Acura will Type S all the things and make fun cars again, says brand officer

Pretty much anyone with eyeballs is going to be forced to acknowledge that Acura’s new TLX is hot. It’s the best-looking car the brand has made in years, and it’s even pretty nice to drive, according to our man Steve Ewing. 

We know that it’s going to get a high-performance Type S version, which is also exciting. Now, in a recent interview with Motor Trend, Acura’s Brand Officer Jon Ikeda gives some insight into what else we can expect from Type S and Acura in general.

The big takeaway from the interview — which is good, and you should read it — is that every future Acura model will get a high-performance Type S trim level. Whether that means they will end up with a turbo V6 and Super Handling All-Wheel Drive remains to be seen, but the commitment to making cars that are fun again is encouraging.

Ikeda also talks about the need for more models, like a retooled ILX, for example, to fill out the lineup and give more people a reason to consider Acura again. Future models may or may not share a platform with the new TLX (which rides on its own bespoke chassis), but that’s not been decided yet.

Finally, Ikeda confirmed that there would be further expansion of the brand’s electrification efforts. Despite some initial friction inside the company at the idea with the NSX, the concept has proven itself, and Acura needs to stay current (pun intended).

There’s still a long way to go for the brand to get back to the kind of reputation that it had in the 1990s and early aughts — it needs to seriously reconsider a lot of the interior design choices it’s making, for example — but the TLX and these plans make for one hell of a start.