Acura's Precison Concept is weirdly beautiful up close

Acura's concept car at this year's Detroit Auto Show, the Precision Concept, is basically a textbook for Acura's new design language, which means you're going to see many of the elements on this car in new, real Acura models in the very near future.

It's good news, then, that the Precision Concept looks kind of great.

The proportions of the car lend it a "four-door coupe" feel in the same vein as cars like the Mercedes-Benz CLS and BMW 6 Gran Coupe: long and low. The rear suicide doors almost certainly won't make it to production — nor will the "floating" rear seats that are supported by buckets connected to the side sills — but many of the interior elements will, including the center-mounted touchpad that "floats" above the center console (it's only connected to the console on the top, not the bottom, which gives it that floating feel). And while I can't vouch for how good this new infotainment UI is, but I'm always game for a giant, curved display like the one found here.

As striking as the exterior of this car is, it somehow looks less controversial in person than you might expect; it's even less controversial, I think, than Acura's terrible "shield" grilles of the last decade. And that was just a grille — this is an entire car, fitted with bold and strange design decisions from front to back. Acura needed boldness and a little weirdness, and with this concept, they got it.

I'm expecting we'll see real Acuras start to look like this before the year's out.