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Will Acura reach out to existing NSX owners?

Joined
29 March 2005
Messages
63
Location
Phoenix, AZ
Has anyone heard if Acura has any plans to reach out with offers on the 2015 model to existing NSX owners? Ferrari does an excellent job of giving the first shot at new models to owners of existing cars. Whether they take advantage of the offer or not, it's done much to build the prestige and exclusivity of the Ferrari brand.

If no one has heard, who would one direct such questions to at Acura? Who is likely to answer questions like this? The local Acura dealers here in Phoenix know nothing and are not helpful, to say the least.

Thanks!
 
I would argue that many (not saying all) Acura dealers are not helpful in all manner of ways. I highly doubt that individual dealerships will make a concerted effort to host current NSX owners. It is more likely that Honda will send out some general information to NSX owners who have registered with their online database.

It does seem odd that Honda dealerships do so much a better job at supporting their clients than most Acura dealerships. Still.....
If you want the Ferrari treatment, you had better buy a Ferrari from a Ferrari dealership at Ferrari costs.
 
Honda CEO Takanobu Ito gave a press conference today, 9-21-2012. You can watch it (there is an english translation) at the link below.

http://world.honda.com/worldnews/index.html

The part that leads into his mention of the NSX begins at about minute 24 or 25. He says the NSX goal is to produce a "dream-inspiring and edgy -= exciting and fun" car. Remarked that he was involved with the original model.

Discussed Acura Precision all wheel steering. Independent right and left rear steering (toe) angle control. "On the rails cornering, precise and stable handling."
"Inomama" = At the will of the driver.
Will be introduced in 2015 with the Acura RLX Concept, RDX Concept, ILX Concept and NSX Concept.
 
I would argue that many (not saying all) Acura dealers are not helpful in all manner of ways. I highly doubt that individual dealerships will make a concerted effort to host current NSX owners. It is more likely that Honda will send out some general information to NSX owners who have registered with their online database.

It does seem odd that Honda dealerships do so much a better job at supporting their clients than most Acura dealerships. Still.....
If you want the Ferrari treatment, you had better buy a Ferrari from a Ferrari dealership at Ferrari costs.

I've noticed this as well BUT I bought my NSX from a dealer out of state maybe if it's your local dealer you buy from they treat you differently.
 
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They reached out to me for the 1st S2000 Homecoming (Appreciation Day) in 2007, and I reached out to them for the retirement of Uehara-San and the launch of the CR. (I also reached out to Jay Leno, and he called stating he was on business and needed 12 months, but more that happy to support us with enough notice next time with his S600)

I will have more information at a later date, as its too soon to "ask" for anything now, or for them to "reach" out to us, since we don't have any concrete info, nor do they. I am confident, with this new car, new budgets, etc something will happen. But who knows. Everything is a secret ;)
 
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Leno has openly disregarded the NSX as an unimportant sequetor to the Ferarri 355. The fact that he appeared in the NSX Superbowl commercial along with outspoken Porsche-phile Seinfeld only makes the slant that much more degrading. While I respect both for being car nuts, I don't care to be pandered to by two guys who think the NSX is a negligible footnote in the annals of automotive history.
 
exactly ...I've seen shows where he has some mazda/toyota/honda cars but his lack of enthusiasm for the nsx makes me think he has a hard on for the acura brand despite his willingness to take thier money for a commercial,or he really has the ignorant view that the car is a ferrari rip off:rolleyes:
 
Honestly that nsx ad was rather dumb. They could have done a lot better and spent a lot less money. I guess they are trying to broaden appeal. The ad was a bit premature too IMO. A lot of people think its already out. They ask me "have you driven the new one?"
 
^^Honda/acura had been in a funk and they want to bring the excitement back by introducing the new nsx when they don't even know exactly how the car will be like. That possibly creates lots of false expectation/speculation and the only way is down from here.
 
My other car is a 1969 Lotus Elan, which Leno loves. He has a fantastic video on his site which shows his two Elans. He discusses, in a lot of knowledgeable detail, the upgrades he made to the Elan he uses as a regular driver. While I disagree with his apparent dismissal of the NSX (which, by the way, I'd never heard about and he's hardly a Ferrarri lover - among his 90+ cars, he doesn't even own one?). Anyway, in the video Leno demonstrates he's no poser - he knows his cars.
 
I wrote this letter to Ito-san after I put my deposit on the new NSX.
Of course I've heard nothing back but my experience dealing with Japanese businessmen in the lumber business is that they pay attention to input from customers.
Perhaps if Ito-san received, say, 50 letters on the new NSX from current owners it might make a difference so I encourage anyone willing to take the time to write.
 

Attachments

  • Letter to Ito CEO of Honda Japan Jan 11 2012.pdf
    51.3 KB · Views: 82
Backcracker! When's the next homecoming? haha.

That would be awesome if they reached out to existing owners, maybe put a large event and hopefully Uehara-San could attend as well. (i would like my future nsx to be signed by him just like my s2000)
 
I wrote this letter to Ito-san after I put my deposit on the new NSX.
Of course I've heard nothing back but my experience dealing with Japanese businessmen in the lumber business is that they pay attention to input from customers.
Perhaps if Ito-san received, say, 50 letters on the new NSX from current owners it might make a difference so I encourage anyone willing to take the time to write.

