Eager to delve into the extremely successful and progressively blossoming SUV trend of the mid-90s, Honda’s high-end arm Acura launched its first-ever SUV, the SLX, in 1996. The SLX was essentially a rebadged Isuzu Trooper. The 2 brand names did a comparable handle 1993 on the first-generation Honda Passport, which was an Isuzu Rodeo with Honda branding.
Honda figured the second-gen Isuzu Trooper fit the expense for Acura’s very first SUV, marketing the SLX as a high-end SUV that might provide both top-level facilities and the bulletproof efficiency of a great energy lorry. Under the hood was a gutsy 3.2-liter V6 providing 190 horse power and 188 lb-ft. of torque.
The SLX’s future was rosy in the beginning, with Edmunds declaring in its 1996 Acura SLX Review that “the SLX is a great automobile providing the eminence and convenience that Acura owners have actually pertained to anticipate.” Acura stopped making the SLX after the 1999 design year in favor of the MDX, an internal Honda style. What occurred?
Acura SLX rollover debate
Per The Auto Channel, a 1996 Consumer Reports news release provided the second-gen Isuzu Trooper– that is, the Acura SLX with a various name badge– a “Not Acceptable” security ranking when the company found the car’s propensity to roll over when carrying out the Nordic moose test. The maneuver involves the motorist swerving into the opposite lane and swerving back to imitate preventing an unforeseen barrier on the roadway— like a moose. According to the New York Times, the October 1996 concern of Consumer Reports even included an upended Isuzu Trooper on its cover under the title “UNSAFE.” Isuzu demanded character assassination and the jury discovered both celebrations partially at fault, however the PR damage to the Trooper and its Acura-branded clone had actually been done.
Customer Reports ultimately heated up to the SLX in 1998 after Acura offered it an upgraded engine and a couple of other mechanical and security mods. It never ever got rid of its hazardous image, and Acura pulled the plug after 1999. In 2019, Acura revealed a first-gen SLX restomod with a 350-horsepower turbo four-pot engine and the brand name’s Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD), a reimagining of what might have been if Honda/Acura did it right the very first time.
