"Never in its history has this award been won by a line of automobiles with so little history." Thus does the nascent Acura announce, in 1988, that it has won 1
st place in the
J.D. Power and Associates Customer Satisfaction Index after a single year.
1988 also sees both the Acura
Legend and
Integra hit
Car and Driver's 10 Best list.
In the mid-90s, Acura begins to stumble. Its
Integra and
CL coupé sell well enough, but these are entry-level models; meanwhile, the
TL and
NSX go underappreciated; the
RL drives the wrong pair of wheels with the wrong engine, and the
SLX is a rebadged
Isuzu Trooper.
Today,
Honda's luxury arm continues to do its best work in the near-luxury segment: the
Accord-based
TSX surpasses its sales estimates several times over, and the Accord-based TL controls its front-wheel-drive imperfections well enough to threaten the sales of sports sedans whose reputations for quality are not as cemented as is Honda's.
Mid-decade, Acura designs become sharper again. Here, the razor-like
TL (2004, grey) presents a stark contrast to the blobular, outgoing
CL coupé (silver)
Yet the Accord-derived RL sedan has, in its 2
nd generation, been unable to fulfill Acura's modest 20,000/ year expectations.
Between the lines, Acura admits that its front-heavy, largely front-wheel-drive sedan are too Honda-derived to seriously threaten BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Their weight, and static weight distribution, pollutes steering feel; body control, and ride quality.
Nonetheless, Honda R&D Americas' Chief Designer Dave Marek, speaking to
Automotive News in 2008, reveals that the luxury label
"wants to rival Bentley and Maybach in performance and design." "Super-Handling All-Wheel Drive" (SH-AWD)
Under acceleration, Acura's SH-AWD system apportions torque front to rear (90:10 to 30:70), while being capable of sending all the rear torque to either inner or outer rear tire, independently. A torque-transfer unit is bolted to the front transaxle, while the rear drive gear carries two electromagnetic clutch packs. The system is available on the
RL and
TL sedans, and the
MDX and
RDX crossovers.
With this system, Acura aims to reduce the effects of its nose-heavy, front-wheel-drive platforms by rotating the outer rear wheel faster than the front axle when accelerating into a corner, thus reducing understeer.