This weekend, Kamil Kaluski’s CarGuyDad blog featured a first drive of the refreshed Acura TL. Nothing new there, right? The introductory event was in Hollywood. The guests were flown in, shown a bit of the ol’ high life, and sent out for a day of road drives and parking-lot semi-autocrossing. Again, nothing new. This is all standard fare for press-preview events. Every working autojourno could sleepwalk through such an event, and most of them do.
There was no sleepwalking at this Acura event, however, because there were no working journalists. In fact, the people evaluating the less beaky, greatly more tasteful 2012 Acura TL on this particular press event weren’t members of the press at all. They were Acura owners.
Political consultant Karl Rove is infamous for his vigorous “chase the base” tactics, but he didn’t invent the idea that it’s easier to market to your existing customers than it is to capture new ones. Automakers have been doing it for years, whether through the direct approach of loyalty incentives, the soft sell of “invitation-only dealership previews” for new models, or the simple “reinforcement advertising” of NASCAR sponsorship. With certain infamous exceptions, it’s a virtual certainty that at least half of the purchasers of any given automotive brand will return to purchase again from that same brand. Easy money, and it’s relatively easy to increase that percentage through savvy “base” marketing and, you know, not building a complete piece of junk in the first place.
What’s better than selling more cars to the people who already bought from you? Turning those customers into evangelists. Sometimes, this process happens organically; ask anybody who’s ever owned a ’77 Accord, a first-generation iMac, or the “P90X” DVD collection.
Of course, we’re not in 1977 any more. Honda no longer makes products which are light-years beyond the competition, and this is particularly true for the star-crossed Acura line. Back when the Accord was cheaper — cheaper! — than a Nova, every new Honda customer immediately became a loud-mouthed jackass forever braying the praises of his wonder-hatch to anyone who failed to flee the scene upon eye contact. Thirty-five years later, the Acura TL, which can trace its ancestry all the way back to that first Accord, now costs as much as a Cadillac, lags the aforementioned ‘Lac in more than a few metrics, and is associated in many former owners’ minds with explosive, repeated transmission failures. What’s a brand to do?
The TL received a minor makeover for 2012, which meant that Acura was expected to provide another all-expenses-paid, luxury-at-any-cost press preview for the Web hipsters and the print dinosaurs. Given the TL’s “wrong-wheel-drive” chassis, the chilly reception it received upon its debut a few years ago, and the write-it-on-the-plane approach to “journalism” taken by the auto press, the TL marketing team almost certainly knew what would happen. The local papers would write litterbox filler that neither praised nor damned the car, AutoWeek would write a terrible, awkward piece which simply comes to a halt in the middle of an otherwise inoffensive paragraph, and a few Robert Farago wanna-bes would savage the poor car into the dirt. Worst of all, it would cost millions of dollars to get that “awareness” of the facelift out there.
Honda’s done some unconventional press stuff before. The debut of the Crosstour was held in the lobby of a hotel in Novi, MI, with no travel support or accomodations available. That kept a lot of people away and let the company debut a car which was almost certain to receive a poor reception without too much fanfare. For the TL, they chose a different path, and one which is likely to set a precedent: in addition to the press preview, they had a customer preview.
Customer previews aren’t new, but they are almost always either static displays at a dealership or parking-lot drives at a local convention center. This customer preview was different. Acura asked their customers to write an essay explaining why they should be included. The winning entrants were treated to a full press-preview level of luxury and involvement with the car — but instead of being bored, polyester-clad hippos wallowing through yet another stop in an series of endless watering holes, these customers were thrilled to receive the perks that the “Wheels” guy from the Springfield Journal And Gazette takes for granted. They felt privileged. They enjoyed themselves.
Most importantly, it’s almost certain that every Acura owner who attended this event went home feeling involved with the brand. They were in possession of special information. They’d driven a car the public hadn’t touched, and they wanted to share the news about it. A group of loyal, committed customers were reborn as brand ambassadors. Each one of them is likely to convey a positive impression of the car to dozens of others — and many of those people are likely to be in the correct demographic to purchase an Acura TL. Birds of a feather, and all that.
