Comparing Acura to Lexus was a Mistake, Says Acura GM
Acura’s general manager Jon Ikeda hints company has lost its way.
It takes a lot for a general manager to admit fault, but that’s exactly what Jon Ikeda remarked at a recent event called Marketing 360, which was hosted by Automotive News. Carscoops reports Ikeda as saying the brand’s focus went adrift. “When you start benchmarking and looking at everything else, instead of looking introspectively, is where you lose your way,” said Ikeda, with Lexus being one of the main competitors they were after.
Ikeda went on to say, “We’re a lot more truthful [now] to who we are and what we’re trying to be. I think it’s a growing pain we went through.” Growing pains could likely include a sales number that peaked in 2015 and hasn’t recovered since. Consequently, that’s when Ikeda assumed his current position as general manager.
For a long time though, Acura has never really had a competitive edge on Lexus, and despite Ikeda’s attempts to soften the blow a little bit by placing blame on himself, some of the comments on Carscoops article paint a much different picture of public perception.
One user on Carscoops under the name “Nastinupe” summed up what everyone was thinking, and from an Acura customer’s perspective as well: “Acura just made crappy products that were too much like redressed Hondas instead of creating their own brand,” wrote Nastinupe. “Then they tried to act like they were sporty with FWD luxury vehicles with no AWD or RWD options and lackluster engine options. Then they tried to act technologically advanced with lackluster tech options. They were the worst at everything and then had the nerve to be overpriced. Coming from a 2005 TL I crossed shopped a 2013 RLX with a 2012 Audi A7. Guess which one I ended up with, and they were within $5,000 of each other. It wasn’t even close.”
This was just one of many comments pointing out the difference in drive line layout and engine tech between Acura and Lexus, and other brands too.
User PK quipped: “That moment when you realize that the genesis is doing way better than Acura right now and they’re only 2 or 3 years old!!!!”
“So….what’s the new direction? Lexus and Infiniti were never strictly FWD like Acura mostly is..” was a comment from Commonsenseonthefield, backing up PK’s sentiment.
A user by the name of ctk4949 kicked off the conversation about Acura’s odd comparisons with competitors, saying “Acura does not have one car that is RWD!! How did they copy Lexus/Infiniti??”
“Yeah I don’t see any evidence that they ever tried to be like Infiniti and especially Lexus,” chimed in a user named Merc1. Honda NSX-R replied to Merc1, “I think they compared themselves with Infiniti and Lexus in terms of marketing, not really the vehicles themselves.”
Does rear-wheel-drive help out luxury brands like Lexus have a premium image in the long run, or is it just an overall better product that does it? Could it come down to advertising? We think we know where most Club Lexus members will land for that question.
