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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Acura and Lincoln have used all possible three letter combinations for their cars so they’re having to repeat ones now.
Big Beautiful Wagon is still available.
You are welcome..
“What’s more, it looks remarkably conventional, and establishing normalcy is generally a good thing.”
That rear sale quarter pic looks as “remarkably conventional” as if the hot, athletic original RSX teenager we remember from the ’90s had aged into a pudgy, middle aged soccer mom exploding out of her now too-small spandex tights, a scenario which sadly has been established as the new normalcy of the 21st century.
I did not expect to see a Crystal Pepsi reference today. Also, I remember it being a flop both times.
Ah, that green Vigor. yumm…… Remember when Acuras looked good??
Crazy how the zdx is literally a gm and now the “rsx” is spiritually lifting from ford
An updated Mach-E from Honda!
That’s what I saw first as well.
I see a Volvo C40
At some point there needs to be a lower limit on the prestige/nostalgia of a name that we’re allowed to get mad over when it’s recycled into a crossover.
Mustang -Not OK
Eclipse – Not OK
RSX – Not OK?
Blazer – OK
Eh, I feel you can draw a fuzzy line at or near the Eclipse (really only the Fast and Furious generation that has strong feelings on it), and everything else short of the Mustang is fine. The RSX AFAIK isn’t even a particularly sacred cow in the tuning scene, and outside of that no one knows or cares. I’m totally fine with this rebrand, and I suspect most of the buying public will be as well.
I don’t mind any of them personally, even the Mustang.
Getting nostalgic over a name is pretty silly.
Oh the nostalgia is silly for sure. The problem with the Mustang is it refers to two very different vehicles that are currently manufactured by Ford. I’ve already had an instance where my brother told a friend to grab something out of his Mustang, and said friend spent 15 minutes wandering the parking lot looking for a blobby crossover (of which there were several, but none that opened to the key fob) when he should have been looking for the only two door sports coupe around. Indistinct nomenclature, especially when driven by marketing dept. hacks, should be punished.
I don’t know, if a commuter appliance trading on undeserved performance associations isn’t the core of the Mustang brand, I don’t know what is.
….Wow. This is honestly the best argument for the “Mach-E shouldn’t have the Mustang name” I’ve heard so far, since I’ve been pretty indifferent til now.
My ’90 Blazer was such as POS. GM can sell a line of pre-owned porta-johns under that name and it’d still be an improvement.
I mean they never should have renamed the Integra to RSX in the first place, so now that the Integra is back whatever.
Since this a crossover, perhaps Acura should cross over to another commercial area for the name search. I suggest candy bars. Acura Chunky has a nice ring to it.
I owned an RSX for a few years. I think it was an RSX. Wait, maybe it was a TSX? Or a TL? Definitely not an RL. Anyway, good times…
Seriously, though, the 1992 Legend I owned was an absolute legend (until it overheated on a road trip and warped the heads). I’d seriously consider a Legend EV if it didn’t look like every other EV sedan/crossover out there.
I’m ready for griping of epic proportions because of the name they chose for this thing. It’s all just marketing, though – if they named it something else it probably wouldn’t have even registered on most people’s radars. I do have to say that I am a little surprised they didn’t use the RSX name for a Prelude/Civic-based sports coupe, and I’m also a little surprised that Acura has a full ground-up EV before they have a hybrid RDX.
It’s still not on anyone’s radar. Some clueless dope will wander onto the lot and get talked into whatever is there. That’s your buyer.
You can’t say ‘no one’ because I’m sure there is at least one, but effectively no one that had a positive experience with an Integra or RSX is going to think this has anything to do with those.
I don’t think they care, quite honestly. Where I feel a lot of car people get it wrong is in assuming that automakers are using sports car nameplates on crossovers in an attempt to fool people or somehow revive a dead model. Nobody who knew/loved the RSX will think this is a revived version of that nameplate, and nobody who’s seriously interested in this probably knows or cares what the RSX used to be. At the end of the day it’s just a name. As long as it’s a decent car that’s all that matters.
