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atomiclightbulb
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CarPhreakD wrote:
Ultimately, considering how close the ILX and Si are in specification, I don't know how ANYONE can get away from the 'Civic with leather' stigma the ILX represents. |
Outside of ToV and other car forums, you'd be surprised at how few people make the connection between Honda and Acura.
Most of my friends, who are not car people, don't know the relationship between Lexus and Toyota, Infiniti and Nissan, and Acura and Honda. If you ask them who the parent company of Audi is (VW Group), a blank stare is about the best you can expect.
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owequitit
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azntsx5at wrote:
I think you misunderstood me. What I am trying to say is we should careless about what the car is objectively composed of and care more about how the car actually presents itself as in public. The image i get of an ILX driver is very different than a civic si driver.
tbh the only people that would cross shop these two cars is probably only honda enthusiasts
for example I have a friend who hates civic si and the stigma you get from it with a vengeance and he finds the ilx much more appealing. I told him about the differences and such but he could careless about that stuff saying that even though they are based on the same car, he'd rather drive one that doesnt look like a $15000 compact that everyone drives. I am from toronto and there are civics everywhere.
I drive an 08 tsx that I've done some work on and I've talked with a lot of friends about the new ILX 6MT. If I were to have to pick between the two right now i'd go for the ILX simply because I don't use a tally chart when I go and buy cars. IMO its just a certain X factor that the civic just doesnt have.
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I don't buy cars because it will improve the way people perceive me. Not even a BMW, which I would buy because I liked the car. I buy cars that I like and that I want to make a payment on.
As for climbing the social ladder, the performance of the individual will work magnitudes better than the badge on the car they drive. Not to mention that Acura has virtually ZERO brand cache over the pedestrian Honda it is meant to replace. Sales indicate that, as do every review even from "non-enthusiast" publications. The sad reality is that the ILX offers nothing more than a marginal increase in "cache," less feature content (critical luxury content at that), and a much higher price (approximately 25%) in order to get a car that is slower, handles worse, and still drives like a Civic, although it doesn't look like one.
Essentially, it appeals to people who think a badge only will buy the prestige (in Acura's case it won't), don't know anything about cars (even non-enthusiasts will know it is isn't a BMW or anything like a BMW) or people who think there is some stigma associated with car Z.
If someone was really interested in status, they would go buy a CPO BMW 3 series for the same money and get a whole lot more car with a pretty much equal warranty (better if you consider the free maintenance). Hell, I would personally go buy a used NSX and not have to worry about ANY cache gap.
So realistically, the ILX is left for people who want an image (based on being more affluent than they actually are), or who don't want an image (of a "boy racer" Civic Si owner).
However, they aren't really choosing the ILX based on anything other than those two factors IMO, and in the case of the Civic vs ILX quality wise, it really comes down to interior styling. The Civic is only slightly lower quality than the Accord, and the ILX barely meets Accord level quality. Honestly, I would buy an Accord EX-L V6 all day long over an ILX at $31K. It is more luxurious, a lot faster, looks better, and doesn't have any stigma associated with it being a "boy racer."
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brich
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notyper wrote:
@ azntsx5at
I think owequitit did a good job of detailing the problem. My $0.02 is that if the ILX offered everything the Civic Si had plus some nice interior features and better styling, you could make a case for it.
Instead the ILX takes away the LSD and Navi, adds weight (slower) and then gives you some a nicer interior (magnitude of how much nicer is debatable apparently). And for this tradeoff they charge you $5k+ more money. It's just not a good recipe.
In the "old days", going from a Civic to an Integra got you a larger engine, more power, different body style and a better interior. One of the reasons the RSX was killed off was because the 8th gen Civic Si eliminated the engine gap, making the RSX just a body style choice with a nicer interior (a little bit at least). And yet, here we are today with an ILX that is largely a body style choice with a nicer interior.....
SC
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And, arguably, neither the ILX nor the Civic SI are adequate replacements for my 2005 RSX, which kills them both for utility and has a relatively simple driver's environment that Soichiro Honda would have favored (in the spirit of the Prelude, CRX and Integra). When I took my RSX in for service the other day, the tech wanted to buy it and lamented that Honda/Acura needs to build an adequate RSX successor).
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A77
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One of my customers - who had an 09 Si on lease, tried out the ILX and thought there were enough "uninformed" out there who would buy it, but he was unimpressed. He preferred the Si but felt it lack quality (2012) inside and didnt have the addictive high rev rush of his 09, even though he acknowledged it pulled better otherwise. He ended up leasing a GTi. I passed an ILX on the way to work this morning. The driver looked 90.
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superchg2
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I saw my second ILX on the road the other day, but it was sporting D-Tags.
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owequitit
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A77 wrote:
One of my customers - who had an 09 Si on lease, tried out the ILX and thought there were enough "uninformed" out there who would buy it, but he was unimpressed. He preferred the Si but felt it lack quality (2012) inside and didnt have the addictive high rev rush of his 09, even though he acknowledged it pulled better otherwise. He ended up leasing a GTi. I passed an ILX on the way to work this morning. The driver looked 90.
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It would seem that there are some "uniformed" buying them, but not as many as Acura had hoped.
IMO, for $5-7K I would take the Si and just get it in a low key color and maybe remove the hideous rear wing. I just couldn't justify the difference for another 30-50% cost increase.
The car that IMO Acura REALLY has to watch out for is the new A3. That car looks fantastic with the larger wheels on it, nearly A4 cabin space apparently, and versions with up to and exceeding 300HP in AWD configuration. I am not delusional that Audi is a perfect brand, but for a car that is relatively cheap and actually carries some "cache" with it, that seems like the best option in the future. The CLA isn't bad, but IMO it doesn't quite look like a full scale MB either. Of course, if looking at an ILX, I would have to seriously consider a Jetta GLI w/ Autobahn package as well.
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Power Of Dreams
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Honda Accord Sport > these two poseurs
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