Acura insiders are debating the future of the brand’s TSX wagon.
Dealers writing on Honda fansite The Temple of VTEC say the TSX and larger TL sedan, both last fully redesigned in 2008, will be replaced by an all-new model named TLX.
With the TSX’s potential departure, fans of the wagon are speculating the body style will die with the sedan, and there will be no wagon variant in the new TSX-TL combo-model lineup.
Mike Accavitti, senior vice president-automobile operations for American Honda, says some TSX lovers are sending emails and letters to Acura pleading for the wagon’s life.
The Acura executive won’t say if the wagon is a goner, but ominously notes every model needs a good business case and “when there’s not enough demand (for a model), we just won’t do it.”
Declining to address claims that Acura may ax the TSX, Sage Marie, the brand’s senior manager-public relations, tells WardsAuto, “We continuously evaluate our lineup.”
Acura introduced the wagon variant of the TSX to the U.S. in the ’11 model year. It is based on Honda’s European Accord wagon. The European Accord is rumored to be on the way out due to lack of demand.
Acura doesn’t break out U.S. sales of the TSX wagon from the sedan, but officials in the past have noted a low take rate for the wagon.
Wagons in the U.S. have been notoriously hard sells in modern times. SUVs and cross/utility vehicles have replaced the station wagon as Americans' people-hauler of choice.
However, a few brands, notably Acura competitor Cadillac and Germany's Audi, have wagons in their U.S. lineups. Cadillac offers a wagon body style of the CTS and Audi has an A6 wagon and A4-based Allroad model.
A possible reason for the merger of TSX and TL is Acura's thinly spaced U.S. car lineup. With the new RLX flagship sedan, which hit showrooms this year, and the ILX entry-level model, on sale last year, Acura now has two sets of similarly sized vehicles.
– with Steve Finlay
