Timmy18

Started off just by darkening up the inside of the wheels and that led to make them bigger, which led to adding the chrome piece below the doors to editing the rear and front bumper to squashing the roof and then finally giving it a RWD proportion and because I still wasn't satisfied, I duplicated the front 'hump' and added it to the rear without moving the rear door handle at all.

The car IMO has been transformed greatly. So much that I would spend 70K on it.





I'm most shocked at how the wheels turned out. All I did was select the inner portion and darken them. They look like a totally different wheel now.

2011TL

Nice !

weather

Timmy18....First of all, if you know anything about Canada, you will understand that every time I see your name, I get the urge for a coffee and donut (Tim Horton is referred her by Timmy's for short)....side bar.

In any event, you have done an AMAZING work on the RLX to give it a stance and proportions to make it a very competitive vehicle. It demonstrates how little would be required to improve the Acura image, why can't the designers and executive carry an almost perfectly executed vehicle to fruition? The wheels look gorgeous by the way....

Speaking of wheels, I hope Acura will not go the route that all car companies seems to be going these days with a highly polished black insert and chrome on the outside....that is just a disaster for showing scratches. The Honda Civics are like that here in Canada....UGLY and TACKY!

holografique

Aside from the wheels (which do look great), it looks practically the same, you guys are way too obsessive. if you think the general public is going to notice that then I think you're fooling yourself.

sure, it may make "enthusiasts" like yourselves become more inclined to purchase it, but enthusiasts do NOT represent the general public.

-o

Timmy18

Haha, thanks and (Sorry?). You remind me to check the weather for the next day, so that's helpful! Sometimes I wish I could change my name here to Hondatalover. I made this account years ago and I have no idea why I chose Timmy18 over Hondatalover or even my real name, Dillon.

The wheels on the newer Civic's are a mess with the Si's aside. New Civic in general.. despite the updates. The Civic looks like a hotwheels car with the new '14 wheels and coupe front bumper. Everything else is a go, though.

There is a difference between plastic looking glossy inserts (reminds me of Kia/ Hyundai) and a actual dark finished alloy. Unfortunately, one's cheaper and lighter.


I'd sure hate to be as blind as to where I can't see a new body line (It's stronger then the MDX's, more like the ILX's--which is very visible).

I can understand not seeing a lower roof line and maybe the extended wheel base, but that rear hump will catch attention. Maybe not from everyone, but more then just us enthusiasts.

Corey_Straker

I like it! They should have kept the chrome bellow the doors like they had on the old RL. This car needs more spice to it. Too dull. The rims are a huge improvement. Acura is known for 1 good rim in my opinion... 07-08 Type-S rims.

TonyCD

Looks great. Of course, moving the front wheels forward would require a complete overhaul of the platform, at which point it wouldn't cost Honda any more money to retool the entire car from scratch. But that's just quibbling. :.)

yooin14

I saw sh-awd version RLX at LA AUTO Show.

The Car looks dull and boring except the front. The wheel is more white color than the picture I saw internet.

Cmon Acura. Look at your competition. Give us little more aggressive touches.

Corey_Straker

You would think they would listen to the customers. If not, OK. But you would almost expect them to listen to the dealerships... NOPE. I would love to meet the design team. Every day I have a customer tell me how disappointed they are with Acura and it get's annoying not having a sharp product to sell.

Timmy18

I keep doing it.

KeithL

I do like the intel improvement, but old prefer the rear hip bulge to be to more pronounced. Also some sort of lower crease that angles up cros the lower prt of the doors.

TonyCD

Corey, a while back I wrote in desperation to the president of Honda North America. I specifically pleaded for some recognition of reality about the beak and the alphanumeric naming scheme, and I cited this site as evidence that the faithful were upset, that it wasn't just me. He blew me off with a form letter.

