Honda's luxury brand, Acura, has always had a solid foothold in the United States. The brand's sales have always been good, and their most recent redesign and transformation happening across the entire model range since 2018 has helped pique more interest for the manufacturer in segments that are getting more competitive with each passing quarter. In another interview with the guys over at Automotive News, John Rickards, chairman of the Acura National Dealer Advisory Board, has expressed that 2020 is the year in which the brand needs to be positioned to conquest rivals and increase sales, despite the stagnant market.

With the brand still riding on the positive response of its biggest refresh so far, the completely redesigned Acura RDX in 2018, not much has happened since; just a few minor updates across the range, and increased support for pre-owned programs. 2019 also saw new sales fall by just 1%, but products like the ILX changed the opinions of some sedan buyers. "The market isn't growing, so everybody's trying to conquer each other's sales," said Rickards. "The new RDX laid the groundwork, and with the new MDX and TLX coming out in 2020, if they're as good and solid as the RDX, which I think they will be, I believe we're going to get a great conquesting year and get new buyers to our product that we haven't seen before".

Despite the two sedan, two crossover core lineup for Acura, dealers till believe that there is room for another SUV or crossover to sit below the RDX, where it will be a volume seller. "I do believe, the dealer body believes, that we really need an additional SUV or CUV in the lineup as the market is shifting more and more toward that, and less to cars," Rickards said. "We need to keep our cars strong. But we need to have another [crossover] model in play to compete with our competition. And with that, I think we can really grow the brand."