Since the Acura dealership replaced our ILX’s rear dampers last month, the suspension feels significantly softer. “I’m delighted to experience the ILX with a functional rear suspension,” says senior editor Phil Floraday. “No more harsh impacts from the back end.”

Enthusiasts may point to the revival of the NSX as a sign of Acura's revitalization, but the brand's actual sustenance relies on far less exotic sheetmetal. Take, for instance, the MDX midsize crossover. Launched in 2001 and redesigned in 2007, it's long been one of Acura's best-selling nameplates. In fact, in its first year on the market, the MDX was the brand's second best-selling model, and became the best-selling Acura model in 2010 -- a distinction it's held ever since.

We previously mentioned a thud from our ILX’s rear suspension – a sound like a ball bouncing around the cargo hold whenever the Acura went over curbing or bumps. Hoping to figure out the cause, we looked under the car but could not find an obvious culprit. We couldn’t help but conjecture that the dampers were gone, but that seemed unlikely for a brand-new Honda product. The ILX subsequently made it through its first service without raising any red flags.

RUTHERFORD, CALIFORNIA - Tasty mountain roads connect Napa Valley's swank Auberge du Soleil resort with Sonoma's Sears Point Raceway. On these roads, you can push a car like the 2014 Acura RLX without beating the tires into squealing submission. After nine years, Acura has replaced the front-wheel-drive RL with another FWD luxury flagship, the RLX, and this fall adds an all-wheel-drive hybrid version with 60 more horses. A brief drive of the hybrid awaits us at the raceway.

Mount your winter tires, and not a single snowflake will stick to the pavement over the next six weeks. At least that's true for us. A set of Continental ExtremeWinterContact tires showed up at our office around Thanksgiving, just a couple of days after ordering them from Tire Rack, our official wheel and tire supplier. The rubber set us back $644.00, then mounting and balancing them on our ILX cost us another Benjamin. Ready to test our Acura's winter handling capabilities, we wanted Michigan's worst cold-weather barrage -- and nothing came.

We know we have a ringer. Our ILX, with its top-spec 2.4-liter engine and six-speed manual transmission, is definitely the pick of the litter where Acura's smallest sedan is concerned. And indeed, we have roundly praised its smooth-revving four-cylinder, and even more so, its sweet-shifting manual gearbox. But that's not the whole story of this car.

The Acura MDX you can buy today at dealers is not an old car, nor is it a bad one; thanks to its handsome styling and endearing driving dynamics, all the SUV would need to last another six or so years on sale would be a nice freshening. Acura seems to agree with this statement: the 2014 MDX Prototype on the stand at the Detroit auto show isn't a massive departure from the current model; rather, it's an elegant follow-up to today's successful crossover.

The first 75 seconds of Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold" are awesome and must be played at full volume, but after the first breakdown the song becomes a bit repetitive and tiresome. We're reminded of "Stranglehold" and the Motor City Madman every time we get into our Acura ILX. Why? Its inline-four sounds so sultry for the first few minutes, when you're driving like a buffoon, coaxing the engine to wail a bit more. But while you can turn the volume down on a song, you, unfortunately, can't hush this engine.

Our own Evan McCausland wrote favorably about his first drive of the Acura ILX months ago, but to me his report was just white noise, and I had not been able to consider any aspect of the new small sedan other than its exterior styling, which I find uninspiring. So it was with low expectations that I slid behind the wheel of the ILX yesterday evening. What a pleasant surprise: the ILX drives incredibly well. It's easy to forget how nice it is to be in a proper little sport sedan with a really good manual gear shifter and nice clutch pedal takeup. All the right nuances are there.

The Acura RL was the brand's flagship model for so long that the smaller, cheaper Acura TL began to catch up in terms of power, comfort, and technology. That meant any replacement for the RL would need to offer a big step up in order to justify its higher price compared to the TL. Acura seems to have taken that message to heart in replacing the aging RL with the all-new 2014 RLX, which debuts at the Los Angeles auto show. The new top Acura is roomier, more stylish, more powerful, and filled with even more technology than its predecessor.

The RDX, Acura's compact crossover, was previously an outlier in its category. It seemed to have been developed by a bunch of engineers who were trying to channel the Integra Type R. As intriguing as that sounds, the RDX's buckboard ride and high-strung four-cylinder turbo just didn't work in a compact, premium-brand crossover.

In the early '90s, we had a long-term 1991 Acura Integra GS two-door. A couple of criticisms, like uncomfortable seats and lack of interior space, kept the staff from falling in love with the car, but there was unanimous adoration for two things: the engine and drivetrain. "The Integra really came alive on deserted Huron River Drive, and I made it home in nine minutes," said now deputy editor, then editorial assistant, Joe DeMatio. "It usually takes fifteen."