I wouldn’t be surprised if every person who attended this customer preview ends up “selling” at least one TL to someone. Compare that to, say, bringing a small-town newspaper guy to the press preview. The cost would be the same, and the benefit would likely be nil. Bringing one of the Ark Music Factory — excuse me, High Gear Media — bloggers to the event would accomplish even less, unless lonely Web spiders have evolved enough intelligence to purchase a car and enough stupidity not to compare that car with the Audi A4. Here at TTAC, we didn’t get any invite at all, which saved the nice people at Honda a thousand dollars in tire replacements plus spared them the complaints from whoever would be unlucky enough to have the hotel room beneath mine.
Savvy marketing, indeed. Naturally, the people at Ford and GM are doing it wrong while Honda does it right. In two weeks, the aforementioned companies will be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring their freeloaders — minor-league bloggers, readerless writers, and “social media influencers” who vomit streams of illiterate, infantile idiocy onto the smartphones of two thousand reluctant “followbacks” — all the way to the New York Auto Show, all expenses paid.
The purpose of these refugee flights is, apparently, to carpet-bomb relevant auto-show news off everyone’s Twitter feeds, Facebook pages, and blogrolls. Trust me, GM would be better off giving ten or fifteen Traverses away to its most outrageously vocal on-line advocates. Alternately, they could dig up the hole in California where Atari reportedly buried one million “E.T.” cartridges for the 2600VCS system, give those cartridges away as a gesture of goodwill towards the taxpayers who saved their scaly hides, and bury the aforementioned Traverses in the resulting hole. That would save the rest of us from an endless stream of “LAX-JFK OMFG NYIAS GM!” Tweets, and it would take some of those monsters off the streets before any more children are unnecessarily frightened. Double win.
I’ll be at the NYIAS, by the way. On my own dime, of course. You can find me at the Acura booth. I’ll be looking for Heather, the stunning young lady who stood next to me for my Acura TL video last month, and I’ll be giving the TL itself a second look. I’ve heard good things about it, from people I trust.
The 2010-2011 in SH-AWD form was already quite fun to drive. Styling and ride quality were its weaknesses. Not sure I’m seeing the huge improvement with the former. The latter will have to await a test drive.
For the same cost as flying these people to CA they could host perhaps ten times as many at local dealers. These can be fine events–attending one for the X3 tomorrow. The real benefit is in the contest.
I do see a big improvement, and to my surprise the one I notice the most is in the profile rather than the details. The lower bumpers (front and back I believe) are now angled in more than before, and that removes a lot of the previous awkwardness. It was a very strange place for extra bulk. Removing the part of the beak in the hood itself was more obvious and still important, but I don’t think of it as the most important change.
Waitwaitwaitwait… Jack? That’s you? Saying something nice about a car that’s not a Ford or an Audi?
I kid.
Now, that said, I’m not sure Honda is doing this right. I’m not sure they’re doing it entirely wrong, either, as they’re selling cars to normal people and doing well enough on the pages of Consumer Reports, which is where it really counts for them, but I do question whether or not they shouldn’t be astroturfing more than they do to try to counter the scorching they’re taking at the hands of General Motors and Hyundai’s “Social Media Marketing” teams.
You can dismiss it as noise, but it is filtering into the general consciousness, much like other memes that sound truthy, if not true. Honda’s attempts are like appearing on community-access cable while your detractors own major networks.
You missed where he said this was a car for people stupid enough not to compare it with the Audi A4. Here is a sample comparison: a few Hondas had transmission issues and it is news that bloggers need to repeat every day because they have nothing else to slander Honda with. Audi sells a thousand flatbed trucks every year, since towing companies might as well have a way of moving the cars that break down the most without getting into a legal fight over who has to replace the cars’ frangible transfer cases.
Psar’s right, they are going directly to people starved for attention and it may not be a bad way to go for them. Plus their current customers need some positive reinforcement, after all driving something that ugly has got to be hard on your self esteem.
