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:

• 

  Very Displeased with Acura - 2008 Acura TL
  By dissapacuraownr - August 11 - 9:32 am

  I Purchased my new 2008 Acura Tl in July of 08. Loved the design and features. First issue with car - tire vibration at 50-60 mph. Performance Acura could not fix. Said it is normal for the car to shimmy. 3000k developed a timing belt chirp/chatter at idle. Acura service bulletin for timing belt issue -kept car for 2 weeks -did not fix noise. Now a 18000k still have timing belt noise now with loud whine during acceleration above 3k rpm. After 1 year of ownership dashboard has faded light grey/whitish from black. Hesitates in hot weather. Full of rattles. Have met Acura regional rep - no resolve. They do their best to ignore me. Warranty is useless.

• 

  Do Not BUY - 2003 Acura TL
  By john c - August 3 - 2:00 am

  I bought my 03 TL-TYPE S in June 2002. It has been in the shop 6 times. I purchased the vehicle overfilled by 2 quarts of transmission fluid. Acura said it was a common mistake. This is the fifth brand new Honda product I have purchased (and I am only 25). They have lost a loyal customer for life. I have talked to other customers while in the shop over the months. I have found that Acura does not have the reliability it claims. Its not worth the many trips to the shop and the stress. I would strongly caution anyone looking to purchase an Acura/Honda.

• 

  Big Letdown! - 2004 Acura TL
  By Mark - July 28 - 8:03 pm

  I bought this car new and was so excited. It is sharp, fast and nimble. My excitement quickly turned into a nightmare. From day one this car was a rattle trap, and in less than a week it was already back at the dealer. This car has spent 17 days in the shop since I have owned it. The bridgestone tires are terrible, and like other people writing reviews here the leather seats wear very quickly. I am so disappointed in acura. I expect better from a honda product. I seriously hope people read this review before buying this car. I wouldnt wish this nightmare on anyone else!!

• 

  Huge mistake! - 2009 Acura MDX
  By Jessie P - July 3 - 3:28 am

  Generally I buy cars based on my trust in a company. Ive owned a total of 6 Honda products (including Acura - TL), and all of them have been outstanding. This vehicle is a big disappointment!!! Where do I begin? I buy Honda products (and Japanese vehicles in general) for their bulletproof reliability, but Ive had numerous problems with this MDX - been to dealer 6 times! Electrical issues, and a Transmission issue, and some others....and the power/acceleration is very mediocre (300hp?? Yeah, right!), and the ENGINE is VERY NOISY and unrefined when accelerating!!! Shocking for a luxury vehicle. Terrible leather! Sound system, Nav and handling are the only good attributes of this vehicle.

