Autoweek today reported Acura RL sales have tanked. Acura is considering stripping features out of the car and reducing the price. In my view Acura got greedy and overpriced it, and it's biting them in the ass. This stellar example of automotive marketing lunacy ranks with Acura abandoning the famous Legend name for its most prestigious model, and squandering the nearly insurmountable lead it had in the premium Japanese car market. It will destroy RL resale value and alienate current and future customers.

Acura has to decide what market the RL is in. If it wants to compete with the Lexus LS, it has to build a first class, large, V8-powered car and price it significantly lower until it achieves similar cachet. If it thinks it's a BMW 5-Series, Audi A6 or a Mercedes E-Class challenger it has to design and produce a better car than those and price it accordingly. It cannot build a tarted-up Honda Accord, put a fancy interior in it, and ask for twice the money. As it has learned to its chagrin, there aren't enough rich, stupid people out there who will pay serious money for a smallish car with a high-winding, low torque six-cylinder engine that consumes prodigious quantities of premium gasoline, an unresponsive transmission, a dodgy suspension, and a huge turning circle. This dog don't hunt. The RL is at best marginally superior to the TL, and costs $15,000 more!

The Autoweek article may be accessed here.
http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...221002/1024/L- - - - - ATESTNEWS