Finally, some focus on Acura

Last month Acura's sales in Canada nearly doubled year-over-year (78.9 per cent to be exact), signalling that perhaps Honda's luxury brand will no longer be left to struggle – that Acura pricing and its product lineup are top of mind among Honda's most senior managers.

Yes, Acura's sales on the year are still down 13.4 per cent. Other premium brands have not been suffering so much.

BMW Canada's sales are up 5.7 per cent on the year, Audi is up 22.2 per cent, Lexus is up 2.6 per cent and Mercedes-Benz is up 18.9 per cent.

Honda Canada executive vice-president Jerry Chenkin says Acura's MDX was hot last month, leading Acura's sales gains. Discounting to the tune of thousands of dollars will do that.

But in the long term, Honda needs either to get serious about Acura, to give it the resources and products to compete in the premium segment, or suffer the consequences – weak sales and declining market share.

It appears the plan is to get serious, but over time rather than immediately.

The upcoming 2010 ZDX crossover utility, when it hits showrooms in December, will give the brand a boost. It's gorgeous, drives well and will have a pricing advantage over rivals such as the BMW X6. Look for the ZDX to come in at about $55,000.

Still, Acura has yet to demonstrate what it will do in the long term, now that the brand is shifting from high-performance luxury vehicles to... Well, to what?

We do know what Acura will not be. With the cancellation of its V-8 and rear-wheel-drive programs, Acura won't be a V-8 and rear-drive brand. That suggests an unwillingness to compete against German luxury brands on current terms.

Takanobu Ito, Honda's new CEO, recently told Automotive News that Acura's “premium products will be expressed in advanced environmental technologies...I see the future of Acura as a merger of BMW and Audi -- something between high technology and high performance."

While Acura develops new models, sales will be stagnant – no growth, says Ito.

"We were thinking that we could come up with glamorous, gorgeous products that would sell. Now, our premium products will be expressed in advanced environmental technologies, rather than glamorous things attached to the product," he said.

Acura dealers cannot be happy out this. Reports say 18 months ago, Acura dealers were promised up to five additional products. That promise now is in doubt. Instead, Acura re-examining everything, working to figure out if its stands for performance, efficiency, luxury, technology or some combination of all four.

What we know for certain that beyond the ZDX, the next new Acura model is a wagon version of the TSX -- a reskinned European Honda Accord wagon due next fall as the 2011 Acura TSX SportWagon.

That's the official line. I am led to believe we'll see more from Acura before the SportWagon hits showrooms. Acura just isn't giving details – yet.