP from a supercharged LT4 V8.
I know, I know, old man brand, bailouts, etc., but wow, that startup sound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHQToSXF6uk
I know, I know, old man brand, bailouts, etc., but wow, that startup sound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHQToSXF6uk
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Ok, i'll take back the bimbo comment.
Her strategy is laughable.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/20...putation-strategy-dont-want-automotive-brand/
http://fleishmanhillard.com/2014/04/true/the-once-and-future-cadillac/
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How is that laughable? What she says is correct essentially. In the luxury market, do people buy the car because it is truly the best car available or the brand( with the associated prestige/image, etc)? If you take the 3 series and ATS and swap the badges, the ATS sales will probably skyrocket and 3 series will tank.
Now you have to have good product to back it up, but it doesn't have to be the best. Luxury cars are about the brand, not about the car itself. You drool over Aston Martin's, you drool over Bentley's, dream to own the Bugatti Veyron, etc. Why? Because you are sold on the brand. People want a BMW, Mercedes, and Audi because of the image not because they are the best cars. People dismiss the ATS and CTS just because it is a Cadillac and not " German engineering". You can approach a random person on the street, ask them about the Cadillac ATS and mostly likely they will go, " It sucks", "It's for old people", etc without even knowing what the ATS looks like, never even look at it in person, or drive it. Why? Because of the current image of the brand. All they had to hear was, " Cadillac" to jump to it sucks. Can do the same with the BMW 3 series and the results will be different.
Marketing is also key. People need to be sold on the image/prestige and Cadillac's marketing sucks.
She may not have worded it correctly, but her point was very much true. You can't approach the luxury market the same way as the mainstream market.
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The Car Thread ... !
Here we go again. Lol will this be like their diesel?
Is this coming to the USA?
Here we go again. Lol will this be like their diesel?
Is this coming to the USA?
Few thoughts on last few pages:
1) That Infiniti SUV looks like an elephant. It's the definition of disgusting, oversized excess.
2) Ford GT? Ford continues playing to win. GT 350 will be sublime.
3) Caddy ATS? Considered it until I realized they packaged options like Japanese brands and VW where I had to spend $45k MINIMUM to get xenons. Automatically eliminated from my list, never looked back.
4) Ripping on Acura for options for the price by comparing to Germans does not compute. The worst offenders for "luxury" vehicle features are BMW and MB, Audi perhaps a little less so. Go to your BMW dealer, ALL you will see is crummy black, no-line, halogen cars. I went to the MB dealer recently and there was an entire row of $50k+ SUVs and not ONE had anything but halogen headlights, and reflector halogens at that. They should be ****in' ashamed of themselves for even selling cars without HIDs or better standard across the line on supposed luxury brands in 2015.
5) Caddy and Corvette excepted, GM interiors are hideous junk with oversized bubbly rounded plastics. Didn't they learn anything from the mid-'90s garbage that ran them into the ground? Anything at all about interior design? Ugliest interiors of any manufacturer, period.
6) Caddy pricing is ok, the option packaging is the problem. I can spend upper $30ks on a Honda Accord which is borderline criminal as it is so where should the Caddy slot in? Surely it's worth a few points better.
7) Caddy styling is nice, the image is the problem. Old people or drug dealers, take your pick. Most people would rather badge whore a soft 328i off the lot that is black with halogens and no-line even though it's surely the crappier car.
8) German engineering is bad engineering. Good engineering is simple engineering, not overly complex engineering (I'm an engineer myself). The Germans haven't figured this out yet - or since everyone just wants to badge whore and will lease some off the lot turd perpetually either because they can't afford to actually buy the vehicle or because they know the vehicle will be a financial nightmare of garbage reliability beyond the warranty, the Germans have literally zero incentive to turn their crap around and build something reliable. At least the Americans had a major kick in the pants to turn it around, and they have (except GM interiors).
9) $150k for an NSX? No thanks. Still too ungodly ugly.
