Submitted 9/1/2009

Honda/Acura used to make amazing coupes. Going back in history, Honda and its premium brand Acura gave us the light and affordable CRX, the NSX supercar, the CL rocket, the RSX, and the sporty Prelude and S2000. The Prelude was cut in 2001, the CL in 2003, NSX in 2005, RSX in 2006, and finally, the S2000 this upcoming year. Wow, it’s not easy being a coupe at Honda Motors. This leaves us with the Accord and Civic coupes, as well as the forthcoming hybrid hatch from Honda, the CR-Z. With the Acura NSX successor plans seemingly dead unless the economy and sales come back to pre-recession levels, we are pleased to hear that Acura might develop a new semi-luxury compact to compete with the BMW 1 Series and the Audi A3.

Acura axed the RSX in 2006 because it wanted to position itself as a Tier 1 luxury manufacturer, and thought that a car in the mid $20k range hurt its new image. Now, with the economy puttering along, it seems Acura’s slowing sales is causing it to rethink its strategy.

With the recession fresh in most people’s minds, many are still being financially conservative, and are more interested in a fuel efficient and green cars than they are with high horsepower and luxury. To cash in on this new trend, Acura is considering building an RSX successor to fill the gap at the bottom of its lineup that rival BMW recently filled with the 1 Series and Audi with its A3. Even Lexus is headed this way with its CT premium hatchback concept debuting at the Frankfurt Motor Show later this month.

An Acura compact would most likely be based on the next generation Civic platform. Expect the coupe or hatchback to have a front-wheel drive layout with a high revving four cylinder, creating ample horsepower yet still keeping fuel consumption low. Considering the new Civic won’t launch until 2011, if Acura does build the compact, it won’t be until 2012 or later. If the premium compact segment takes off, this time Acura will be the one chasing its rivals.

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