Acura will come here ... eventually

By Toby Hagon
The Age
Thursday June 10 2004

Honda's upmarket Acura brand is headed for Australia, although its arrival will take "some time", according to Honda Australia managing director Hiroshi Toda.

http://drive.fairfax.com.au/content-...0/10acura2.jpg

Priming the Honda marque for an expansion into more luxurious models, Toda says the US-only brand, which is reserved for more expensive and sporty Hondas, will eventually arrive here.

"It's inevitable (that Acura will arrive here), but it is far away," says Toda.

"So, yes, longer term, because our plan is to grow and grow. But it will take some more time."

Toda is adamant there are no firm plans in place to introduce Acura, although he confirms early discussions have taken place.

However, the local managing director, who has helped return Honda to record sales on the back of several new-model launches, says it is important the Acura brand arrives here with a proper model line-up rather than one or two vehicles.

The obvious vehicle to wear the Acura badge in lieu of the better-known Honda label is the upcoming Legend -- shown recently as the RL prototype (pictured) -- but Toda says there will have to be more.

"We would have to have a large model line-up to make it sustainable," he says. "Having only the Legend (wearing the Acura badge) is not viable."

In America, where Acura is a respected brand, Honda vehicles such as the NSX, Integra and MDX are also sold under the Acura banner.

But Toda is cautious about introducing Acura too early, citing lack of brand recognition and a suitable dealer network as potential causes of failure.

"We have to make sure the current Honda franchise is successful and very strong before we introduce Acura," says Toda.

Acura would be the fourth upmarket brand from a Japanese manufacturer to be introduced locally, with only Toyota's Lexus brand being a success. Mazda's Eunos and Nissan's Infiniti both flopped with poor sales and lack of brand recognition.

Toda is aware of some car-makers' concerns that there are too many brands in Australia for the size of our market.

"That is not a concern to us -- it is an opportunity," he says.

F U C K!!!!

Honda is about to be americanized in oz........it is a sad day.

If only the Japanese could see what Honda Australia is doing to the Honda legend.

EDIT: where 'legend' does not mean the model....but the legend of the brand name.....or somthing.....agian....iv had a few coldies....

That's big news. I don't see how they're going to be able to do it in Australia. We simply don't have the population base and Honda's sales aren't exactly "booming" at present from what I've heard. I mean, I could understand if they did it in countries like the UK or whatever, where they can actually support such an introduction. Hmmm... much to ponder... :idea:

I read this yesterday too...

Mr Toda was also talking about the demise of the Type R teg in Oz (in another article I think) and it appears as though the Type S will have less powerr...Mr Toda said that he sees it as the Integra "maturing".

F*ck that for a joke, but it sums up Honda Oz's direction perfectly.

Acura will fail miserably out here I believe

let me get this right, they want to badge some models as acura's and charge us more for the badging? HAHAHAHA

okaaay

w0000000t acura rsx

not :P

Will be interesting to see how things unfold!

It will die on the arse in Australia FOR SURE. People are too hung up on Toyotas, Fords and fricken Holdens down here. Man I hate those cars! :evil:

I dont think mr average, who has owned holdens all his life, will be able to ACURA properly?

Acura is a no hope in Australia.
No one wants an American Built Honda Lux car. Aussie's actually identify better with Honda, rather than an American brand name they have never heard of.....

apparantly australians dont want good handling cars, we just want barges that go fast in a straight line, hence 4wds are so ****ing popular

then again, with the conditions of the roads around here, Im not surprised.. a car with low ride height and stiff springs will be destroyed

the Next war..

honda vs acura

but the accord 2 door is nice

oh ... i want the 2 dr accord more....
honda here has like most of the acura.. but not 2dr accord.... :x

I like the accura TSX front grill better, thats why im in the process of getting one over.
Note that the "accura tsx (honda accord) in the states is still made in Japan

Accura will be about image for old peeps etc. I doubt it will mean to many more "models" in australia, more than likely rebadging/marketing of current models.
It will be like lexus/toyota, and the defunked mazdz/eunos thing

:confused:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by A'PEXi

w0000000t acura rsx

not

---

You beat me to it :D

You'd thing they would learn from Toyota who tried to run a sister brand name in Au - and failed.

Seriously, this isn't the U.S., Honda is recognised by it's brand-name for build quality... having Acura as a brand name for a S2K or 'teg or NSX is going to hurt them... manybe not so for the Accord or Legend though - even the CRV.

Who the f*ck would prefer to drive an Acura instead of a Honda anyway?

