#AcuraRSX

Honda announced a recall today affecting over 13,000 Acura RSX compact cars and roughly 5,000 Honda S2000 sports cars.

Rumors of a new compact luxury sedan by Acura have been confirmed with recent spy photos of a “sub-TSX” model.

When the Acura TSX first went on sale in North America it broke with convention, proving a luxury sports sedan could not only use a 4-cylinder, but also be front-wheel drive. Having grown in size since then it’s lost some of its charm.

On of the largest growth areas in the auto industry is the premium compact segment. Acura had it all locked-down with the Integra and then the RSX and then made the foolish move to axe the car.

JDM fanboys and Honda lovers everywhere are sure to wince at the above photo, showing yet another side to the devastating Japanese tsunami.

Before most automakers had any interest in the compact premium segment, Acura launched the Integra, and then the RSX. A car that was perhaps ahead of its time, the RSX is set to make a comeback.

The recession may prove to be a saving grace for Acura, which was forced to cancel its plan to be a tier-one luxury automaker as resources and the market for such vehicles dried up. “The direction we were going became irrelevant within 60 days,” said Steve Center, marketing boss for American Honda in a recent interview with Automotive News.

While we’ve heard several rumors before that Acura is reconsidering getting into smaller cars, a new report by Automotive News is the most credible yet. According to AN, Jeff Conrad, the VP of Acura confirmed at a recent dealer meeting that the brand is looking at expanding its lineup with a new vehicle that would slot in underneath the TSX. While there’s some speculation that Acura would bring the Canadian CSX (essentially a rebadged and gussied-up Civic) to the U.S., the report says this new model would compete against the BMW 1 Series, Audi A3 and Volvo C30. It would also help Acura meet increasingly strict CAFE regulations.

Rumors have surfaced that Acura is planning to get back into the entry-level luxury segment, with a possible RSX successor coming in 2012. The new model would reportedly be based on the next generation Honda Civic which is due out in 2011 and would compete with vehicles like the BMW 1 Series, Audi A3 and Volvo C30 in the growing premium compact segment.