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:

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  My last Acura - 2004 Acura TL
  By Tom C - September 24 - 8:25 pm

  This is my 5th and last Acura. Although they have a lot of nice comforts, I am becoming less and less enamored with the basic car design. The trunk is poorly hinged, has leaked, and the dealer cant find the leak. The back seat ripped when I put in a child seat and the dealer says it isnt a defect. The seat belt configuration in the back makes it very difficult for booster seats. The paint is peeling form the rear bumper.

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  Stylish but not good - 2005 Acura TL
  By Bruce Theus - September 18 - 2:16 pm

  I purchased the TL about 8 months ago after owning a 2000 RL and was initially impressed with its fun to drive performance. However after a few months the ride turned harsh and bone jarring, There are sometimey rattles occurring throughout the interior that cant be pin pointed and wind noise is pronounced. There is a blind spot on the drivers side that I cant seem to adjust too. At the rate that rattles are occurring I am sure that I will have to get rid of it before I reach 25m miles. While the car looks good and is fun to drive better quality can be had in a Honda Accord. Acura is on the right track but this car does not have the quality that I have been used to with Acura.

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  No you cant have it!! - 1995 Acura Legend
  By ken church - September 16 - 5:53 pm

  Bought this car 6 months ago and it has been absolutley superb! Great reliability, really good performance for an auto, great sound from the engine and great looks. I probably wont give this car up any time soon. wish it got better fuel economy but it makes up for it in acceleration. CHICKS DIG THE CAR.

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  Running the tranny - 2002 Acura TL
  By Nancy - September 16 - 4:16 pm

  I love driving my acura. I step on the gas and it feels like someone tapped the back of the car as it takes off smoothly and very quickly. I have had the car 5 yrs and many highway miles. Very comfortable, best car I have had. Feel safe and quick in traffic. Mechanically it has been not so fun. Lots of transmission problems. I have had to replace the tranny several times, Acura took care of the expense. Had difficulty with brakes wearing quickly, but think I found better pads now. Car has plenty of room, yet not too big. I love the Aegean blue, lots of compliments.

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  Great TL but has some flaws - 2006 Acura TL
  By CPT Keanu - September 15 - 10:59 pm

  Bought in July performs flawlessly on freeway. Quiet & very comfortable love the XM on desolate roads. Awesome highway mileage @ 31mpg going 75+mph! Great exterior & bi-xenons are invaluable. Love the interior blue hue color. To contrast its great features, in city its different. Must drive very very conservative to get decent mpg. Suspension rough over hard surfaces. Steering not responsive like TSX. Been to dealer 6 times driver window rattling, trunk latch inop, headliner sagging took 3 attempts to fix! Now rough idle @ startup & weird idle fluxuations! Our many loaner TSXs are tempting us. Our 99 TL was made better. Never had rattling noises or tranny issues even at 160k what a car.

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  Bad gas mileage - 2007 Acura RDX
  By Alex Harris - September 15 - 12:50 am

  The gas mileage on this car is horrific. The EPA is 19/23 but thus far we have had no tank higher than 13 MPG and our average is 12.8 MPG. I took the car to the dealer and they said that "the gas mileage on the RDX isnt great". Wow is that an understatement. If I had known that the mileage would be this bad I would never have purchased this car. The car is great otherwise, but it only takes premium gasoline and the gas costs are now more than double my prior car (a V6 Honda Accord). I am really disappointed that Acura put this car out with such bad gas mileage and theres no way out now, I estimate that my additional annual gas costs will be about $2500 per year, which is insane.

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  Better than my 3 grand cherokees - 2003 Acura MDX
  By george ganem - September 13 - 11:32 pm

  I have always been pleased with owning this vehicle compared to my previous three grand cherokees. There seems to be less driver compartment room than the jeeps, but the ride is much smoother and quieter. Gas economy is better in the acura. Always felt the acura is a step up from most other suvs. Being 64" tall, many other suv models are more crowded in the drivers area.

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  WARNING to driving enthusiasts - 2006 Acura TL
  By enthusiast3 - September 12 - 7:00 pm

  I sure wish I had test driven this car more before buying it. I just traded in my 2006 6 speed TL with only 5,900 miles on it. This car is really nice in some ways and I possibly would have kept it if I had bought it with an automatic, but it definitely is not a "drivers" car. I really wanted to like this car, Ive owned two Accords and two Integras, all of which were great cars w/manual transmissions. I went so far as to replace the stock all season tires with summer only tires and I even thought long and hard about buying the A-Spec suspension, which you can find on e-bay now. I was prepared for a little torque steer, but not for the complete lack of involvement.

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  Comfort, Class, & Honda Reliable - 2006 Acura TL
  By DCE - September 9 - 2:27 pm

  My wife needed to replace her aging Jag so we went looking and she drove a 2 year old Acura TL with 47K that was in dealers lot. It was as sturdy as rock - no squeaks, rattles, or signs of aging. And the very best Nav System on any car Ive seen. After driving the competitors, we returned to the dealer and bought a brand new TL. After 5 months, no problems, no regrets. Im the sportscar type (S2000) but I keep finding reasons to drive the Acura. Just wish it was RWD - on hard acceleration from very low speed I can feel the torque steer. Other than that, no complaints.

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  TSX fast car with poor gas mileage - 2005 Acura TSX
  By john - September 8 - 5:04 pm

  Very poor gas mileage on the first half tank of gas. Can burn 1/2 tank of gas in 1 day just doing local driving.