Since then, I saw a quote in Automobile magazine from him. He said the TL successor and the other new cars would continue to get the alphabet-soup nonsense instead of returning to real names like Legend, because the Campbell's names had "been accepted by the market." Of course, this was complete b***s***. If they haven't been accepted -- which you and I know they haven't -- it makes no sense to keep them and just tack an "X" onto the end of them. And if they have been accepted, it makes no sense to tack an "X" onto them rather than keep the "accepted" names exactly the same. (Do you see Toyota going to the 2014 Camryx?)

But it's no news by now, including to you: For several years now, somebody at Honda HQ has been stuffing their fingers in their ears and humming real loud. Maybe their pride just won't allow them to admit they've been expensively, disastrously wrong. I'm just glad I don't own stock in them.

Colin

^^ Respectfully, the names and the beak don't matter. The cars matter. If the cars are good enough (in all aspects: price, performance and styling) it doesn't matter what they call it. It will sell and sell well.

weather

^^ I agree....I couldn't care less about what they name a vehicle.....They could call it "Betsy" and I would still buy it, provided it was styled perfectly and was a well engineered vehicle. Now that being said, the beak has an effect on the styling though.

a35tl

^^^^^^^^


I agree about the names. I really couldn't care less about that. I've actually grown quite fond of the letters, "TL". I'm fine with "TLX" also. I just want them to build a hot car.

06RL/NBP

The only problem with the X designation is that other manufacturers use the X to signify all wheel drive.

weather

^^ While I see what you are saying, consumers need to do their homework on what they are buying. Surely you can't tell me that someone is going to buy a TLX with the expectation that its an AWD because BMW has X for their vehicles with AWD?! If so, these people have bigger problems to worry about than the name of their vehicle....

TonyCD

Colin, I sincerely appreciate the respectful tone of your reply.

At the same time, I will point out there's a negative consequence of Acura's grille styling and naming blunders that hurts you as an Acura owner: Whatever hurts sales also hurts your resale value.

I truly believe the RLX is a solid, well-built, safe and durable car. But the verdict is already in about its sales. Clearly, something about it is being seen by consumers as a problem.

Colin

^^Part of the difficulty in supporting a 'universal' theory that alphas and beak are hurting the brand is that the best years (sales wise) for Acura are post alphanumeric. Numerous models were huge critical and sales successes including the NSX, all generations of MDX, 1G TSX and 2G & 3G TL. The best year ever for Acura was probably around 2006-07 when we sold more than 200K units.

The beak has not proved a detriment to MDX or RDX sales and the 2G TSX has done OK considering Acura's lack of enthusiasm for Japan made cars in a 80-100 yen/dollar world. The 4G TL has probably been the biggest disappointment from an expectations point of view. It missed in two of three vital areas with the worst implantation of the beak, and very high pricing and sales suffered. As with many things written this is IMO

Edward'TLS

Is the RLX going through the exact same "very high pricing and sales suffered" situation ?

Colin

^^^What to you think?

Edward'TLS

Knock $10-15K off the MSRP, that should be the appropriate pricing for the Acura brand flagship FWD sedan.

The RLX is an excellently built sedan, but unfortunately without a luxury-brand badge; and thus the car should only be priced as such.

Acura must first attract as many buyers as possible to buy, try out, and appreciate how good it is the RLX sedan. But the out-of-touch pricing scheme simply put off lots and lots of potential luxury sedan buyers.

In fact, an AZ member just reported last week having bought one with $12K off the MSRP.

TonyCD

Legitimate points, Colin. The sales success of 2006-07 is a point in favor of the alphabet soup, although not in favor of the beak – it wasn't sticking its nose in yet.

But there is this point, too: The most recognized and respected Acura model name was Legend. In fact, Acura paradoxically cited the very popularity of the Legend name as the reason to kill it, as they concluded it was overshadowing the name of Acura.

The TL was a great car, and it sold great, but it only replaced the rather obscure Vigor. No car called RL has ever come anywhere close to the sales success of the Legend in this country, even though the '05-08 was arguably just as great a car for its time in non-marketing respects. This suggests to me that sales of the flagship model have been forfeited by the loss of that name. And of course, sales tanked even much worse the moment that model got a beak.