10) German cars (except P-car) are no longer benchmarks. Not reliable, BMWs in particular have very low-rent interiors for the price paid ($60k+ for a loaded 335i and an interior no different than a 320i? lol), and even the driving dynamics have gotten soft. I will say though that MB is playing to win with the W205 C-class. BMW builds extremely mediocre cars but has a wonderful marketing machine that has everyone drinking the Kool-Aid, buying lot junk no-line 328s with halogens and soft suspensions thinking it's the ultimate driving machine. BMW hasn't built that in over 20 years. They're selling cars on reputation and getting lazy, and people are starting to notice. $90k for a loaded M3? Go **** yourself BMW, seriously. We are only a couple years off from a $100k 3 series. lolololololololol
11) Lexus has made great strides. The RC-F still makes no torque though, and they are still boring and the grilles are painful to look at. Still, they're a lot better than the tarted up Toyotas they once were, even if underneath some still are.
12) Want a good sport sedan? BMW 320i with sport and lighting and a manual, probably the truest and most distilled driving experience BMW offers today, and probably the best value in the entire lineup.
13) Acura needs to just do what it does best - make tarted up Hondas for non-car people who want a nice car they don't have to worry about maintaining and who think it's nice to be seen in. They are not a performance company and shouldn't bother trying to be one. They are also not a luxury brand. They sure are ugly from the front though, they still haven't gotten the memo on that.
14) The new S class owns the market. The upcoming G01 7 series looks like a 320i inside. BMW claims the 7 doesn't compare with the S, but that's BS in the minds of shoppers and everyone knows everyone cross shops the two. MB owns BMW here, and Audi. BMW claims the 7 is a drivers car while the S is a car you get driven in, but then why is the G01 coming with an anemic 4-pot? lol, there's literally no market for that car.
15) BMW has lot its way so badly with the severe diluting of the brand with 500 different models between gran coupe, coupe, sedan, GT, etc. It's a mess over there. Oh and they now have a FWD pile of **** called the 2 series Active Tourer. That model says it all, BMW has some FWD minivan. Ultimate driving machine? lol
16) America needs more diesel offerings, but this will never happen. VW owns this market.
17) Ultimate drug dealer car? Chrysler 300, called that way back in 2005 and sure enough that came true. Didn't take long to sink in value enough to be hoodrat cars.
18) Challenger is a neat car but continuously outperformed in every metric by the other two. Dodge doesn't get it, the Challenger is stale as hell and looks like a minivan inside. Challenger owners are the saltiest bunch of any community, bunch of old redneck boomers who claimed for years they didn't care their cars got left in the dust by the other two because "they have useable trunks and enough power, they are boulevard cruisers while the Mustang and Camaro are too cramped." Maybe the boomers are just too fat to fit in the other two. Then the Hellcat comes along and they are waving it all over, too bad the car is still a fat pig and doesn't handle well. Try losing 500 pounds instead. Chrysler doesn't get it, and it took 8 years to get a minor mid-cylce facelift, come on.
19) That Jag interior above is horrid, I too mistakenly thought they had turned a corner.
1) That Infiniti SUV looks like an elephant. It's the definition of disgusting, oversized excess.
2) Ford GT? Ford continues playing to win. GT 350 will be sublime.
3) Caddy ATS? Considered it until I realized they packaged options like Japanese brands and VW where I had to spend $45k MINIMUM to get xenons. Automatically eliminated from my list, never looked back.
4) Ripping on Acura for options for the price by comparing to Germans does not compute. The worst offenders for "luxury" vehicle features are BMW and MB, Audi perhaps a little less so. Go to your BMW dealer, ALL you will see is crummy black, no-line, halogen cars. I went to the MB dealer recently and there was an entire row of $50k+ SUVs and not ONE had anything but halogen headlights, and reflector halogens at that. They should be ****in' ashamed of themselves for even selling cars without HIDs or better standard across the line on supposed luxury brands in 2015.
5) Caddy and Corvette excepted, GM interiors are hideous junk with oversized bubbly rounded plastics. Didn't they learn anything from the mid-'90s garbage that ran them into the ground? Anything at all about interior design? Ugliest interiors of any manufacturer, period.
