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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  Not Bad for a 1st time SUV owner - 2010 Acura RDX
  By Maria - December 11 - 3:47 pm

  I have owned this car since August 2009. I got it using the Cash for Clunkers program. I am overall pleased with the car. The gas mileage could be better but it is a 4cyl. turbo. I used to have only 6 cyl. vehicles and this car is faster than what I used to own. I wish we could use regular gas. It is fun to drive, handles the road well, great technology and love the heated seats. It suits the needs of my small family and I also did not want a large SUV being that this is the first time that I have owned an SUV.

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  Cheap (really!) components - 2003 Acura MDX
  By renman - December 11 - 11:56 am

  This is a great looking car IMHO. And I love driving it, Its got a ton of room and handles nicely. But... the quality of the internal parts... is just ridiculous. Cheap, cheap, cheap. Vents, seat heaters, switches, etc, etc. Parts that should last 5-6 years or longer (cuz they are just not used much) go out after 2-3 years. A slightly better component would cost pennies, add maybe 1/2% to the total price of the car to upgrade all the little things to be reliable. Going to think long and hard before I buy another Acura. Its sad, because other than ALL the little things breaking, its a great vehicle.

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  Expected More - 2007 Acura TL
  By Gary - December 10 - 9:38 pm

  This is a fun and extremely comfortable car to drive, however, I was disappointed overall and will be anxious to turn my car in when the lease is up. A $35K + car with tires that didnt make it to 30,000 miles, carpeting that came up and took four attempts to fix, and other minor problems that could never seemed to be fixed in just a day. I had to leave my car at the dealership for repair work for days at a time on more than one occasion. I will miss the drive but not the headaches.

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  Ecstatic About My New Car - 2005 Acura RL
  By Bruce H - December 10 - 2:56 pm

  After researching and driving the German cars in this class, I had no problem picking the 05 RL as my new car. It has everything the Germans have plus the reliability that they dont. Handling and the comfort of luxury features are as good as any other car available, and my family feels safe and secure no matter what the weather or road conditions.

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  Great Value and Great Look - Classy SUV - 2017 Acura RDX
  By Terttu - December 10 - 1:31 pm

  Lots of space in the back seat. Wish it would have real leather seats!!! Looks like leather but they are not real leather seats.

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  Timing belt issues with a 2009 MDX - 2009 Acura MDX
  By Enjay - December 10 - 1:16 pm

  My 2009 MDX with 3500+ miles has been taken to dealer 3 times in the last month. Once I had to get it towed to dealership. First time I was told that they was issue with poor quality Timing belt pulley. So timing belt got shredded. They had to replace them both. They took almost week to replace it. Within a day, 2009 MDX developed issue. This time there was an issue with Catalytic converter. They took another week to replace. Again within two days, "Check emission system" came up again. This time I was told they would have to replace another catalytic converter and also sub converters. This is putting a big question mark on Acura products. Quality?

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  2003 MDX - We like it. - 2003 Acura MDX
  By AC4 - December 9 - 2:00 am

  The MDX is quiet and a pleasure to drive and ride in. My mileage has been between 17 and 18 for mixed city driving. On the highway, I get around 22 in the foothills of NC, and around 24 in the Piedmont (a somewhat flatter area). So the mileage is not too bad for a 7 passenger SUV. Note that my highway speed was 70mph with the air conditioner turned off.

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  Very reliable, build performance car - 2003 Acura TL
  By deccan - December 9 - 2:00 am

  Except for exterior styling and average braking, the car is outstanding

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  I thought Acuras were good? - 2003 Acura TL
  By ShouldaBoughtaCaddy - December 8 - 9:23 pm

  Purchased car used with 90,000km on it. Tranny blew at 185km. Dealer wanted $6000 to replace it, not under warranty. Only under certain VINs were the trannys covered under warranty. Had a Honda Sabre (Japanese TL) tranny imported from Japan, installed for $3K, seems ok for now. The car is pretty quick. My V8 5.3L GMC Sierra get almost the same MPG. Repairs are expensive and front wheel drive cars are a pain to work on. Honda (Acura) has totally dropped the ball on this one. They have built their reputation on reliability and performance. What happened here Mr Honda? Ive had much better luck with my 95 Nissan, my 98 Civic and my 02 GMC Sierra. Shoulda bought a caddy!

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  I Love this car! - 2002 Acura RSX
  By RSX2002chicago - December 8 - 9:03 pm

  I bought my car new on October 8th, 2001. To date I have had only 1 problem with the car and that was a faulty O2 sensor at 79,000 miles. Thats it. Everything else has been routine maintenance( fluid flushes, filters, brakes, wipers). This car has been so reliable. Ive driven it to Texas and back and in the mountains in Colorodo near Longmont/ Estes park and back to Chicago. This car is super reliable. Handling is great. Steering feel is perfect. You cut the wheel and the car responds instantly. Perfectly weighted steering. Fuel economy is 30s highway, 24 to 26 city. Drops to 17 to 19 in the winter (idling/warm up).