Is Acura finally getting serious about their advertising efforts? It certainly looks like things are changing as they venture in to the world of Super Bowl commercials. The first Super Bowl commercial for Acura will feature comedian Jerry Seinfeld attempting, repeatedly, to bribe the ordinary customer who is first in line to buy the 2015 Acura NSX.

Seinfeld starts by offering $20. In escalating fashion he then offers the man the Soup Nazi, “the last living munchkin,” dirty limericks at a family dinner, a space alien and his cigarette racing boat–all without success. Finally, upon being offered access to Seinfeld’s private zip line through Manhattan, the man relents. Only Jay Leno appears in a “jet-pack flying-squirrel suit” and wins the man’s rights to the NSX.

While using celebrities can be dicey in car advertising, Seinfeld and Leno are car collectors, which adds legitimacy to the Acura commercial, Accavitti said. “This is unprecedented time in our history,” he said. “We needed to get Acura noticed.” Citing the world debuts of the NSX, ILX sedan and RDX crossover at the Detroit auto show, Accavitti added: “We had the big bang in Detroit. We wanted to leverage that.”

The Acura commercial will run during the third quarter of the 2012 Super Bowl. The commercial was created by longtime American Honda agency Rubin Postaer and is a change of pace from the years of pedestrian work from the shop. “We had to free them, empower them and let them come up with some new ideas,” Accavitti said. “I’ve known they were capable of it. You can’t coerce creativity out of people. This is not about putting hands around someone’s neck and saying, ‘You better be creative.’”

The Acura spot was directed by Craig Gillespie, known for the Snickers “Betty White” commercial, in which the 90-year-old comedian appears to be slammed to the turf. Accavitti said that Seinfeld contributed substantial creative assistance in the final cut.

Seinfelt had input in Acura Commerical

“Jerry knew we were trying to sell cars,” Accavitti said. “He wouldn’t infringe on our brand, but we listened to the guy. The concept was by RPA, and Jerry helped tune it up. The alien thing was complete improv. The zip line was his idea.”

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Dallas  |  The 2013 Acura ILX, as Acura’s first compact sedan since the Integra, it’s tasked with bringing new buyers to the brand. With sharp styling and some economical engines from the Honda Civic, it may just do that. Our man Joel Feder has shot a video previewing the 2012 ILX Concept at the show, due to become a 2013 model-year car when it reaches production.

As you can see in the video, the ILX has strong family ties to other Acuras, not least in the chromed grille at the front. It looks sporty and compact, no doubt helped by the large 19-inch wheels on low-profile tires.

Of most interest to our readers will be the 1.5-liter, gasoline-electric hybrid option, an engine borrowed from the Civic range. There are no solid details on performance or fuel efficiency just yet, but in the Civic, Honda claims 44 mpg across the board – city, highway and combined. This is a figure we matched when we tested the 2012 Honda Civic Hybrid, so you can expect similar from the Acura.

Like the Civic, the Acura ILX will be built at Honda’s Greensburg plant, in Indiana.

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Dallas — The new Acura NSX was a big success when it got unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show January 2012. There are words to describe people who claim to be car fanatics but do not get shivers when they see the new Acura NSX concept: poseurs, wannabes, insincere, frauds.

If there was an award for the most-beautiful car unveiled here at this 2012 North American International Auto Show, it would have to go to Acura. The new Acura NSX is nothing short of stunning. In a crowd of automotive cynics, where journalists rarely applause anything, the hoots and hollers weren’t coming from the Acura staff, they were coming from the journalists.

Lamborghini would be lucky to design a car like this. Yes, that’s how good it is. Indeed, a conspiracy theorist might propose the reason Lambo and Ferrari were not at this year’s show was that they had seen the NSX and did not want to be upstaged.

And while the Acura NSX shown was a concept car, the body looks production-ready. Acura is announcing powertrain details and has announced production of the NSX will begin within three years at its Honda of America Manufacturing assembly plant in Marysville, Ohio. Development work will continue at Honda R&D in the U.S.

The Acura NSX uses a mid-engine V-6, a dual-clutch transmission and a new breed of its Super-Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD) it calls Sport Hybrid SH-AWD. Yes, it’s a hybrid, using a two-motor electric drive system that can instantly generate negative or positive torque to either or both front wheels during cornering. This advances forward from Acura’s current SH-AWD system, which works only on the rear wheels and which controls wheel speed and torque from side-to-side (given that the outside wheels in a turn must travel farther, therefore faster, than the inside wheels).

Acura says it anticipates the new Sport Hybrid SH-AWD system to deliver handling performance superior to the current SH-AWD system. As well, the hybrid nature is expected to “create supercar acceleration while offering outstanding efficiency.”

‘The Sport Hybrid SH-AWD system will make NSX the ultimate expression of Acura’s idea to create synergy between man and machine,” said Takanobu Ito, president of Honda Motor Co., who in an earlier role was the lead engineer of the original Acura NSX.

We will keep you posted on new developments on the new Acura NSX and other models on our Dallas Acura blog.

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Living in the Dallas area, I know you’ve heard and seen commercials from certain collision repair facilities touting the use of “Certified Replacement Parts”.  The truth is certified replacement parts are not what were originally on your Acura when it was built but are produced by an aftermarket supplier, usually in Korea or China.  Original Equipment Manufacturer parts, also called OEM, are the terms used to describe parts made by the factory and are of exactly the same fit, finish and quality of the damaged part that is to be replaced on your Acura. Read the rest of this entry »

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Purchasing a Certified used Acura from Goodson Acura in Dallas & Fort Worth is the next best thing after buying a brand-new Acura. You can expect the uncompromising standards you are used to when buying a brand new Acura. In order for Goodson Acura to be able to certify a pre-owned Acura, it will first have to pass a 150-point vehicle inspection and the vehicle must be under six years old with less than 80,000 miles. In addition, the vehicle history report is reviewed as well. Read the rest of this entry »

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Want to make sure you and your family are safe?  Acura is proud to be the first automobile manufacturer to earn top safety ratings for every vehicle in its line-up.  The IIHS safety ratings haven given Acura an edge over all competitors in the safety category. Read the rest of this entry »

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You’re sitting in your Acura in Dallas rush hour traffic on a Friday afternoon when, all of the sudden, you feel a bump from the rear.  It seems that the person behind you wasn’t paying attention for some reason and couldn’t stop in time.  What do you do? Read the rest of this entry »

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So, you have made the decision to buy a new or certified pre-owned Acura here in Dallas. One thing many clients do not consider when they buy a new Acura is how they can protect themselves from vehicle theft.

Goodson Acura offers a well known theft recovery product called LoJack. LoJack is the only stolen vehicle recovery tool that is actually used by the Dallas Police department as well as many other local cities such as Read the rest of this entry »

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