The truth is that Acura knows its “Big Car” DOES NOT SELL, So why dump more money into a sinking ship? But hey…let the Public Relations people do their jobs, right?

1st and 2nd. Boobies.

In Other Words: … Knowing that Acuras are ass-ugly enough as they are, they will not make them even uglier by offering hybrids.

mmmmmmmmm boobies.

Acura is slowly dropping. They still cannot build an automatic tranmission that lasts a reasonable amount of time.

^^ Actually it’s because of their adamant preference for FWD and boring styling.

wellllllllllll…if Acura is going to compete with Maybach and Bugatti in a couple of years then welllll. they cant be offering hybrids now can they :). lets see how all this mismanaging plays out.

There’s got to be something going on at Acura. The new RL is a disappointment and they’ve spent the better part of a decade not replacing the NSX because, from what we have been told, no one can decide what it should look like. Looks to me like they’re uncertain or incapable of taking the next leap to the Lexus/Infiniti plateau. And judging from their current lineup, it’s almost as if they’re competing against themselves- namely Honda.

I’m probably in the minority here, but I agree with Acura - hybrids don’t belong on premium luxury cars.

If hybrids are well-executed, I don’t see where it makes a difference how big the vehicle is that it goes into—or even what KIND of vehicle it goes into.

For me, there are two questions that validate the whole hybrid concept: 1) what are they like to drive, compared to their non-hybrid mates? and 2) how much better than their non-hybrid mates is their gas mileage, really?

If they drive as well (or even better), and get significantly better gas mileage, then I think hybrids are here to stay. But if not, then they’ll turn out to be a very expensive experiment.

Even if Honda’s hybrid technology is a step behind, it’s refreshing to see that their philosophical views are a step ahead. At last, SOMEONE has admitted that hybridizing a 4,000-pound piece of crap is a pointless exercise in hypocrisy (COUGH COUGH Toyota GM Ford).
Stick to Civics, indeed.

What Acura needs is a nice 4-liter V8. Have it make 400 horses and stick it in the RL; crank it up to 500 and watch it slaughter the Skyline.

“He said his company does not think hybrid powertrains are suitable to larger vehicles, despite Lexus, BMW, and Mercedes offering or planning to offer such propulsion.”

What a bunch of unadulterated BULL****.

Hybrid powertrains are MOST effective in large vehicles, where the mileage increase is needed!

Imagine how much fuel demand would go down if every light truck in North America was a hybrid!

jamak - Acura is dropping slowly? I’d say they’re dropping quite quickly. Consecutive monthly losses (by quite a large percentage), a flahship car that’s become a flagdinghy, an RDX getting outsold quite a bit by the competition, poor image perception, etc.
And they can’t build an auto transmission? They can’t build a manual either.

CA36GTP: I agree with you. Let’s assume that GM’s claim that the city mileage for their just-introduced hybrid full-sized pickups really does increase by 40%; imagine the benefit to the earth, and our pocketbooks, if every pickup on the road suddenly jumped from 12 MPG to 17 MPG.

I can’t believe the nay-sayers on this website who are slamming hybrids while it’s still an immature technology. Have you ever heard of development over time? What would YOU do to decrease our dependence on oil? HUH?

vLane: regarding your point the “hybridizing a 4000 pound piece of crap is a pointless exercise in hypocrisy”; does weighing 4000 pounds automatically make a car a piece of crap? I don’t think so.

GM had a magazine ad a few months ago that I totally agree with; their point was that we don’t need lighter, smaller vehicles, we need smarter powertrains. So who cares how much a car weighs, as long it gets 40MPG?

I trust Acura knows what they’re doing here. I like the idea of Diesel vs hybrid but not sure what a Diesel is doing in a performance ‘car’, truck maybe, sedan maybe, but performance car - I’ll have to hold judgement till I see what they bring forward, it’ll be interesting. Knowing Acura, it’ll be well engineered and built.

Shismo, have you ever shifted an Acura - more like butter than anything - don’t know where you come off saying they can’t build a manual transmission.

It takes less fuel(energy) to carry less weight. This law of physics is difficult to argue with. If we can develop smarter engines they will perform better on lighter vehicles. If CAFE regulations and carbon emissions do not bother some of us the cost of gas will. The cost of gas will go up, according to laws of economics (supply and demand).

axehead: tell that to Audi with the R8 TDI

AxeHead, i agree with you. A lot of “correspondents” on this blog never drove cars they malign. And some of them don’t even know how to drive (at least manual transmission). I drove only one manual transmission on par with Honda’s - Getrag in BMW & Mini. As far as I know Honda’s manuals are build in-house, the 5 speed auto is sourced (it is not an excuse for Honda, but rather a lesson - develop your own and don’t get shamed).

441Zuke, Acura is bringing diesel to US and in same year as Audi. Here is the difference between Honda’s and Audi diesels: you don’t have to pee into Honda’s catalytic converter. BTW Audi(or VW division) has been building diesels in Europe for more years then Honda has been in business. As far as engineering, development and production Honda has few equals. Designs are sometimes (quite often) bland or even worse.

Honda manuals have always been known to me by their characteristic chronic gear grinding.

Acura has only one car that is class competitive. That being the MDX.
The RL is a sales disaster. The RDX is a small cuv that gets bad gas mileage and requiring premium gas like its big brother the MDX. The TSX is not worth the price premium over a loaded accord and with its smaller interior dimensions makes it more unattractive to people that want to put someone in the back seat. The TL pretends to be a sport sedan but its FWD and horrible turning radius does it in. Its built on the accord chassis in addition which not a bad chassis is once again not worth the price premium. Acura seems to sell its cars based upon electronics and techno-gadgetry rather than driving dynamics and engineering.

Axehead & autonut - I OWN a manual Acura and have owned it for over six years. It has the chronic gear grind problem (granted, not nearly as bad as some other RSXers have had it). Its a well known problem. The Civic Si’s manual tranny also has problems (enough so that there was that 8thgencivic rally outside of Honda HQ that ended up on fox news…).

this is called excuse making, you know the kind that people get bent out of shape about if it were coming from GM or Ford. What Acura is really saying is that they dont have a hybrid system that can be used on their vehicles. This is along the same lines as Toyota saying they are still “studying” how to apply hybrid tech to their largest RWD vehicles. Its an excuse since they dont have a hybrid system for their pickups and large SUVs. As always, import companies get a free pass and can spin things any way they want only to have the press accept whatever they say. Why would Acura say they doubt the viability of luxury hybrids when Lexus has three on the market already?

They need a new NSX
daemon: you’re almost right.