The Acura RSX was a nifty little coupe, right? With sharp looks, punchy K-series power, and liftback practicality, it’s great at commuting and still provides enough smiles to be worth picking one up in 2025. Well, if you have a saved search set up, you’re going to want to set up some additional filters because the RSX nameplate is returning later this year, and this time it’s attached to an electric coupe crossover. Hey, where’s that booing noise coming from?
Setting the name aside, this electric crossover actually sounds pretty intriguing. Unlike the ZDX, this incoming electric crossover will ride on a Honda-developed platform, be built by Honda in Ohio, and it’s arriving quickly. It’ll actually be the first EV to roll out of this complex, beating the Afeela 1 and Honda 0 Saloon to the punch, yet it’ll run the same sort of software as Honda’s bonkers wedge-shaped sedan. What’s more, it looks remarkably conventional, and establishing normalcy is generally a good thing. However, we need to talk about the name.
Why this, Acura? I understand that the RSX coupe of the 2000s might not be as loved as the Integra, but it’s still a car that’s looked back on fondly. A car with a huge grassroots enthusiast community dedicated to tweaking, tuning, and enjoying them. This is a good thing for brand heritage, but as any car person who’s been online over the past few years will tell you, rebooting nameplates of sport compacts as electric crossovers is already a pejorative meme. It’s an in-joke of some enthusiasts’ contempt for the direction the industry is heading in, and I can already see the angry comments flooding in.
Now, naming an electric crossover after a performance car wasn’t a huge problem for Ford with the Mustang Mach-E because the Mustang has a ton of brand equity, but the Acura RSX just doesn’t hold presence in the public conscious like that. It’s neither an archetype nor a greater mainstream symbol of identity. Most people who remember it are car people, whereas the Mustang is a part of American history. Think of it this way: Pepsi bringing back Crystal Pepsi generated a ton of hype, but the relaunch of Clearly Canadian doesn’t quite enjoy the same recognition.
If not RSX, what else would you call this electric crossover? An RLX? A VDX? An SLX? Screw that. A better naming strategy is right in front of Acura’s nose, and it would establish both similarity to an existing sporty vehicle in the model range and lean on heritage. Right now, the only other fastback product in Acura’s range — the Integra — uses an actual name. Names are great! So long as they’re distinctive enough, they’re usually more memorable than alphanumerics, and Acura’s had some great model names in the past. Since it’s 2025 and the crossover has replaced the sedan as the dominant body style in the luxury market, how about digging up another heritage nameplate with connotations of speed and strength, and calling this crossover the Acura Vigor?
The original Vigor was the predecessor to the TL, which essentially ended up being the predecessor for the TLX. This quirky five-cylinder sedan was a pretty sporty entry in the premium sedan space, leaning on engineering, frameless window hardtop styling, and a more engaging demeanor than the Lexus ES to distinguish itself. Plus, it had a great name, one that deserves a revival someday.
I get it, branding is hard. It’s tough to build recognition for a new name, and leveraging heritage is a fairly common play. However, it’s also something to be done carefully. Will naming an electric crossover the Acura RSX get people talking about it? Absolutely, but not all publicity is good publicity. I guess we’ll just have to see how this goes, shall we?
(Photo credits: Acura, Ford)
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I mean they already shit all over the Integra name, might as well sell out and shit all over the rest of their names. Maybe an minivan named NSX would be a good idea?
The REAL problem is that too many people don’t know the difference between MDX, ZDX, RDX, etc when people do recognize Integra, Legend, Vigor, etc.
Lincoln is giving up on the whole MK naming scheme for the same reason.
Oh good. I wasn’t sure that you would, but it seems I’m projecting boos with enough gusto, that you can hear me across Lake Ontario.
Pretty low to the ground to be called a crossover, eh? Not that an EV needs to worry about being defined legally as a “truck” since no gas in the denominator.
To bad it will start out at $70K or so, ruining the reason to save the environment and to save money on gas.
