shubysingh

my guess would be ukrainians have good taste

Costco

Still, thats a crazy amount of growth in one year! Kinda weird how SUVs are more popular over there though, you'd think with European gas prices people would freak out more?

I don't see SUVs becoming very popular in western Europe, since it seems like they still aren't, but I guess its a good place to start to get the name out.

herbalist

Edward'TLS

That's a jolly good way to ruin a supposingly-upmarketed European Acura brand, just like the current Acura brand status in North America. It would be much better to introduce the "Tier-1" Acura brand in Europe with true "Tier-1" Acura models, rather than giving it some half-ass-Tier models to tarnish the brand status.

iforyou

iTrader: (1)

Yea, so I guess that's why Acura still doesn't exist over there.

vas25tl

Actually if you take a look at all the previous Soviet Union countries, they are flooding with imported cars. The amount of used vehicles being shipped to Moscow alone is unbelievable. I was there in 2004 and all I saw were S500's and A8's; no Lada's to be found.

Edward'TLS

Yep, you're right. My mind slipped. Good move for Acura Europe. Launching the high-end Acura brand in Europe with top-notch Acura vehicles, and not to make the same mistake twice as for North America.

iforyou

iTrader: (1)

Perhaps we should start visiting European car magazine sites since they might have spyshots or info on the upcoming "tier-1" cars being tested in Europe.

Edward'TLS

Will the Acura "Tier-1" cars being built in the US or in Japan ? I don't think the European factories have the capacity to build any additional models.

krio

Ukranian and russian market are the biggest ones in Europe.
Russia is buying more cars than Germany this year.
Consider however the inner BIG difference in mentality between West Europe and East one.
Cadillac, Chevrolet, Lexus, Infiniti, Hummer, Dodge are sold ONLY in these two countries and in Kazakhstan, Azerbaidjan, Georgia, Armenia...
In west Europe, except Lexus and Infiniti (from now) no other american brand officially exist.
SUV are very popular in the East countries because of the very rich people that love BIG cars, because of the weather conditions and the VERY bad roads.
In Kiev and Moscow you can see every day houndreds of Merc S, A8, Merc GL, ML, Q7, X5, Land Cruiser, Range Rovers, Lexus GS...
In Europe only X5 3.0d, Q7 3.0TDI, and ML 320 CDI...

krio

I buy every months Autocar, Car, Evo, and read the net of autozeitung, autobuild, and so on. the best ones in Europe.
The ONLY few informations are the next gen Acura/Honda NSX.
Nothing more.
But there were rumors too about the future launch of Acura brand in Europe, not before the 2014...In the russian and ukrainian ones I found out a BIG two pages article about the Acura MDX sellings... And 2 photos and news about the launch of our beloved TL 4GN...
The biggest problem for american luxury brands, like Cadillac, Acura and so on is that there are NOT diesel engines.
Cadillac will launch next year a 2.8 engine diesel with 250 hp.
Lexus launched the IS 220d.
Honda the Accord 2.0d.
Expect next few years the MDX getting a new Turbo diesel engine...

krio

I drove for 3 years my TL '05 in these coutries.
We are (I was) at least 20 guys in Ukraine, driving this car...
People were stunned by this car.
Many thought it was the next gen Accord, but were all impressed by the look.
I and another guy went in the streets without numbers in front and rear, and police didin't stop us because they feared we were some "big" ones. Funny.
In Kiev there are:
6 black TL 3GN
2 blue TL TypeS 3GN
1 black TL Type S 3GN
2 silver TL 3GN
2 gold TL 3GN
1 white TL 3GN
1 grey TL 3GN
that's all!

JediMindTricks

kinda like owning a 2g RL here.

SupaRookie

wow, so amazing! I guess black is hot over there.

Costco

iforyou

iTrader: (1)

Perhaps there will be more diesel engines in the line up before the launch of the brand in Europe?

krio

If THERE will be a launch in Europe, knowing the Honda "fuel efficency" politic,
we can bet yes. I don't think the Infinitis sells will be grow fast at the moment in Europe without a diesel range...
80% of the Audi/Merc/BMW sells are diesel engines, 4 or 6cyl turbo diesels.

Honda has the base 4c 2.0 already in use for the TSX/Accord, in future maybe a new V6 turbo diesel for the big SUVs and the sedans...
An MDX V12 TDI like the Q7 in the pypeline??

TMQ

All the money from oil benefiting the locals...

Well now that the stock and financial market is in chaos maybe people will guard their money a bit more carefully.

Honestly, Acura will not do well in Europe. Honda is already an upscale brand there. There is little differentiation between Acura and Honda right now.

iforyou

iTrader: (1)

lol MDX V12...is there enough space??

