WSJ claims RL was originally to be TL redesign
04-29-2006, 08:38 PM
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WSJ claims RL was originally to be TL redesign
Was reading through Thursday's WSJ when I found an article on the American influence in the Japanese auto industry. Found an interesting segment that I thought AZ members would find interesting...I had not heard this before...
"For the Acura TL, Japanese executives were leaning toward a low-risk design drawn up by a team in Japan, a round-edged look intended to appeal to older buyers. But at a planning meeting at Honda's U.S. headquarters in Torrance, Calif., Erik Berkman, a veteran American engineer, told his Japanese bosses that before they moved forward, they needed to know that all the Americans assigned to the project favored a different design, according to people familiar with the matter. Honda's California styling center had come up with an edgier look with sharper lines and a more aggressively styled grill.
Koichi Amemiya, the ranking Japanese executive at the meeting, heeded the Americans. That new version of the TL is now the best-selling car in the Acura lineup. Honda also released a version of the more conservative Japanese design as the Acura RL, and it has not sold well in the U.S."
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Find the rest of the article on WSJ.com: "Inside Japan's Big Car Makers,
U.S. Hires Gain New Influence".
"For the Acura TL, Japanese executives were leaning toward a low-risk design drawn up by a team in Japan, a round-edged look intended to appeal to older buyers. But at a planning meeting at Honda's U.S. headquarters in Torrance, Calif., Erik Berkman, a veteran American engineer, told his Japanese bosses that before they moved forward, they needed to know that all the Americans assigned to the project favored a different design, according to people familiar with the matter. Honda's California styling center had come up with an edgier look with sharper lines and a more aggressively styled grill.
Koichi Amemiya, the ranking Japanese executive at the meeting, heeded the Americans. That new version of the TL is now the best-selling car in the Acura lineup. Honda also released a version of the more conservative Japanese design as the Acura RL, and it has not sold well in the U.S."
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Find the rest of the article on WSJ.com: "Inside Japan's Big Car Makers,
U.S. Hires Gain New Influence".
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