Acura: the pioneer’s story

It is a widely spread situation when not the discoverer of an idea becomes famous, but a more talented follower. For example, many people still believe that Lexus became the first Japanese luxury brand. But the first were the Honda members who invented Acura.

How it all began?

At the turn of the 70-80s, the automotive industry in America was going through hard times. An unprecedented demand for inexpensive reliable cars fell on this unstable time, and the Japanese concerns did not fail to take advantage of it. On this wave, Honda quickly gained a reputation among the regular Americans for producing the ideal cars in terms of price and quality.

But when the black line changed to white and the situation in the country improved, the Americans quickly forgot about inexpensive Japanese cars.

True patriots preferred Cadillac and Lincoln, freethinkers chose BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Jaguar. Honda bosses were not satisfied with this situation. They believed that they have something to offer spoiled customers.

At the same time, the management understood that even a very high-quality product offered under the Honda brand is unlikely to find any adequate response from a spoiled public. With all the manufacturability and reliability, Japanese cars lacked history, pageantry and a big name. A brilliant decision was made to start from scratch, to create an absolutely new brand, with its own logo, lineup and individual dealerships.

The name of a new brand was invented not in Japan, at the famous American agency NameLab. The Latin morpheme “acu” is hidden In the name itself, denoting accuracy. It is not known whether the authors of the brand were going to give it a consonance with the word "Sakura" (a flowering cherry tree, one of the unspoken "export" symbols of Japan), but even if not, they did it spontaneously.

A stylized letter “A” in the form of a caliper became the brand's logo - a tool used by engineers to accurately measure parts. The logo, which appeared on cars only in '90, embodies the technical and design superiority of Acura cars. If you look closely, you can see one interesting detail: in fact, the letter A is a slightly curved letter “H”, a witty reference to the parent name of Honda.

Start of sales

In May 1985, an internal presentation of Acura Automobile Division to Honda employees was held as a new luxury division. Since the start of sales was scheduled in a year, specialized training centers were opened in several US cities in which personnel mastered new Acura technologies — two engines developed from scratch, electronic injection, and advanced suspensions.

It was March 27, 1986, when 60 dealerships started their work in the USA and are considered to be the official birthday of the new brand. In the first 9 months of sales, Acura sold more than 50,000 cars and increased the number of dealers up to 150. Not slowing down, the Japanese company launched an aggressive advertising campaign in support of the new brand.

The nineties: the development of success

Legend and Integra have always won in comparative tests with European and American counterparts, being in the top ten most prestigious cars in the world according to different editions. In the year 87, the range of models was expanded by introducing a two-door version based on the flagship sedan. Legend Coupe received the title of "1987 Import Car of the Year" according to the authoritative magazine Motor Trend. The unprecedented success of Honda's luxury brand pushed its frenemies from Nissan and Toyota to create similar divisions. As a result, in the early 90s, in response to the prestigious German three, not less luxurious Japanese three appeared: Acura, Lexus, and Infiniti.

The beginning of the 90s was marked by the release of Integra and Legend of the new generation. Serious improvements made to the cars in terms of technical stuffing only strengthened the brand image. In order to expand the model range, two years later the intermediate model Vigor was introduced.

Crisis and moving to the USA

Acura later renamed its models by introducing the alphanumeric characters. So, Legend became known as RL, and Vigor - TL. Wanting to keep up with the trend for luxury SUVs, in 1995 the first SUV Acura SLX rolled off the assembly line. However, the model, which was a luxury version of the Isuzu Trooper, was not particularly successful. The era of luxury crossovers was ahead.

The demand for other models has also decreased, and the consequences of the financial crisis have affected the situation. Looking for a way out of the situation, the Honda management decided to organize an assembly in America. Previously, all cars were imported from Japan. The first-born cars of the new factory were 2.2 CL Coupe, and then 3.0 CL. The bet on the local assembly was correct, and sales quickly returned to their previous level.

What is the result?

The history of the luxury brand Honda proves in the best possible way that it is possible and necessary to take risks in the automotive world. And though Lexus and Infiniti are better known now, the pioneer of the Japanese luxury segment has its own stable audience and is ready for new victories.