LexFather

FisForFast, NO ONE bought the Aztek. It was discontinued due to very poor sales. NO ONE bought it. It was cheaper half the price of the ZDX.

The TL is selling very poorly in America, its biggest market. The market it was designed form, by and built in. Styling is a huge part of its slow sales. They predicted 70k sales and might hit 38k instead.

The X6 hasn't sold well either...its best month was around 800 units, its worst month under 300 units. This is the market Acura wants to enter? To the X6s credit, it costs more than the ZDX.

lol!!! They truly are clueless to the luxury market. The RL never sold well and one of the main reasons was price. It was deemed to high for the car and the brand.

What do they do? Offer the same engine, AWD and make it MORE expensive in an uglier vehicle in a smaller niche. WTF?

Acura has completely lost their minds. If they are going to offer less, they need to price it less than the competition. There is no value in this. Just buy the real deal X6 or the FX.

This car DOES NOT EVEN have cooled seats at its base price. You have to add the 10k advanced package to get some damn cooled seats? WTF? This is a feature on most all entry level cars!!

The first year sales goal is only 6k units. They might not hit that. It also won't help the dealer bleeding in 2010 any as their volume sellers are getting hammered.

The much more technologically advanced RX 450h starts at 43k and it sells around 1500 units a month, 60% more than the ZDX's sales projections.

I assume again since this car is a MDX basically, R&D was at a minimum so if they meet sales projections it will turn a profit. However, how does this help a brand in completely disarray?

ZDX, RDX, MDX,
TL, TSX, RL

3 SUVs, 3 Cars.

mmarshall

There will probably be some ZDX sales in the D.C area (heck, almost everything sells in this area, for a number of reasons). We even see a fair number of RLs here. But, granted, I COULD be wrong......significant sales of this vehicle, even here, are not guaranteed. The reason I say that is because the BMW X6 is one of those rare vehicles that has NOT sold well here (I've seen maybe 2-3 of them at most), and the ZDX seems to share a lot in common with the X6, though it does undercut the X6 substantially in price.


(Sorry, IS=SV, I know you get irked with the "Maybe, Maybe Not" stuff, but, with the way the X6 bombed out here even in the car-rich D.C. area, the possibility of strong ZDX sales here doesn't look good. In this case, "Maybe?" seems justified. And, as you pointed out earlier, it is likely to be heavily discounted)

FisforFast

I honestly don't care how bad or well the Aztek and the TL sold in the U.S. What I'm saying is that they sold pretty well here.

LexFather

Acura has 250 dealerships....I believe Lexus has 180....so they sell much less vehicles with more dealers, not good for dealers.

To make matters worse, a niche vehicle sucks when you have many dealerships. Then they have 3 option packages for this vehicle.

Their first year sales goal is 6k, it moves up to I believe 10k and 12k according to Acura. So just looking at first year sales to meet their goal;

500 ZDX sales x 12 months= 6000 total ZDXs sold.

All things being equal, that would mean every Acura dealer in the USA just has to sell 2 ZDX vehicles a month in 2010. Yet, the ZDX has 3 option packages.

That actually sounds pretty doable. I mean if they can't sell 2 a month, that is epic fail. What I don't understand is how they expect to sell an older vehicle in higher quantities in 2011 and 2012?

mmarshall

How is that a "credit"? I think you and I can both agree (even though, granted, I haven't reviewed one) that the X6 is probably not worth what it costs. Some versions are running over 80K, option-loaded....and there are rumored plans for a even more expensive M version (never mind the fact that even the non-M can't seem to sell).



In the past, you said the RL didn't sell because of the lack of a V8/RWD platform, not because the price. Do you still hold to that view?

LexFather

[/QUOTE]

Mike, sorry let me clarify. What I mean is the X6 and ZDX will sell in equal amounts but to BMWs "credit" the X6 is more expensive. Hell the hybrid and X6 M are 90k base!

