GoHawks

Much of what we have said here before.

Solid, reliable, technologically advanced cars albeit uninspiring.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classi...0,380569.story

weather

...too bad they wouldn't contract out their Acura management division to Audi

TampaRLX-SH

It's a start and follow up to the article I posted last week. But as I read this article it came to light that sales and marketing would be separated but not manufacturing.

Then I saw this statement at the end of the article: "Like the TL it replaces, the 2015 TLX will be built in Acura’s Marysville, Ohio, plant."

The Marysville plant is a Honda plant that assembles both the Accord & TL and soon TLX. This is not different than taking the European Accord and calling it a TSX. Acura may not justify separate assembly plants but shell games with names like that make credibility suspicious.

http://ohio.honda.com/our-operations

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

In response to Tampa...

their Asian. the name of the game is efficiency. One plant to do it all. bwhahhaha. cheesy laugh and all.

If they can nail the design and power plant parts, the tri-fecta would be complete. Value being the last part.

other manufactures have already started to understand this trinity.
Acura is that awkward teenage boy that hasnt had his balls dropped yet.

Shotgun

While most of us celebrate the reorganization, a major problem remains, the problem is Mendel!

"...The company will split its US operations into a Honda Division and Acura Division, each with separate leadership and dedicated sales and marketing teams. The brands will be headed by sales division executive VP John Mendel.

Mike Accavitti will shift from his current role as marketing chief for both brands and become the senior vice president and general manager of the Acura division. Current VP and general manager of Acura sales will take on a role as senior VP and general manager of the Honda division.

"Our goal is to accelerate the already strong sales growth of the Honda and Acura brands through a more cohesive strategy, with a heightened focus on the unique needs of luxury and mainstream customers," said Mendel."

Reported by Justin King of LeftLane News

George Knighton

There's something afoot with that, but I don't know what.

Indiana and Ohio both made changes recently that point to something odd going on.

It looks like Indiana geared up to make more Civics than ever before, or they're introducing some new Civic-type car that we don't know about yet.

And it looks like Ohio has geared up to make some Civic-sized car that we don't know about yet. They told the plant that they were moving the ILX there, but of course we're all hoping that some kind of small Type R is part of the reason.

But if it really is just moving ILX to Ohio, why would they suddenly need to make 40,000 Honda Civics instead of 30,000 Honda Civics?

I don't know. But something is afoot. :-)

George Knighton

The franchise organization has been pushing for a bigger difference between Acura and Honda for a long time. I've never understood what difference it would make.

For many years, they've wanted the Honda Legend sold overseas to be sold as an Acura Legend in order to build brand equity.

Perhaps I'm not a good enough businessman to understand how that is supposed to have worked, especially since it's being built in a Japanese Honda plant anyway.

o_0

TampaRLX-SH

Obviously if Acura had some, if not all separate assembly plants that would allow the Acura brand to make some configurations not dependent on the Honda platforms. But as a brand, the volume may not yet justify that exclusivity.

However, I too suspect US assembly plants to get some shuffling to accommodate models and technology. Already the MDX is now a US build. But as far as the RLX SHAWD, it will share many driveline components of the NSX. It has been announced the NSX will be a US assembled product. Would it not make sense then the RLX SHAWD be assembled at the same plant? Both models will be low volume.

Personally I still find Saitama builds better than US plants, but Japanese build adds to cost, along with shipping. If the RLX SHAWD delivery model is to order and build, doing so on US soil will remove constraints (economic and time wise) for RLX SHAWD production.

Tonyware

... and the marketing to the Fiat 500 girls

neuronbob

Being actively discussed in Automotive News. Continue the discussion here:

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...387118&page=60