Acura's new boss wants sedans 'that people get excited about'

MONTEREY, California -- Jon Ikeda is just several weeks in to his new job as general manager of Acura, but the designer-turned-exec already understands what is atop his goal at American Honda's luxury marque.
Having 26 years to get ready for the job helps.
Sitting near a trio of gleaming new NSX hybrid super-cars on-display this month during Monterey Car Week, Ikeda states it is maybe not Acura's popular cross-overs he's his eye on. It is the sedans.
"We should make sedans which people get worked up about about, just like when they appear at this NSX here," Ikeda told Automotive News in The Quail, a yearly show of high end automobiles to the Monterey Peninsula. "That will be among my first problems with r&d, operating with them to see what we could do to get that going."
Ikeda began working for Honda in 1989, growing to become among its own top designers. In late July, Honda suddenly declared that Ikeda would be promoted to general manager of Acura, changing Mike Accavitti, who who had previously been with the organization since 2011. The auto-maker gave no reason behind the move.
The Acura TLX, revealed, changed the TSX and TL.

New function

As he is settling in to his new function, Ikeda declined to offer details on Acura's strategies for sedans. However he stated he was getting significantly the brand's revitalization of its 80's-era motto: "precision designed performance."
"Every action we consider with any [merchandise facelift], something that people come up with is definitely going to be aimed toward toward that," Ikeda stated, noting that enhancing the functionality along with caliber of Acura's automobiles was predominant.
With only three sedans to its title -- the compact ILX, mid-size TLX and fullsize RLX -- Acura includes a glaring weakness in accordance with its German high-end rivals, which industry more sedans and enhance them having a complicated matrix of forms, including station wagons, coupes, convertibles and high performance versions.
Acura additionally lacks a powerful main sedan to function as an actual luxury and technology case. Its only response to the Mercedes s-class and BMW 7-series is the RLX, which offered a paltry 3,413 models in 2014 and has declined 38 percent this year through July.
"If you are likely to be a complete-line high-end brand and take on Lexus, BMW and Mercedes Benz, you must really have a portfolio that covers all the sections," stated Tom Libby, an analyst at IHS Automotive.

Ikeda: Functionality, quality are keys.

Recognizing Acuras

Realizing that sort of total coverage is not within Ikeda's energy however. For the present time, his job would be to recognize Acura's offers from bread and butter Hondas and its high-end rivals. For that, Ikeda intends to make use of Acura's ace in the hole, the NSX -- now delayed until early 2016 -- and leverage the significant technology under its epidermis for Acura's conventional sedans.
The NSX works on the trio of electric motors as well as a twin-turbo-charged V6 motor to create more than 550 hp.
"There will be issues that we expect that we are able to draw from [the NSX], whether it is a few of the styling cues, and clearly I expect a few of the technology drips down into that which we're working on now-so folks can realize what's our DNA," Ikeda said.
It is barely a stretch for a trade name like Acura to continue a performance-established identity. While competitors like BMW, Lexus and Audi will make make more noise for their cars' efficiency features, Acura's parent organization, Honda, has a lengthy tradition as a market leader in lively powertrains.
"Historically [Honda] h AS been solution front when it comes to powertrain engineering," Libby stated, "so when they make the most of that they are able to create some sort of exceptional standing."

Acura manager Jon Ikeda intends to make use of the technology underneath the NSX supercar's hood for the trading name's conventional sedans.

Impetus grows

Acura's sedans also provide impetus; the business name is among the few car companies to buck the industrywide tendency of falling sedan revenue in 2015. Through Jul., sales of Acura's sedans are up 3 6% from a year before.
That is mainly as a result of redesign of the ILX that turned the dowdy has been in to a powerful entry level luxury sedan, as well as the coming of the TLX, which changed the TSX and student needs help when it went on-sale about year-ago.
Overall, Acura sales are up 13% through July this year, and working forward of Cadillac. However, the automaker's quantity still lags way behind Lexus, Mercedes Benz and BMW.
Strengthening its sedan line should help narrow the difference. Even with the recent upsurge in crossover sales as well as the durability of Acura's RDX and MDX crossovers, automobiles still account for the majority of the high-end marketplace.
Libby stated, "It Is nothing like the sedan is a fringe body kind that is only going to go away."

It's possible for you to reach David Undercoffler at [email protected].

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30.08.2015
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