Edward'TLS

But this has to be done globally. You can't have Honda Europe selling rebadged NA Acura vehicles, or Honda NA selling rebadged European Honda's. It's only good for the Honda brand, but bad for the Acura brand especially in NA.

Edward'TLS

Even a 450-500hp twin-supercharger 3.7L-V6 will do the job well. Most luxury car makers are going the forced induction path these days for high power and good fuel economy. I bet Honda/Acura will once again try to do things differently than all other successful luxury auto makers.

iforyou

iTrader: (1)

wow..lol twin-supercharger..I never heard that before in a stock production car....I think I need to do more research...but no doubt I really like the forced induction path. I just hope if Honda were to do it, don't screw up like the RDX did.

Edward'TLS

V6 engine. One supercharger for each cylinder bank to increase input charge volume, rather than one supercharger for both banks. This also allows cylinder deactivation management such that one complete self-contained bank can be shut down at will.

iforyou

iTrader: (1)

what cars use that?

Never Summer

Any car with cylinder deactivation can suck it. I personally do not care enough about saving gas to have a car that loses HP as a result.

TMQ

"You can't" - Honda is already doing this. It has positioned itself to a sort of entry lux level in Europe. The lineup of Honda cars for the rest of the world is very different from NA, because the markets are different.

The only way for Acura to succeed globally is to have separate platforms from Honda. It hasn't happened yet. It's doing so so in N/A. when the NSX and the next gen of cars come out, we'll get a better idea.

Edward'TLS

Future cars. Maybe I should put in a patent for this application.

Edward'TLS

I meant you can't do that and become successful.

Honda has been doing this, and so the NA Acura brand is going nowhere.

I agree with you that Acura cars have to be completely separated from the Honda's to shake off that cheap Honda looks.

iforyou

iTrader: (1)

lol from the way you were saying I thought some cars already have it stock!

biker

That's way too complicated for the results - you can still shut off one bank with a single supercharger.

What are the chances Acura will pull something out of nowhere (besides the NSX replacement) on this year's car show circuit?

TSX69

Acura Announces Sept Sales

10/01/2008 - TORRANCE, Calif. -

In a challenging financial marketplace, Acura September sales totaled 9,997 units, down 27.5 percent versus last year, based on the daily selling rate*. Year-to-date vehicle sales totaled 115,828, down 15.3 percent** versus 2007, Acura announced today.

The MDX luxury SUV is again Acura's best-selling vehicle, with September sales of 3,669 units, while the TL was Acura's top selling luxury performance sedan with sales of 3,017.

TSX recorded sales of 2,144 units and the RL totaled 259. September sales of the turbocharged RDX crossover SUV were 908.

For media information and high-resolution photos of Acura vehicles, please visit www.acuranews.com. For consumer information, please visit www.acura.com.

*The daily selling rate is calculated with 24 selling days for September 2008 and 25 selling days for September 2007.
**Year-to-date sales based on 230 days for both 2008 and 2007.

Infamous425

no surprise. everyone is down

dom

Those RDX numbers are abysmal.

TSX69

For reference, Lexus was down even more: 35.1%.

TSX69

10/01/2008 - TORRANCE, Calif. -

American Honda Motor Co., Inc., posted September vehicle sales of 96,626, a decline of 20.9 percent compared to September 2007 results. American Honda year-to-date sales of 1,180,583 represent a 1.1 percent decrease.

"This September was an incredibly volatile month for Wall Street," said Dick Colliver, executive vice president of sales for American Honda. "Obviously, no one is immune to market shifts as dramatic as we have been seeing."

Honda Division posted September sales of 86,629, a decline of 20.0 percent versus September 2007. Honda total car sales decreased by 18.5 percent to 50,611. Honda light truck sales decreased 22.0 percent to 36,018. The Fit achieved a September record of 6,515, up 48.7 percent in its first full month available as a completely redesigned 2009 model.

The Acura Division posted sales of 9,997, a decrease of 27.5 percent compared to September 2007.

*The daily selling rate is calculated with 24 days for September 2008 and 25 days for September 2007. The year-to-date daily selling rate is calculated with 230 days for 2008 and 230 days for 2007. All percentages represent the daily selling rate.

For more information or downloadable high-resolution images of Honda and Acura vehicles, please visit www.hondanews.com. Consumer information is available at www.honda.com.

LuvMyTSX

Economy sucks right now, so this is not surprising. The only thing that surprised me was the RDX numbers. Wow that's low.

mg7726

^^ that's what happens when you put a 2.3T on a boat :P

mltk53

acura=lol
but im surprised at lexus

Moog-Type-S

Not surprising...auto sales are down...period.

phile

And the R Fail just needs to be put out of its misery.