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:

• 

  Its all youll ever need - 1997 Acura CL
  By DJR - February 12 - 1:40 pm

  I bought my CL 3.0 with around 70,000 miles on it...it currently has 160,000 miles now, and is just as strong as its ever been. Ive seen many reports of 97 models still running great in the 300k+ range. Its been as trouble free as our 2002 Accord. Replaced window motor, and brakes once. It has the reliability of any typical Honda, the luxury of a Lexus, the comfort of a lazy-boy and plenty of power, which we all like. The seats are roomy, and 2 adults can sit in the back without being too cramped. The Bose sound system has a decent quality sound. The 200 HP Vtech is fast and fun to drive but stepping on the pedal comes at a price. Unlike the Accords and Civics, it doesnt have the best MPG.

• 

  Excellant Mid size lexuary SUV - 2010 Acura MDX
  By Harilal - February 11 - 11:06 pm

  I purchased Acura 2010 MDX a week ago. So far it is a great SUV, fun to drive, sporty but very comfortable handling,good stability on the road, luxurious and spacious. Got it for 2.9% promotional APR, so a great deal. Absolutely love this car and very happy with professional dealeship. Wish it had a better MPG.

• 

  Legend LS Coupe Still Great after 15 YRS - 1995 Acura Legend
  By ronshelby - February 10 - 5:44 pm

  My 1995 Legend LS Coupe still looks and drives like a new car. No fluid leaks, no problems, and no complaints. Love cruising in it when Im home. Too bad Honda hasnt ever built a replacement for it. The Legend Coupe is still a great car and the Bose Stereo remains wonderful.

• 

  Excellent SUV - 2010 Acura MDX
  By rajeshn - February 10 - 12:51 pm

  Purchased new, dealership delivered to home. Normal size from outside excellent finish, pointy front grill very spacious from inside love all the advance features adaptive cruise is really good. Traveled to Florida total 1600 miles no issues with comfort or reliability unlike the space shuttle. The blind spot indicator is excellent as is the comfort setting of the ride. On returning home 1 foot of snow and the vehicle got stuck in it. Called Acura 800 number was told to call back after 2 hours if condition was same no immediate help available. A BMW X5 parked adjacent to my acura and I was unable to identify my SUV till I noticed the fuel filler on the wrong side. Heatsoundnav excel

• 

  Great car overall - 2006 Acura RSX
  By Honda Guy - February 9 - 4:57 pm

  Great car overall. A few minor set backs. Water would leak into the rear taillights before update was performed. The sunroof is extremely loud and sends hurricane winds into the car when open since it opens outward and not into the body. Your rear passengers will hate that Special feature but its funny. Due to these cars stiff sport suspension they do rattle a lot since they are rough over bumps, small bumps are the worst. Now for the good stuff. By far the most fun car Ive ever owned. Always fun, always exciting from day 1 to day 1275. The ride feels very stable and secure. Power: your friends wont believe its only a 4 cylinder. As a Honda employee for over 9 years this is a great car.

• 

  Love it - 2006 Acura MDX
  By Florida driver - February 8 - 9:08 pm

  Love it. Bought used in 09 with 40k miles...lease turn in. Was supposed to be certified but found the Onstar button didnt work. Brought to dealership and they fixed...no problem. Great ride, gets 19mpg on hwy and DVD system with bose speakers is great. Nav can get washed out with sunlight or open sunroof though. Expensive to upgrade to newer version. No other problems to speak of. Loaded the back with work gear and seemed to set the back down a bit.

• 

  185,000 Miles and still going strong! - 2004 Acura MDX
  By jms112997 - February 8 - 11:48 am

  Ive owned just about everything, this is the best vehicle I have owned. I still get about 19mpg mixed approaching 200k miles. Ordered it new, all options. Followed all major services thus far. There are not many vehicles out there that can go 2 car seats and a booster wide, have great cargo capacity, handles like a sedan, AWD (fantastic in the Michigan snow), and get great gas mileage, oh and the reliability: Ive replaced one light bulb, one tail lightbulb and thats it. It has been in 3 different small accidents and just keeps going. Highly recommend anything honda/acura.

• 

  Shift Up - 2010 Acura TSX
  By maturedriver - February 7 - 9:47 pm

  First time driving a 6-speed manual. The torque and gear match seems to be pushing the driver to shifting up quickly. That is, the car seems to be over powered and over torqued for each of the gear ratio. While this is a manual shift car, it seems to be a manual shift car in an artificial construct.

• 

  STAY AWAY - 2005 Acura TL
  By KingTMO - February 6 - 6:41 pm

  I purchased this car used with 79000 miles which i did not see as a problem as the time because I owned a 00 Honda Accord that I purchased with high miles. 1 month after the purchase everything went down hill..rattling through the car - power seats stop working - calipers going bad and grinding the rotors. I have really lost respect for Honda I am just waiting to be done with Honda and get a Fusion.

• 

  Car For the Snow - 2010 Acura TL
  By John VE - February 6 - 12:22 am

  I live in the North West and needed a vehicle which could handle traveling through the Columbia Gorge with icy conditions. I tried to read other reviews to check out the handling, but nothing was to specific. I equipped the car with studded snow tires all around. Ive never experienced anything so incredible. I decided to test the handling on a vacant parking lot on Mt. Bachelor. With 5inches of snow on the ground, I floored the accelerator. It was awesome. No slippage, and it took off at an amazing speed. When I did the same with braking, absolutely rock solid in a straight line. The only scary part is not really knowing the limits. It almost challenges you to explore the limits.