“The direction we were going became irrelevant within 60 days,” said Steve Center, marketing boss for American Honda in a recent interview with Automotive News. So the company was forced to step back and reexamine its model range.
It’s still unclear what the future direction will be, but company executives admit that the current plan of branding the carmaker as a manufacturer of up-market models is not what they want. However, that has worked for Acura in past years and the plan is to still produce vehicles that are performance-oriented, but which are also of good value, with normal maintenance and ownership costs.
According to Acura dealer Jim Smail, Honda is still committed to the brand and will be injecting more money into it over the next few years, especially in the development of new products. At the recent dealer meeting held in Denver, company representatives promised that Honda will expand the Acura lineup, with new hybrid powertrains, but also into new segments.
The company should return to the premium compact market, where it had success in the past. That won’t just mean a rebadged version of the Civic though, says Steve Center, who pointed at the Canadian-market CSX (a rebadged Civic) as exactly how not to turn Acura into. That being said, a small hatchback or coupe is likely on the horizon, with a revived version of the much-loved RSX badge rumored to use the CR-Z’s platform.
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