Jim, your letter reads as if you begrudge Honda ramping up production in 1991, when in fact I would put the blame squarely at Acura North America's door for not forecasting actual demand accurately, plus they gouged the North America market by demanding $30k over MRSP for some early cars - this, plus world market conditions, was what killed demand.
I think that Honda should be congratulated for continuing to invest in the NSX project post 1991, by coming up with the Type R, Type T, C32B engine and Type S, when the returns for doing so were very small. The production numbers are important, sure - '90 2548, '91 8422, '92 1272, and in '93 704, but the bubble in '91 was caused by Acura North America's forecast demand for cars, rather than Honda Japan trying to flood the market. Indeed the sales volumes back this up:
Japan '90 744, '91 3849, '92 702 , '93 528
North America '90 1275, '91 2193 , '92 1245 , '93 715.

Japan actually sold above their forecast demand in 1991, whereas North America just didn't deliver in Sales what the Acura Hype Machine dreamed it would do, for the reasons stated above.

Let's all hope that Acura North America don't over-do the hype for the next generation NSX.
 
Jim, your letter reads as if you begrudge Honda ramping up production in 1991, when in fact I would put the blame squarely at Acura North America's door for not forecasting actual demand accurately, plus they gouged the North America market by demanding $30k over MRSP for some early cars - this, plus world market conditions, was what killed demand.
I think that Honda should be congratulated for continuing to invest in the NSX project post 1991, by coming up with the Type R, Type T, C32B engine and Type S, when the returns for doing so were very small. The production numbers are important, sure - '90 2548, '91 8422, '92 1272, and in '93 704, but the bubble in '91 was caused by Acura North America's forecast demand for cars, rather than Honda Japan trying to flood the market. Indeed the sales volumes back this up:
Japan '90 744, '91 3849, '92 702 , '93 528
North America '90 1275, '91 2193 , '92 1245 , '93 715.

Japan actually sold above their forecast demand in 1991, whereas North America just didn't deliver in Sales what the Acura Hype Machine dreamed it would do, for the reasons stated above.

Let's all hope that Acura North America don't over-do the hype for the next generation NSX.

The CEO of a company carries the overall responsbility for whatever occurs during his tenure at the helm regardless of what any particular part of the company did or did not achieve.
Acura USA is part of Honda and I'm sure they, as well as all other Honda subsidiaries globally, made sales forecasts for the NSX along with all the other models. Some subsidiaries sold their forecast for sure and I agree with you that Honda USA overestimated their market.
Regardless of the US subsidiaries performance, forecasting is difficult in any business and if real sales are falling short of forecast then well managed companies will reduce production to keep from building up unreasonable levels of working capital.
Perhaps the US division did not want to lose face by mssing sales targets and kept orders going to the factory. We'll not know what went on internally but too many NSX's came into North America unsold.

I bought my 91 in Vancouver at the MSRP in effect then and was placed on a wait list which was 6-8 months at the time.
Many early Canadian deliveries at MSRP were being flipped by brokers to the US market where, as you mentioned, cars were being sold at over MSRP by dealers.
When the inital flurry of sales in the US tapered off my waiting time went from 6-8 months to six weeks.
I recall being surprised at the dramatic change in wait times and shortly after I took delivery, reports of unsold NSX inventory in Long beach began to surface
It was clear at that time that supply has outstriped demand. So in the case of our NSX, Honda Corp did produce more cars than the market was able to take whether it was Honda USA or Honda Europe etc.
And certainly whatever exclusivity the NSX might have had in North America was lost at that time

I think the point I wanted to make is that in the market segment the NSX is positioned in, matching supply and demand is much more important
than say the market segment the Civic resides in.
Ferrari, Porsche, etc understand this principal well and do a good job of matching supply and demand and rarely overproduce. This keeps an air of exclusivity around the marques which is essential in a market segment that is totally a discretionary purchase.

I suspect the new car will come out around $135 K in the US and $145 K here in Canada. The last thing I want to see is the new NSX being overproduced again and reducing the value of the car.
By now I would have expected Honda Corp would have contacted current NSX owners globally and given them some acknowlegement or preference in the marketing of the new car. Because they haven't I wonder if they yet understand the NSX market segment

in any event Honda Corp gets a global redo on the new NSX and the message I hope Honda gets is to manage the marketing and supply mangment of the new one better than the old one.
Hopefully they can keep the NSX exclusive, keep a reasonable waitlist, set a price and keep the dealers from gouging, in short, market the car professionally.

Write a letter to Ito-san, it certainly can't hurt

Jim
 
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I get what you are saying now Jim - I hope that Honda have indeed learnt their lesson. I too would prefer a built-to-order car rather than simply one from the docks that meets only some of my requirements - perhaps the fact that the next generation NSX is being built in the USA rather than Japan will make LHD customer-specified just-in-time builds not just possible but the default position.
It will be good to see an online configuration and build option from Acura, so that you can make your NSX unique from day one - if MINI can have 3million* possible combinations for each of their models, surely Honda can do the same for the thousands that they plan to sell.....


* maybe a slight exaggeration, but you know what I'm getting at.
 
Well we wont have an over supply problem down here, i spoke to Honda NZ and the word is 'order only' and no word on when.
 
nice letter!
 
Jim,

As I said, your letter motivated me to write to Takanobu Ito, too. My letter is attached. Thanks for recommending we do this.

Steve

View attachment 91211

Steve

Excellent letter!
I hope other owners will also take the time to write.

Letters from the US customer base will carry a lot more weight than mine from Canada!

Jim
 
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