(soft digital music)
- Hey, everyone.
I'm Miguel Cortina with Motor Trend,
and today is a very special day here
at the Honda Proving Center in Southern California
as we get to take a deeper look
at the all-new 2021 Acura TLX.
Joining me is Jon Ikeda
who's Acura's brand officer and vice president.
Jon, thank you so much for joining us.
- Yeah, we're looking forward
to introducing this car to everybody
and getting to know the car a little bit better today.
- What a moment for the brand,
first with the NSX a few years ago,
launching it as the halo car for the brand,
then you went on to racing and you're winning races,
and now we have a TLX, all-new TLX,
that has a bunch of key ingredients
to really compete in the sports event segment.
- 2015, we came out with the NSX,
and we were reorienting ourselves back to our heritage
which is precision-crafted performance.
This is the next piece.
The next piece is a sports sedan.
I love sedans, and we're really happy
about the introduction of this car.
- And the Type S, of course, is coming, right?
I mean, not only are you getting a sports sedan
in and of itself right here
but also sort of like this pinnacle more of performance.
- Yes, Type S is back.
We told everybody that we're serious
about our performance brand
and sports derivative is one of the big pieces
that we want to bring, and the Type S is coming.
It's a turbo V6, we talked about that and it's coming soon.
It will be in this vehicle also.
And so we're really, really, really excited about that part.
- Well, let's talk more about the TLX,
but I also hear that there is an open winding road for us.
- Yes. - So let's make use of that.
But because of the pandemic
and physical distancing measures and all of that,
you are gonna jump in the TLX, I'm gonna jump in the RDX,
and we're gonna go for a spin.
- This is a performance vehicle.
We gotta get it on the winding track.
(thrilling music) Let's go.
- All right, let's do it.
Well, Jon, you know, I just love that the new TLX
keeps a lot of lines from the precision concept
and the Type S concept.
- Absolutely.
I mean, I could tell you,
Marc Ernst, the lead engineer for this beautiful car,
really took a hard look at that car and said,
"What do we need to do to,
"from a package platform layout perspective,
"so that the design team could execute
"something that's very close to that design?"
And I think they've done a really good job with that.
- I'm just so happy that, from the front, from the profile,
from the rear, you can still see that DNA in the TLX.
I had a chance to look at the TLX
in person in a studio first,
and this is the first time I'm looking at it
on the road, moving,
and even though the rear is what I'm looking at right now,
I think that's the best angle.
I don't know, you, as a designer, what do you think?
- I just love the proportions in general,
the stance of the vehicle.
The cabin, they've pulled back.
It's kinda like a Slingshot kind of a feel to it,
and it really looks like it's ready to go
even if it's standing still.
So, yeah, low and wide is the look we wanted,
so obviously even the headlights
are pulled out to the corner,
the tires are pulled out to the corner,
but the grille proportion, we wanted to be more wide
and obviously vertical to help enhance all of that.
So it's a really clean and updated look,
and we really like it.
- Moving on to the interior,
it's like a night-and-day difference
compared to the outgoing TLX, no?
When I had a chance to sit inside,
I thought the sitting position was actually lower.
I don't know, driving it,
how do you feel on the sitting position?
- The driving positions, you know, all of these things,
from a package and layout point of view,
they really think hard, the engineers do,
because we wanna make sure that, yes, it has to be sporty,
but at the same time it should feel comfortable.
The key thing that you notice in the interior,
once you're in and you sit in this beautiful seat
that we carried over from the RDX,
is it's just such a great seat.
It's the width between,
the distance between your passenger and the driver.
The center console being higher.
You know, it really has a first-class feel, if you will.
I think those little things add up
and people will feel some of the premium-ness of it.
Not just the sportiness of it
but premium feel about the interior,
just by the layout itself.
- I mean, at the end, that's where you're gonna be spending
most of the time anyways, right?
So it's just as important, if not more important,
than the exterior.
- [Jon] Absolutely, absolutely.
- Talking about the platform,
it's all new from the ground up
and there are everything.
You know, a better suspension system, it's lighter, right?
It's more rigid, too?
So there are a lot of things that come into play
to make it a better sports sedan.
- Absolutely.
And I guess the biggest thing for me,
from a platform perspective,
is the return of the double wishbone suspension.
You know what I mean?
It says so much about what we wanna do with this brand.
The double wishbone is back.
Obviously, the contact patch
and consistency through the corners
are gonna be a lot better now.
And, from a designer perspective,
it allows us to have that lower fender.
(engine purring) It's a trademark
heritage point with a lot of our early Honda and Acura cars.
You know, we did the double wishbone.
It allowed us to do a lot of things
that were lower in the front end.
The guys have done an incredible, incredible job with that.
- So, we're coming here on the straightaway.
Why don't you push it a little bit
and tell me about the performance?
- All right, so, (engine purring)
the turbo, the four-cylinder turbo,
there's a lot more torque with this.
The way they've toned it isn't where
you have a little lag and then a big push.
It's very linear, even though it's a turbo.
And I think once you push it, though, it definitely will go.
