I agree with you that Lexus is blowing Acura out the water. I have no issues with that. I am not a diehard Acura/Honda fan. Infact I would have brought it up in the discusion, but I feel that Lexus is also reaching that point where they are becoming overatted. The IS350 is nice car, but it isn't what everyone makes it out to be. They are holding their own with the LFA designs though, so hopefully their future vehicles will get more influence from it.
Many people who test drove the HSC prototype speculated that it had 350 hp. That is ample hp for a 3000 car, the NSX-R did awesome with under 300. I'd would rather take a 350 hp MR than a 500 hp long nose FR. The V-6 still has room for modding and more hp, where the V-10, well I don't see anyone getting much more power out of it.
Anyways, what does market direction have to do with design? They are totally two different areas. Everyone hates the fact that the AASCC is FR and liked that HSC and NSX were MR. If the AASCC was MR, and had similar design style, I gurantee not many people would complain. The whole long nose, bloated look of a V-10 FR layout is not very appealing to many people as a MR layout, esp when you had a MR orginal that was damn good. They are trying to synthesize a S2000 + NSX and that is a bad direction.
The LFA looks good because it is hard to tell whether it is a FR or MR layout, even though it will be a FR layout. Don't get it twisted either, the proportions of the LFA could be more exotic still, as it is looking a wee bit too tall. It's not a design issue for the NSX sucessor right now, but a marketing and most likely a engineering issue. They are probably having issues getting the SH-AWD to work on a MR platform and it is probably more economical to make a FR V-10(sound ridiculous right there, but OK). The AASCC would not look bad if it was a S2000 sucessor with design cues from the S2000. Then people would look at the AASCC would look at it differently.
So don't get design, engineering, and marketing mixed up. If they had their market choice right or rather, they were going for the market that current NSX owners are in, then they would have delivered a nice NSX sucessor, but apparently Acura is not headed that direction anymore. They want to compete with the LFA and GTR on the same platform evidently. Bad mistake in my opinion, which is why they are probably rethinking their plan and hopefully go back to the MR layout.
So you need to think before you post. Marketing, Design, and Engineering. Realize the differences between them. The automobile and all other mass produced product are composed of this trinity. If one fails, mostlikely the vehicle will fail, in a industry POV. O the RL sales were flat? The NSX didn't sell like Acura wanted to? That's nice. I for one could care less for great sales, I welcome it. I am a customer. As long I have what I want, I could care less if the company sells millions of this car, infact I want to have modest sales since the value would be a lot better when it's rarer. In today's world, it seems like it all about money and so the engineering and design department tends to be overrided a bit, which is not a great thing.
The corvette has the market and engineering, but it lacks design, the inbetween of engineering and marketing, the human factor, the sophistication, the passion or emotion. In fact, MOST (not all) American design lack this, but it seems that they may be catching up after a long hiatus, (and with that I agree that the c5 to c6 interior made a decent leap, but still lacking compared to the rest of the industry, esp for pricepoint). Nontheless brand identity has been established, and it would be a rut for many American brands to despell.
