Honda Makes Acura a Stand-Alone Division to Spur Sales

By Alan Ohnsman - Mar 10, 2014

 

Honda Motor Co. (7267), making good on plans to focus more on the image of its Acura brand, is setting it up as a division within the company for the first time with dedicated management, marketing and other resources.

The first premium car brand from an Asian automaker will be known as the Acura Division starting April 1 and be led by U.S. Senior Vice President Mike Accavitti, the company said in a statement yesterday. The company’s namesake Honda Division will be led by Jeff Conrad, and both he and Accavitti will report to U.S. Executive Vice President John Mendel.

“American Honda automotive operations have long been separated by function rather than by brand,” Mendel said on a conference call. “This is a very significant step as it is the first time we have had a separate and exclusive division for the Acura brand. So this move obviously reflects the deep commitment we have for the future of Acura.”

The company since last year has acknowledged a need to shake up its premium brand, which arrived in the U.S. years before Toyota Motor Corp.’s higher-volume Lexus luxury unit. In December, Tetsuo Iwamura, Honda’s executive vice president and current North American chief, said fixing Acura, particularly its sedan line, was a top priority for the Tokyo-based company.

The plan for an Acura division follows Honda’s announcement last month that it’s forming an Acura Business Planning Office, which starts April 1, to be led by Erik Berkman, the company’s highest-ranking U.S. engineer. Berkman, who led development of one of Acura’s biggest recent hits, the 2004 TL sedan, will oversee product strategy and development, Honda said.

Berkman’s Record

Improving the Acura line in the U.S., the brand’s home market, is essential for it to become more of a global player, said Michael Robinet, managing director at consultant IHS Automotive.

“The U.S. market is critical, because it drives their activity from a global perspective,” he said. “There’s a real need to differentiate the vehicles from a technology perspective, the powertrain and at the customer-service level.”

Berkman’s TL helped push Acura to record U.S. sales in 2005 of 209,610 cars and SUVs. In 2013, a decline in Acura sedan sales kept Honda from a combined volume record, with Acura delivering 165,436 vehicles, 21 percent off its peak.

A potential change with the creation of separate Honda and Acura divisions may be dedicated product-development budgets, Mendel said.

“When you have someone with the background strength of an Erik Berkman fighting the fight daily for allocation of funds, you’ve got a pretty strong case,” he said. “We’re looking at how that breaks out and what it is, but that is one of the potential benefits of this going forward.”

Mixed Record

Honda has a mixed track record with Acura, said Matthew Stover, an equity analyst with Guggenheim Securities in Boston who has a neutral rating on the company.

Too many Acura models “were better than the Honda alternative, but less convincing when slated against the more substantive competitors in the market,” Stover said. The new strategy “forces more commitment and focus, which is necessary in what is a very profitable but extremely competitive market segment,” he said.

Acura has been on a “wandering road” at times, in terms of image and sales, Mendel said. At Honda’s highest level, there’s a strong desire to end that, he said.

“There is a greater recognition that we need dedicated resources and a dedicated organization to pull that through,” Mendel said.

Being first the first Asian luxury brand in the U.S. wasn’t enough to keep Acura in a top position, said Jack Nerad, an industry analyst for Kelley Blue Book in Irvine, California.

Beyond Rational

“Sometimes being a fast-follower is better than being a leader. Lexus specifically profited by observing Acura’s approach and doing some things differently,” Nerad said. Among these was adding a large, V-8 engine sedan, something Honda balked at, he said.

“Acura would never come out with a big, rear-wheel-drive, 8-cylinder sedan,” Nerad said. “Sometimes, the engineering prowess at Honda maybe gets in the way of their ability to deal with things beyond the rational. And luxury goes beyond the rational.”

Honda’s American depositary receipts fell 1.5 percent to $36.57 yesterday in New York. The company’s U.S. sales unit is in Torrance, California, and its North American headquarters are in Marysville, Ohio.

Source;
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-03-10/honda-makes-acura-a-stand-alone-division-to-spur-sales.html

2010 Acura NSX to Live as Super GT Racer - Road Car Plans Still Dead

Acura's NSX supercar may rise from the dead to compete in the Super GT racing series.

According to InsideLine, Acura circumvented Super GT Series homologation rules that require race cars be based on a production vehicle. They did this by using another rule which allows production ready (but not currently in production) cars to be entered into the series. The trick appears to have worked, as series officials (the Japan Automobile Federation) have given the NSX the green light.

While details are limited, the race car is expected to be virtually identical to the production NSX that was killed off late last year. However, the NSX racer will reportedly use a 3.4-liter V8 instead of a 5.0-liter V10 which was expected in the production model.

Look for more information to be released when the 2010 racing season starts up.

Source;
http://www.worldcarfans.com/109121723602/2010-acura-nsx-to-live-as-super-gt-racer--road-car-plans

Acura’s V10, V8 plans on hold for now, may plan RSX successor

The economic downturn has taken a toll on Acura’s product plans for a V10 successor to the NSX, the long-awaited V8 and a rear-wheel-drive architecture.

Just last summer, Acura dealers were told to look forward to a V8 version of the Acura RL. But the program was put on hold by Honda President Takanobu Ito as part of the company’s cost cutting efforts. Also gone was the rear-wheel-drive program, which has now been pushed back to 2015 at the earliest, report Automotive News. Oh, and don’t even get us started on the V10 NSX.

