Acuras in Texas

Let's begin with a disclaimer; Acuras are very good cars, well regarded and recommended here, as are all Hondas. Still, prospective buyers deserve an in depth review.

Younger Texans may not recall the laughable early Japanese imports. A 360 cubic centimeter motorbike engine powered the early Subarus. Americans, producers and consumers alike, failed to take the island's exports seriously.

But by the mid-1980's, the Honda Motor Company had penetrated the U.S. market.

The Civic established Honda's reputation for economical, reliable small cars. But, as Henry Ford II once snorted: "mini-cars earn mini profits."

All producers must strive to attract the much higher profit margins in the luxury end of the market. Acura was the Honda company's attempt to buildan upscale brand to seize the near-luxury market segment. They were the first Japanese builder to challenge the European dominance of the upmarket.

A dealer network was scratch-built, and new models, Integra and Legend, were built on the Honda Civic and Accord platforms. The new brand was known as American Honda Motor Company, Inc., Acura Division.

The Honda ethic delineated the brand; value, performance, and durability.

The Acura Legend, carefully assembled on the re-industrialized Asian island, collected quality awards, glowing reviews, and customer loyalty.

Sales took off.

Cross Town Traffic

Acura's surprising success caught the attention of Toyota, Nissan, and other rising-yen marques.

As fellow Asian builders flocked to emulate the Acura, Honda's limitations, especially the lack of heavier upscale platforms, began to show.

Then, a sleeping Detroit lobbied Congress for protectionism. The response: a mandate that foreign manufacturers build plants in the lower 48 states to "save jobs."

Talk about shooting your own foot, inviting fox into hen house. Ask Congress for help, they invite Honda to Ohio.

This did inadvertently hurt Acura a bit, as the Nipponese quality could not immediately be replicated in America. Made-in-Ohio models had quality issues; rattles, drive-line warranty claims, and general fit and finish.

The hastily assembled stateside dealer network often failed to effectively handle these new issues.

Customer satisfaction with the dealership/shopping experience was higher at competing luxury makes.

In the J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Customer Retention Study, Acuras ranked 24 out of 37 makes. Only 37.6% of those surveyed, returned to purchase another vehicle.

In my opinion, repeat buyers are the strongest indicator of overall quality.

There are 260-some dealers in 38 of 50 states, a bit sparse. It is very important to research the dealer here, as there won't be another across the street.

Even the dilution of Mercedes-Benz by the Chrysler merger-acquisition, which did create opportunity in the high end, didn't boost Acura as it did Toyota's Lexus.

Honda delayed restyling and repowering, resulting in a somewhat stogy image. Further departure from the American market's perception of Acura as a "jazzed-up" Accord was needed.

Crazy Like a Fox

Acura needed to leave the nest and be perceived as a luxury marque in it's own right. Unfortunately, Honda's existing and evolving platforms didn't provide the base that deep-pockets Toyota had for growth. In the road-rage-out-of-my-way era, Honda still has no V-8 engine for Acura. Front wheel drive was an economy car inspiration in the Lee Iaccoca era, but Acura's lack of rear wheel drive hampers the ability to compete on performance.

By dropping the entry-level Civic-like RSX, successor to Integra, for 2007, the company may be puting some daylight between the Honda and Acura brands.

Nissan made double digit sales growth with Infiniti. As the ill-advised SUV boom developed, Honda was left without bigger platforms to build on and heavier components to share. (SUV's carry the highest margins of any automotive fad ever contrived.)

Reviewing recent events, which saw summer fuel price spikes and unsold pickups/SUVs littering the carlots, reveals the wisdom of Honda's conservatism. Here in Houston, Texas, folks remember the Hurricane Rita evacuation debacle. The lesson was that even people who can afford to support a gas guzzler need to care about a frequently overlooked parameter: fuel range. Many cars ran out of gas during the 11 hour evacuation ordeal.

You'd Better Shop Around

Acura is a great marque, but the competition in near-luxury segment is fierce. Long time stalwarts Volvo, Audi, and Jag have stumbled. VW sputtered in it's attempted upscale jump. Honda has countered Lexus, Infiniti, Chrysler and BMW with value packages. These include a long list of what used to be called options in one standard low price.

Satellite-linked navigation systems, DVD-audio surroundsystems, Bluetooth hands-free phone gadgets, and XM satellite radio come standard.

If your principal mileage involves stop-and-go urban commuting rather than touring the sweeping curves and vistas of the Alps, information, not acceleration or handling, is at a premium. Acuras accelerate and handle well, but are outstanding communicators.

All the above notwithstanding, texas-cars-and-dealerships.com loves Acuras. Real value is the reason. Those with sticker shock after pricing a well equipped 3-Series BMW should look at comparably optioned Acuras.

The 2007 Acura lineup features five models;