• 

  15 TLX - It is not that "kind of thrill" - 2015 Acura TLX
  By westlx - May 29 - 5:37 pm

  Got a great deal on the TLX end of 2015 and only bought it due to getting thousands off sticker. I did not think the 1,000 off sticker was justified for this car after driving it earlier in the year. It does have a great smooth, quiet ride. The 4cyl has more than enough power with the 8speed DCT. It is nice having the rear cross and blind spot protection and it is a great highway cruiser getting around 35 on premium gas. Do not believe the dealer than you can run 87, well yeah you can but the engine knocks. So pros: Quiet ride, very nice ride over bumps etc, sound system is great and gas mileage is good for a car this size. Cons: 2,000 miles into owning the car noticed a crease in the headliner, not just a wrinkle as I thought. The headliner was broken, how did that pass QA? Dealer had to pull windshield out to put a new one in. Just great having a new car all ripped apart. This warranted 2 trips to the dealer, because it was not assembled 100% like new when I went to pick it up and they had to order more parts. Fit and finish inside is just ok, I would expect better for the luxury brand of Honda. Touch screen for hvac is just dumb, good I have LKAS cause you need it while changing the controls. Granted I knew this and thought I would get use to it, but give me knobs back please. Now my most recent issue is the car when sifting out of drive will not go into reverse, you have to play with the trans to get it to work. 50-75% of the time it wont go in reverse. On day one at the dealer I was told this never happened before. Now on day two being told it has happened before and it is a shift cable that is damaged. I asked what caused the damage and I was told Acura does not know. During this visit also asked to fox the rattle/vibration in the headliner. So much for no rattles after the car was ripped apart. Now to see how the panels are fitting after being ripped apart twice now. After the first time they certainly dont look like my loaner now where it is all neat and tight. And forget calling Acura Client Relations they are a joke. Person today was rude and told me they cannot do anything about these issues and that the dealer needs to address any complaints since they sold the car and each dealership is an independent business from Acura. Based on the call today, I guess Acura doesnt give a crap about the defects they put out from their production lines. I had some initial problems with my Jeep, and I have to say their customer service puts Acura to shame! Overall I want to like the car, but so far the ownership is not what I had expected from an Acura product. Go read consumer reports and check out what they are stating about the Acura brand this year before spending your hard earned money. Update: ending up selling the car. Around 8000 miles my seat seemed to break in, however where the seam is on the back by your lumbar area stayed firm. After driving. Ore than 2+ hrs it was like something was stabbing you in the back. I took some trips in my jeep, and bam my back was no longer sore. I tried to get two dealers to look at it and both said nothing was wrong with it. Ended up ditching it as I could not take it anymore.

• 

  Update after 9 months - 2008 Acura MDX
  By update after 9 month - May 28 - 11:38 pm

  MDX performs well and is a safe vehicle if you can start the vehicle! I have had mine in the shop for 20 days and Acura customer service is horrible! I have asked to speak to managers (who were worthless), called client services, and even wrote a letter to headquarters with no resolution. The Acura dealership gives me the run around with what exactly is wrong with the vehicle. First it was the battery (and tried blaming me for leaving lights on when they turn off themselves!), then the entertainment system, and now its the power tail gate! Dont spend good money on a company that doesnt care about satisfying a customer once the sale is made!

• 

  2002 Acura MDX Lemon - 2002 Acura MDX
  By mdxlemon - May 22 - 10:00 am

  On delivery MDX it had a rattle which came from dashboard area. Took in for service and car was at dealer an entire month (22 business days). Nav system also blacking out intermittently. Took back to Ryans acura for final repair under lemon law and rattle was fixed but not nav. I requested under lemon law that Acura give me a new vehicle and was flat out refused. They feel I should bring my car back over and over for service while getting a loaner car with no nav that is worth far less and drive around in that. Lemon lawsuit is being filed this week to bring Acura to justice for not complying with the lemon law. Acura just lost this customer.

• 

  beware of useless nav system - 2016 Acura MDX
  By al - May 21 - 8:39 am

  Navigation system is mostly useless..better off not paying for it and using Wavz

• 

  The BIGGEST MISTAKE of my life!! - 2008 Acura RDX
  By Justin N. - May 12 - 3:28 am

  Where do I start? Sure this vehicle is "fun to drive" and handles like a dream, and the interior is full of nifty features, like bluetooth, the Nav system and the phenomenal sound system. But thats about it!! Everything else about this vehicle is simply the worst. The turbo-4 is VERY NOISY when accelerating, and a good amount of ROAD NOISE enters the cabin. Very tiring on long highway drives!! FUEL ECONOMY is HORRENDOUS (about 15city/20hwy)- A huge disappointment for such a small 4-cylinder SUV!! (and for the most part I dont even drive very aggressively). I wish I could just return it and get something else!!

• 

  Questioning My Decision - 2009 Acura TL
  By Slack - May 10 - 10:02 am

  I just got my 2009 TL SH-AWD/TECH last week. I love the design and the gadgets, but I am really disappointed in the constant rattling each time I hit a bump. It sounds cheap and drives me crazy. I found out after purchase that this has been an issue with Honda/Acura cars for a while. As much as I like it, I am seriously considering selling the car if the dealer cant fix this. The ride, in general, is a little harder than I like.