But that doesn’t mean Acura will stop trying to be exciting. While we won’t see the V10 NSX, V8 or the rear-wheel-drive program gain traction until the economy improves, Acura is rumored to be planning a successor to the RSX.

Acura, which left the compact segment at the end of 2006 by dropping the RSX, is planning a successor to battle with the BMW 1-Series, Volvo C30 and Audi’s A3. The vehicle would be based on the next-generation Honda Civic, which arrives in 2011. So don’t expected to see anything until 2012.

Who know - by that time the economy may enable Acura to offer a V10 and V8 as well.

Source;
http://www.egmcartech.com/2009/08/31/acuras-v10-v8-plans-on-hold-for-now-may-plan-rsx-successor/

TOV: New Honda president says FR sedans (and V8s) are out

Who would have figured that July 20th would have held more than a single newsworthy story, but it's not even lunch time on the west coast and we're already up to our third item of the day.
On a normal Monday I probably would have come across this sooner but I'm actually hurtling down the freeway somewhere outside of Lexington, KY as I type this.

This is apparently all over the blogs already, but in case you missed it, Automotive News ran a story earlier today with the following headline: New Honda chief: We don't need rwd sedans.

The story is available here, but it may require a login and/or subscription.

Basically the gist of it is that Takanobu Ito claims that Honda has suspended its RWD development program and will shift its focus towards developing hybrid powertrains for larger vehicles. Ito-san is quoted as saying "It would be meaningless to emulate what other companies have been doing for more than five decades." , and that they intend to pioneer in new areas.

Temple of Vtec Opinion
As Acura is currently in the midst of fortifying their brand image in an effort to pull level with "Tier 1" marques, I can't imagine there possibly being a worse time for the president of Honda to make such a declaration. Just when it seems like things were looking up for Acura (with word of a proper flagship RL, unique FR platforms, and true "Tier 1" powertrains in the works), the news has been steadily getting worse for the past six months or so. The cumulative effect of this series of blows is taking its toll on Acura's brand credibility amongst enthusiasts, which arguably drive a brand's overall image. Will the effect ultimately prove fatal for Acura? Only time will tell.

Source;
http://www.vtec.net/news/news-item?news_item_id=842482

TOV Confirms Acura's "Tier 1" program is moving forward on schedule

Temple of VTEC has recieved and confirmed (apparently they have seen the letter sent out by Acura officials) that the 'Tier 1' plans to entrench Acura firmly into competition with higher luxury brands (Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, etc) by producing a larger RWD car with a V8 engine. It was reported earlier on that Honda had put a stop to this along with cancelling the successor to the NSX (which is still cancelled).

Source;
http://www.vtec.net/news/news-item?news_item_id=808157

Report; Acura Postpones V8 until 2015

"You've got to have the right tool for the job." "You can't bring a knife to a gun-fight." Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. We've heard it all before. Honda makes some excellent engines, there's no doubt about that, from small displacement four-pots that rev through the roof to gloriously smooth and reliable V6 units. Unfortunately, the fun stops there, as the Japanese automaker has steadfastly stuck to its guns, not building an eight-cylinder engine when it can do just as well with fewer pistons.

Regardless of how competent its six may be, nearly all of Honda's competitors offer V8 engines in their top-level models, and Acura fanatics have been begging for a range-topper to compete with the likes of Audi, BMW, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz for years. They may soon get their wish, as Honda's CEO Takeo Fukui has stated once and for all that Acura will indeed be getting an eight for its next top-level sedan.

What good is a beefy engine if you can't get the power to the ground? A big, heavy V8 engine over the front tires is a recipe for a horribly unbalanced front-driver, and Honda realizes this. So expect the aforementioned sedan to get rear-wheel-drive to go along with its newfound infusion of displacement. When? Not until 2015 according to some industry sources. That's a veritable eternity in the auto biz, so we have to wonder if Fukui has let the cat out of the bag a bit prematurely.

Source;
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/28/honda-v8-coming-in-2015/

Acura RL to get V8 option within 18 months

Honda’s CEO Takeo Fukui has finally had the epiphany we’ve all been waiting for. He has confirmed plans for Honda to launch its first V8 in its luxury Acura brand. Fukui said that Acura sales are down 15.3 percent for the first nine months of this year and that its flagship RL sedan needs something extra.

“I don’t think that the Acura RL 3.7-liter is sufficient. We can’t compete with other premium brands,” said Fukui.

So when is it going to happen? Acura dealers are saying that they have been told Honda will offer a V8 option in the RL within 18 months. There is no word on output or torque figures as of yet but Fukui confirmed that the V8 will “be completely different from conventional, past-generation ones and have excellent fuel efficiency.”

Source;
http://www.egmcartech.com/2008/10/20/acura-rl-to-get-v8-option-within-18-months/

2010 Acura RL rumours

Looks like Honda is going to be listening to the critic's and will be adding a RWD V8 RL for 2010! Another rumour is that Honda is working on a 420-horsepower 4.8-liter V8 which will incorporate the Variable Cylinder Management System currently employed in the Honda Accord V6's, (VCM = Cylinder deactivation), to manage fuel better.

The car will supposedly feature an FR layout with SH-AWD, which is the setup that Honda says will underpin the next generation NSX.