Acura RSX gives young buyers what they want

Since the sport compact car movement took shape more than a decade back, Honda has been at the center of the culture. The Honda Civic Si, and its upscale mate, the Acura Integra, were instant favorites among Generation Y car enthusiasts who wanted affordable performance in a package that didn't look like what their parents drove.

According to the Specialty Equipment Market Association's Compact Performance Market Report (2001), Acura and Honda products account for nearly half of the cars in the sport compact segment. The Acura RSX and high performance RSX Type-S, introduced last July, play off the strengths of the Integra they replaced, while delivering on a higher level of sophistication and luxury.

When the college kid who drives a Si settles into the job market and goes car shopping, he might well trade up to the RSX Type-S.

Demographics for both the RSX and the Type-S are skewed toward young, college-educated males, with high household incomes. Seventy-seven percent of Type S buyers are male, with annual income in the mid-$70,000s, and a median age of 31.

Close to 60 percent of the buyers are single, which gives them both the flexibility of lifestyle and discretionary income to modify their cars for pleasure or racing. Realizing this, Acura introduced a host of bolt-on accessories when the RSX launched, including body and wing spoilers, alloy wheels, shift knobs and interior trim pieces. All of these parts can be financed with the car if they are installed at the time of purchase, and all are covered by the Acura warranty.

Aftermarket manufacturers have been quick to follow, with everything from custom wheels to suspension and engine modifications.

"From a supplier point of view, the RSX has a lot of potential," said Bill Neumann at last July's new model launch. Neuman is CEO of Neuspeed, which manufactures suspension, performance and appearance products. "The suspension layout is very clean and will make it easy to engineer and apply new items."

A year later, aftermarket companies are more enthusiastic than ever.

"Our company has made a substantial investment in research and development of parts for the RSX, because of its potential,'' said Tom Myroniak, director of communications for HKS, a manufacturer of high performance engine, suspension and exhaust components.

"At the same time, our parent company in Japan is developing products for the Type-S. ... As we built and tested our products on the RSX, we took the cars to various events ... and some races. The consumer feedback at those events was very favorable, and the e-mail on our Internet sites has been overwhelming."

Myroniak added that this surge in demand for aftermarket parts so early in a model cycle is very unusual.

"Typically, the aftermarket surge doesn't occur until the first wave of vehicles come off lease. The used cars are more affordable to the young enthusiasts who modify their cars. The pacing of demand for RSX and RSX Type-S parts has been above what we would expect in a new model introduction year."

While many RSX and RSX Type-S buyers won't customize or race their cars, Acura believes that designing the car with the enthusiast in mind has been essential to reaching this market. When Acura researched the car before production, existing Acura owners and owners of competitive products focused on the theme of a driver-oriented sports coupe. Feedback from both surveys and focus groups was consistent regarding performance.

"The U.S. is the primary market for this car in terms of sales,'' said William Walton, product planner for Acura. "We didn't develop the RSX and Type-S with the tuner market in mind. ... However, our research told us that with this group of intenders, the performance and packaging of the car have to be in place."

Acura predicted sales of about 30,000 vehicles per year at the time of the RSX launch. Sales from July- December of 2001 were 16,401, with 13,195 units selling between January and the end of May 2002.

As Acura's vehicle portfolio expands to include a greater diversity of models, the company is attracting more buyers across the model line-up. Better sales numbers for its luxury sedans and SUV mean that Acura no longer has to rely on its entry luxury sports coupe for a high percentage of sales.

"Because sales can be less heavily biased towards RSX than its predecessor, the Integra, engineers had the freedom to fine-tune the car, and deliver more specifically what buyers in this segment are looking for," Walton said.

According to Acura, sales are over the target to date, with the Type-S comprising a surprising 43 percent of RSX sales. It seems that Acura's investment in its enthusiast heritage is paying back handsomely.

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