6 cars a day
Marysville workers taking their time making 360 special Acura TLX models
Jayme Cummins popped the headlight onto the bright red car and measured to make sure it was exactly in place. After a slight adjustment, she looked up and smiled. It was perfect.
Cummins aligns the parts for just six cars each workday, but they're not just any cars. They’re the 2020 Acura TLX PMC Edition, among only 360 to be made.
Cummins’ role in the operation is to handle the painted parts for the front and rear ends of the vehicle. She attaches hoods and aligns gaps. She also installs seats and consoles.
“It’s small measurements to get the finish we’re looking for,” she said.
Production began last month on the special TLX. The PMC stands for the Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville, where about 80 workers produce the car.
Of the 360 cars being built, each of the 280 North American Acura dealers is being offered one to sell. The rest will be distributed to dealerships based on their likeliness to be sold.
The car costs $50,945. Plant manager Gail May said potential buyers should contact a local Acura dealership because the cars likely will sell quickly. Some already have been claimed.
The all-wheel-drive PMC Edition has 19-inch wheels and comes with a 3.5-liter V6 engine that produces 290 horsepower.
The vibrant Valencia Pearl Red paint is the same used on the Acura NSX sports car. The cars receive eight layers of a base coating and
three layers of paint. Robots weld the cars, but everything else is handcrafted.
Each car takes about two weeks to make. The plant produces six per day, four days per week, May said.
The car comes in black and red. Besides the special paint, exclusive features include a PMC Edition numbered plaque and black wheels, roof, door handles, grille and exhaust pipes. The seats are black Milano leather, with red stitching along Workers install an engine in a 2020 Acura TLX PMC Edition at Honda’s Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville. The 3.5-liter, V6 engine produces 290 horsepower.
the seats, door panel, center console and armrest.
Each TLX PMC Edition undergoes the same quality-control process as the NSX,
including a paint inspection, rough-road simulation and a water leak test. To protect the paint during shipping, each car is wrapped in a specially designed cover and transported to Acura dealers via enclosed, single-car carriers.
May, who has worked at PMC for 26 years, said the exclusivity of the car is what makes it special.
“If you start to produce more, it becomes like every other car,” May said. “We have the opportunity to spend as much time on it and make it perfect.”
Cummins, along with the rest of the workers, admit that they are perfectionists.
“If it’s not perfect, it’s not good enough,” Cummins said.