need4spd_RENAMED

Ok, here it is from Acura:

The TSX sports sedan, recently named to Car & Driver magazine's 10 Best Cars list, registered 1,851 sales, pushing year-to-date sales to 18,932 and exceeding the 2003 sales goal by more than 25 percent.

The TSX blew away the 15K per year number!

Hot Dang!

rethottsx

NEW TSX VEHICLES DELIVERED THIS PAST WEEK HERE,
ACURA OF THE DESERT, ARE IN THE 20,000'S SO OBVIOUSLY
THE 15,000 LIMIT HAS PASSED WITH NO END IN SIGHT!

MILANO RED
6MT W/ NAVI

ABP-CL9-TSX

Is it necessary to use CAPS like that?

I got my TSX back in May, see sig.

Mokos23

since it is 2004 now and they're still making the 04 Tsx's will they start over again and the Tsx's they build in 2004 will start from 0 or keep on adding from the 18,000-20,000 Tsx's they have built starting from Apr. 2003? I checked my vin and mine is in the 18,000's.

rethottsx

vin #'s keep climbling but the letter designation for year changes.

tsx
6mt/navi
vin#5784 OF 20,000 plus and growing!

04 mdx /touring/navi

1SICKLEX

I thought 15k was very conservative. I would push for 50k. It's a 25k Acura. It should sell in droves.

AcuraFan

And if Acura fired their marketing team and hired someone who actually knows what their doing, we might actually see sales befitting a car like this.

But selling more than the target amount is always a good thing anyway.

kiteboy

I can see why they were conservative with the estimates. On the surface, it's a smaller 4-cyl Accord with a pretty interior and North Americans like big cars with 6-cylinders or more. (After all, the V6 Accord is NA-only). I don't think many noticed until the great reviews came in and people realized what a great overall package it is. Even still, I bet most Accord shoppers don't even cross-shop the TSX.

Also, some of it probably has to do the fact that there's zero marketing budget for this car.

gilboman

they don't need to fire their marketing team.... Honda just needs to fire the ppl who make the descisions in acura and implement a team that actually has a desire to make a real luxury/performance car rather than rummaging through the honda parts bin and slap on the Acura badge

BradW

We get a ton of cross shoppers with the Accord, anyone that knows a thing about cars always prefers the TSX. Supply definitely does not meet demand. I bet we have lost close to 50 sales just because we couldn't get the car the customer wanted in a timely fashion.

I agree though, I have seen little to no advertising for the TSX. Although with a little advertising there would be no way to meet demand at the current production rate.

justinjsw

Same old song....dude do you ever get tired of listerning to yourself?

nh-603p

Do me a favour and send them to Canada then. I could get a car for any of those fifty TSX customers here in Ontario.

AcuraFan

...you do make me chuckle, gilbo. You really do have a place here...every court needs it's jester.

1SICKLEX

I agree. In Forbes, Smart Money, I saw an ad in Atlanta magazine, they advertised the TSX as a sports sedan.

No can do. The WRX, EVO, etc are there for that. They should have had something like "there is no comparable new car luxury wise at this price". That is the TSXs advantage, it's features (loaded) and interior.

tsx-mdxman

The TSX IS a sports sedan and is being properly marketed as such. It's simply aimed at a different segment then the WRX and EVO. That segment is probably overall more mature (agewise) and perhaps slightly more well heeled. As for sales, they're hardly marketing it. The ratio of ads for TL versus TSX is probably 5 to 1. Makes sense, since they get less $$ per unit for TSX and it's selling well in Europe.
I'll take a TSX over the little-boy-racer IS any day, which I'm sure you'd tell us is a "sports sedan."

ostrich

I have never seen any TSX ad in my life!!! I bought it purely due to my own favorable test drive experience, the outstanding write-ups by the press (Automobile, Motor Trend, Car & Driver, Road & Track), the excellent reliability and resale record of Acura and the recommendations by you guys on this forum :-)

Yes, it would be nice to have more "recognition" but then don't we also enjoy the exclusivity right now?

gonova

I can't believe none of you have seen any TSX advertisements. Don't any of you watch college football? I forget which channel Acura sponsors, but you were sure to see 4-5 TSX commercials per game. Back in the spring, there were at least 5 billboards for the TSX in the Philly area, and I have seen print ads in BusinessWeek and Newsweek. Often used to see commercials on Sportscenter, as well.

