In Acura’s television ads, the ILX is billed as offering a just-right blend of premium-brand luxury, fun, and down-to-earth practicality—a blend that, in Acura’s own words, invites drivers to “move up (without) settling down.” Given this, one might assume the ILX Tech Hybrid would fit roughly the same mold, but with a distinctly energy-efficient “green” twist, and to a certain extent it does just that.
The sweet spot of this Acura package is found in the goodly amount of comfort and refinement for a compact luxury car. Interior materials are nice, and it feels roomy for the car’s fairly small size. Seating is comfortable for extended drives, and visibility isn’t a problem. The ride is smooth and quiet, with very little in the way of NVH (though the CVT can make the engine buzzy under full load). The $5500 Technology Package (for a total starting MSRP of $34,400) adds convenience technology such as navigation with traffic and weather, upgraded surround sound audio, voice recognition software, and GPS-linked, solar-sensing dual climate control.
Mostly we think that it’s important to understand whom Acura is marketing its new ILX to, in order to understand why it has built the car that we drove in Arizona. That’s because, in addition to being definitively not some kind of next-phase TSX, Acura is clear about the fact that the ILX is also, most certainly, not a reemergence of the lost Integra nameplate.
We saw the concept in Detroit, and now Acura has debuted the production version of its ILX compact sedan. The new car marks a move downmarket for Acura, representing a sub-TSX line meant to draw younger buyers into the fold.
We’ve turned our lenses on the sleek and sexy Acura ILX Concept. This concept previews a new Acura coming to market soon, and possibly replacing the TSX.