Acura's wish: Join 200,000 sales club

DETROIT — Acura boss Jon Ikeda is looking for friends — at least 200,000 of them.

That's the philosophy driving the Japanese premium brand's ambitious annual U.S. sales goal to that level, up from 158,934 sales last year. Ikeda believes it will happen in the next few years as he works to reposition Acura as a performance brand through marketing, designs with youthful energy and involvement in motorsports.

"I always equate the brand with 'friends,' " he said during an interview at Automotive News' offices here. "That's all it is. It's a relationship between a client and a company."

Those relationships with potential customers won't be built overnight, Ikeda said. "It's important that we're very consistent and very honest and transparent in who we are.

"There's got to be at least 200,000 friends out there looking for us," he said. "We can make the right cars. We just have to make sure that we're very clear on who we are and what path we're on."

The last time Acura reached 200,000 annual U.S. sales was 2006, the year after its best year in its three-decade history. In 2005, the brand sold 209,610 vehicles. Sales fell as low as 105,723 in 2009 as recession gripped the industry. Last year, it was back up to 158,934, ranking No. 5 among premium brands.

Through the first eight months of this year, sales are up 0.7 percent to 101,715. Nearly three-quarters of that volume consists of its two crossovers.

Ikeda is confident that Acura, despite its relatively small lineup compared with other luxury automakers, can cross the 200,000 threshold by sometime in 2022 to 2024.

"Anything shy of 200,000," Ikeda said, "it's because we haven't done our job in terms of expressing ourselves."

Leading Acura's charge is the RDX, which was redesigned incorporating the brand's new design philosophy for the 2019 model year. U.S. sales last year were 63,580, a 24 percent improvement over its predecessor. Acura's volume leader was No. 2 in the compact premium crossover segment last year, trailing only the Mercedes-Benz GLC, according to the Automotive News Data Center.

The RDX embodies Acura's sales strategy of seeking to lead in select segments instead of offering a wide variety of body sizes and types.Acura focuses heavily on four core nameplates: the RDX and midsize MDX crossovers, and the compact ILX and midsize TLX sedans. The RLX flagship sells in low volumes, while the NSX supercar is the brand's halo.

"We want to be smart with our lineup," Ikeda said, "and have a nice, efficient way of doing things."

Variants also are key to Acura's push. It's offering A-Spec appearance packages across the core models, which Acura says are bringing in younger customers.

In addition, the brand is reviving the Type S name as a performance package. A Type S-badged concept that previews the next-generation TLX was shown last month during Monterey Car Week in California.

Another priority for Ikeda is working with dealers on profitability, adding: "Nothing like new product to help with that."

He said Acura is comfortable at its current dealer network size, with 270 points.

But one particularly promising market for premium sales that has him wondering about additional dealerships is Texas.

"Do we have enough there or not?" he asks aloud. "The state of Texas is blowing up."