I've got a google news search set for and it picks up some funny stuff from time to time. Most recently this financial article include the text:

I guess I'm okay with not-so-flashy.

 

hehe yep.

Anyone who buys a car (or anything for that matter) to be "flashy" has some serious insecurity issues.

 

Umm...Rob, have you looked around you lately at practically every person in the US of A? We must be the most insecure nation in the world...

 

I'm don't have security issues since 8x3 is well outside the norm!

 

I like to be in a good looking car - no question about it. However, many people define "good looking" as the image it protrays. That's where I part company with many people. If it's good looking, then it's good looking. Period. The RL is a good looking car.

Try this one day. Stand back in a parking lot and look at a Lexus GS or MB E class. Hold your thumb at arms length and block your view of the badge. The GS looks like all the others in the parking lot and the ES looks more like an RL then anything else I've seen. It's all about the feeling that badge creates based on marketing, right?

Those people that can't bring themselves to buy an RL because it doesn't protray a certain element of prestige are the same people that will pay 30% more for a home just to be in a particular zip code or town. They'll eat beans and have no furniture in their house BUT they got the address. Hey to each his own. If that makes them happy then it's all good.

 

When you're pushing 53 grand worth of metal it pays to play by the same rules most people do.

 

I do have to agree that we do own a not so flashy car. I think that it's a very good looking car in a very conservative way- I find that it doesn't stand out as much. In asking myself the question is it because of the badge? Maybe partly. Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar, yes and Lexus I think do have a certain status appeal. It's one that Acura just doesn't have. Partially it's because of what someone mentioned in the other thread. Acura doesn't have the older gentlemen with the distinguished voice reading the ad on television ad nauseum during certain times of the year. It's about image, and the RL is still an expensive Honda, but I'm okay with that- most others aren't and they'll continue buying the other aforementioned brands until Acura decides they want to spend a great deal of money changing the image.

 

Remember when Lexus had the commercial with the original Lexus LS with the pyramid of champagne glasses on the hood? That's an example of establishing a brand. What was Acura doing at that same time? Selling Integras.

It is not so much the "look" as the perception. Put a Lexus logo on the RL and it suddenly becomes handsome, kinda like that boring-looking Lexus LS.

For Acura to change their image they have to: 1) stop selling inexpensive cars (which they have stopped doing by killing the RSX/Integra), 2) make a true luxury flagship, even if nobody buys it, 3) advertise, 4) do product placements. Even then, it will take years to change brand perception. Hopefully, it is not too late. However, Acura must get away for the "buy us because we're the best deal" mentality. That might work for the TL (and it isn't working all that well, judging from the drop in TL sales), but it won't work in the luxury arena.