
Click above for a high-res gallery of the 2009 Acura TSX.
2008 is shaping up to be a very busy year for Honda's up-market Acura division. With the unveiling of a new diesel engine and the revamp of their entire sedan lineup, Acura is attempting to reinvent itself as a credible player in the premium sedan segment. But ever since Acura's birth in 1986 as the very first premium Japanese brand, the automaker has suffered from an identity crisis. Acura has always been a mixed bag, as if Honda wasn't sure what it wanted it to be, and with a lineup that spanned the enthusiast-friendly Integra/RSX, the rebadged Isuzu-built SLX and the competent but anonymous RL, consumers were equally confounded.
After complaints that the previous generation of Acura sedans were utterly devoid of style, the automaker decided to give all of its vehicles a bold, new face for the 2009 model year. However, as anyone who has ever followed the follies of cosmetic surgery knows, it's far from a sure bet. Although surgeons claim to be able to take years off a patient's face, the result is often just some weird mutation that looks like a bad photoshop job. Case-in-point: the 2009 Acura RL that debuted at this year's Chicago Auto Show. The new shielded fascia Acura applied to its "flagship" was greeted with howls of pain from virtually all who laid eyes upon it. The RL was followed a month later by an all-new TSX, and on the smaller sedan, the overall look was better received, but many of Acura's aesthetically astute critics remained. Now that we've had a chance to spend some serious time living with the 2009 TSX, we were prepared to move beyond its controversial exterior and see how it faired in the real world. Hit the jump to see how it did.
Photos Copyright ©2008 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.



Apologies for the tardiness in delivering our By the Numbers post this month, but we're here with it now and all the automakers have reported their numbers. Big picture, ups and downs in the industry appear about even, so perhaps October 2007 was a wash. General Motors sales fell 1.1% compared to October of last year, while Toyota Motor Co. sales rose by only 0.5%.
20.5% at 25,185 (10/06: 20,097)
–33.2% at 3,864 (10/06: 5,565)
You didn't think we forgot to report the numbers, did you? We imagine some automakers wish we had, for instance Jaguar and Mercury, which share our Biggest Loser honor this month by dropping an identical 20.2% in sales. Another of Ford's brands, Land Rover, was the Biggest Winner, jumping 32.2% in sales last month versus August 2006.
Land Rover 32.2% at 4,853 (08/06: 3,671)
Jaguar –20.2% at 1,359 (08/06: 1,704)












