Overview & Reviews

Acura is an upscale automaker known for offering cars with impressive levels of luxury, features and performance. It's come a long way in a short time, however, as the history of Acura is relatively brief. Parent company Honda introduced the Acura brand to the U.S. market in 1986 in an effort to create a separate luxury division for its products. At first, it was just a two-car show: the Legend sedan, which was the first true Japanese luxury car sold in America, and the Integra sport coupe and sedan.

Though essentially a marketing creation for the North American market, the Acura brand was immediately successful. Consumers liked the features, performance and upscale image of Acura cars, along with the fact that Acuras were backed by Honda's reputation for reliability and low ownership costs. In 1991, Acura introduced its crown jewel: the all-aluminum NSX sports car, which offered performance close to that of other exotic cars while undercutting them in price.

As Acura's product line grew in the 1990s, however, the company struggled a bit. Some of its products were duds, and it risked alienating loyal customers when it replaced the Legend and Integra names with alphanumeric designations. The company jumped on the hot luxury SUV bandwagon in the mid-'90s with the SLX. Unfortunately, the SLX was just a rebadged version of an Isuzu SUV, and its quality did not match customers' expectations.

For the new millennium, Acura revamped its product range. An all-new SUV called the MDX debuted, sporting numerous family-friendly features, including a third-row seat. The Integra was replaced with the RSX sport coupe, and an all-new entry-level sport sedan called the TSX was introduced after that. A complete redesign of its most popular model, the midsize TL sedan, followed, as did a redesign of its flagship RL luxury sedan.

By mid-decade the NSX was gone, but Acura filled out its model lineup with the street-performance-oriented RDX compact crossover, the TSX wagon and the ZDX, a fastback-styled crossover that placed unique styling over practicality. Today Acura is still trying to find its ideal niche but there's no denying the quality of Acura's vehicles, nor their appealing mix of performance, technology and value.

User Reviews:

• 

  Got A Lemon - 2007 Acura TL
  By 2007 TL - May 31 - 9:58 pm

  In first 11 months car was back to the dealer for 34 business days for repairs. While the car has some zip, many problems have plagued this car. Engine would not turn over 3x and have replaced 3 batteries due to short in Hands Free Link and took dealer 2 times to correct the problem. Car alarm chip has been replaced 2x as alarm goes off randomly. Trunk latch has broken 2x and replaced by the dealer. Car handles well in warm weather but does not handle snow well at all. Expected a better experience for the price I paid for the vehicle.

• 

  Stay away from the RL... not worth it - 2008 Acura RL
  By jcshma - May 17 - 2:28 am

  Bought the RL Tech pacakge. 2nd day noticed major quality problems. Rattling noise from all over the place. Owning the car for 6 weeks so far and several parts are replaced. Windshield and headliners are all taken apart due to major manufacturing defect. Honda corporate really doesnt care about customers, the only thing they care is talk nicely, but no action to solve issues.

• 

  Its An Acura (YAWN). - 2008 Acura TL
  By AcuraOwner - April 16 - 1:26 pm

  Traded in my Lexus 330RX for the Acura TL. Thus far, the car has proven to be a rattle box. Center console rattles. Driver side windows rattle. Have had it back to dealer twice already to fix the problem. Basically, this car makes me miss the luxury and quality of my Lexus and makes me feel Acura is the company for those who cannot afford a Lexus, BMW, or Benz. Plus, in retrospect, I purchased a car whose style has been the same for what seems to be two decades now. Its outdated. At best, I am hopeful this car will be dependable because its nothing special to drive nor look at.

• 

  Red Lemon - 2004 Acura TSX
  By Ken Clancy - March 13 - 3:02 pm

  I bought a red TSX and the paint has now deteriorated so that there are pinkish/white blotches all over the car. Acura dealer has been less than helpful and corporate customer service are running for cover. I had a new clutch put in at 60K old one stopped working. RPM have improved 20% at highway speeds, nobody can explain why this is the case. I think it is because the clutch has been slipping since i got the car, new.

