China’s Created The Acura Pickup That Honda Won’t

Honda makes pickup trucks. Honda also makes Acuras. Acura won’t make a pickup. But China’s got that covered.

What you’re looking at here isn’t a pickup version of the Acura MDX, but rather the Gold Cup S70. The four-door, double-cab pickup, made in China, features a pickup bed in the back, and the shield-style grille that Acura embraced for years but has since abandoned.

The interior looks rather Acura-like as well, with two-tone upholstery, multifunction steering wheel, and a big infotainment screen protruding from the dashboard to block the driver’s field of vision.

Word has it that the truck comes powered by a 1.5-liter turbocharged engine, sending 154 horsepower and 162 lb-ft of torque through a manual transmission.

That’s a fair bit less than you’d find in either the MDX or the Honda Ridgeline. Both feature (in their standard spec) a 3.5-liter V6 producing around 280-290 horsepower and 260+ lb-ft of torque. But the MDX isn’t available as a pickup, and the Ridgeline isn’t sold as an Acura.

Though it hasn’t here, Acura wouldn’t be the first luxury automaker to delve into the pickup market. Lincoln produced the Blackwood and Mark LT. Cadillac offered the Escalade EXT based on the Chevy Avalanche. And Mercedes offers the X-Class (in certain markets) based on the Renault Alaskan/Nissan Navara.

Somehow we don’t see Honda following suit anytime soon, especially considering that neither Toyota’s Lexus nor Nissan’s Infiniti brands compete in that market. But if there’s anything we’ve learned about this business, it’s that you can never say never.