Idiots... I swear someone should lend Honda Australia $2 so that they could buy a f*cking clue... but they haven't had one in the past so I won't hope.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Setanta

You beat me to it :D

You'd thing they would learn from Toyota who tried to run a sister brand name in Au - and failed.

---

They still are and it doesn't seem to be going to bad.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Setanta

Who the f*ck would prefer to drive an Acura instead of a Honda anyway?

---

I would, its a honda with a bit of added prestige.

i'm confused....if integras, mdx and nsx are marketed in the US as Acura....and here as Honda....how does that make them all of sudden crap cars. All honda is trying to do is better market their products to the luxury buyers. Fair enough some cars are built in America..and many are still gonna be from Japan or whereeva they are built these days. I dont see Honda releasing an Acura "americanised" version to compete with the honda version. If they price the cars more, they will flop...they have the pricing right at the moment. I hardly think anything is gonna change besides a new badge and maybe a bit more line of cars....like the better equiped tsx? eg...toyota landcruiser and the more expensive better equiped Lexus LX470...Honda buyers aren't stupid...they will do their research. They are not gonna give a car a miss cause its got a new badge on it.

How is a badge added prestige? Sheesh, some people have more money than sense :(

damn sounds like Honda gonna phase out soon... Acura gonna infest and spread like germ in Aus...

Although tge Acura line up in the US is nice I reckon they would get more sales if they were Badged as Honda's. People are familar with the Honda name and brand image.

But if you think about it, the MDX would go well with the Acura brand. Only thing is that the brand image and recognition of Acura is non-existant here. The majority of Lexus owners knew about Lexus because it was being sold in other countries apart from USA. I remember that Lexus was being sold for quite a while in South East Asian countries, as well as the Hong Kong region and managed to attain an image like that of Mercedes. That's why Lexus is still surviving in AUS. For Acura to be successful here, they should sell the brand for a few years in other countries first before coming over to our shores.

aaronng - yeah exactly.. that's why hiroshi said it's gonna be A LONG WAY before Acrura hits. It's all marketing. They're trying to get brand recognition here first.

who says all honda buyers do their research?? come on.. lighten up guys

Setanta - some people DO have more money than sense. But if they're gonna buy an over priced car, someone's gonna sell it to them. :D might as well be Honda. right ??

Acura sounds wierd like a brand for a tampoon...... :confused:

I will always stick with honda :D and sadly end with honda if they were to rename the top of the range model Acura...........

what is honda doing? :(
sad sad day.
acura
no type r
grrrrr!!!!

I think the difference between Acura and Lexus is that Lexus have their own line up where Acura cars are all Honda's with a different badge.

For the Acura brand to work you cant have 2 cars that are similar RSX - Integra under 2 brands.

If I had to buy an Acura i would badge my car and replace the acura rubbish with the one and only Honda badge. I say that every member of OZhonda should put their name to a letter or post and that this be sent to honda australia about such items as no type r's and this acura rubbish.

The problem is that the Honda badge just does not have the prestige to compete with the big boys Merc, Audi, BMW. Its exactly the same with Toyota. Do you think that if the Lexus RX330 was badged as a Toyota that it would sell for 70k+? No Way!!

Bringing Acura here will help raise the profile of Honda and really put them up into prestige territory. And no its not just a case of slapping acura badges on Hondas. If they did it, they would wait till the whole line up is rejigged first and then split up the Hondas and Acuras. I would expect the Acura cars to be like Lexus and have heaps of fruit like sat nav, bluetooth etc.. to justify the higher price.

Its a marketing tool. If it makes them money we may see better models being delivered to Australia though.

undefinedundefinedundefined :thumbsup: Hello Acura Lovers. I hope Acura will come to australia because im considering moving there soon.
And hopefully the Acura TL is there with RWD, 300HP and a V6 engine.

I like to drive, are there many place to really drive your car there?

If I may subject something good people.

If you get a chance to drive the Acura TL you will love the power the pure 270HP FWD, power plant.

Standard engine: 60 MPH in 6.3 seconds

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LatinoHatchCrap

Its a marketing tool. If it makes them money we may see better models being delivered to Australia though.

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hahahahhahahahhahahahaha...

[deep breath]

hahahahhahahahhahahahaha...

[deep breath]

hahahahhahahahhahahahaha...

[deep breath]
hahahahhahahahhahahahaha...

[deep breath]

If they haven't done that in over 30 years - what makes you think they will now?

No sarcasm intended - it's just that Honda Au couldn't give a sh|t about the niche market of people wanting better models

(Yeah, I am bitter about it ;) )