Acura is introducing a car you probably didn’t know you wanted at the New York International Auto Show: a TLX sport sedan hand-built in the NSX’s Performance Manufacturing Center and painted Valencia Red Pearl using nano-pigment technology that the automaker says “produces exceptionally high-color saturation and deep levels of contrast” and was previously limited to the NSX. The Marysville, Ohio, PMC will build just 360 of the special-edition models.
After the 360 TLXes are built, Acura will turn its PMC’s attentions to the MDX, which also appears at the New York show. The 2020 Acura TLX PMC Edition and the MDX PMC Edition seem a particularly smart way to keep the NSX factory humming. While sales of the NSX slipped after its model-year 2017 launch, this year the mid-engine supercar is off to a fairly good start. Sales in the U.S. alone were up 17.9 percent for the first quarter (over Q1 ’18) to 79 cars.
The TLX PMC Edition, “to be built by the same master technicians that hand-assemble the Acura NSX supercar,” will sell for “around $50,000.” Production begins this summer with deliveries following shortly after. The special-edition sedan comes with the TLX’s Advance Package, A-Spec interior and exterior appearance package, and Super Handling All-Wheel Drive. The PMC Edition also adds a body-color grille surround, a gloss-black painted roof and door handles, gloss-black 19-inch wheels and lug nuts, body-color side-mirror caps, and dark chrome four-inch dual exhaust finishers.
Inside, the special package adds a numbered serial plaque (“XXX of 360”); premium black Milano leather seats with Alcantara inserts, black piping, and red stitching; a perforated leather-wrapped steering wheel with red stitching and paddle shifters; red stitching on the door panels, center console, and center armrest; and premium floor mats with A-Spec badging.
We’ll leave it to consumers to determine what value all that stitching and piping adds, but if you spec out a 2020 TLX with everything above that’s available on the standard car, you get to $46,420. So the hand-built construction and high-quality paint job seems to add $4,000 to $5,000 to the bottom line of this car.
Acura says the PMC Edition assembly process begins with delivery of a TLX body-in-white from the Marysville Auto Plant to the NSX’s paint booth. Then PMC master technicians install drivetrain and chassis components, wiring harnesses and electronics, the 19-inch wheels and tires, and exterior trim. The car is finished with the fitment of its special interior and the plaque on the center console. The PMC Edition leaves the factory after it’s subjected to the NSX’s quality control, with a dyno check, final paint inspection, rough-road simulation, and water-leak test. Every example will be wrapped in a special car cover and transported to dealers in an enclosed car carrier. The automaker says production of the MDX version will begin when the TLX run is complete.
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