Bucking Trend, Honda Announces Top-of-the-Line Acura Will Be Fitted With a V8

Bucking Trend, Honda Announces Top-of-the-Line Acura Will Be Fitted With a V8

By Scott Doggett October 20, 2008

After years of lackluster sales for its flagship sedan, Honda Motor Co. CEO Takeo Fukui announced today that the next-generation Acura RL will be fitted with a V8 engine.

Honda's luxury vehicle division has been around since 1986, and yet at a time when General Motors, Ford and other automakers are shelving thirsty V8s in favor of  smaller, more fuel-efficient engines, the move will mark the first time in Acura's 22-year history that it will place a V8 in any of its production models.

The timing couldn't be more peculiar, given the attention most people are giving pump prices these days.

Which isn't to say that Acura hasn't been accused of under-powering its top-of-the-line model. Rumors of it being offered with an optional V8 to compete with the top sedans of other luxury automakers have circulated nearly as long the RL has been around, which is a full dozen years.

With the entirely refreshed 2009 RL, Acura finally moved to replace its 290-horsepower 3.5-liter V6 with something more exciting. But instead of a V8, the automaker went with a 3.7-liter V6.

For buyers in the high-end sedan market, the 3.7 didn't cut it. Fukui as much as admitted that today.
 
"I don't think that the Acura RL 3.7-liter is sufficient," he said. "We can't compete with other premium brands."

Why oh why the Japanese automaker took so long to reach that conclusion he didn't say.

But Fukui did say the upcoming engine will "be completely different from conventional, past-generation ones and have excellent fuel efficiency."

A V8 with excellent fuel efficiency in a high-performance luxury sedan with the reliability of a Honda and the finish of, well, an Acura?

Now that's more like it!

Scott Doggett:  is an AutoObserver.com Associate Editor.