Acura Discontinues the TLX Sedan

Acura announced this week that production of its midsize sedan, the TLX, will end this month. A victim of weakening sales, the car faced strong headwinds in an industry ever consumed by crossovers.

Officially, Acura stated that the discontinuation of the model was an effort to “better align with the evolving needs of our customers and the changing landscape of the automotive industry.”

Indeed, sales of the sedan had been flagging. In the U.S., deliveries fell from an all-time high of over 78,000 annually in 2005 (when the model was known simply as the TL) to just 7,400 last year. Although declining sales have more or less been a constant since 2005, sales of the TLX really started to fall off a cliff in recent years. As recently as 2018, Acura managed to sell more than 30,000 examples of the midsize sedan in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the TLX received an even chillier reception in the Great White North. In 2024, Acura only found 840 buyers for the sedan — a 14 per cent decrease from 2023. In the first half of this year, sales are down 36 per cent, to just 283 units.

And that’s something of a shame for a vehicle that has been quite well received by critics. Our own Jeff Wilson said of the high-performance TLX Type S that it “reawakened my love of driving.” Of the less sporty TLX Elite Premium, our contributor Peter Bleakney wrote that “many buyers should find the TLX’s style, interior appointments, swift pace, and bucket-load of kit just the ticket.”

The model was hardly alone in its struggle, though. The wider midsize sedan segment is facing a strong counter-current, as buyers look for the space and apparent capability that crossovers provide. In the premium space, the industry recently lost the Volvo S60 and the Infiniti Q50. In the mainstream segment, the likes of the Volkswagen Passat and the Subaru Legacy have also kicked the bucket in recent years.

Indeed, Acura pointed to the addition of the ADX sub-compact crossover and the upcoming arrival of the RSX all-electric crossover coupe as vehicles that will better align with customer expectations.