Despite selling all the damn crossovers they want, automakers are lining up to show off what they envision next for their future sedans. Case in point: the Acura Precision Concept. The four-door NSX-ish looking car was unveiled Tuesday at the North American International Auto Show and, according to the automaker, it’s a sign of things to come — especially its grille.
The car has all the concept earmarks: comically large wheels, no mirrors, no door handles, tight shoulders and wide hips, just like its tease last year suggested.
The impossible curves and straight lines only confirm that Japanese automakers have lost their damn minds and it’s great.
It’s 204-inch length suggests that it will be the automaker’s full-size luxury entry and it’s 122-inch wheelbase is only 2 inches shorter than the extended wheelbase version of BMW’s 7-Series.
Acura was scant on details other than to say that the concept would be a clear direction for the brand. Just call it a Legend.
If that grille were toned down and the logo made smaller, it could be a fitting way to end the beak, which is controversial at best.
Good point.
The most interesting thing for me is that the dimensions look very RWD, with minimal front overhang. Am I reading in too much and hopelessly optimistic for a RWD Acura sedan?
Remember the last of the Legends? They had rear wheel drive proportions, achieved with longitudinal V6s mounted over the front axle. Obama’s CAFE does have a sliding scale that benefits cars with long wheelbases and wide tracks, so minimal overhangs could be coming back.
Origami’d sheet metal? It had to happen.
But any horizontal surface, a convenient party bench!
I really like the sparkleys in the tail lamps. That’s a cool touch.
Agreed.
As the equally origami Mazda Shinari concept a couple years ago showed, just because the concept has RWD proportions doesn’t mean the real car (Mazda6) will.
Your truth depresses me.
Wielding the reality hammer, that’s me. It’s been decades. Does anyone really think Honda will ever develop a RWD platform for Acura?
Great. Why not burst all my bubbles! Next you’ll tell me that the Nigerian prince I helped out isn’t going to repay my life savings once he clears up that legal dispute.
And the Mexicans aren’t going to build a wall to keep themselves out of Arizona after all? And that Vermont socialists aren’t hiding Sadam’s WMDs, which is why we never found them?
Nope.
Screw RWD — this thing is the first Acura anything in a decade, show or go, with NO BEAK. Corks should be popping all over Acurazine. I know mine is.
Acura should know better than anybody that high-end customers have rejected harsh-riding, low, cramped sedans in favor of taller, softer, roomier crossovers. Basically, anybody who’s old enough to buy a sedan is too old to fit in this thing.
They should know, but they don’t.
Explosive diarrhea
Japanese or Korean?
Angry schnoz and creases
Bulbous flanks & haunches
For no really good reason
It’s LED-gone-wild season
Explosive diarrhea
Its a photo of a car accident, the aftermath. Desperation by a brand.
This is why you shouldn’t just go ahead and send the files to manufacturing after your hard drive has gotten corrupted.
+1
“the concept would be a clear direction for the brand” –> That’s too bad.
The ridiculous grille seems to work here, looks a little like Superman.
It dawned on me as well “The man of steel” or the old Daitch Shopwell logo.
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fbronxbanter.arneson.name%2Fwordpress%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F03%2Fdaitch-73025236.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bronxbanterblog.com%2Ftag%2Fdaitch-shopwell%2F&docid=GfTpTt5vY1FMhM&tbnid=7M-A4ESji6eiKM%3A&w=227&h=140&ved=0ahUKEwjmo9jtyqXKAhXKeT4KHbEtDCAQxiAIAzAB&iact=c&ictx=1
Nice find.
“Okay, Toshiro, it’s your turn to add a styling feature to the car. After that, Hideyo will add one, then Michiko, then Fumiko, then Ohara…”
Those are some interesting names for designers working in the Acura Design Studio in Torrance, California.
They don’t hire sansei or yonsei? Gosei, even.
I like it!
Will like it even more if it’s RWD.
The SUV fad won’t last forever.
Yeah, this whole fad of tall cars that are easy to get into and see out of has only been going on for 30 years. Any year now!
