Germany cannot keep up with demand. Given the recent postings and well-reasoned positions about Acura and its competition as of late, it seems that in the face of information or public opinion that says German cars are unreliable, dont hold value well, etc etc, that must not matter much at the bargaining table. if only Acura had such problems or unreliable machines. record sales, record production, record expansion. i thought it was funny that this was posted today in relation to the RDX/Q5 thread. brief yet telling article.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/germanys...th-demand.html

"The global economy may still be on some rocky ground, but a dramatic increase in demand for luxury vehicles in the United States and China has BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi factories running at full capacity. In fact, all three German automakers will be expanding their operations in 2011."

 

best sales gainers 2010





what you think? honda's factories seem to be pretty busy as well. However BMW inc. sells pretty well too.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/10q4/2011_10best_biggest_sales_gainers-10best_cars

 

not bad, but a little out of context. If you matched Acura up against whatever its competition is (honda? BMW? Lexus? who knows these days)

In comparison, for instance, Audi sold over 101k in the US, based in large part by the Q5 which was the best selling Small CUV of the year. If you look at lexus's numbers forget about it. Not a bad sales gain for Acura, but no where near lex, BMW, benz.

American sales, do they account for rental car fleet sales? lol

 

i dont know but i've never seen a rental MDX, TL or RDX. Plus you cant really compare Acura with big lux cars like BMW. Acura is on par with lexus, VW and infiniti. bmw mercedes audi entry cars are only comparable. So slash the 5, 6 and 7-series bmw sales including Ms for north america and it would be more fair. What does acura offer that really compares with bmw 550i? what about 760 or X6M or M3? nothing. As for audi only the A4 A6 Q5 Q7 are comparable. Same thing for benz c-class some e and glk

 

Let's add some context with hard numbers from the company statistics.
Total U.S. Audi sales for 2010 - 101,628 (+22.9% over total 2009 sales)
Total U.S. Acura sales for 2010 - 133,606 (+27.2% over total 2010 sales)

Total U.S. Q5 sales for 2010 - 23,518 (+70.5% over 2009)
Total U.S. RDX sales for 2010 - 14,975 (+48.5% over 2009)

Obviously Acura is outselling Audi both in total numbers and in percentage increase for 2010.
And the Q5 is really hot but the RDX is no slouch, particularly for a vehicle entering its 5th model year.

 

Given that most BMWs (dunno about Audi/MB but I'm guessing it's similar) are "purchased" via lease, no, it doesn't matter much. If I were the leasing type, I wouldn't care about things like reliability and resale value, either (I don't lease since I drive too much.)

But I'll tell you this: if BMW could convincingly solve their HPFP problems with the 335i, I'd buy one (CPO) tomorrow. I love that car and I'd happily trade my S2000 for it. But they can't. Thus, a German sale (CPO, granted) lost due to crap reliability.

 

+1. unfortunately not the case on the 5-series either. my colleague's 5 series went on limp mode 3x in a week and ditched the vehicle for a Q7 the weekend after. in the meantime, im a happy camper in my rdx as i prefer owning vehicles. addtl car may be an audi or bmw or mb, but the acura reliability pull is hard to resist. (despite the toothless new look)

 

the general question is, then, what IS acuras competition?

If on sales volume, lexus is over 200k. and both benz or BWM are somewhere around 150k respectively. Audi has seen quite a turnaround as their designs and technology have turned the company around per se in the US. Alot of us here basically say we dont buy the book because of the cover, but that is almost exactly what Audi has done in the auto industry in the last few years. If Acura made things that look like Audis (or any other upmarket vehicle) they would start to get into the mix. Their designs are a gigantic entry-barrier, but their lower cost could be argued to overcome this.

Audi isnt going after Acura...the reason why i posted the numbers was to show that judged by sales & the values talked about here on the board in buying Acuras basically against anything else up-market, the numbers dictate something else going on. Audi is pitched directly against BMW. (seen those commercials over the last year?) They are going after market cinderblock in the US. Im happy Acura is still afloat, get them some money to do some major R&D, especially in power plants, and hopefully get some designers with eyes that work.

 

For me, an Acura is a Honda + $5K of features, so that's what I see as it's worth. Similarly an Audi is a VW + $5K of features to me, except Acura's are built upon Honda's, which are reliable and Audi's are built upon VW's which are not.

 

+1!

 

+ 101 !

If the RDX not worth the comparison to you, why do you keep comparing it to BMW, Audi, Lexus and Mercedes??

 

+2

I seriously looked at the 335xi. Couldn't get over the HPFP issues. My time is too valuable. Even if it's a warranty replacement, it costs me time spent out of the office, and away from the family. Reliability is a huge factor in my purchase.

So BMW (and Audi) lost a sale from me. I went with the (beaked) TL 6MT.

When the time is right, the MDX and RDX will be on my radar. Until the Q5 and X3 show consistent decent reliability ratings, Acura will still be one of my top choices. IMHO.

 

When buying a vehicle, each vehicle must (or should) be investigated on it's own. With most of the parts of a vehicle being created by an outsourced company, a vehicle can (or should) only be measured by the sum of its parts. Not by blanketing the entire company.

Every manufacturer makes some good cars, and some bad cars. Except Lada.

 

...and Land Rover USA