Was the market clamoring for this?

A “hand-built” TLX.

Who was shopping, lamenting the absence of a bespoke version of the most ubiquitous entry-level lux sedan?

Where does Acura come up with this stuff? How about a proper RWD-based sedan? Or even a modern Integra? Something that reminds of the Preludes of yore?

Naw, let’s make a huge ordeal out of an Artisan TLX. Sheesh.

https://carbuzz.com/news/2020-acura-tlx-pmc-edition-arrives-with-a-premium-price-tag

But … but … it’s made in the same factory as a NSX

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If I had a few million bucks more than I could spend, I might buy one of those, just for the novelty.

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There are enthusiasts for every car type and most models. There are people that want X with Y and complain they can’t get it.

Do I think this makes the most sense? no
do I think they will get a huge premium out of these? no

But effectively, this is an ASPEC TLX with some premium features from a top trim TLX with a high end paint job on it.

If you assign a value to the components and the bespoke paint job it might be worth it. Especially to people who were going to modify their car and going after a specific look.

I think it looks awesome, but I am not in the market for a $40-50K car and generally have trouble justifying to myself the cost of top trims for most cars.

The difference here between all the stuff you said and this car, It doesn’t take a huge engineering project to use some of the NSX’s underutilized line to paint some cars and install some flashy interior/exterior bits. It takes a ton more effort, engineering, product planning to put a new car out, not exactly apples to apples.

We got the first Nissan Sentra with a built-in laser printer carved out of solid mahogany.

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They needed to keep PMC workers engaged because NSX production is way below plan, and to their credit they want to keep PMC fully staffed and not move those highly skilled workers back to other plants. The pricing of this actually isn’t bad for what’s added to this car - it’s basically an Advance trim A-Spec (currently A-SPEC comes with Tech trim, not Advance) with NSX paint and other stuff.

It’s nowhere as dumb as when Honda tried to sell a Mugen Civic, which was basically a Civic EX with a lame body kit, wheels and exhaust for +$4k (footnote - those things are actually relatively valuable nowadays).

IMO this is also a test run for PMC building things other than NSX. I suspect we’ll see some really cool models come out of there in the future. Type-S is coming back and Acura is getting it’s own turbo V6. Acura has been a total sh*tshow of lazy boring half baked Honda+ cars for the last 10 years, but it feels like they are finally finding the right path and from what I’ve heard the mothership is heavily investing like they haven’t since the 90’s. They’re supposed to debut a bunch of good stuff at Pebble Beach on 8/18.

Also, if you want a Prelude, look no further than the current Accord :slight_smile:

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I was gonna say, it looks like it’s probably just an excuse to not idle the plant since the NSX hasn’t sold like they expected it to.

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There are current gen 2-door accords?

:bat:

If you’ve got a TIG welder, sure! But seriously, this gen Accord reminds me in feel more of the Prelude than anything I’ve driven from this company since. I’ve been abstaining from new Honda products for several years, it’s nice that they finally built something that doesn’t feel like a half hearted lazy attempt.

The 7gen Accord Coupe V6 6MT was supposed to be the Prelude successor/replacement, Honda said it over and over. I owned one for 6 years - it was definitely not. It was a 2 door Accord with too much front wheel drive torque, overboosted steering and a squishy suspension. I spent twice as much on suspension and chassis modifications than I ever spent on repairs/maintenance, and I had it until 240k miles :rofl:

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I’d say my 2009 Civic Si Coupe was closer in spirit, but still a bit of a different feel than that 1990 Prelude Si I borrowed from HS girlfriend’s mom for junior prom. That car felt magical to a 16-year-old. Perhaps nostalgia is tainting my memory for the good, though.

Those late 80’s / early 90’s Hondas had some sort of cool. low, flat handling despite being FWD. I imagine modern safety requirements and all the added weight and the tall doors that necessarily come up to your shoulders now all conspire to make things less dangerous, but also less visceral.

:bat:

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So once these are done, do we think we’ll get some fancy hand built Honda Accords for $65k? Maybe a bespoke RDX with hand finished aluminum inserts?

The price premium on this is not $30k, it’s like $3500 :rofl: I wouldn’t buy one, but “$50k TLX” sounded a lot less crazy to me once I saw that an SH-AWD Advance is $47k. For reference, this paint color alone is a $6000 option on the NSX.

I think either we’re going to see NSX variants coming after this TLX run is over or RDX Type-S and TLX Type-S PMC editions. There have been rumors of a Spyder and Type-R for NSX, but with sales being so bad, who knows if they’ll follow through. Regardless, they seem determined to utilize this plant and keep the staff busy, which is only a good thing for us since cool stuff should come from it.

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As a Honda enthusiast i think this car looks super nice. They will never be like the late 90’s early 2000’s Preludes but i think this is nicer looking then Volvos, or 3 series BMW’s.

Y’know what’ll help them shift some more NSX’s? Insane lease deals. C’mon Honda, give us some $600 a month NSX deals! That’ll keep the factory busy :wink:

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I’ll take the under on that guess. Why throw good dollars after bad at that lead balloon non-selling car? Acura may be sniffing the right path with Type-S stuff, but they’ve gone so far afield in the past decade they need more than minor course correction. Whoever won the battle that the NSX should be a technological tour-de-force instead of a raw and edgy ICE car should be required to do some “self-criticism” as the Asian business leaders say.

:bat:

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That’s easy. It just takes $35k DAS.

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What are NSX prices right now has anyone on here gone after one.?

I’m sure that @HondaSoCal would be very happy to lease us one at $25,000 over MSRP but with some fancy floormats thrown in*?

*for an additional fee

Pretty sure there’s a $20k incentive on the NSX right now.

I feel like an esteemed member of out little soiree posted a link about that in the recent past . . . .