Automakers Unveil New Wares; Honda Renaming Acura Lineup

Honda’s luxury Acura division is replacing a car that never lived up to its name with a new version that won’t really have one.

The Vigor, a luxury sedan that fell midway between the low-end Acura Integra and the flagship Legend, had its most vigorous year in the United States in 1992 when 13,845 were sold.

Rich Thomas, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co.’s Acura division, said the company expects to sell 30,000 to 40,000 a year of the car that replaces it this April.

At a press preview Wednesday of the Chicago Auto Show, Thomas also outlined a new program that eventually will replace the names of all Acura’s models except the $75,000 NSX sports car. Acura will follow a formula that has worked for years for European luxury cars and others made by the Japanese - using socalled alphanumeric names.

The Vigor will be replaced by the 2.5 TL and the 3.5 TL. The numbers represent the engine displacement in liters, and TL stands for “touring luxury,” Thomas said.

As new or replacement models are introduced for the Integra and the Legend, they will receive new alphanumeric names, as will a new luxury coupe the company will build in Ohio starting in 1996.

“The hardest decision is on the Legend,” Thomas said. The Acura flagship’s owners don’t identify their cars as Acuras, he said, they call them Legends.

The 2.5 TL and 3.5 TL looks a lot like a Legend on a slightly smaller scale. Its prices will range from about $28,000 to $35,000, Thomas said. The Legend starts at about $35,000, while Integra prices range from $16,000 to more than $21,000.

The new Acura coupe will be positioned between Integra and the 2.5 TL.

Other highlights from the preview of the Chicago show:

Chrysler Corp. announced that prices on its new Sebring coupe would start at $15,900. Built in Normal, Ill., by the Chrysler-Mitsubishi joint venture Diamond-Star Motors plant, the Sebring is the latest new Chrysler model aimed at broadening the brand’s appeal to younger buyers.

Steve Torok, general manager of the company’s Chrysler-Plymouth division, said the car is aimed at “accomplished boomers,” buyers between 30 and 45 with annual incomes of $40,000 to $60,000. The car shares a platform with the Dodge Avenger. It goes on sale this month.

Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America showed a concept car that will be the basis for an Eclipse convertible due in showrooms some time in 1996. The car will be the first convertible built in the United States by a Japanese automaker, produced at the Diamond-Star plant in Illinois.

MEMO: This is a sidebar that appeared with the story: In Spokane The Spokane Auto Show begins Friday at the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds. Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday; from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Thirty-six area automobile dealers will participate.