2019 Acura ILX gets a makeover with more standard safety features

The 2019

Acura ILX

compact

luxury sedan

has finally been redesigned to fit the look introduced by the

TLX

and

RDX

. According to

Acura

, the entire nose from the A-pillar forward and the whole rear fascia have been changed. Up front the car has the pentagonal grille and angry LED lights that are Acura signatures, and they’re complemented by crisply creased sheetmetal across the rest of the car. The results are a far sportier, far less anonymous machine. The car will continue to be available in normal and A-Spec versions, with the latter consisting mainly of appearance items such as 18-inch wheels, dark trim and lights, and a rear spoiler.

Exterior enhancements are the primary change to the new

ILX

. The interior is nearly unchanged except the A-Spec has some stylish sport seats similar to those in the

RDX

A-Spec. Acura also says the infotainment system has been upgraded to be faster, and it has fresh graphics and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility. But this is not

the system found in the completely new RDX

, just an updated version of the current infotainment.

The last big upgrade to the ILX is the inclusion of the complete AcuraWatch suite of safety features on all ILX models. This includes automatic emergency braking, lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control and road departure mitigation.

Aside from these changes, the ILX is still pretty much the same as the old one. Under the skin is the same naturally aspirated 201-horsepower 2.4-liter four-cylinder as the current model. It’s still coupled to an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission and powers solely the front wheels. The 2019 ILX goes on sale in October, but pricing has not yet been announced.

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