Test Drive: Acura ILX versions include 1 hottie, 2 notties
— -- Acura, Honda's luxury brand, hopes to snag lots of newly minted luxury-car buyers with its small ILX sedan, betting that smaller, lower-price models are the key to a long and happy life selling premium vehicles.
ILX, a new model loosely based on Honda's Civic sedan, is a compact, front-drive four-door that starts at a tempting $26,795.
While it uses the basic Civic platform and wheelbase, the ILX's track is wider and its body, interior and drivetrain array differ. Oddly, Honda specifications show the ILX has nearly 6% less passenger space than the Civic, even though the Acura is bigger overall.
The ILX is aimed, Acura says, at younger luxury buyers raised in luxury-car households who are unwilling to buy mainstream brands, but who are in the first generation likely to have lower incomes than their parents.
And, Acura says, "They put a higher priority on looking good than on going fast."
On paper, then, ILX buyers would seem willing to pay more for a car because of its badge than its contents — the underhood portion of which they seemingly consider irrelevant.
What, one wonders, will they make of the ILX 2.4-liter model, a step up from the base 2-liter. The 2.4 is an exciting, desirable car and thus, perhaps, frightening to the supposed ILX cadre.
The 201-horsepower ILX 2.4 ($30,095 and up) is an honest Acura: mechanically satisfying, dynamically stimulating. The 2.4 comes only with a six-speed manual transmission. Developers spent time and attention making the shifter feel robust, mechanical. Not as enticing as, say, a Subaru BR-Z or the B&M shifter on some Hyundai Elantra Touring wagons. But pretty good.
The 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine starts with an edgy cough, a punk on the verge of misbehaving and faunching to bolt. Leave the rulemakers and manners police behind.
It makes the most of the chassis tuning that transformed the car from a Honda to an Acura.
And it loves to run hard.
The drivetrain is geared so you can downshift less often and not as far. For instance, in cases where a tight corner might suggest that you slap the gear lever down into third, from fifth or sixth, fourth was OK in the ILX.
Seats are comfy. Rear-seat legroom is just OK, as expected in a compact car.
Interior trimmings are simple, avoiding the overwrought approach of some Asian-brand makers. But it's also somewhat uninteresting.
The 2-liter and the $29,795 gasoline electric hybrid — Acura's first hybrid — are tepid, somnambulence on wheels. They seem like pretenders, Acuras in badge only.
The 2-liter's 150 horsepower was generally adequate on a fast highway run from Virginia to New York, but needed to kick down its five-speed automatic fairly often to keep up with traffic. A small bright spot: Steering-wheel-mounted shift paddles are positioned well and encourage manual operation of the five-speed automatic, helping you extract the small amount of fun built in.
The hybrid was woefully underpowered, unable to use its 111 horsepower to confidently pull from a side road into fast-moving highway traffic, or to scoot past a dawdler.
It gets good mileage, better than the window sticker says, which is a pleasant surprise. But its 39-miles-per-gallon city, 38-highway ratings are matched nowadays by gasoline-power cars of the same size and lower price.
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