Honda Has Renewed Its U.S. Trademark for the Acura CDX Name

Could this luxury subcompact crossover make its way to our shores?

byEric Brandt|
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You may not have heard of it, but the Acura CDX is a subcompact crossover based on the Honda HR-V. This luxury variant has been on sale in China since 2016 and has since doubled Acura’s total sales in the region. There have been mixed messages from Acura with Acura U.S. Vice President Jon Ikeda telling Wards Auto last April that "our R&D guys looking into the possibility,” but we still haven’t heard anything official. However, Carscoops reports that Honda recently renewed its U.S. trademark for the “CDX” name implying that the brand is still considering bringing the little Acura to the States.

The Chinese CDX is powered by the 1.5-liter turbo-four available in the Civic, Accord, and CR-V with an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. It makes 179-horsepower and 177 pound-feet of torque which is an improvement over the U.S. spec HR-V which has a naturally aspirated 1.8-liter inline-four making 141-hp and 127 pound-feet of torque. It’s available in front- or all-wheel drive.

While it’s not quite as simple as selling the Chinese spec model here, we can’t imagine it would be too hard to make a CDX that passes American safety and emissions standards. The platform is here in the form of the HR-V and Honda has a whole host of drivetrain options the CDX could borrow, including our version of the turbo 1.5. We reached out to Acura asking about the CDX and were told "there are currently no plans to bring the CDX to the U.S. market," in an email.

But the fact that the Acura CDX exists, but is not sold in the U.S., is pretty surprising. While the CDX has been selling like crazy in China over the past couple years, the subcompact luxury crossover segment has been booming here in the States. Pint-sized entities like the Infiniti QX30, Lexus NX, and Buick Encore have been eating up potential Acura sales while the brand mulls over whether or not it should come to our shores. Acura, if you’re listening and you like money, bring the CDX to the U.S. Two crossovers in a luxury brand simply isn’t enough anymore.

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