The problem is not marketing, it is lack of production capacity.

dnl2ba

I've only seen 1 print ad, and it was awful-- made some kind of video game analogy.

larchmont

"Wall Street Racer"

AcuraFan

I've seen a few print ads and a couple commercials for the TSX, RSX and TL. But not many, and they certainly didn't excite me at all. The TL commercial is clever but kinda boring. I'd just like to see a move aggressive ad campeign that really plays to Acura's strengths and improve their status as a luxury company.

phile

I actually saw a new TL commercial on TV last night. Unlike the other commercials that show the TL just zooming around, this one showed the interior for more than 1 second, with gauges lit up and pimp lighting on. It looked very luxurious, but sporty luxurious, because they showed the ebony interior.

Mokos23

I've only seen 1 Tsx commercial, it was when the guy was looking at fish swimming in an aquarium and flashes to the guy driving the Tsx on the road. That's it. Never seen another commercial nor a billboard ad for that matter. Seen about 3 TL commercials, 2 Mdx ones, and 1 Rsx one. I've also seen 2 billboard ads for the TL. You think that Acura is advertising the TL too much or cause since it's made in Ohio, it will help the American economy or market compared to the Tsx, since its made in Japan.

Kwijybo19

Just to clear something up. Someone earlier said that the NA Accord is not sold outside of the US. That is not true. While the previous generation (99-03) TL was sold as the JDM Inspire/LeSabre, the current generation Accord (04-08) is being sold as the JDM Inspire. A slightly different version of the J30 block currently used in the NA Accord is utilized overseas. It uses cylinder deactivation (Variable Cylinder Management, Honda calls it, or VCM) where on light loads, or freeway crusing, one bank of cylinders will shut down, and subsequently the car will cruise on three cylinders. The fuel economy rivals that of the K24 in the base JDM Accord (itself a different trim of our TSX). The J30 in the Inspire also makes 250 ps, as compared to 240 bhp over here.

Honda recently announced that its 2005 Honda Accord Hybrid model would feature a V6 with VCM. Chances are it will probably be the engine found in the JDM Inspire, as the engine was put in there, with, presumably, little modification work to the original chassis and subframe.

Also, I really doubt it is capacity that is limiting sales of the TSX. If capacity were the case, then we would not be currently in the 20k build numbers of it. And keep in mind, the TSX was introduced as a 2004 model in April. Acura subsequently predicted 15K sales per year. Now, unsure of what Acura qualified as a year, there are two options here.

1-2004 meant April 2003 all the way to Sept., Oct. 2004, in which waaaay more than 15K TSX's will be sold.

2-2004 meant two distinct time periods. April 2003 to Sept., Oct. 2003, and then from there to the same time one year later (in 2004.)

With either scenario, Acura has far exceeded its own modest sales forecast. Yet, they are still building. Another factor to take into account is that because Acura builds less TSX's than demand warrants, TSX sales are therefore seen as hot. Every car remains on the lot for minimal days, and every car is sold at or near to sticker price. Thus, resale is kept up, and a buzz is maintained for the car as a whole. Thus, a sort of artificial demand is created. Acura has had a lot of success with this method. Witness MDX sales. Acura well knows they could sell 80K of these puppies per year, yet they steadily increase production, rather than rapidly, keeping demand high, prices steady and dealers happy. Honda does the same thing with their Pilot.

And one last thing. Sure, there are more TL ads than TSX ads. The TL outsells the TSX by 4:1 (using Acura's sales predictions). For that reason alone, there should be four times more TL ads than TSX ads. Of course, this does not address the fact that Acura could increase TSX ads, but at the same time, if they were to do that, they would also need to increase TL ads.

Phew, that was exhausting. I'm going to bed. Goodnight.