Autoblog

Carletti @ Feb 21st 2007 6:43PM

To be perfectly blunt, Acura's "Advanced Sports Car Concept" (what a name!) doesn't impress me in the least bit. From a purely design standpoint, the vehicle has about as much appeal to me as does the RSX. The chrome wheels are a distraction, there are lines everywhere and, moreover, those lines don't seem to hold much purpose in the first place (they don't really shape the car, oddly enough. For the car is still kind of...fat and dumpy). Granted, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," but this showing by the ASC car makes me wonder how Honda would manage to meet any projected quota to sell this car given the commanding price range that it, supposedly, is to belong to. I don't mean to argue that the RSX is not a necessarily pleasant looker, but for $100,000 people...how could anyone live with him or herself after knowing that they basically purchased just, in my view, another regular Acura when they could've, instead, taken a decidedly commanding grip of the road in a unique, and truly fierce, CLS63 AMG, for example. While specs matter, and they do, it is my contention that design (including originality and design that truly separates a car from the rest) is probably on an equal playing field with supreme technical specs in order for any $100,000+ GT to be a legitimate prospective contender amongst the elite GT's from Aston Martin, Bentley, and Ferrari, as an example. Make no mistake about it, this ASC car is not evocative of a prime competitor for the latter makes. Good for Honda in realizing that.