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 Legend - 1992 Acura Legend
  By Joe A - December 9 - 10:13 pm

  My Legend has been very good to me. Always get compliments on it, even when its dirty. Have had normal mechanical problems, changed belts, front brakes, overheated radiator at 150,000 miles, but besides that, the car has been a pleasure to ride in, Vigors are also nice cars.

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  It costs how much to fix?!?! - 1997 Acura CL
  By McKenzieint - December 9 - 6:28 pm

  I bought the car used with 89,000 on it. Ive owned it since 2001 and now have 174,000. Had to replace the transmission at 150,000 ($2700) the window motors have gotten slow, but the sunroof still seems to be like new. The EGR has set off the Check engine light, the ABS light comes on and stays on, and the SRS light for the airbags has been on since about 3 months after I bought it. Ive checked in to fixing these items and I might as well buy a new one.

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  Little TL - 2004 Acura TSX
  By dj1billion - December 7 - 5:57 pm

  Great car, if you desire something good on gas,strong performer,great looking and you can get it fully loaded inc. Nav. all for under $30,000. WOW!!!!Now thats BANG for your Buck!!!

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  Great car but where is the Honda reliability - 2002 Acura TL
  By Honda owner - December 2 - 1:26 am

  This is a great car with some quality control issues. Transmission is not the greatist thing, mine is starting to slip and car only has 22k on it. Other problems is it took the dealer four tries to figure out why my sunroof was rattling, finally they replaced the entire thing, no problems since. Engine is excellent. Comfort is great. Gas mileage could be better. I get around 19 in the city. I wish the car was rear wheel drive because there is occasionally too much torque steer. Otherwise great car.

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  great - 2003 Acura MDX
  By asgoldstei - December 1 - 10:00 am

  It is a great experience to have this lovable SUV in our garage!

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  Dont buy a 02...buy an 03 - 2002 Acura TL
  By TL - Tranny - November 28 - 11:09 am

  The Acura TL Type-S is a great sport sedan. Acura has had a hard time with the 02 transmissions. Its a specific range of VIN numbers and if your car falls with in...there is an expected chance of problems with your vehicle. Mine is one of them. Not only do I have one of these cars but 2 and they both exhibit the same qualities. To make the story short, Im on my 4th trasmission and its due for the next. You come to recognize the signs! The talk I have heard from my countless visits to my dealer is the 03 have had no problems. I will say the car has never left me stranded, but I have had to push it out of parking spots because of no "Reverse."

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  ILX 2016 model - 2016 Acura ILX
  By Fran - November 20 - 2:31 am

  This car is great! The ride is snug and very quiet. The only major complaint is storage space within car. My last acura, i had storage in the middle compartment, doors, and behind seats. It doesnt have an overhead storage for glasses either. Besides those minor challenges, the car handles great, i havent really openned it up, i just reached 1500 miles on it. I am happy with the car, acura makes very good products, look forward to enjoy car for a long time

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  Classy yes, Sporty no - 1998 Acura RL
  By SFRL - November 16 - 7:12 pm

  I owned a Legend before purchasing my 98 RL CPO in 11/02. Very different car. Legend was much sportier, the RL is positively laid back, with a classier ride. This is a large car that likes to cruise on the highway, not hustle through curvy back roads. Durability of Acura interior materials, leather especially, has always amazed me. Mine still looks new. This is great used car value given the high initial depreciation and excellent reliability.

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  00 gsr - 2000 Acura Integra
  By Aj - November 11 - 4:51 pm

  Overall the GS-R is a very practical car to live with. There is enough room for two adults in the back but I would advise against it. The performance is adequate. Compared to the cars available in 2004 it is lacking. However if you know anything about GS-Rs you know that the B18C has more than enough aftermarket support. The year 2000 is when honda/acura switched to OBD-II version 2. Some of the parts that work for the older GS-Rs do not work for this one. If I could do it over again I would buy a 96-99 GS-R for that reason.

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  Great Car..But! - 2004 Acura TSX
  By Tone6274 - November 7 - 10:00 am

  Got this car now a little over 2 weeks now. First off, VSA is great. you can go around curves with very little body roll. The engine is o.k. Having come from a V6 Accord, I have to admit I am missing the V6. Exterior and Interior is sporty and it is evident there is a quality craftmanship on the car. The ride is bumpy. You feel all the bumps..at least compared to the 2000 V6 Honda Accord. What this car really needs to compete with the BMW or Audi is the VTEC V6..but then again there is the TL for that.