You can’t see out of them, the fad was broken and replaced with the worse fad of not being able to see.
Concepts aside, automotive designers have clearly lost the plot when they have managed to screw every exterior feature up in some way on production models. The only other thing I can think of to ruin is put the headlights on the bottom near where fog lights would be so their functionality is compromised the way the front bumper, windows, and wheels have been. Oh also let’s delete rear bumpers completely and make it all a trunk door. Then the fail will be absolutely be complete.
Agreed. They “have lost their damn minds”…and it’s NOT great.
My that is a big coupe. After seeing the new Lexus super coupe, I guess this is a upcoming trend.
I’m thinking though that they really need to make that emblem even bigger.
I agree, the whole hood should be an emblem.
It needs to light up the Mercedes logo!
LOL, saw my first light up MB logo while in LA, on a CLA of course. It looked awful.
I’m actually surprised the “FORD” logo on the front of the new Raptor doesn’t light up. I feel like that’s a missed $1495 per vehicle by Ford.
I approve of giant light up FORD. The rest of the Raptor is so ridiculous it fits.
Speaking of ostentatious F150s, have you seen the Lariat and XLT special edition packages yet? Dr Z probably has.
http://blog.caranddriver.com/its-gotta-have-some-of-your-attention-ford-offers-special-edition-packages-for-2016-f-150/
Holy Matador Barcelona, Batman!
This whole thing is just ugly. Seriously Acura needs to fire their entire design department at this point.
Oooh… we have a new flagship sports car (admittedly years too late), let’s take an Audi R8 and tack on the corporate grill
Well… we have a new concept car. Let’s try and make it as hideous as possible. We wouldn’t want it to look nearly as good as the Buick concept next door or Mazda’s last concept. No way, that would be copying.
Seriously, the whole department, pink slips.
It looks like they cribbed the design from the Hot Wheels Ryura LX.
http://mla-s1-p.mlstatic.com/hot-wheels-2014-ryura-lx-hw-city-works-hw-city-16208-MLA20117846103_062014-F.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-slkv3M04Dmw/Uw2DTkAtPiI/AAAAAAAAqJs/PhRIDWKJjUY/s1600/IMG_1932.JPG
You could get a paper cut on that darn car!
Kind of like a mazda with angles instead of curves. I like it.
So the next RLX – full sized, FWD, transverse V6 powered, with the junk ZF 9-speed. Acura grade fake wood, and Acura grade plastic leather. $75K. Sales per year: 163.
These new digital dashboards have me worried. Too distracting with all their flashy displays.
Does anyone else see a Tesla Model S in the side profile?
The front is like a snowplow for pedestrians and cyclists… let the sidewalks be the “new” carpool lanes.
Rearwheel fender extensions from a 1976 BMW CSL or Porsche Turbo taken to extreme. Very nice. Oh yes indeed. I wonder if the rear wheels are actually powered, though?
The VeggieSlicer front end is obviously for the cut-and-thrust driver, executing his precision commute at 48 mph while desperately trying to peer over the hood of this stallion, while passing ladies swoon at its sheer braggadocio.
So, what styling cues from this concept can we expect to be watered-down and grafted onto the 2027 MDX w/SHAWWWWWWD-PAWWWWWWWZ?
Needz MOAR headlightz!
The grille isn’t THAT far off in shape from the 04 TL everyone loved. It’s just got two of the sides inverted in angle. I think it could work to replace the super awful beak they’re using presently, assuming they don’t oversize it.
From some angles I see Acura’s 2006 concept: http://i.imgur.com/6wJFV4j.jpg
From others it looks much better. But those A-pillars can’t be realistic…
The Buick looks way better than this, has mirrors and door handles, and was built with a modicum of potentially being a reality in the future. Never mind that the Acura front clip would never pass Euro pedestrian safety standards.
Buick called Acura, they want their pointy nose concept from the ’92 Skylark back.
Front end from an SLS, profile standard issue these days Aston, details and interior Elvis era Vegas pimp; all brought together manga style…
Honestly, I find it good looking when viewed as a work of rolling art. But, in a car to be used for getting from A to B, why????