Update: Spanish car site CocheSpias has posted leaked images of the new Acura TSX on its Instagram, which you can see here:
Like much of the automotive world these days, Acura is doing well on the strength of its SUVs. The MDX and RDX are reliable, stylish, luxurious, and even fun to drive, depending on whether you snag one with the torque vectoring Super Handling All-Wheel-Drive. The company’s cars, however…well, they could use a shot in arm. The NSX is spectacular, but nobody seems interested in spending six figures on a high-tech Japanese hybrid sports car right now. The ILX isn’t just a Civic-based pseudo-luxury compact — it’s a pseudo-luxury compact based on the last-generation Civic that debuted nine years ago. The RLX has gone all but unnoticed for years. And the TLX has been hanging around since 2014, with little innovation to show except a handmade limited edition.
Things are apparently about to look a lot brighter for the car side of Honda’s luxury brand, though. According to Car and Driver, not only is a new TLX sedan around the bend, but it’ll arrive along with a true sport sedan version packing a potent twin-turbo V6.
The next-gen TLX will boast its own platform, according to C/D, though the base powertrain of a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four and a 10-speed automatic transmission will be the same one found in the RDX and top-shelf Honda Accords. Front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive will be up for grabs, also like the RDX. That entry-level car, reportedly, was expected to go on sale this summer at a base price of around $35,000, though the coronavirus pandemic and economic uncertainty it brought seem likely to have pushed that back.
More exciting — and hopefully not delayed — is the TLX Type S model that C/D reports will arrive in 2021, in an effort to close some of the distance between Honda’s fancy-but-not-very-fast four-door sedans and the wild NSX. C/D says the twin-turbo V6 — likely a new 3.0-liter unit — will provide a big boost in power over the current top TLX, which uses a naturally-aspirated V6 to make 290 horses. Assuming the Type S really wants to cover the spread between the regular TLX and the NSX, we’re guessing it’ll pack around 400 horsepower at the bare minimum.
As for what that new TLX will look like, odds are very good it’ll resemble the Type S Concept car that Acura debuted at Pebble Beach last year (seen above) — or at least, a mildly toned-down version of that concept.
