Autoblog

At the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, Acura showed off a new 2.2-liter four-cylinder diesel engine and announced it would debut a production version in 2009. Informed speculation says that the oilburner would be equipped in the new TSX, a re-badged version of the European Honda Accord that currently offers the engine. Honda engineers have even presented documents outlining the new exhaust developed for the engine in the last two editions of the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress.

Unfortunately, it looks like we might not get a chance to sample a diesel TSX in the U.S. after all. An anonymous poster on the MotorTrend forums is claiming that Honda has not been able to pass emissions certification with the automatic transmission TSX diesel. The manual transmission version is fine, but the poster claims there wouldn't be enough demand in the U.S. market for the manual-only model and Honda will therefore drop the diesel altogether. We don't know if this is true, and Acura has not yet responded to our request for a comment. It will most like be a "no comment" anyway.

For what it's worth, we're suitably dubious about the source and the information, particularly considering that modern cars with electronically controlled automatic transmissions typically perform better on emissions and fuel economy. This is primarily due to the engineer's ability to have more control over the interaction between the engine and the transmission, and less to do with the person behind the wheel. Hopefully the story is untrue, because it would be nice to finally get a Honda/Acura with some low end torque.


[Source: Motor Trend Forum]

We've already been introduced to Honda's new i-DTEC clean diesel and, as expected, it will be finding its way into the next generation TSX sometime in 2009. The inclusion of the 2.2-liter diesel will follow the redesign of Acura's entry-level sedan sometime this spring, with the i-DTEC-equipped model initially debuting in Europe (in the Euro Accord) and eventually finding its way into the RDX crossover later next year. A V6 diesel is also expected to arrive sometime in 2010.

According to Dick Colliver, Acura's executive veep of American Honda Motor Corp., Acura will be a totally different brand in the next five or six years, further differentiating itself from Honda and becoming a tier one luxury brand with its aim set squarely on BMW and other luxury automakers.

A new TL will debut later this year and the TSX replacement may also come equipped with the turbocharged four found in the RDX when it goes on sale this summer.

[Source: Automotive News – Sub. Req.]

We talked about this back in January and have been hearing about it as long ago as 2005, but Honda seems set to make it official. There will be no new Accord Hybrid in their lineup. Instead the North American market will get a diesel Accord to fight the mileage wars. Honda will still develop hybrids for the Civic and "another subcompacts currently under development" according to Nihon Keizai Shimbun, but don't expect a hybrid Accord. Midsize and larger vehicles will go the oil-burner route with Honda's new clean diesels that we expect to see in 2009.

The diesel in the Accord will likely be an ultra-clean four-cylinder rumored to be in the 2.2 - 2.4L range and capable of meeting California's strict Tier II / Bin 5 standards, which are the toughest diesel emissions standards in the world. While horsepower isn't likely to match the outgoing V6 hybrid, torque and fuel mileage should be more than a match. For those that still need a little more power, Honda is also working on a diesel V6 that will first appear in the Ridgeline and then find its way into Honda's vans and SUVs. While the Germans have been advancing the acceptance of diesels for years, a mainstream player like Honda will really push the technology to the forefront in North America.

[Source: Forbes]