When you’re trying to set up a luxury automaker, whether as an independent venture or just a division of an existing company, one of the key points is to make people see you as such. For a beginner, investing exclusively in flagship models is bad because they orbit around very low sales figures, which means the company won’t be seen much. On the other hand, treating entry levels as top priority can actually sell more cars, but always with the risk of creating a different image from what it originally wanted. While Acura still waits for its “breakthrough car”, the best it can do is to improve the existing lineup whenever it’s possible and interesting. TLX’s arrival, for instance, replaced both TL and TSX. And a couple of years ago, ZDX was dropped due to poor sales.
Working with ILX was necessary because it is the entry-level Acura. Therefore, it’s also a very important element with which to deal so as to achieve the balance between the two aforementioned extremes. For a luxury automaker, the cheapest product should be an initial step towards its lineup, rather than the final one. In other words, it should stimulate its buyer to migrate to its core products, later on. This is why ILX had its powertrain options reduced to only one option: an updated four-cylinder 2.4-liter, which is good for 201 hp and uses eight automatic speeds. No hybrid, no manual, no 2.0-liter, nothing else. That transmission is particularly interesting because it uses both torque converter and dual clutch, along with great taste for behavior tuning.
Styling changes include the adoption of Acura’s Jewel Eye headlights, made entirely with LEDs. The same element also composes the rest of ILX’s front and rear lights. There are also new 17” wheels and slightly-redesigned front and rear fascias. The interior, in turn, was refreshed with contrasting stitching for parking-brake handle, shift knob, and steering wheel, and more silver inserts for the dashboard. The dual-screen infotainment system still uses 8” and 7” screens, is claimed to have received more than fifty updates, and adds in-car navigation when connected to an iPhone if you ask it with the Premium package. All electronic safety systems are still bundled as the AcuraWatch package, whose collision-mitigator was improved with pedestrian-sensing capabilities.
If nothing of that convinces you that this is a luxury vehicle, there are some other things to know. Acura says the new ILX had its body rigidity increased, along with a suspension re-tuning focused at making its response more lively and linear, and the use of more sound-deadening material, thicker front-door glass, and a new noise-cancellation system. Besides, the equipment list now features the A-SPEC package: the exterior receives fog lamps, spoiler, 18” two-tone machined wheels and rocker-panel accents, while the interior gets aluminum pedal caps, perforated black faux-suede seat inserts, gray stitching and red instrument illumination. The new Acura ILX had its official debut at the last Los Angeles Auto Show.