I’ve run across some of the citizen car blogger websites, they are pretty pathetic. They tongue bathe any manufacturer who gives them the slightest bit of attention, it’s pretty bad. No serious car person would pay any attention to them. Car guy dad is one of the worst.
MikeAR – oh, tell me how I “tongue bathe any manufacturer who gives [me] the slightest bit of attention”. I really want to know.
I’m very open to constructive criticism but I’m looking forward to hearing this.
“Here is a sample comparison: a few Hondas had transmission issues”
To be fair, not only are Honda automatic transmission issues a serious and recurring problem for an entire generation of cars, I’ve personally spent three and a half WEEKS ferrying the guy who co-owns my race car with me around because his transmission died and the TWO full-time Acura “transmission replacement specialists” at the local dealer were backed up.
Kamil, sorry if you got the impression I was talking about you. I’m not familiar with your work so I wouldn’t say anything bad about it. Actually I was remembering a car blog I visited about a month or so ago, just once. The writer, no one I had ever heard of and with no industry credentials got a new Dodge Challenger and a ride along by Ralph Gillies and his praise of the car and the man was sickening. He was so star-struck that I’m suprised he didn’t credit Gillies with curing cancer and the common cold. This was a truly awful moment in auto journalism that I would hate to see again. So sorry again if I gave the idea I was talking about you.
This is an edit, Kamil, I just found out hwo you were. I am sorry that I said that about you. I was wrong and apologize. I mistook you for another blog that I ran across once. I have your site bookmarked and visit it occasionally.
Wow. You knew someone who had a transmission failure. I worked as a service writer in an all-makes shop from 2005 through December 2006. I never saw a Honda with a problem other than a broken hood release lever, and those were caused by our techs. I’ve also got a 2004 TSX with more miles than our automatic BMW had when it received its 3rd transmission, and the Acura has needed nothing but fluids and filters. I’ve read all the internet hype about the terrible Honda transmissions, but I don’t know anyone that had a problem with them. I have a few friends who had V6 Odysseys when their kids were little too. I do know someone who had an expensive A/C repair done on their c2005 Accord, but that is about it for unexpected Honda hardships. Compare that to an engine that died with 5,000 miles on the odometer on my first BMW, because BMW was using elastic head bolts at the time. Or M40 profile gaskets. Or sealed for the life of the fluid automatic transmissions. Or M60 bore erosion. Or SMG transmissions. Or N52 fabricated engine blocks. Or the direct injection engines’ fuel pumps. I used to be a BMW fanatic, so I’m aware of most of their value destroying failures. Since all I ever read on blogs about when Hondas are mentioned are the transmission failures that took a few of their models all the way down to average in dependability, I know the writers have a profoundly myopic view of the quality spectrum. Audi? It goes without saying that they’re not durable goods, but I don’t know why people fail to mention that they’re indifferent dynamically too. Basically, they’re for leasers who think LED headlights look better than round ones.
MikeAr, thanks. :)
In regards to Ralph Gillies, I met him few months ago at a local auto show, very cool guy.
I should also point out that I know of only one person who had to have their Honda Odyssey transmission replaced (I think the problem occurred only on V6 models). There is an trans fluid cooler available which is a part of the towing package and can be purchased separately. That and just change your trans fluid every 30k miles, synthetic or not.
I do know of many BMW automatic transmission failures however, all at around 100k mark… lifetime fluid my ass. After owning six BMWs I feel exactly like CJinSD, great cars… lease and return… one look at any issue of “Roundel” will show how many more problems these cars have.
@CjinSD: Honda did have a problem from about 1999 to 2004 with V6/5AT cars. You can see this in, eg, Consumer Reports, where every V6 Honda, be it an Oddy, Accord or TL, is scorched with a row of black in Transmission: Major for those years. It’s a legit concern, but only for a certain time range.**
Outside of those years, though, they’re generally fine. But the Internet Hype Machine parleyed that from “one powertrain combo for four years” into “every Honda ever made”. You get this when, as described above, there’s nothing else you can make stick.
