The Dallas Morning News Terry Box Column

The last Acura I brought home singed the walls of my old garage with a face that could peel paint. Its garish grille resembled a Jack Nicholson smirk twisted into a grimace — and then nickel-plated. The car’s angry, glaring projector headlamps, meanwhile, looked like something that had fallen off the Death Star. I felt as if I were harboring a slightly psychotic mercenary. I don’t remember much about the second Acura I got, other than it had a jumble of indecipherable letters on its trunk and appeared to be a Civic in a garage-sale suit. So when I heard I would be getting a 2016 Acura RLX Sport Hybrid, I knew it would be, uh, unique — and boy, it was. Think of the RLX as the anti-Prius. When Toyota spent billions to engineer the complex Prius gas-electric hybrid, it aimed for high economy and low emissions, both honorable goals. But the Prius is almost as exciting as watching a seniors square dance — and I can tell you, I fall asleep in my chair every Saturday afternoon waiting for my chance to do-si-do onto the rec center floor. Not only is the RLX more complex, it offers vastly more smiles per gallon than the Hush-Puppy Prius. And best of all, I didn’t have to park it in a dark corner somewhere, away from children and small dogs. Rather than relying on meat-cleaver styling, the new RLX leans heavily on unusual engineering to lift it above other midsize luxury sedans. How about a V-6 engine combined with three — yes, three — electric motors? That’s a hybrid with a gun in every pocket, though the silver-blue RLX I had recently didn’t look very sinister. The big sedan kept Acura’s basic, familiar-shaped grille but flashed a shiny, easy grin, bordered by wild, reptilian-looking headlamps. Although the sides were Japanese flat, a couple of high-stepping character lines gave the car some quirk. One fairly conventional line above the door handles formed a slight shoulder, while a second whoop-de-do line zipped off the front fender, curving down below the first line and fading into the rear fender. Long doors and a high trunk added more visual substance to the car, which seemed to draw styling influences from Subaru, Toyota and BMW — the equivalent of mixing Red Bull with Patron tequila.Read more on NewsOK.com