When it comes to buying a luxury car most of us imagine that it’s out of our price range, and don’t even bother to look at the sticker prices. The dealership price for a new Acura ILX might surprise you though, especially when you realize that this car is kind of a hidden gem. Acura seems to be the underdog when it comes to buying luxury, while everyone is focused on Audi and BMW, Acura is still designing beautiful and affordable cars, and you might be missing out on them.

The Acura ILX is unexpected luxury

With a starting price of just $25,900, you’d be shocked to realize which car on the lot you are looking for. Even from the outside the ILX is modern, aggressive, and takes headlight styling from the manufacturer’s flagship car. Just by looking at this luxury sedan, you’d have no idea how affordable it really is. Even the most expensive trim level compares to much lower model cars, with a full-equipped price of $31,780 — and that’s just for the brand new ones.

All of your safety features are either standard or optional, with forward-collision warning, automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assistance, and adaptive cruise control all including in even the base-model ILX. Other features like blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic warnings are available as additional options. Along with safety, the ILX is notoriously reliable and it gets pretty decent gas mileage with an average of 28mpg.

If you are expecting an exhilarating driving experience, however, you may find yourself disappointed after a test drive. The improvements to the engine and handling did very little to give this car any type of sporty drivability, but for the price, we might be okay with the sacrifice. There isn’t anything necessarily wrong with the car’s acceleration or handling either, there just isn’t anything notable.

Luxury inside and out

The interior of the Acura ILX won’t leave you disappointed either, with a comfortable and well-designed cabin space this car gives you all of the quality it can afford within its reasonable pricing. The dashboard is well-trimmed and modern, adding small touches to make the car feel more high-end and expensive.

The leather-wrapped seats are comfortable and well-padded, and the colored material and stitching line the door panels for a nice, soft-touch feeling. The interior is still decked with a lot of your standard plastic pieces, buttons, and knobs, but it mixes alright with the few luxurious choices made by the brand to give it a little bit of an edge.

There are some pros and cons of buying the Acura ILX, and if you’re looking to downgrade from a higher-end luxury sedan you might be left disappointed. If you’re comparing it to other cars of the same price rather than other luxury cars, however, the ILX stands its ground. Even better, you won’t just be another 2020 Honda Civic romping around on the roads.