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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  I Love My Acura - 2003 Acura CL
  By fun - October 22 - 2:00 am

  I love this car. It was one of many that i test drove, and i just fell in love with it... It is worth every penny!!!!

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  Best bang for luxury-SUV-buying buck! - 2003 Acura MDX
  By VP - October 22 - 2:00 am

  Compared to Volvo XC90 AWD T6, BMW X5 (3.0), the Acura MDX clearly outshines them. For less than $37K you get a loaded luxury SUV with better performance and reliability. The BMW and Volvo serve the brand image buyers who have more dollars than sense. Acura is for the smart buyers who want the most for their money.

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  Need more HP - 1998 Acura Integra
  By FLorlDUDE - October 17 - 2:00 am

  ALthough I love the car, I wish it had more horsepower. The car is extremely reliable! It is not as fun to drive as the R type! Get the R!!!!! or get a Maxima with 260 horses. This car is an excellent choice for a small economy car...And I love it for that reason. But if you have a need for speed and relaibility, my first choice would be the Maxima!!! or the R type!!! It is the most reliable car for the price! Never had a problem with it. (90,000 miles).

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  Shake, rattle and roll - 2005 Acura TL
  By go_mdx - October 14 - 8:40 pm

  Ive had this car for nearly a year now. The car performs very well and the interior noise level has been a pleasant surprise. Gas mileage has been "ok". Overall, however, Ive had a fair number of disappointments. First day I got the car, the hood would not shut properly. Worst of all, the car shakes when I go above 55mph when the tires are cold. Rear leather seat had to be replaced at 3000 miles due to excessive wear marks. Due to all of these quality issues, I ended up keeping my much older Nissan Maxima. Hopefully, Acura will iron out these kinks in the next few years.

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  Noisy - 1999 Acura RL
  By Cwill - October 13 - 2:00 am

  After 3 years of driving this car I will be delighted to try something else. I have owned several Acuras and this is the first disappointment. For a car of this quality, the road noise has been a problem that has defied new tires and multiple trips to the dealer. My daughters TL is much quieter. The GPS system is fairly rudimentary and the mileage is <20 mpg highway.

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  My Nighthawk Black Pearl RSX - 2003 Acura RSX
  By coldfusion - October 11 - 2:00 am

  Great little sports coupe. Handles well and engine seems to enjoy being pushed. Theres very little low-end torque, however it picks up once you get moving. Exterior design is very well done. Interior materials could be better -- leather feels cheap and seats are uncomfortable over long distances (I commute an hour to work each day). Comes with some excellent features -- power mirrors, cruise, AC, auto-stick that round out a nice package for the price. Fun to drive.

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  Great Long-Term Car - 1990 Acura Legend
  By Homie-D - October 10 - 2:00 am

  2nd Acura Legend Owned. Bought at 100k. Great mechanical engine with only minor repairs till 200k. Car is 13 yrs old now - so things are finally needing repair - A/C / brakes / etc... BUT - no major engine or transmission troubles. Leather seats are severly cracked. Have know other Legends to run upwards of 300k miles. At 13 years old - can expect to have some repairs - but happy they are not huge $s.

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  First Acura - mixed feelings - 2016 Acura RDX
  By WSD - October 9 - 9:50 pm

  the good stuff - overall a very nice ride. Good safety tech, stereo, looks and power. Stable at speed and good mid range power. Lane departure warning and adaptive cruise control are a great feature. Looks are very good. Stereo sounds very good. Seats are excellent, heated and cooled. dual zone climate control. Several of the electronic features are very helpful. The not so great stuff - Transmission hunts a bit at low speeds on occasion, the nav system is a pain trying to use voice recognition to get a location. Still cant figure out how to just enter an address manually. Mileage is not as good as I had hoped but, mostly city driving so far so may improve. It came down to this and a Lincoln MKC with 2.3 turbo. the Lincoln was faster and more luxurious but, went with the Acura for better resale value.

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  MDX touring w/NAV - 2003 Acura MDX
  By CorpusD - October 6 - 2:00 am

  Overall this vehicle has met my expectations. I was leary at first because I have never owned a japanese build vehicle. However the quality and value for you rmoney are well worth it. The whole family loves it and is perfect for a midsized SUV. The 3rd row seats are also a plus.

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  Nice with bells & whistles - 2001 Acura CL
  By aswafford - October 4 - 2:00 am

  Not quite as sexy as it could be in design, but very comfortable and speedy pickup. No major problems.