I'm not a mechanic nor am I an employee of Honda, Acura, Lexus, or Toyota, but maybe someone on this forum is. Is there really any physical difference between a fully loaded Honda automobile and a regular Acura automobile. Aren't you getting the same chassis, body-frame, suspension, brakes, engine, body panels, exhaust, same leather seats, same stereo, same glass windows, etc? You can get a 280hp engine in either car, right? When you really break it down piece by piece for the 2 different brands, metal is metal, plastic is plastic, glass is glass. Isn't it just branding/marketing and a few extra special luxury options that separate the 2 different brands? I'm not trying to start a long-winded debate here, I just want to know the truth and since the Acura salesman people aren't' going to tell me the real deal, I thought this website would. This question I have can apply to Lexus and Toyota, and Infinity and Nissan.

 

Yes, but way to many to even try and answer to. Many of the parts are like and the same ...but the 2 cars are really different..

Welcome to the forums.

 

Some Acuras are the same, some are different. When they're different, it's usually because Honda has another car that they sell somewhere else in the world, but it's too close in size so they don't badge it as a Honda.

Honda created the Acura nameplate so they could sell some cars that were aimed at the more expensive end of the spectrum. They also generally tend to equip the Acuras with more luxury-type stuff even when it's almost the same car.

Kinda like Lexus being a luxury Toyota or Infinity/Nissan. I'm pretty sure that Nissan & Toyota had large V-8 sedans in Japan but never sold them in USA until they made up the Infinity & Lexus nameplates.

One example is the Integra. It's too close in size to a Civic, so they decided not to badge it as a Honda. At the same time, they didn't offer it as a stripped-down model like you could buy a Civic DX. For it's first 3 generations it was called the Honda Integra everywhere else, & it was the Acura Integra in USA/Canada. For the 4th-generation it was still called the Honda Integra in most of the world, but in USA it was called the Acura RSX.

Most car companies play those kind of games with their car-names around different parts of the world.

 

Great information. So without getting to hung-up on details, a fully-loaded Honda Accord is pretty darn close to something of equivalent size in the Acura automobile line. It's basically marketing and the image of a brand or idea of luxury that Acura, Lexus, and Infiniti sell. Makes me wonder, what if these luxury car companies didn't spend millions upon millions of dollars every year in TV advertisements? Would car buyers even care about these "status symbol" cars that they could spend thousands of more dollars on? I think Acura, Lexus, and Infiniti are for the people who care a lot about their image and impressing the neighbors or their friends. It's a way to buy respect. It's "material therapy". Kinda of like the difference in buying "Lee" brand jeans and buying "Polo Ralph Lauren" jeans. Funny thing is though, a lot of people who buy these luxury cars can't really afford them because automobiles become an extension of ourselves to some people. Bottom line is nobody cares what kind of car you drive and if they do care about your car, your messing with the wrong crowd.

 

Yeah, but sometimes the Acura is a Honda that otherwise would not be available in USA.

The Honda Accord is a pretty big car these days. If you wished it was more compact, then look at the Acura TSX instead. It's actually the same car as the Japan/Europe Accord. If Honda didn't have the Acura nameplate, then I bet they wouldn't sell that car AT ALL in the USA. It's too close in size to the USA Accord.

 

Cool thanks for the info.
From Wikipedia: the TSX is badge engineered from the CL-series Accord (also known as the European Accord or JDM Accord) sold in Europe, Japan, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.[2.
Ah, I learned a new term today. Badge engineering. I Wikipedia'd it:

Badge engineering is an ironic term that describes the rebadging (that is, the replacement of the branding trademark) of one product (especially automobiles) as another. Due to the high cost of designing and engineering a totally new model, or establishing a new brand (which may take many years to gain acceptance), it is often cheaper to rebadge a single product multiple times. In general, no actual engineering occurs.
The term derives from the trademark emblems fastened inside or onto the outside of the car. While differences were originally confined to the badges used on the model, more typically it involves slight styling differences, usually limited to the headlights, tail lights, and front and rear fascias. More extreme examples involve differing engines and drivetrains.