With Acura's decision to nix V8 power and rear-wheel drive in favor of new hybrid drivetrains, dealers are worried that the brand's relentless pursuit of Tier 1 status – on par with Audi, BMW, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz – may be threatened. But that's not the real news.

Buried at the end of an Automotive News piece about a recent Acura dealer meeting was this gem:

"[Jeff Conrad, vice president of the Acura division] confirmed that Acura is considering a small car below the TSX sedan. The vehicle not only would compete against the BMW 1 series, Audi A3 and Volvo C30 but [...]

Acura has revealed a prototype of the high-riding ZDX four door coupe at the 2009 New York International Auto Show. The ZDX represents a new market segment for Acura, one that has great possibilities.

"The ZDX is truly a luxury performance coupe - plus," said Jeff Conrad, vice president of Acura sales. "The emotional coupe styling coupled with a luxurious and dramatic interior and surprising versatility, allows the ZDX to define its own segment and attract an entirely new customer."

The ZDX's sportiness is emphasised by the flowing lines, the sharp roofline, concealed rear door handles and daring fender flares. While the [...]

Honda engineers are hard at work testing a refreshed Acura MDX and seen here are first photos of running prototypes. Design-wise, the major changes seem to be limited to the front end. We can see through the camouflage that a new grill is definitely in the works. It appears to be a very similar grill to the one on the all-new 2009 TL. We'd speculate that redesigned headlights and a revised lower bumper fascia are also in order, however, it's not clear if there will be any changes under the hood, despite statements from Honda saying they'd like to offer [...]

A full set of photos along with preliminary specifications of the 2009 Acura TL were leaked into the internet today, a whole week ahead of the planned debut. The new images reveal among other things, the 2009 TL’s puffed arse in all its glory while we also have the first pictures of the interior.

2009 Acura TLAccording to the guys that leaked the pictures, the new TL will be offered in two flavors, a front wheel drive version powered by a 280HP 3.5-liter V6 engine and the first ever AWD TL that’s equipped with Acura’s Super Handling All-Wheel Drive with power [...]

We’ve seen many spy shots of the 2009 Acura TL along with an official teaser from Acura. While the teaser hardly showed us much of the new TL, these new spy shots found on Flickr give us a closer and better look at the upcoming 2009 model.

What we know so far is that the 2009 TL will make its debut in the fall of 2008 in two different variants including for the first ever use of the Super Handling All-Wheel Drive System on the TL.

Acura also siad that the 2009 Acura TL will feature the most powerful Aucra engine ever. [...]