The reborn Acura RSX gave Honda heads a collective “ick” when it was announced last week. Automakers must perform a difficult balancing act when they resuscitate a cherished model name. One wrong move and legions of loyal fans who loved the original will feel betrayed. On the other hand, it’s difficult to launch a new car these days when attention spans are are shorter than a nose hair, but a library of proven names is just sitting there ripe for the picking. For every hit like the Honda S2000 there’s many more Mitsubishi Eclipse Crosses littering the shoulders of the model name highway, but that doesn’t seem to stop automakers from giving in to this unbearable temptation.
Which beloved nameplate will be revived next?
The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What’s an automotive bonding activity you can do with kids?“.
We’re glad to to have readers who enjoy sharing the hobby of cars with the next generation. The answers from last week were inspiring, and we plan to take many of them to heart with our own families.
It starts with the small stuff, and ra21benj‘s suggestion of letting a kid shift gears in a manual transmission car is a great early confidence builder. That eventually translates to Taylor C.‘s situation where the kids actually like driving stick and going to shows and drift events. StreetSpirit‘s recommendation of helping with small maintenance tasks starting with handing tools over but eventually learning how to do it all.
Eric asked why not everything, from checking the oil to welding, car shows to karting. Meanwhile, Ian G. reaffirmed that long road trips made for great bonding opportunities.
The winner this week was vitor, who went from walking down the street with his son and naming the cars to taking him on pilgrimages to museums and shows:
When my son was just 2 years old, we’d walk down the street together. I would point at cars, telling him the brand. He couldn’t read yet, but he quickly memorized most of them. Soon, it was him proudly pointing at cars and naming the brand without hesitation.
By the time he was 6, we had already started visiting car museums and attending car meets. Over the years, our shared passion has taken us to some of the most iconic car museums in Japan, Germany, and Italy.
Our holidays aren’t just trips — they’re road adventures, covering thousands of kilometers, chasing stories, history, and beauty on four wheels. Each journey is a new chapter in the story we’re writing together as father and son.
Next summer, the road will probably take us to France — and the adventure continues.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
Hopefully none of mine, as the confusion caused and the associated unnecessary time wasted when searching for parts for my old classic(s) would be extremely frustrating and annoying!
Corvette suv
As horrible as it sounds, I really think they should lean toward a whole lineup of Corvettes. It always was a sports car and a grand tourer, two-seater with a big engine in the front, and now they finally went rear midship. In true Corvette fashion they still made room for one or two golf bags, but I believe they could bring back a FR Corvette for the grand tourer people, maybe calling it the Corvette GT (Grand Touring), keep the MR Corvette as a Corvette GS (Grand Sport, i know righ?), and then, the one dearest to my heart, a smaller and affordablier MR Corvette F (as in Fiero) for a lightweight sporty, so that not all Corvette buyers have white hair or none at all. The upgrade path would be all traced up, one for each wallet and I do not think it would dilute the Corvette name much. Then there would be the Vette Mach-E.
The smaller and friendlier Corvette F would then be the perfect antagonist to be destroyed by the soon to be Toyota MR2!
Toyota won’t mess it up. They’ve filed the trademark for the Celica and I hope the news about an upcoming MR2 are true. I have high expectations about both but as a huge fan of the latter, I was not totally upbeat about a hybrid MR2 initially but I am skeptical and it should still be fun.
In fantasy land, I’d love a new Honda Element with all sorts of utility, a lack of aerodynamics and the crab rear doors. I’d even rock one as an EV but I am sure that’s not happening.
As a fan and previous owner of all 3 marques above, I’d love to see/own a modern version of them.
The Mitsubishi Starion! Mitsubishi never gave it the media attention it deserved. It had a great shape (the wide body, 1986-1989 in the US.) Mitsubishi needs something to attract customers into the showroom! What they offer now is very weak! (Oh, and bring back the Lacer Evolution!)
Basically anything from Nissan’s back catalog. Silvia, Laurel, Cefiro, Cedric/Gloria, Bluebird… What do they even have to lose at this point?
Mitsubishi 3000GT, they need a Wagoneer/Expedition/Suburban competitor, no?
Toyota Celica. This is the way.
I think the Subaru WRX is less and less relevant as a car in Subaru’s lineup. I like it a lot, of course, a sports car in a sedan body, teamed up with th BRZ as an entry-level sports car. But two sports cars in an eight cars line-up is a lot for a small manufacturer, and I feel more and more drivers are drinking the koolaid and end up believing fast SUVs are sporty.
Considering their last WRC effort is almost twenty years ago, I sure hope not but I believe that once this generation WRX is gone Subaru will start diluting its WRX nameplate by offering some WRX versions for their whole range, like an Outback WRX, a Crosstrek WRX, an Ascent WRX, in the same way BMW now offers the M-badge as a styling package instead of the race-spec BMW M.