In the past I said the RL didn't sell for a mix of factors, Accord bland styling, below average acceleration, no V-8 or RWD option, no prestige (the brand does not command a premium price). Its not a bad car but it having a nice interior doesn't mean much when the entire class does. I know YOU personally really like it and think the interior is maybe "best" in class but is that worth 50 grand? I was out today and parked next to a RL and just by looking at its style, its no wonder it doesn't sell. The midsize luxury market is SUPER competitive, hell the GS and M35/45 sell pretty poorly now.

mmarshall

Ok. Thanks.

I agree wth the styling. Granted, the RL, from a distance, looks pretty much like an ordinary Honda Accord....and not much larger on the outside. Fortunately, with the big 300 HP V6 and SHAWD, it drives better than it looks.

-J-P-L-

Everyone who has seen one in person says it looks far better than pictures suggest. The same is true with the BMW X6. Looks way better in person. There's something about these body styles that don't photograph well.

My boss (owner of the Acura dealer I work at) says he was blown away when he saw it in person even though he admittedly was turned off by initial pics.

As far as nobody buying it? Well, we've had a waiting list going for months.
Considering the low allocations coming, they'll be waiting a long time.

People seem to be judging Acura's sales negatively. Part of it is that Acura's allocations are very conservative (especially in the past year). We've only gotten one RL in the past 6 months. How can we sell one if we can't stock one? That's why RL sales suck as bad as they do. Acura chooses not to build them. Also, MDX's have all been pre-sold off the truck since the beginning of summer. They cut production drastically. RDX allocation is just as bad. We have customers waiting long periods of time for these cars.

Anyway, I can't wait to drive the ZDX on December 15th!

LexFather

Excuses. Then Acura has another problem, inept management in charge of production and inventory. We can point the finger to styling, inventory, price, etc doesn't matter. They are about to be passed by Caddy and Buick and GM quit leasing until last month. This latest excuse is another example of how the company is just confused, which was acknowledged by their CEO.

(Cj)

Very good points, I agree.

But there are also other factors that I think are going to kill the ZDX. For one, the competition. The ZDX has less interior space than ALL of it's competition (less than even the compact RDX). Why buy the tight ZDX when you can get an FX? Another factor is the price. For the price of the ZDX you can get a Porsche Cayenne. I don't know who would buy an Acura over a Porsche...

Another factor is the Honda Crosstour. IMO their both butt ugly, but why would someone buy the ZDX over a Crosstour if their gonna get one of these monstrosities anyway. The Crosstour has the same BMW X6 look (if that's what someone wants) and it's $20K cheaper.

The final and probably most important factor is the fact that Acura has never been able to sell anything over $40K (let alone $50K). Note that the ZDX has the same powerplant as the cheaper TL, MDX, and RL, so it's not even all that special for the price within Acura's own lineup. How is Acura going to convince someone to spend $10K more over the TL for the ZDX (and I'm sure the TL has a roomier back seat than the ZDX) or even $5K more over the MDX (which is MUCH roomier than the ZDX).

There are too many things working against the ZDX for it to succeed. Acura is making all this talk about the interior but honestly the interior doesn't impress me. The FX's interior looks better IMO (and I'm sure the FX is much faster and roomier too)

ZDX


FX

IS350jet

Don't be fooled. The reason Acura doesn't build more is because they can't sell them, not the other way around.

(Cj)

sad but true...

IS-SV

Good one no apology needed, it's expected, the maybe/maybe not stuff. Sounds like a corporate lawyer I once worked with.

I've seen a total of 6 or 7 X6's on the road in Silicon Valley, hardly a success in a area that loves premium cars. Although for a while I did see more than that many X6's collecting dust at the dealership in the back rows of lot.

In contrast I've already seen 4 or 5 Teslas on the road which cost a lot more money.

In real sharp contrast, I can't easily come up with a car that has more pathetic sales numbers than the RL lately.

IS-SV

I agree 100% on all points. Those that are regular buyers of premium cars don't even think to consider the RL for all the reasons mentioned. Styling wise (which is only part of the issue) I look at the RL and see a reasonably attractive car and I can barely identify its brand and once I see it's an Acura, the response is who cares.

LexBob2

YTD, the RL is averaging 165 cars sold per month in NA. Not sure of Honda's plan for it, but those sales #'s are not encouraging.

Divide those sales by the number of Acura dealers, and it's even more dismal.