• 

  Waste of money - 2008 Acura RDX
  By Tom - February 23 - 8:01 pm

  Definitely not worth 33,000 dollars. No leg room for back seats. No auto turn on/off of headlights. Rough riding. Opening the driver door after a drive will not open the back door. You have to use either the remote or the door button to open the back doors. Bad fuel economy. Wish there was atleast a beep sound when you back up to walls or curb (expect that for cars over 30000). Tom

• 

  Look elsewhere - 2007 Acura RDX
  By Chuck W. - February 16 - 11:39 pm

  Acura is a luxury brand, but this is not a worthy model. Its quick and sporty with a stiff ride. But gas mileage was terrible and we had to replace the front brakes and rotors every 5000 miles. We never felt like it did anything well. If you drove it as a sports SUV with paddle shifters, you paid at the pump and in maintenance. Also, missing some key features at this price including automatic headlights, driver memory settings and iPod interface.

• 

  Missed the mark - 2006 Acura TL
  By David Jenks - December 29 - 8:53 am

  AS an owner of a 2002 TL I cant begin to tell you how disapointed I am in the 2006 model. If your a big fan of chep leather, plastic and tin you will love the interior. The ride is poor the performance disapointing. When compared to the 2002.

• 

  The vehicle thats gone from great to a total dud - 2016 Acura MDX
  By Peter K. - December 6 - 1:48 am

  I hardly ever write any reviews but figured I just had to do one on this vehicle. I owned a 2010 MDX Tech, which was a great car, that unfortunately got flooded during Hurricane Sandy. Then, I got an ML350 and when the lease was up, we decided that we needed another 7-seat vehicle. So, as wed already had an MDX before, we figured we couldnt go wrong with that one, right? Wrong! The first thing I noticed on my drive home from the dealership is that the car becomes ridiculously jerky while in traffic. The new 9-speed transmission just doesnt work well for daily city driving or when youre stuck in traffic on a highway. If you live in a rural area, chances are youll never experience this. But if youre in traffic every day, well... youve been warned. Ive adjusted my driving style since then and learned that switching IDS to "Comfort" makes it a little better. The problem, however, never went away and the dealer refused to acknowledge its existence despite the fact that Acura message boards are filled with similar complaints (I should have read those before I got the car). Then, theres the touch screen. Its very slow with a non-intuitive interface. Ive had it lock up several times while selecting a route. Ive always played my music from a USB flash drive and this is another area where this car is a total disaster. Once music is on, you cant switch tracks until the cars MP3 system is done reading the whole drive. So, it takes about 2-3 minutes in my case before I can switch songs or select another album/artist. It could be my flash drive but its the same one I used on the 2010 and ML350 - worked flawlessly there. We have two car seats installed in the second row (one behind the drivers seat and another in the middle). Its impossible to pull down the remaining second row seat and access the third row when theres a car seat in the middle. I had no problem doing that in the ML (needed the remaining seat pulled down sometimes to transport my bicycle). Finally, theres the cargo net or lack thereof. I kept the cargo net from the 2010 and was able to easily install it on the ML. I figured it would also fit on the 2016 MDX. Wrong again! Acura has changed that as well.

• 

  traded for a Audi Q7 - 2007 Acura MDX
  By jadladrad - October 10 - 2:38 pm

  First and probably my last Acura. Big Honda fan so had high expectations that were not met. I liked the styling and it was fun to drive but overall the build quality and use of cheap materials got tiresome.

• 

  Be careful of roof - 2007 Acura RDX
  By CB - September 10 - 2:11 pm

  We bought a new RDX two months ago and now have been hit with a $4,500 bill to repair the roof’s “complete collapse.” We mounted a bike rack on the roof, virtually identical to the one Acura sells as an RDX accessory. My son got on the roof to make sure that the bikes were placed in the rack properly – just like we’ve done on other cars we’ve owned with bike racks. This turned out to be a giant mistake, even though Acura never states anywhere that you shouldn’t do this. This time though the weak, badly- designed Acura roof “collapsed.” Acura will not cover this huge expense – so much for customer service. My advice: don’t buy this car especially if you’re putting something on the roof.