- It's actually, you and I,
if the RDX and the TLX have something in common,
it's that engine, right?
But here, obviously, in the RDX,
it's a bigger car, more weight.
The TLX, you're getting even more performance
out of it, right?
Because it's a smaller car, lighter weight.
At Motor Trend we tested the RDX
and got from zero to 60 in 6.6 seconds.
So, what do you expect the TLX to be hitting the zero to 60?
- Well, zero-to-60s are numbers,
but based on exactly what you say, obviously faster.
Even though it's the same engine, it's tuned to be a sedan,
and so you're gonna definitely feel the different there.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Now, we can't talk about performance
and leave the Type S out.
I think that's what I'm most excited about.
- Yeah, Type S is Type S, you know?
And so, once the company decided to go back
to precision-crafted performance,
we started with the halo car, with the NSX.
We went racing, we were winning trophies.
Sports derivatives is a very critical component
for the future of our brand as a performance brand,
and the commitment to make a brand-new engine,
a V6 turbo engine, to complement vehicles like this
and to take performance to the next level
as a derivative is huge.
And everybody's excited about it
because how we look at the way we develop these vehicles now
is we look at the Type S.
What do we need to do for a Type S?
And then we work backwards from there
because we build everything to that spec,
knowing that we're gonna do that.
So, yeah, it's changed the way we look at cars
and design cars altogether.
And so it's not just a badge with a bigger engine coming.
It sets it up for everything that we're doing,
top to bottom.
- And it's also not only for the TLX, right?
I believe that the Type S brand
is gonna be expanding across other Acura models.
- Absolutely.
We've already talked about bringing two Type S's
in the near future.
We're transforming the brand right now,
(engine purring) and we really feel
good about it.
- So, Jon, you were saying we can speculate
about what's coming, as you were saying, about the Type S.
We know there's a new MDX coming.
Is there, do you think, the possibility
of having an MDX Type S?
- Absolutely.
Why not?
I can't say enough: we're a performance brand
and we need to have performance derivatives
of the cars that we build
because that's where it starts from.
And get ready, 'cause MDX is gonna be incredible.
- And how about a performance compact sedan?
- Oh, you heard about the performance compact sedan?
Obviously, you've been doing your homework online,
but, you know, I'm gonna tell you something.
We told you, back in 2015, this is what we're gonna do.
You see our lineup that's coming online.
What else would you expect, you know?
What else would you expect us to do?
The time's come.
I mean, a lot of things that we've been putting in the oven,
it's baked and it's time to come out.
And so get ready.
Acura and precision-crafted performance for real,
and we're here.
- Nice, nice.
Well, that's great to hear.
Now, I also know that you like wagons,
that you're a big wagon fan.
- (chuckling) Oh, yes.
- So do you think, with the TSX wagon
having left a few years ago,
could we have a TLX wagon?
- Wagons are cool and people that get it, get it.
But who knows, you know?
I mean, we gotta get the sedan out there
and we'll look at what we need to look at,
but if things are working out, I'd like to think
that there might be something in the future.
You know, that's just me.
All the wagon guys out there, I feel you, I hear you.
I've seen iterations of the side view of this car
already have a wagon version of it online,
and props and kudos to the guys that did that.
- And how does it look?
- (chuckling) It looks amazing.
I mean, I always have the designer guy
do a wagon version of what we're doing.
You know what I mean?
Please do a wagon.
Let's take a look at it, at least.
But it's always a discussion.
It's always a discussion point.
- When can people expect the TLX to be on dealers?
The Type S, when is it coming?
That's, I think, the questions that everybody wants to know.
How much it's gonna cost, all of that.
- Okay, so pricing, you know, for this car, not the Type S,
somewhere from the mid-30s is where we're at.
We're out there competing with the 3 Series,
the A4s, the C-Class, so that's what this car
is geared to compete with.
Once again, though, having said that,
once you see how wide this car is
and how low-slung and everything else,
yeah, we're gonna really go at it.
But starting in the mid-30s
is what we're looking for with this vehicle.
The Type S is obviously going to be a little bit more
'cause you're gonna get a lot more hardware.
We're not ready to discuss all that yet or the launch of it,
but it's, believe me, it's right around the corner.
This vehicle, end of summer, beginning of fall,
look forward to seeing this car.
And so, stay tuned.
I'm hustling the car through here a little bit quicker
because we got it in the Sport Mode,
and I'm starting to have a little bit more difficult time
talking to you, Miguel.
- Yeah. (both laughing)
- I'm gonna have to stay concentrated here.
I'm gonna find myself doing off-road driving
in the new car here.
- Well, Jon, thanks again, man.
It's been a pleasure talking to you.
- Yeah, thank you so much for having us, Miguel.
It's been a lot of fun driving around the course today.
And, yeah, it's the new era for Acura.
It started with the NSX and the RDX.
The TLX is the next big piece.
Type S's are coming.
Yeah, we look forward to
(thrilling music) letting you get
behind the wheel soon.
- All right, well, that was a deeper look
at the all-new 2021 Acura TLX.
I wanna thank Acura and Jon for being here with us.
For more information, head on to MotorTrend.com.