Honda's Accavitti leaves top post at Acura

mikeavelli

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If you haven't been paying attention, the new Honda CEO barely made any mention of Acura during his long introduction speech to the press. Accavitti internally has asked for the proper resources to make Acura a real luxury brand. It sounds like he was told no by the CEO which means more of the same. So he abruptly left.

The new head, Ikea, did design the 3rd gen TL, maybe their most popular design. Contrarily he also designed the 4th gen TL and brought the beak to Acura.


Honda's Accavitti leaves top post at Acura
Former designer Ikeda to lead luxury brand in U.S.


AR-150729892.jpg&q=80&MaxW=300&cci_ts=20150727183555

Accavitti, 56, joined American Honda as its chief marketing officer in 2011 before being promoted to his latest role at Acura in April 2014.

Photo credit: BLOOMBERG
David Undercoffler
Automotive News
July 27, 2015 - 5:45 pm ET -- UPDATED: 7/27/15 6:18 pm ET - adds details
LOS ANGELES -- Mike Accavitti, vice president and general manager of Acura, has abruptly left the company and has been replaced by Jon Ikeda, American Honda Motor Co. said Monday.

Ikeda was formerly division director of auto design at Honda’s R&D Americas division and has been with Honda since 1989.

Accavitti, 56, joined American Honda as its chief marketing officer in 2011 before being promoted to his latest role at Acura in April 2014. Acura gave no reason for Accavitti’s departure.

“Jon Ikeda brings tremendous knowledge and talent to Acura," John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda, said in a statement. "From deep r&d experience with the brand, he has emerged as the ultimate advocate for Acura and has built a record of solid achievement and success.”

5.jpg&q=80&MaxW=300&cci_ts=20150727183555

Ikeda, with the Acura ZDX hatchback.

The change in leadership at Acura comes as the brand's U.S. sales have advanced 12 percent so far in 2015, outpacing the market's overall gains. Acura has surpassed Cadillac in U.S. sales this year but still largely trails luxury leaders BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus in volume.

The brand has also bucked an industry-wide trend of declining U.S. car demand over the first six months of 2015, with a 28 percent rise in sedan volume through June.

Ikeda, a graduate of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif, led the design team on the 2004 Acura TL, and played a key role in the 2007 creation of a design studio for Acura, one separate from Honda’s on its Torrance, Calif., campus.

Prior to joining Honda, Accavitti was a consultant for Cisco Systems and earlier worked for Chrysler for more than 20 years. Sergio Marchionne named Accavitti CEO of Dodge in 2009, but Accavitti resigned just four months later.
 

mmcartalk

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The new head, Ikea, did design the 3rd gen TL, maybe their most popular design. Contrarily he also designed the 4th gen TL and brought the beak to Acura.

I'd love to know whose idea it was for the beak on this Acura concept LOL...........

Acura_Advanced_Sedan_Concept.jpg


This one alone, IMO, was bad enough...........

6a00d83451b3c669e20147e1248835970b-800wi



Somebody tell me how he can stand in front of the ZDX with a smile on his face.........:rolleyes:


5.jpg&q=80&MaxW=300&cci_ts=20150727183555

Ikeda, with the Acura ZDX hatchback.

Prior to joining Honda, Accavitti was a consultant for Cisco Systems and earlier worked for Chrysler for more than 20 years. Sergio Marchionne named Accavitti CEO of Dodge in 2009, but Accavitti resigned just four months later.

Granted, Dodges, even with recent improvements, are generally not the most solidly-built cars in the industry......certainly not as well-built or reliable as Acuras. But, given the noted success of both the Charger and Challenger (both rank very high in the Consumer Reports' customer-satisfaction poll), I wonder if Accavitti ever had second thoughts about leaving that job as Dodge's CEO. His stay at Acura didn't seem to accomplish much, though that's not necessarily his fault....a number of different factors were involved.
 
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CIF

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I'm not surprised at all. You hit the nail on the head mmcartalk, this is just more of the same from Honda and Acura.
 

mmcartalk

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I'm not surprised at all. You hit the nail on the head mmcartalk, this is just more of the same from Honda and Acura.

They at least had enough sense to drop the ZDX. It's a shame that they wasted the corporate money and resources they did on its development (Pontiac made the same mistake with the Aztek).....that, IMO, could have gone into more sensible designs.
 

IS-SV

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At this stage it's not so much about what they drop, I think it's more about how they can be brave with styling and exhibit some good taste too. Hopefully Ikeda can make a difference earlier during his honeymoon period.
 

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At this stage it's not so much about what they drop, I think it's more about how they can be brave with styling and exhibit some good taste too. Hopefully Ikeda can make a difference earlier during his honeymoon period.


The ZDX, though, was unfit for adults in the back. Not only me, but LexFather (who's a couple inches taller than I am) also had a lot of trouble getting in and out in back. Acura marketed it to adults, and did only half a job. It was not meant to be a 2+2, but that's what it turned out to be. The market just didn't buy it. But, Hey, it wouldn't be the first time that an auto company made a mistake. I've seen plenty of them over the years....some of them worse than the ZDX.
 
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IS-SV

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The ZDX, though, was unfit for adults in the back. Not only me, but LexFather (who's a couple inches taller than I am) also had a lot of trouble getting in and out in back. Acura marketed it to adults, and did only half a job. It was not meant to be a 2+2, but that's what it turned out to be. The market just didn't buy it. But, Hey, it wouldn't be the first time that an auto company made a mistake. I've seen plenty of them over the years....some of them worse than the ZDX.