** Toyota’s sludge issue was similar, if far, far less common, Very few Toyotas actually exhibited the problem, but those that did were only two engines, and only for 1997-2001. But this also gets parleyed into “Every Toyota Ever Made”
Someone posted their (positive) experience at the event on an Acura forum which is inhabited by a lot of former Acura owners. I still think they need to reconsider building Beelzebub’s corporate vehicles if they want to be taken seriously.
Btw, the last Youtube link got slightly mangled. Still looks better than the Acura beak though.
I’ve been wondering when we would start seeing more of this. It seems like Honda needs to tweak the strategy still, but I’m guessing we’ll be seeing more variations of this and less of the traditional media-only launches going forward, for the reasons Jack lays out. Is it a fundamentally better model? Not necessarily, but thanks to the relentless irrelevance of the motoring press, a certain amount of experimentation is inevitable.
Showcasing a car to people who want to see it is much better than showcasing it to a large number of monkeys with typewriters. So much of what I see in the automotive press is just drivel. Sometimes press releases are rehashed; usually the writer just loves every car he/she is allowed to drive.
The monkeys with typewriters may eventually create great works of art, but I can wait that long.
A pity Acura decided to give up half or more of their owners when ditching the Integra/RSX. My parents were Accord converts in ’76, became disillusioned by the size increase in 1990 but stuck with Intrgras as long as they could. Nothing from Honda looks set to replace Mom’s 06 RSX. Granted being a Honda it won’t need replacing for some time…
The link to the Youtube video with Heather doesn’t work. It seems that the url for this article has been mashed together with the correct Youtube URL. The result is that my browser takes me to some TTAC article about the GM IPO.
This should be fixed, but please let us know if you continue to have trouble with this link.
Great, When I go to the Pub for our breakfast club on Sunday I’m going to have to listen to some loud mouthed jackass preaching the virtues of Acura, all because he was picked to be part of a glorified Focus group..
Speaking as a basement dwelling video game nerd, the E.T. cartridges weren’t buried in California, they were buried in New Mexico. Worst. Game. Ever.
Thank you for all the comments. In my writing I tried to stay away from the event and the whole marketing aspect. I tried to focus more on the car, the brand and its portrayal by the media. It was only fair that I mention the event and my background with Honda/Acura cars. Having said that, we’re not H/A junkies; I’ve owned half dozen BMWs (find the E90 328 review on my site to see how biased I am), and we also had Toyotas, Subarus, and VWs in the family. And an ’83 300SD.
Jack nails it on all accounts however, and you can’t blame manufacturers for trying to something new. You may have witnessed Nissan and Hyundai working with HGM to bring their own customers to the NYIAS press days. I’ll be there too, paying my own way (actually staying at my mom’s house in NJ) walking my own path and this year trying something very different. If I manage to get the day off work.
Aha, there’s right YT vid!
-Funny Jack, I had always pictured you having more of a ((Scott Weiland+Bill Steer) / Bob Eubanks)-type voice; -but you sound more like Fozzie Bear * Kermit the Frog! :D
Oh, well…
I can do that voice but it isn’t natural for me. I’m a tenor singer and I grew up arguing quickly with other quick-talking, high-voiced people.
Why was the anti-GM bit thrown in for?
The Traverse is a pretty darn good CUV. Slamming GM was totally out of left field.
I’d rather sit in an A4 on a flatbed and take that to work than sit in (or look at) the TL. Acura isn’t even in the same league as Audi anyway, they compete with Subaru, Volvo, and Saab in the absolute bottom of the luxury barrel. As soon as Infiniti stopped selling their Maxima rebadge they started to be taken seriously.
As long as Acura keeps slinging gussied up Accords and Euro Accords, they’ll get no respect from me.
For years, Audi made what were essentially nicely trimmed Volkswagens with all-wheel drive. Currently, while they don’t share a platform, they still make cars that—R8 aside—aren’t much different from the TL and RL.
So why does Audi get a free pass, but Acura doesn’t?
There’s the engine choice issue (you can get big engines in an Audi) and the interiors are a little nicer, but I don’t believe that, for equivalent-price models, Audi does much better. Is the TL SH-AWD really worse than an A4 that costs the same but is down significantly on space and power? How about the A6 and RL? The RDX and Q5?
