Well, then Honda should do it then! :yes: Maybe it's time, if they want Acura to be regarded as one of the trully elite nameplates in luxry cars, for them to hit a grand slam. Think outside the close minded box at Honda corporate. Heck, even the Cadillac STS is available in a V8 with AWD.

Redesign the RL to have an i-VTEC V8, SH-AWD, six speed transmission, and a larger interior. If they can keep the sticker price at 50k for all that, they'd have a real contender.

 

Sure, when the next design comes around. For the short term, they have to deal with what they have, and in the case of the current RL, it makes more sense to pull things out and lessen the price.

 

sigh, why do people keep insisting a v8 = more sales?
a similarly loaded gs300 costs a little less than the RL. a similarly loaded m35 costs about the same as an RL. they are much more common than their v8 versions. the gs and m i was talking about were the awd versions of course. the RL is weak? the GS300 is weaker, but i don't hear anyone complaining. the M35 feels torquier but has less hp.

 

A 50K car, without a V8 and pizazz is a recipe for disaster. You can have one or the other, but without both you are out of luck.

 

That's exactly it. Peak power may be lower, but V8's have a broader torque curve. Plus, a lot of what sells a car is image. The RL may be technically equal to Lexus and Infiniti, but people who buy these cars may not actually be that car savvy, and v8 definitely sounds bigger and better than V6.

 

sigh, Because every flagship luxury car has a V8. It's required. A pre-requisite. You can't be elite without a V8. Just like you can't take Chemistry II without Chemistry I.

The RL will continue to linger on with below par sales untill they throw some real beef under the hood.

 

V8 is not the biggest problem, like I said before, RL's closest competitors, primarily M35x and GS300 AWD are selling much better because most people that buy them do not opt for as many options and buy these cars for way under 50k. People that are looking to dump 50k on a car can probably dump even more and get a V8.

 

The M35x and GS300 AWD are niche awd versions of cars that sell far more volume in their rwd form. But you're right about the options. Acura has been doing the one price, one equipment level thing for a while now, although this has not always been the case. There's a bunch of stuff on the RL that could be made optional to create a lower point of entry pricewise: navigation system, active cruise control, and voice recognition could all be made optional. I would say the stereo too, but the TL also comes with a pretty trick stereo so it would make more sense to keep that for a hypothetical base RL. Make the current car the "Premium Package" or something, then sell a base version with no navi, ACC or voice recognition and knock 4 grand off the price. For styling they could just slap some more aggressive bumpers and side skirts on there, and give it a grille that matches the TSX and TL.

As for you guys bringing up the inability to stick a V8 in a car that mounts the engine transversely, it's no big deal. GM's been making fwd V8 cars for a long time. They're not awd, but Volvo has a transversely mounted V8 (made by Yamaha) in the XC90 SUV, which is built on the S80 sedan platform. It's a V8 that's specially designed to save space, with a similarly space-efficient transmission. If Volvo and Yamaha can pull it off, then Honda could too. It's not a matter of not being able to, but it would be a pretty big investment and be rather out of step with the Honda corporate culture which tends to be very focused on efficient designs. Honda needs to realize that a luxury car is about being excessive, and even if most people don't buy the V8, it provides a halo effect for the V6 because people think of the whole model range and know that it includes a V8.

 

I see a lot of the new Infiniti M sedans, but if they pass you on the freeway, you're not quite sure if they are M35, M35x, or M45 models. All the ones I've been behind at stoplights have been M35x.

 

AWD system can be made optional too IMO, but then in Acura's case without AWD the car will probably have to be FWD which is a no-no.