So why make it harder to find what you want when searching? There are a lot of letters out there, could have easily just named it something else and made future buyers not try to figure out why there are these funny looking hatchbacks in with their toasters.
The relaunch of Clearly Canadian? I got the bottles home and my wife, blinded by nostalgia, was like “Glass bottles are you kidding me?!” and I actually returned them to the store because they cost a fortune.
She’s never heard of an RSX because she’s not a male car enthusiast between the ages of 37 and 51.
Hey! I’m only pushing 30
Therefore you are cool.
That’s why I’m complaining about acura EV crossovers on the shitter
Hey now. I’m 48 year old male car enthusiast and I had to google the RSX to remember what it was. I really don’t think it had much of an impact.
So they have the new Prelude just sitting there, and they could have so easily slapped a Acura badge on it and called it the RSX. And they do this?
Imagine the new Prelude with the TLX Type-S drivetrain. How cool would that have been?!?
Instead, if Acura gets a version of the Prelude, they’ll name it something like the CRP… and tell us it’s not short for ‘crap’, but stands for ‘Coupe Racing Performance’ or some nonsense like that.
I’m holding out for an Acura-branded Prelude called the CL (call it a 1.5CL for full nostalgia! Or 2.0CL! Put the K20C4 with 250hp from the Accord with the hybrid system!) but hope, while springing eternal, is getting less springy these days.
More with Matt here. The upside I guess to alphanumerics is that they don’t hold as much weight as a regular name. Even though the RSX was good, the Integra name still carried more weight. In theory this should actually have some sporting intentions, whereas the Eclipse Cross was more like an attempt to drum up some PR, good or bad, for an otherwise adequate rental car (otherwise why not Lancer Cross or something).
Using Vigor would be worse than just coming up with some new name. The name itself would be fine in a vacuum, but for an Acura it would be damned before it even launched because the few that remember it wouldn’t have connotations of speed and strength but just being weird, cramped, and overpriced and that would be in every review. (OK, if that’s how this turns out then maybe it would be a perfect name actually.)
Even Passport was a bit of a risk since half the people remember it as an Isuzu and not a real Honda. But Honda is weird lately with historical names, like when they swapped a tuned 2.0T/SH-AWD drivetrain into the Trooper-based SLX and were like “our first SUV :)”
I would expect a car with the model name “Vigor” to be sold by someone dressed as a late 19th-century patent medicine salesman standing atop a Conestoga wagon.
“Hello weary traveler! Have you updated your requisite app to replenish your electric horse carriage?”
Or the modern version selling Bluechew.
RSX-Y naming convention…
Turbo High Output.
RSX-Y-THO
There is nothing about this vehicles appearance or name that stirs any emotion greater than a firm Meh. I have a hearty apathy for both. The RSX nameplate wasn’t one that gained importance to me. It was always just the silly 3 letter designation they tried to replace Integra with.
Did they really have to recycle the acronym RSX, when they could just throw any random combination of 3 letters together with an X, and it could sound like every other generic Acura nameplate.
I suggest SUX for this generic little addition to their painfully boring fleet of offerings.
I’d buy that for a dollar!
You can tell they already know this thing is going to be DOA since they won’t even release a picture of it from the front or any of the numbers. This is a product that might’ve been interesting in 2020, but in 2025 just add it to the pile of infinite blobby coupe-fied electric crossovers. I’m sure it’ll cost $60,000 like all the other ones too.
Literally no one wants this shit. I suppose they must’ve gotten far enough in developing this that they basically had to finish it to try to recoup some of their money, but they’ll be lucky to sell tens of them. There are already approximately 500 different versions of this car on the market and the only way manufacturers can sell them is by offering ridiculous leases…and those lease subsidies are as good as gone within the next couple of weeks.
Also why add this when you already have the ZDX? Does Acura really need TWO weird looking BEV crossovers that’ll sit on lots for years? Why not use these battery resources to make a goddamn hybrid that people will actually buy? I’d consider buying an Integra or ADX hybrid for my next car, especially with how great Honda’s current gen hybrid powertrain seems to be. I would not consider buying a blobby EV. It would be less trouble to just withdraw money from my account and set it in fire Joker style and give me the same end result.
