A tough sell in 2018, especially considering its Civic stablemate
Snarly 2.4-L four-cylinder an advantage
Acura sold just over 2,000 copies of its ILX sedan in Canada in 2017, which makes this front-drive, luxury compact car a rare bird. It’s also a bit of an odd duck. In years past, Acura Canada made a decent business of taking a top line Honda Civic, then adding a layer of luxury, jacking up the price, slapping on the Acura badge, et voila — a premium compact sedan. The Acura EL, the first such badge-engineered Civic starting in 1997, accounted for 51 per cent of the Acura’s sales in its first year.
Fast-forward 20 years and the automotive landscape has changed. Crossovers rule, sedan sales are on a steady decline, established premium marques such as Audi and Mercedes-Benz now offer entry-level AWD compact sedans, and the excellent new Honda Civic can be kitted out with such topshelf amenities that a badgeengineered Acura version becomes redundant.
So, where does that leave this 2018 Acura ILX A-Spec — a gussied-up take on the previous-generation Civic — with its $35,390 price tag? Uh, tough question.
Despite being five years old, the ILX still looks pretty sharp in this San Marino Red, rolling on 18-inch alloys and coming across like an entomologist’s nightmare with those five beady LED headlights on either side of its beaklike grille. To give the ILX a more premium aura, Acura took the Civic and stretched its nose, truncated its tail and gave it angular bodywork highlighted by a formal kink in the C-pillar.
The interior shows all the expected Acura cues: two screens on the centre console, horizontal sweeping elements and decent build quality. The lower touch screen is a control panel, while the larger upper unit functions as a display, with a prominent hood shielding it from glare. It’s a fairly intuitive infotainment system, but lacks support for Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
This toptrim A-Spec gets leather and suede seats (eight-way power adjustability for the driver, four-way for the passenger) with two memory positions for the driver. They’re comfortable enough, but are flat and lack any meaningful lateral support, which I suppose is in keeping with this car’s near-luxury mission. Other upscale amenities on the A-Spec include GPS navigation, LED headlights, adaptive cruise control, forward-collision warning and mitigation, blind-spot monitoring and lane-departure warning, plus lane-keep assist, a rear cross-traffic monitor and a multi-angle rear-view camera. Audio duties are handled by a rather disappointing 10-speaker ELS sound system.
With the ILX being based on the lastgeneration Civic, it doesn’t get the new Civic’s 1.5-litre, twin-scroll turbo-four engine — with 174 horsepower and 162 pound-feet of torque — and CVT transmission. The ILX’s engine is the old Civic Si’s 2.4-L naturally aspirated four-cylinder, rated at 201 hp and 180 lb-ft of torque, and mated to Acura’s slick, eightspeed dual-clutch transmission. It also features a torque converter for smoothing tipin from a stop.
I give this drivetrain kudos for its dual personality. When just trundling around town, the transmission slurs the gears imperceptibly and there’s enough low-end torque with this large-displacement four to never feel flat-footed. However, pull the shift lever back to S, use the paddle shifters and from 4,000 rpm to its 6,500-rpm redline, the 2.4-L engine gets all racy and revhungry, kicking out a scrappy snarl and some decent pace — just like we remember Honda engines were. Response to paddle inputs is also quick, especially with downshifts.
Too bad the chassis doesn’t play along. It’s too stiff-legged to be luxurious, with plenty of clomping from those low-profile 18-inch tires. And when pressing on, it doesn’t really flow; you have to muscle it along, which at the very least is entertaining, but not terribly satisfying. The new Civic Si’s handling is in another league.
I suspect most looking at the Acura ILX will not be playing boy racer, but will be more interested in the luxury side of the equation. The noisy and unsophisticated ride quality is a letdown and a giveaway to the ILX’s dated underpinnings. Other demerits include a small trunk, a cramped back seat and a general lack of headroom. And buyers of luxury cars now expect a heated steering wheel, something the ILX lacks.
The Acura ILX’s biggest threat does not come from the Mercedes CLA or Audi A3, but from within its own camp. The fully loaded Civic Touring undercuts this ILX A-Spec by $7,700. While not as edgy, it is certainly more roomy, comfortable, efficient and has just about all the bells and whistles of the Acura and then some, like heated rear seats and wireless phone charging, along with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Yep, this Acura ILX ASpec is a tough sell. Still, if you’re lured by its upscale badge, cool looks (in red, anyway), the snarly 2.4-L four-cylinder engine and exclusivity, it could be for you.