Acura's tagline for its new ILX, "move forward, without settling down," speaks to a market of young professionals that wants its first taste of a luxury brand. The entry-level ILX can be had with either a 2.0-liter engine or a hybrid powertrain for under $30,000. Those two should satisfy a majority of buyers, but what about that rare breed of youthful enthusiasts who wear Pilotis with their suits and ties? Acura didn't forget about them and is also offering its handsome ILX with the engine and transmission from a Honda Civic Si. Sounds great, right? We agree, which is why we ordered a 2.4-liter ILX for a Four Seasons test.

Let's be honest: the third row of seats in the Acura MDX is laughable. There is virtually no leg- or headroom, relegating these seats for use only by small children or extremely flexible adults. And with the third row raised, cargo room also is diminished quite a lot. Put that concern aside, and the MDX is a great vehicle. It drives much like smaller Acuras, with sporty handling and an excellent V-6 engine. I'm even a fan of the angular, creased exterior design.

No, it's not deja vu: you have seen the 2013 Acura ILX before. Acura showed off a thinly-disguised concept in January at the 2012 Detroit auto show and unveiled the production-ready sedan at the 2012 Chicago auto show, but the automaker only recently allowed us to try on its new entry-luxury small car on for size.

The decision to purchase a minivan is a pragmatic one. Drive a minivan and you admit to the world that you have children and a Costco membership, and that you want one vehicle that can transport your offspring and multi-packs of toilet paper.

The current Acura RL may technically be Acura's largest, most expensive offering, but as the midsize TL range has grown in terms of size and sophistication, the supposed flagship of the Acura brand hardly offers anything its more mainstream sibling doesn't.

Acura's first-generation RDX crossover suffered from a bit of an identity crisis: it packed an exciting, enthusiast-oriented powertrain into a CUV, but trailed competitors when it came to ride quality, refinement, and sophistication. The entire package led one Automobile editor to suggest last year that Acura needed to "commit to competing against the big boys and develop a vehicle that can meet them head on."

For luxury automakers, it seems the next big thing is -- ironically -- small cars. Premium brands are quickly warming up to the idea of well-equipped C-segment models in order to snag young, first-time luxury buyers; empty nesters on a downsizing spree; or some combination of the two. Acura’s no exception to this trend, and hopes to play in the growing segment with the new 2013 ILX sedan, which debuts this week at the 2012 Chicago Auto Show.

Acura stripped away most of the mystery surrounding its forthcoming 2013 RDX crossover at last month’s Detroit auto show, but the official, finalized production model officially debuts this week at the 2012 Chicago Auto Show.

December of 2005 is a month that will live in infamy -- or at the very least, it will amongst sports car enthusiasts. Following a formal announcement five months earlier that the NSX sports car would come to an end, employees at Honda's Suzuka facility in Japan build the last Acura NSX destined for North American customers.

Though we fight it as children, most humans ultimately have to face the inevitable and mature. Our tastes gradually migrate from fun and funky to the smooth and sophisticated. It only makes sense for automobiles to evolve in a similar fashion, and that's just what the 2013 Acura RDX - which makes its first auto show debut at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit - promises.

Since the brand's inception some 25 years ago, Acura has always offered an entry-level luxury model to draw young buyers to the brand for the very first time. Models like the Integra, RSX, and TSX have essentially served as gateway cars to the Acura lineup, but there's soon to be yet another model name on that list. The 2013 ILX, previewed by the so-called concept shown at the 2012 Detroit auto show, will soon serve as Acura's least-expensive offering.

Las Vegas, Nevada – Security has traditionally been tight in Vegas casinos, but not this tight. We’re among a small group of journalists allowed past burly bodyguards into a conference room in the lower level of the Aria Resort’s conference center. This isn’t an attempt to reenact a scene from Ocean’s Eleven – instead, we’re here to see four new Acura products hours after they were secretly shown to North American dealers.

If you lust for a hot hatch but need the versatility of a small SUV, Acura may have the perfect compromise: the RDX. Despite sharing its basic architecture with Honda's popular CR-V, the RDX exhibits a completely different -- and much more dynamic -- personality. Even with its tall roofline and higher ground clearance, the SUV behaves like a subcompact. The rorty, snorty 2.3-liter turbocharged four-cylinder packs a substantial wallop, and the available SH-AWD system -- which aids handling by sending power to the outer rear wheel during cornering -- helps the already-poised RDX exhibit tenacious grip. Dynamically, the RDX is still quite impressive, but it is starting to show its age elsewhere. That's most evident in the cabin. Although the interior is chock-full of clever cubbies and storage areas (including a locking center console designed to hold a laptop computer), its aesthetic generally feels dour and dated. Buyers may be wooed by a number of advanced features, such as ELS surround sound, perforated leather seating, and GPS-linked climate control, which are typically found in more expensive vehicles, but the RDX's true party trick remains its on-road demeanor. The compact utility segment has grown increasingly crowded, but the RDX is one of the few that convincingly meld the soul of a sports car with the shape of a sport-utility vehicle.