To the Japanese the American Muscle Cars.... are WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! To Them the Muscle Car is the most Exotic car.
The NSX was designed at the Tokyo Design Center under Toshinoba Minami(Ext.) and Yoshinori Asahi(Int.) drawing design clues from the American Muscle Car(NA American Market was planned to be it's main market).
Autonews.com story on June 11, 2012
Then it was passed over to the LA Design Center to finish and make more Acura like.
100% fact in which herein lies the inherent problem. It was Minami's originally penning that caused this irreparable predicament that lost a lot of existing US marketshare. What Minami thought would be gold is not revered in the USA like it is there. A proper designer would not have designed to what he or she likes or gets excited about (that's an artist), but rather designed to
what sells for the targeted demographic plain and simple. After spending many summers in Japan I can attest to this phenomenon that 40-55 year olds there grew up being obsessed with American culture...that was our hay day to them-Levi's, Elvis, Harley's, Michael Jackson, Cindy Crawford, McDonald's, Brooke Shields, etc. But the sobering reality is this...if Americans want American muscle, guess what Acura, they will buy an American-made muscle car...not a Japanese car (or any other foreign built) that gets its inspiration/influence from American muscle cars.
To contrast, the simple brilliance of what Okuyama did with the first gen was take his inspirational lines from what was highly coveted back then, but unobtainable to many (the Italians machines). It was akin to Prometheus stealing fire from the gods and giving it to mere mortals. Minami did the opposite, he took fire we already had and tried to repackage it, and so far it hasn't worked (c'est la vie 3 units).
Um...then how come Michelle Christensen is officially credited with the NSX 2.0 design in all the Honda marketing materials and PR outreach...?
That is all it really is...just PR to go in tandem with more PR-like jargon i.e. being eco-green, affordable luxury, yada-yada. I think they thought Michelle would be a good fit because the story goes "she grew up in her father's garage and developed a love for classic American muscle" so the decision-makers at large probably felt confident she would carry the torch from the fire Minami had started [
LINK] to fruition. And she did exactly what she was supposed to do to give credit where credit is due. And sales today are not a result of her doing imo, nor marketing entirely for that matter either, instead it boils down to the fact that you just can't fix a flawed concept: a design intended to express American muscle reproduced, as interpreted w/Japanese taste (vs just simply expressing its Gen 1 predecessor) no matter how hard you try. If Minami's concept was right, this car should at least be flying off the shelves in Japan...but it's not...because to them it is not authentic American. So a double-shot to the foot.
As their Global Creative Director at Honda/Honda's Executive Designer/Global Exterior Design Leader to name a few titles, who was entirely responsible for a look that would sell, it was on him to fully grasp how the brand game has played out in the states, and to have realized that Americans in todays market are still very interested in "affordable Italian"...not repackaged American nor overt deviation from its predecessor en masse. You might also find it interesting to know that it was him who insisted on keeping the beak on their lineup during those years where they lost traction.
You don't see similarities to this?
I see it gobble, for me it centers around one distinct feature of the cars' face—in addition to the thin, slit headlights they both have, they share a particular feature that defines a vehicle style category–hung headlights (
discussed here) i.e. giving the appearance that the hood line is above the headlights (typical American muscle car). Which is archetypically
not how traditional exotics (lambo, ferrari, lotus, porsche, etc.) are done (wedge-shaped w/headlights above the hood line). But hey, given what Mogami posted above about wanting to reproduce American Muscle, how could we have expected anything else? For me personally, the hybrid does not steer me away, nor does the price (w/incentives), it simply boils down to looks and without homage to the original (which paid homage to the Italians), and instead Minami's concept paying homage to American muscle just doesn't work for me; so I don't find myself having any intention of getting one unfortunately as much as I wanted to add another NSX to my garage.
As an aside while reading this thread, it should be mentioned that there is a very distinct difference between
assessing the car itself vs.
assessing the bigger picture which is the Acura brand and their entire business model. On one hand the NSX is a truly unique and phenomenal car that offers an unbeatable value proposition at an unbeatable price (w/the incentives) without question. All those that acquired one and love them are a very select, fortunate group. But they are on the outskirts of the bell curve and in
no way reflective of the market for this category of vehicle (c'est la vie 3 units). For anyone that owns one and loves it, that is an entirely separate matter which consequently does not make the car (which is after all a product of a business model) immune to any outside criticism. I for one
want to see Acura succeed, by not only dominating in mid-luxury SUV's, but I would also like to see them be more desirable than Lexus and Infinity in the sedans category. And ultimately, I would just love to see them be the most desirable Japanese supercar, and it's no newsflash that presently they are not.
Acura is not winning a lot of battles right now nor winning the mid-luxury class wars below the Beamers and above the Avalons (however they are waging war with SUV sales). Their stubbornness around a decade ago of not listening to public feedback regarding the look (in particular the beak grill) cost them billions and resulted in losing major ground in this niche category they used to be doing much better in. They will have to claw aggressively to get back the lost years and the new grill (which consequently is inspired after King Abdullah's Financial District Metro Station located in Riyadi, Saudi Arabia) is their latest attempt to rebrand and gain marketshare. Well, we shall see...
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