Yeah it’s basically a car with space under the floor for batteries.
I don’t get the strategy. Anyone who hears RSX and is interested will be bummed to see this is nothing like the original RSX. People who want an EV crossover from Acura won’t care much for what it was called.
Is RSX a “watered down” brand to begin with because real car guys knew it was just a DC5 Integra with a name change for the U.S.? Maybe, but still doesn’t make calling this thing a RSX any less of a head scratcher
I’m wondering if there’s some legal benefit to dragging up names like this – some kind of “it’s already registered so we can just say it changed a whole lot instead of getting a whole new vehicle vetted by the nhtsa” type thing?
I would imagine that Acura still holds the rights to the RSX name that same way that a lot of companies hold on to old nameplates even though they haven’t been made for years. Money probably plays into some of this (ok a lot of this) and I would think trying to get new names trademarked is a rather tedious process. Still a cop out
I’ll argue that the naming convention has had broader issues for the Mach-E. I had a long conversation with a non-car person about a Mach-E that one of our cities recently purchased. They were furious that the city would spend money on a “Mustang”. When I tried to explain that no, it was probably the best EV option they could get for the money, they just couldn’t drop the whole “Mustang” aspect of it.
Should have called it the Crown Victor-E-a for us fleet guys.
I doubt this will turn out to be legendary.
FTFY. If Ford had shipped something like the Bees Forks with a Mustang badge on it, I guarantee you it wouldn’t be selling as well as the Mach-E. If this new RSX is competitive it will sell just fine too. If not, it won’t.
A turd by any other name would smell as vile, to misquote the bard.
Paging the Bishop – get ahead of everyone, start drawing EVERY car as a 3 row electric SUV.
Lol, yesterday’s question on what car models were poorly named, foreshadowing?
The alphabet soup naming does need to stop though, it’s getting tedious. Especially when Honda still uses names in Japan these are called Honda Integras, like do they think Americans don’t like normal names? Where are they plucking these focus groups from? Out of a Mensa meeting in Portland?
I’m surprised they didn’t go with ESX.
How about SEX? I think Elmo may have that trademarked already.
Yeah, I don’t get the why. If they’re going to continue these terrible alpha-numerics, then pick something new since they don’t matter to anyone and nobody remembers them, anyway. Then again, maybe that’s the point, but names are far more memorable than a largely forgotten AN designator used for a completely different kind of vehicle of fairly brief production. As a name, Vigor is closer in spirit than the Integra’s lackluster coupe replacement. But, I also don’t care. I test drove an RSX when they were new and found it entirely underwhelming. I figured that if I was going to be that bored, I might as well be practical, so I went with a Mazda3 hatchback for less.
Us enthusiasts will complain, cause it’s dumb, and regular folks will just never remember which set of letters exactly it’s supposed to be anyway and they’ll either buy it or not based on price and if they think it makes them look like they are doing better than the Joneses.
I can’t wait for the next NSX to be reborn as a rebadged three-row electric crossover coupe with extensive cladding, a new, oversized signature grille, and puddle lights that project a three-second animation on the ground in an infinite loop.
My wife just leased a ZDX and it has puddle lights projecting giant A logos on the ground. As soon as she got home she found my electrical tape and covered up the projector under the mirrors. She was so embarrassed by them.
Wait, they re-launched Clearly Canadian? I need to find some of that, my nostalgia is deeeep.
You can find it around, and it tastes like 40% sweeter. Or maybe my taste buds have aged.
Completely agree. My wife was excited to bring two flavors home when she found them at the store a year or two ago – and I was equally excited to relive our youth. Well, I guess some things are best left to the annals of history. Drop one ‘n’ from annal and you get an idea of how it tasted.
Mountain Blackberry is the same as ever. I buy it by the case for my spouse.
What’s NOT coming back as an electric crossover at this point?
Sigh.
The Prelude, so points to them on that!
Are they just trolling us at this point?
I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. Acura is such a wasteland of a brand