The problem is that literally everyone in the industry wants to dish out this exact same shit, but the fact the EV market is still growing despite the fact this one segment is supersaturated with huge potential ones under- or unserved and the huge amount of column-inches and airtime devoted to wishcasting the end of electric, means that somebody does.
Something like 3/4s of EVs are leased. People want them because they’re artificially cheap at the moment. Your cheapest way into a new car right now is to lease an EV. This more or less nullifies one of their biggest issues-that they’re too damn expensive.
That advantage is almost assuredly going to eliminated by the incoming administration because EVs are red meat for the culture warriors. If they still sell without the lease subsidies then I may reconsider what I’m saying, but right now I see a bubble that’s propped up artificially.
Yuuup. I have a friend who got rid of his car and got a model 3 because his work reimbursement for a BEV is double that of an ICE vehicle. He is quite literally getting a free car. Did he want a tesla? God no. But for free? Well, who would say no to a free car?
The name will play and help client retention. You would not believe how many clients had to tell me how they or their brothers sisters mothers cousins neighbor had one and they loved it. People don’t like change and nostalgia plays a big part. I have a feeling that the ZDX will sunset right around the same time we get this on the lot. You are absolutely bang on about leasing an EV. I personally leased a ZDX because financially, I could not afford to turn the deal down. If anyone is in the market for an EV, take a look at those because the value vs. cost proposition on them is unbeatable.
Honestly they look good too. Out of all the EV crossover experiments out there I think Acura’s design language transferred quite well, especially considering it’s not even their vehicle underneath.
We just leased one as well. We were not planning on getting a new car now but the lease deal was too good for the amount of car you get.
Good move! I just did it as based on saving money compared to my F-150 but I like it way more than I thought I would.
Yes overall it’s been great. I just wish the app would work lol.
I just found out my utility provider offers an extra 4 cents off per KW used between midnight and 8 AM if you have an EV. Look in that that if you haven’t already and set your charge schedule.
The app is awful. My clients have not been happy with it, it works about half the time. I am told they are working on it but who knows… I get to charge it at work with our fast chargers but I will keep that in mind when I get around to installing my home charger.
Small world, you’re my sales guy. We have the ZDX that was in the accident. Snow tires are on, just waiting for some fresh powder to test them out.
Is this/should this just be a ZDX gen 3? Is the current gen 2 still too new to kill off?
“You can tell they already know this thing is going to be DOA”
Acura’s marketing people whose first language is NOT English:
“Acura DOA… that sounds like a great name!!!”
Why won’t they name it the Sport Electric Xrossover?
Elon is that you?
Throw an e on the end of your username and I would be sure.
Ouch. That hurts.
See you later at COTD!
I guess rebadging the new Prelude, maybe adding a lil more power and awd, and calling THAT the RSX made too much sense, huh? THIS should’ve been the ZDX since it’s a fastback like the original one, the GM Acura should’ve been called the Acura GMX (no one besides car people would even notice), and the Prologue should’ve been called the Honda “if we don’t sell a pure EV CARB will fine the shit out of us”
I was really hoping this might be called a Touring version of the Integra but if there’s one thing that Acura lacks, it’s Integra-T.
Goddammit take your +1
It is the future of all vehicles blobby cross overs. (I joke but it seems like the way things are going)
Hey now, there are also a lot of vehicles that are highly right-angley. Lexus GX, Hyundai Santa Fe, new EV G Wagon (old G Wagon), Gladiator, Defender. Just big ol’ boxes on wheels.
What are the odds that “vent” on the door is fake? Also the dog pooping hunch backed CUV’s were tired years ago, can we please stop it?
A vent, a door?
I see those stupid hunchback Mercedes and BMW models several times a day and they’ve grown on me like a melanoma.
Looks like a Tesla. Not good.
God damn it…