At its core, the 2016 Acura ILX will always be a fancy version of the Honda Civic->ke236, but Acura->ke10 has gone to great lengths in the latest model year to put as much distance as possible between the economy-minded Honda and Acura’s entry-level sedan->ke142. Acura has left no stone unturned in updating the 2016 ILX, and the most important change may have been moving production to Honda's->ke34 plant in Marysville, OH, which began rolling the new ILX off the line earlier this week.

If for nothing else, Acura can now boast that the ILX sedan is built in the same plant as Honda’s best-selling Accord->ke237, the all-new Acura TLX->ke4779 sedan and – by the end of this year – the long-awaited Acura NSX->ke307. That said, it’s not just the new assembly plant that Acura is counting on to improve this car. Acura also the 2016 model a refreshed exterior with a more current design language, a more advanced and more efficient powertrain, and a more refined interior, which are all elements luxury buyers demand.

In addition to kicking off the production of the reworked 2016 ILX, Acura is also celebrating key sales and production milestones by announcing that it has now built and sold two million North American-made vehicles in the U.S. since 1995 – the year Acura began building the CL at Honda’s East Liberty, OH plant. Last year, however, a full 94 percent of Acura’s U.S. sales came from vehicles that were made in America – a number that will improve in 2015. After the cancellation of the TSX->ke275, the only curent Acura product not produced in the U.S. is the Japan-built RLX->ke4673 sedan.

Click past the jump to read more about the 2016 Acura ILX.

Why it matters

The revised Acura ILX was introduced at the 2014 LA Auto Show with fresher styling that now includes Acura’s signature Jewel Eye LED headlights and a sporty new A-Spec styling package. The ILX also received the new direct-injected, 2.4-liter, four-cylinder engine introduced in last year's TLX as well as the TLX’s eight-speed, dual-clutch automatic transmission.

Pricing has yet to be announced, but the EPA-rated fuel economy is now estimated at 25 mpg city and 36 mpg highway, which are big improvements over both drivetrain configurations of the 2015 ILX. The 2016 ILX goes on sale in February.

2016 Acura ILX