We've heard rumors that Acura is getting ready to respond to BMW's X6 sports car/crossover with one of its own. There have even been spy shots circulating online, but you can't see much of anything other than a lot of camouflage. I was shocked when I saw Acura's crossover—with no camouflage—on the freeway last week. (Unfortunately, it was at two in the morning, and I couldn't get a decent picture of the thing.)
The vehicle didn't have any badges on it, but its license plate had a number code that Honda uses on the plates on all of its cars, trucks, and SUVs. So why does it seem to be an Acura and not a Honda? The SUV's styling was much closer to that of the current Acura lineup than that of the Pilot or CR-V.
So here's what I saw: I'd guess the SUV, which appeared to be about the size of an MDX, was painted in a copper or light metallic brown (hard to tell at night). It had four doors, but it looked like the rear door handles were hidden along the C-pillars, by the side windows, making its side profile look almost coupelike. And unless Acura is going in a completely different direction with the MDX, that wasn't what this was. It didn't have the typical SUV roofline, either: Starting from the B-pillar, the roof sloped down dramatically, much like the X6's, and finished with a vertical crease along the rear (picture the slight point on the tailgate of the MDX or RDX). Even though the SUV looked big, its sloped roof and hidden door handles made it seem smaller than the MDX.
If this is in fact Acura's response to the X6, what should be named? If Acura wanted to stick with its traditional "DX" nomenclature for its SUVs and crossovers, it could be called CDX (C for coupe). However, if the company wanted to more closely align this vehicle with its sedans, it could call it "RLX" or "TLX." Either way, it would make sense for Acura to take an already existing platform and spend relatively little money to build a seemingly all-new vehicle on it, to compete with the BMW X6, and to a lesser extent, Infiniti's FX and EX. I'd guess we may see the new vehicle at an auto show in the near future, perhaps at the Detroit show in January 2009.
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