The Acura CL is a 2-door coupé from Acura, built from 1996 to 2003, when airbags, anti-lock brakes and Japanese build quality became the world standard. Under the bonnet: 2.2 . Donald Herner, Harumi Okano, Kunihiko Tachibana (1997) drew it.
The story
The Acura CL is a midsize four passenger coupe manufactured and marketed by Honda's Acura brand across two generations from 1997–2003 model years. All first generation Acura CLs were manufactured at Honda's plant in East Liberty, Ohio with the Honda Civic.
The second generation CL, TL and the Honda Accord upon which the Acura CLs were based, are manufactured at Honda's plant in Marysville, Ohio. The CL was the first Acura to be built in the United States. With the release of the TL and 3.5RL in 1996, Acura transitioned to alphanumeric and/or two-letter names.
What is underneath
Power comes from 2.2 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 3064 lb. It shifts through a 4-speed automatic / 5-speed manual. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 106.9 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Acura Legend (coupe); its successor was the Acura TL; assembly was at Marysville, Ohio, United States. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Alfa Romeo 156, the Škoda Auto Škoda Octavia, the Lotus Elise — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Acura catalogue sit the Acura ADX and the Acura ARX-06.