2023 Acura TLX Type S PMC Edition, All you want to know & watch about a Great Car
2023 Acura TLX Type S PMC Edition: The Handbuilt Midsize Sedan Returns
Supercar assembly for everyday premium money? Yep.
With Acura’s NSX supercar being sunsetted this year after the final run of Type S variants is built, the Performance Manufacturing Center (PMC) where it is assembled by hand is going to need purpose. Well, a different purpose, at least—and Acura’s been trying to give it some over the past few years with its normal-looking-on-the-outside, secretly hand-built batches of PMC Editions of its mainstream models.
These mostly ordinary Acura models are usually gifted some special paint—a lustrous red on the 2020 TLX PMC Edition, a blazing orange on the 2021 RDX PMC Edition, etc.—and carry the distinction of being hand-built in the same factory as the NSX supercar, by the same technicians, even. The newest addition to this PMC family? The latest-generation TLX sedan.
As mentioned, there has been a TLX PMC Edition previously, but that was based on the previous-generation TLX. This 2023 Acura TLX PMC Edition blends not only the newest TLX with the PMC treatment, but also the TLX in its spicier 355-hp Type S form, which also gets Acura’s torque-vectoring Super Handling All-Wheel Drive.
This sport sedan with a name of many characters will, ironically, be limited in number, though Acura hasn’t outlined yet what that number will be. (Past PMCs were built in numbered runs, with each model wearing a plaque inside with its unique figure; there is a similar plaque pictured on the new ’23 TLX, but it only shows “001,” not how many that number is out of.) It is, of course, built by hand at Acura’s PMC in Ohio, and for an added dash of fancy, each car will be delivered in a covered, single-car transporter to its delivery dealership in order to keep the paint free from blemishes.
In no small part because this TLX PMC Edition is based on the already saucy looking Type S version of Acura’s midsize sedan, it is an altogether more serious-looking machine than the old one. Acura steps up the visuals with copper-colored 21-inch wheels, carbon-fiber rear spoiler and diffuser pieces, and Berlina Black (a classic Honda color) roof and door mirrors.
Three colors will be available, and (go, America!), they’re Curva Red (with a black interior), 130R White (red interior), and Long Beach Blue (with a white interior)—perfectly timed for a certain celebratory weekend in the U.S.A. All three colors are borrowed from the NSX, too.
Other enhancements on the PMC include Pirelli P-Zero summer tires, carbon fiber interior trim, backlit “Type S” door sill plates, and blacked-out badges. The result is a TLX Type S that is subtly different, but in a hard-to-place way if you just saw one on the street.
Of course, the delicious, even subtler aspect of these PMC cars has long been their hand assembly, which is just plain unusual for cars not priced in the stratosphere. Like with past PMC Editions, we anticipate the TLX Type S version won’t break the bank, costing a few thousand bucks more than a regular one. Again, imagine someone paying just a little more for, say, a hand-built Ford F-150 or Honda Civic. It’s both weird and kind of, secretly, maybe cool. We’ll know final pricing and, likely, how limited production will be when the order books open for the TLX Type S PMC Edition later this year.