Acura TSX Diesel
Next year, Honda will be releasing its first U.S diesel engine and it will be first equipped in the redesigned TSX sedan of its luxury brand, Acura.
Just recently, the Chief Executive Officer of Honda Motor Corporation, Takeo Fukui, announced that Honda’s first U.S diesel will be put first on an Acura. Although it was not disclosed which Acura vehicle will be equipped with the diesel engine, Honda sources are saying that the Acura TSX will be the one to get the diesel engine.
As a matter of fact and perhaps due to preparation for its having the diesel engine, the Acura TSX will be redesigned this coming spring. But initially, it may be powered by the turbocharged four-cylinder engine, the same one equipped in the RDX small crossover. And the diesel engine will only be put in the TSX by 2009.
Dick Coliver, the Executive Vice President of American Honda Corporation, said, “All along, we’ve said there would be a diesel in Acura. The whole direction is to separate Acura and Honda more. In five to six years, Acura will be a tier 1 luxury brand. The face of Acura will be totally different.”
The i-DTEC clean diesel engine of Honda which is a 2.2-liter four-cylinder engine which will be available in Europe this summer on the redesigned Honda Accord. The European Honda Accord is actually just like the Acura TSX.
By 2010, Honda will launch a V6 diesel engine and this will most likely be fitted into Acura’s mid-size sedan, Acura TL, and into the MDX crossover as well. Of course, other Honda vehicles will have this engine under their hood as well.
Although Acura’s sales last year 2007 were down by 10.5 percent to 180,104 units, Colliver remains hopeful that Acura sales this year will be up by at least 200,000 units.
Colliver said, “We get the TSX in the spring and the new TL in the fall. We knew going into 2007 that we were facing tough times because the product line was aging, and there was a lot of new competition. To compete with BMW, we must build cars in those segments. We need more crossovers and an image car.”
Colliver admitted that Acura’s top-of-the-line RL sedan “was the wrong car” as its sales only totaled to 6,262 in 2007. With regard to that, he said, “It is due to be replaced in 2010. Directionally, that car will change.”
However, despite the low performance of Acura’s sales last 2007, dealers of Acura still enjoyed record profits that year perhaps due to Honda’s move to cut Acura’s production by 20,000 units to control inventory.