A lot can be said for Acura and their continuous way of being ahead of the curve with the cars they release. They’ve come along way from the days of the Vigor, Legend, and others of past. Since I began my relationship with Acura almost a year ago today, I’ve had the chance to really experience all their cars first hand. My favorite, which I’ve attested many times, being the Acura ZDX. Expect a write-up of this crossover next week, I’ve been driving the 2013 tech-edition for the last few days.

This year Acura is doing something exciting and different. They have released the ILX sedan, billed as a “Luxury compact sedan rich with features and amenities. Its bold appearance, wealth of technologies and sophisticated interior styling make the ILX one of the most refined rides of any vehicle in its class”. Essentially, they’ve scaled down their efforts and made a car that, looks-wise, battles its cousin the Honda Civic, but has a bit more bang for the buck in terms of inclusions.

Read on to find out my thoughts on it.

Experience

You really don’t expect to see all the bells and whistles that are included in this car. As you can see right from the steering wheel, Acura didn’t cheap out on the technologies. The Bluetooth, like in its brother and sister cars, is a breeze; it’s simple, easy, clear, concise, and stable. Once connected, the controls are all at your finger tips and Acura has refined their voice commands to make it even easier to communicate with grace. My favorite feature of the ILX is the inclusion of text responses, which reads incoming texts over the audio system and lets you respond with one of 6 preset replies. This is made easier by being able to respond from steering wheel-mounted controls.

Performance

Packing a 2.0-Litre, 4-Cylinder, 201 horsepower engine, the car moves. The inclusion of the F1-inspired paddles behind the steering wheel make changing gears on the highway, or street, a more enjoyable experience. How does that engine translate to the handling? The MacPherson strut front suspension enhances everything, while the Amplitude Reactive Damper reads driver input and road conditions to adjust and conform for each drivers needs.

Styling and Impressions

Acura knows how to market to my demographic. Pricing the ILX under 30k makes my inquisitive eyes pay attention, while the unique look, feel, layout and design keep me intrigued to the point of a test drive; exactly the angle Acura is going for. They successfully took the popular console layout of the TSX, TL and RL and scaled it down into a more affordable package.

Truth be told, since driving it, I’ve been to the Acura dealership twice to take it on test drives… I loved it that much. Learn more about the 2013 Acura ILX and all its features and inclusions here

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