Yes, dropping failed ZDX was the easy decision.

Ikeda needs to show us what he's got, that's going to be much more challenging then killing off something as obvious as ZDX. Proof of his leadership skills TBD.
 

mmcartalk

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Yes, dropping failed ZDX was the easy decision.

Ikeda needs to show us what he's got, that's going to be much more challenging then killing off something as obvious as ZDX. Proof of his leadership skills TBD.


I still think it was odd of him to be standing in front of one with a smile on his face (see the image above). Anyone, IMO, who can come up with a good reason why should get an instant 20 trophy-points LOL. :D
 
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IS-SV

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I still think it was odd of him to be standing in front of one with a smile on his face (see the image above). Anyone, IMO, who can come up with a good reason why should get an instant 20 trophy-points LOL. :D

Agreed, I'll bet he wishes that pic didn't exist.:eek: He's thinking make it go away....

Btw - Just how old is that pic? (Or what was date of pic?)
 

mmcartalk

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Agreed, I'll bet he wishes that pic didn't exist.:eek: He's thinking make it go away....

Btw - Just how old is that pic? (Or what was date of pic?)

Actually, Steve, you might (?) have hit on something just by asking that question. I'm not sure about the picture-date, but the date of the background article itself is only about a week old (July 27). It does mention, however, that he joined Honda in 2011 and was promoted to Acura in 2014. Given that the ZDX was in production from 2009 to 2013, it's very possible that the shot of him in front of one, with a smile (though he was still at Honda), was taken before it was known that the ZDX would be such a catastrophic failure in the market place. There's probably no way to prove that, of course, without asking him directly, but it's an interesting possibility.
 

IS-SV

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Given that the ZDX was in production from 2009 to 2013, it's very possible that the shot of him in front of one, with a smile (though he was still at Honda), was taken before it was known that the ZDX would be such a catastrophic failure in the market place.

Whats wrong with these Acura people..... It would take the average car enthusiast about 10 minutes walking around and looking around inside to predict a sales failure with confidence. Maybe they were comforting each other with knowledge that ZDX was outselling RL. I laughed every time I saw ZDX wasting floor space at car shows.
 

mmcartalk

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Whats wrong with these Acura people..... It would take the average car enthusiast about 10 minutes walking around and looking around inside to predict a sales failure with confidence. Maybe they were comforting each other with knowledge that ZDX was outselling RL. I laughed every time I saw ZDX wasting floor space at car shows.


I'd say the average car-saavy person would need a lot less time than that. I didn't need much more than about a minute...especially trying to duck my head and frame under the rear-roofline.

Having said that, though, the failure was mostly in the design and styling. The ZDX's build-quality, from what I could tell, was just as solid as any other Honda/Acura product, so, at least, those who could (and did) put up with the styling probably got a reliable vehicle.
 

IS-SV

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I'd say the average car-saavy person would need a lot less time than that. I didn't need much more than about a minute...especially trying to duck my head and frame under the rear-roofline.

Having said that, though, the failure was mostly in the design and styling. The ZDX's build-quality, from what I could tell, was just as solid as any other Honda/Acura product, so, at least, those who could (and did) put up with the styling probably got a reliable vehicle.

What's topic here, hopefully not failures. Far too much time discussing that dud.

MDX and RDX seem to be in Acura's sweet spot currently.
 

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Has anyone seen Acura's website lately and some of their slogans?

RDX - Drive like a Boss!
ILX - Catch it if you can!

Its like they found these slogans in a supermarket coupon booklet for nearly expired dairy products. Seriously Acura?
 
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mikeavelli

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Has anyone seen Acura's website lately and some of their slogans?

RDX - Drive like a Boss!
ILX - Catch it if you can!

Its like they found these slogans in a supermarket coupon booklet for nearly expired dairy products. Seriously Acura?

TLX "Its a Thrill"

Talk about false advertising for them all lol... Nice cars but really?
 
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IS-SV

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Recent ad with something like "That's the ivtech you're feeling", like variable valve timing is something new. Why have Acura ads recently worsened?... It's bad enough that we are subjected to poorly written automotive ads by Buick, Chevy, Ford, Lincoln, VW frequently, now we can add Acura to that list.
 

mmcartalk

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Recent ad with something like "That's the ivtech you're feeling", like variable valve timing is something new. Why have Acura ads recently worsened?... It's bad enough that we are subjected to poorly written automotive ads by Buick, Chevy, Ford, Lincoln, VW frequently, now we can add Acura to that list.

Unfortunately, there aren't many auto-manufacturer (or dealer) ads that IMO are not an insult to one's intelligence in one form or another. My "Mute" button gets a good workout with those, and other, ads.

There are some exceptions, though, and a number of them were posted in the thread we had earlier in this forum on classic car-ads.
 

CIF

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Has anyone seen Acura's website lately and some of their slogans?

RDX - Drive like a Boss!
ILX - Catch it if you can!

Its like they found these slogans in a supermarket coupon booklet for nearly expired dairy products. Seriously Acura?

LOL, they also sound like slogans created by a marketing team comprised of young, likely inexperienced personnel out of touch with the luxury market.

Recent ad with something like "That's the ivtech you're feeling", like variable valve timing is something new. Why have Acura ads recently worsened?... It's bad enough that we are subjected to poorly written automotive ads by Buick, Chevy, Ford, Lincoln, VW frequently, now we can add Acura to that list.

Acura's ads IMHO have been bad for years. To me they've been "on the list" long ago. Also IMHO, some of the other brands you mentioned have far more acceptable advertising than Acura.