oonowindoo

like what they said.. go test drive a M45 then go drive RL... seriously u will feel RL is no different from accord V6 acceleration wise. Sure 200 HP is enough for daily driving... it is more than enough... Shit a XB with 100 HP is enough for commute. But why do we like HIGH PERFORANCE V6? that produce 300+HP? because it FEELS GOOD! IT IS FUN.. it is more like "MINE IS BETTER THAN URS" Sure a V6 RL is enough for what it is.. but ENOUGH IS NEVER ENOUGH.... when u drive a V6 RL there is NO "MINE IS BETTER THAN URS" When u pull up to a GS/LS/S/Q/M/545.

when all other competitors are offering V8 or V10 or V12 or V12 Bi Turbo and Honda/Acura is offering a V6...... why would i buy a V6 Luxury sedan when i could get V8, V12???

Most of the ppl r buying RWD Luxury Sedan.. sure they are offering A/4 WD but majority of the ppl still buy RWD.....

RWD>AWD>FWD

RWD with current technology + good snow tires = as good as it could get.

rezurex

quattro > RWD

Crazy Bimmer

fsttyms1

CLsuperhero

I think Honda is playing it smart by not putting out a V-8 like everyone else. They are just seeing what else everyone can do with a V-8. They are carefully observing. They will probably come out with the best V-8 out there. They will improve on what everyone else has been doing and it will be far superior. They know that Nissan is coming with the Skyline to the states. I think they will unveil a beast that will exceed the competition. Toyota has the supra. Nissan has the skyline. Acura had the NSX. The replacement for the NSX will be serious!

F23A4

Stated like a true Hondaphile. It would seem that 'playing it "smart"' in this case is extremely subjective (at best).

While I'm certain a Honda V8 will be one to reackon with, there's no Honda V6 precedent to substantiate your assertation above (in bold). But dont take my word for it, take Ward's.

But if Honda really wants to create a niche for the RL (instead of competing directly with the M45/550i/GS4XX/A6 4.2/E500) then, they could equip it with IMA. I bet the more 'affluent' tree huggers would go for it.

mrdeeno

i haven't heard any rumors of a hybrid RL while Lexus is already selling RX hybrids, soon to sell GS hybrids and eventually LS hybrids. So niche already covered by someone else.

It's been done before in the past...Honda/Acura didn't have any SUV's during the SUV craze because they were "too green". First and foremost, they are a business; unlike Greenpeace, Honda is a FOR PROFIT corporation, so they gave in and jumped on profitable SUV's by rebadging isuzus (troopers and rodeos). They knew that was only to hold them over while designing their own SUV...which they eventually did.

During that time before the MDX came out, there was a lot of potential earnings they did not get because they didn't have their own SUV. Was it worth it for their MDX? The mdx, as great as it is, was still being outsold by the RX. It's one of the top in its class and for all SUV's, but it's still NOT definitively THE BEST. No, IMO it was NOT worth all that lost potential profit so they could "study the competition" to design a product that can compete, but doesn't outright trump the competition. "Studying the competition" is what they will say to save face...to cover the fact that they missed the SUV bandwagon and dismissed it as a fad.


History has repeated itself....SH-AWD. Honda's stubbornness has kept it from designing a mass-production rwd platform. They insisted that their fwd's are as good as anyone needs. Again, we're talkign about the U-freakin'-S here...our wants are greater than our needs.

They realized they had to rectify this but can't design a new rwd platform easily, so they had to come up with a solution...AWD. But as usual they have to be technologically ahead of the competition, so we have SH-AWD. People are still arguing the fact that SH-AWD is only marginally better than the next best thing out there. Was all the lost sales (and prestige/perception) from not having rwd/awd sedan offerings worth it for SH-AWD...something "marginally" the best?
Again they will say they "studied the competition". IMO, they are trying to save face once again.

Eventually they will produce a v8. It will be better than everyone else's v8. It will be the best v8 available at the time...but only marginally. Again, they will say that they "studied the competition" as a reason for not having it sooner.

That's my opinion.

F23A4

I was speaking in terms of possible product placement for the RL. i.e.: The S2000 is a niche market that includes teh Solstice and MX5.) That said an IMA RL would work very well against the GS450h.

Consequently, the market will dictate Honda's direction regarding future V8 applications, much the way it did with the 5th generation Honda Accord V6.

CLpower

so far, my V8 is getting better gas mileage then my acura V6 did

bigman

I'll make it short and sweet. We live in America. Bigger is better.

picus

I agree that Acura having some RWD drivetrains is more important than Acura having a V8. A v8 would be nice, but FWD and FWD-bias AWD isn't going to cut it in the luxury market. Just imo, of course.

SteVTEC

I agree with a lot of others that a V8 would be a nice addition to the Acura lineup both as a halo effect that will add curb appeal, and because of the obvious torque and performance advantages. Modern V8 engines can be extremely efficient also. I've been extremely impressed with the domestic V8s that use displacement on demand technologies like the DCX HEMI and the GM LS4. Both of those engines offer a ton of power while not consuming much if any more fuel than a lot of high-po import V6 engines, in particular the high-po versions of Nissan's VQ which is not particularly efficient. A Chrysler 300C with 340hp/390tq gets practically the same mileage as an Infiniti G35/M35 despite being a significantly heavier vehicle with much poorer aerodynamics. The GM LS4 with 303hp/323tq is pretty darn impressive too at 17-18 mpg city and 27-28 mpg hwy. That's the same highway mileage as the TL and Maxima although city mileage is still a bit worse.

V8s are actually idea candidates for displacement on demand too. You can shut down two cylinders in each bank and still have an even firing engine, and there's enough excess displacement that there's a large map area of the engine's operating range where they can run in 4-cylinder mode. Honda's VCM V6's are pretty neat, but it's a much more complex and costly system to run vs the V8s. You need active motor mounts and active noise cancellation to handle vibrational and noise issues since it won't run evenly. The V8s don't need any of that.

I think Honda will expand their use of V6 hybrids before they go with a V8. It just seems to suit their design philosophy and general Rx better. Some will love that and be impressed with all of the technology, but it also adds significantly to the cost of the vehicle along with adding long term reliability and maintenance concerns.

mrdeeno

yeah...that's been honda's way. as i stated in other threads before about the lack of a honda v8...they are acting like a parent and we are the kids.

Honda doesn't give consumers what they want...Honda tells them what they need and says, "You no need V8...you need only v6. BUY NOW!".