TSX69

https://www.motortrend.com/news/acura-rlx-legend-patent-images/ (click for pics)

The Legend Continues? Mysterious Acura Sedan Boasts Large Schnoz

Is this large-looking Acura sedan revealed in patent images a resurrected RLX or Legend?

Alexander Stoklosa Writer

Mar 14, 2024 Patent drawings are among the least sexy ways to convey a new car's design. The images are flat, drawn exactingly to scale, and even when 3D they're rendered in cold, axonometric relief—meaning there's no perspective to help car's curves and shapes pop, and none to hide the design's proportional flaws. The mysterious Acura depicted in a recently published Honda patent from Japan may ultimately turn out to be a looker when (or if) it's produced in the metal, but consider that a big "if," if for no other reason than its apparently big snoot.

Modern Honda cars—including those made by Acura, its luxury brand—all suffer from copious front overhang, an excess of bodywork ahead of their front wheels. It's partially a byproduct of their front-wheel-drive-based architecture. Study the side views of a modern Civic, or Accord, or Integra, or TLX, and they all wear pronounced proboscises. Viewed from other angles, their overhangs appear less egregious, thanks mostly to tried-and-true design tricks like clever angling of the headlights, wrapping the lights around onto the fenders, and the like.

Whatever this Acura is, we hope it has plenty of those visual tricks going on (the top-down plan view suggests the nose is quite pointed, so maybe), because in the dead-side view presented in this patent imagery, the sedan's Pinocchio-length nose is hugely exaggerated. The rest of the profile is quite nice, actually—and highly similar to today's Honda Accord sedan. Check out that windshield angle, the roof pillars, and the alignment of the doors, all of which line up with the Accord.Between the Accord associations and the apparent scale of this Acura—the wheels seem smaller relative to the overall car than those on, say, the midsize Acura TLX on sale now, and so do the exhaust outlets poking from the rear bumper—this seems to us like a separate, larger car. Acura used to sell such a vehicle, the RLX, in America, and still offers that sedan elsewhere in the world under the "Legend" name. Could this be a new-generation RLX/Legend? Perhaps.

The styling is appropriately dramatic for a range-topping sedan, what with those full-width lighting signatures front and rear, the new-age Acura grille that's more like a perforated bumper surface (evocative of the pattern on the all-electric Precision concept from 2022), and that epic hood length. It also clearly features some form of internal combustion, given the quartet of exhaust pipes peeking out from the rear bumper.

Intriguingly, the patent filing for this design lists the patent for Acura's large Precision sedan concept from way back in 2016 among its references, reinforcing the idea that this is an RLX/Legend successor while also suggesting this is a production-ready design, not another concept car. (Other references listed on the patent include Toyota's current Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle and the Mazda Vision Coupe concept from 2017.) This material, too, hints not at a TLX replacement, as some outlets have reported, but something bigger.

The old RLX packed every Acura technology and luxury available at the time, including Super Handling All-Wheel Drive, as well as an adaptation of the NSX supercar's hybrid powertrain on Sport Hybrid iterations (pictured above, in red). It's possible that Acura could bring the RLX back—and maybe entertain the return of the "Legend" name to this market, given its recent resurrection of the Integra nameplate here—utilizing the Sport Hybrid's zesty motor layout and combining it with the spicier twin-turbo V-6 engine from the MDX Type S. We're speculating wildly here, but maybe Acura's TLX won't be the brand's lone sedan much longer ... ?

mrgold35

The CAD drawing looks too small for the +2025 RLX/Legend replacement? Seems like sedans are still popular in Asian markets and 2nd row space/leg room is a bigger priority as executive sedans (w/ or w/o a driver). I would think the +2025 RLX/Legend would be an EV (or maybe a PHEV). I see the primary demographic of the RLX/Legend using it as a second vehicle driven low mileage urban environments or for day trips.

mvl

Kirk Kreifels did a side-by-side on youtube where he showed that the rendering is basically the current Accord with revised sheet metal. So most likely it is a TLX rendering as that has typically been the Acura-upgraded Accord.

The Legend has historically been a larger platform. I still believe the Legend is coming back for 2026 as some hints are leaking that Acura is planning a big 40th anniversary splash. Would time well with their electrification launch and their self-driving release roadmap.

phile

ooof i sincerely hope that’s not it. And for the TLX’s sake that it’s not it, either. That front overhang is comically exaggerated.

rlx015

I think Acura will probably wait another couple of years before they come back and introduce a Hybrid model of the top-of-the-line sedan, and perhaps an upper trim of the same model that offers a full EV model (based on GM of some sort, and adding Acura shell and badging across it). 100% total speculation on my part, but I do not see them bringing back RLX into life and adding a V6 twin turbo or even a single turbo on ICE.

and for that reason, I am out

I have decided to go back to the full ICE model when the time is right.

DanL07RL

Interesting. I have a 2018 RLX-SH also with 45K on the clock (yep, just changed the TMU fluid) and am very pleased with the car, especially the hybrid part.

Why are you so set on only an ICE solution?

rlx015

I dunno, I miss the overall feel of the ICE... Sometimes I drive my wife's TL and I get to compare first-hand what's what.
I like dual-clutch, but I don't think Acura added it for a "sportiness" feel because they wanted something that could handle frequent engine shutting off and on at random paces while driving it...

Another story when the time comes to see what is available if anything because after RLX, I am now set to get dual-clutch (if at all possible), something more powerful than RLX, and all that can come at the price .