Lets be honest: if most Audi owners weren’t leasing and/or if the S- and RS- didn’t exist, it probably wouldn’t even be a contest.
Subaru & Volvo & Saab aren’t “luxury” makes.
Especially Subaru, which is positioned as a tech value.
Volvo & Saab are expensive because they’re trying to cover Nordic costs, but I don’t think they’re particularly luxury or premium. Saab is quirky, whereas Volvo rides on their old safety reputation.
@ psarhjinian: You say “For years, Audi made what were essentially nicely trimmed Volkswagens with all-wheel drive.”
Not so. If anything, it was the other way around. There was no VW equivalent to my ’81 Audi Coupe, with the straight five in north-south configuration. Golfs were 4 cylinder east west. Sure, the Dasher was a johnny-come-lately Audi 80, and the Santana was another VW copy of an Audi, sort of a cross of the 90 and 100.
My ’85 200 Turbo had no VW equivalent, nor the ’88 4000 Quattro, nor the ’94 90. The 94 Passat went east-west and wasn’t an A4. The Phaeton was steel version of the A8.
What models are you thinking of beyond the A3?
I had a 4000CS quattro. The same thing from VW was called a Quantum Syncro. More recently, the good Passats were basically the A4/A6 platform with a wheelbase that put the VW right between the other two. The engines offered were even mostly the same.
Doesn’t Audi still offer the A3, which is really just a Golf, and the TT Golf based? Isn’t the Q7 related to the Touareg? Isn’t there still a Phaeton for people in countries where cars are new enough that they can’t tell a good one from a Buick or Phaeton?
I’m fine with FWD. Heck, Neon ACR was pretty fun even before Qualife started offering Torsen for it. I wish Acura offered something smaller than the bloatmobile that I tested when v6 came out for TSX for 2010 m/y. Even Lexus has CT200 now.
Brilliant move Acura, and an excellent write up by Jack. Maybe Acura is finding its way back from the edge of the Abyss.
They need a product too.
If I were Acura (which I’m not), I would offer black chrome as a no-cost option for the car and see how many folks go for that instead of the bright chrome beak. At least it would give folks a choice and it would help Acura more accurately gauge reaction to the current design. As is, that beak is still way too big and bright for my taste.
Ok, rather off-topic, but am I the only person that see’s that new cell phone commercial, with the 2 guys on the ski lift, and for some odd reason thinks that the guy that throws the phone is Jack in his acting debut? Or Jack’s stunt double? Here’s a link to it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Pll7Qm-k0
It is quite a bit less ugly than the previous TL.
BTW. Jack, I think you are a tall guy. Ms. heather looked to be not terrible much shorter than you.
I’m now 6’2″, having had an inch of bone cut out of my right leg after a bike accident.
With her heels on, Heather was eye-to-eye with me.
Without her heels on, Heather could write checks from my personal bank account and I wouldn’t much care.
Volvo & Saab are expensive because they’re trying to cover Nordic costs, but I don’t think they’re particularly luxury or premium.
Comparing MSRPs for well-equipped cars, the BMW 3 can’t hold a ‘luxury’ candle to the Volvo S60’s interior, and the 9-3 doesn’t even show up. That said, unless I’m leasing and don’t have to pay maintenance on an A4, I’ll take the TL any day.
“Currently, while they don’t share a platform, they still make cars that—R8 aside—aren’t much different from the TL and RL.
So why does Audi get a free pass, but Acura doesn’t?”
All of the cars in the entry and mid-luxury categories aren’t that different from each other. In every group somebody has to be the worst though, and IMO that’s Acura. The only car I wouldn’t choose instead of the TL is the absolutely awful 9-3. Everything else, including the new Volvo is just better.
In the case of the RL, Acura gets the pig prize. The RL has always been a joke, and will always be a joke until Acura learns what customers expect for their $50K. Here’s a hint, it’s not a super-Accord with a bargain basement interior, gutless, torqueless engine, and until last year 5-speed automatic.
Kudos to Honda on the new 6-speed auto, welcome to 2004.