6) Caddy pricing is ok, the option packaging is the problem. I can spend upper $30ks on a Honda Accord which is borderline criminal as it is so where should the Caddy slot in? Surely it's worth a few points better.
7) Caddy styling is nice, the image is the problem. Old people or drug dealers, take your pick. Most people would rather badge whore a soft 328i off the lot that is black with halogens and no-line even though it's surely the crappier car.
8) German engineering is bad engineering. Good engineering is simple engineering, not overly complex engineering (I'm an engineer myself). The Germans haven't figured this out yet - or since everyone just wants to badge whore and will lease some off the lot turd perpetually either because they can't afford to actually buy the vehicle or because they know the vehicle will be a financial nightmare of garbage reliability beyond the warranty, the Germans have literally zero incentive to turn their crap around and build something reliable. At least the Americans had a major kick in the pants to turn it around, and they have (except GM interiors).
9) $150k for an NSX? No thanks. Still too ungodly ugly.
10) German cars (except P-car) are no longer benchmarks. Not reliable, BMWs in particular have very low-rent interiors for the price paid ($60k+ for a loaded 335i and an interior no different than a 320i? lol), and even the driving dynamics have gotten soft. I will say though that MB is playing to win with the W205 C-class. BMW builds extremely mediocre cars but has a wonderful marketing machine that has everyone drinking the Kool-Aid, buying lot junk no-line 328s with halogens and soft suspensions thinking it's the ultimate driving machine. BMW hasn't built that in over 20 years. They're selling cars on reputation and getting lazy, and people are starting to notice. $90k for a loaded M3? Go **** yourself BMW, seriously. We are only a couple years off from a $100k 3 series. lolololololololol
11) Lexus has made great strides. The RC-F still makes no torque though, and they are still boring and the grilles are painful to look at. Still, they're a lot better than the tarted up Toyotas they once were, even if underneath some still are.
12) Want a good sport sedan? BMW 320i with sport and lighting and a manual, probably the truest and most distilled driving experience BMW offers today, and probably the best value in the entire lineup.
13) Acura needs to just do what it does best - make tarted up Hondas for non-car people who want a nice car they don't have to worry about maintaining and who think it's nice to be seen in. They are not a performance company and shouldn't bother trying to be one. They are also not a luxury brand. They sure are ugly from the front though, they still haven't gotten the memo on that.
14) The new S class owns the market. The upcoming G01 7 series looks like a 320i inside. BMW claims the 7 doesn't compare with the S, but that's BS in the minds of shoppers and everyone knows everyone cross shops the two. MB owns BMW here, and Audi. BMW claims the 7 is a drivers car while the S is a car you get driven in, but then why is the G01 coming with an anemic 4-pot? lol, there's literally no market for that car.
15) BMW has lot its way so badly with the severe diluting of the brand with 500 different models between gran coupe, coupe, sedan, GT, etc. It's a mess over there. Oh and they now have a FWD pile of **** called the 2 series Active Tourer. That model says it all, BMW has some FWD minivan. Ultimate driving machine? lol
16) America needs more diesel offerings, but this will never happen. VW owns this market.
17) Ultimate drug dealer car? Chrysler 300, called that way back in 2005 and sure enough that came true. Didn't take long to sink in value enough to be hoodrat cars.
18) Challenger is a neat car but continuously outperformed in every metric by the other two. Dodge doesn't get it, the Challenger is stale as hell and looks like a minivan inside. Challenger owners are the saltiest bunch of any community, bunch of old redneck boomers who claimed for years they didn't care their cars got left in the dust by the other two because "they have useable trunks and enough power, they are boulevard cruisers while the Mustang and Camaro are too cramped." Maybe the boomers are just too fat to fit in the other two. Then the Hellcat comes along and they are waving it all over, too bad the car is still a fat pig and doesn't handle well. Try losing 500 pounds instead. Chrysler doesn't get it, and it took 8 years to get a minor mid-cylce facelift, come on.
19) That Jag interior above is horrid, I too mistakenly thought they had turned a corner.
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