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:

• 

  Great car, fun to drive - 2003 Acura RSX
  By avprogramer - July 13 - 2:00 am

  More torque will be nice.

• 

  Great SUV - 1999 Acura SLX
  By room to spare - July 11 - 2:00 am

  Great vehicle, rugged, and comfortable. Great on long trips. Great in snow, and off road. Excellent fit and finish. I purchased this with 18k miles and now have 64k, with no problems. I like it better than the MDX. I drive my vehicles at least 150k and feel this one will make it with no problem. Still very tight, and wearing well.

• 

  Love this MDX - 2002 Acura MDX
  By sdf97215 - July 8 - 2:00 am

  I have been looking for a replacement vehicle for my 95 Subaru Legacy for 2 years. Nothing turned me on til I tried out the Acura MDX. It was comfortable for me right off the bat. I ended up purchasing a 8 month old MDX instead of a new one. It has the Navigation system which is neat but not a requirment. This vehicle is a great car but does lack some of the luxury refinements that you would find in upscale vehicles such as the Lexus, BMW, etc.

• 

  Former Acura Fan - 2002 Acura TL
  By Also Disappointed - July 7 - 2:00 am

  Considered the A4 and BMW 3-series before buying the Type-S. I love the car when it isnt in the shop great performance and stylinglong list of standard features. HOWEVER, this car has been nothing but problems from the start. The problems have ranged from a broken 6 disc changer, replacement of wheel bearing, new airbag sensor to a new transmission. The car has not been abused while driving and I follow the maintenance schedule Acura suggests with dealer service. Although covered under warranty they are certainly not what you would expect from an Acura or any supposed luxury car. I am extremely DISAPPOINTED in the car.

• 

  A little disappointed in my TL - 2002 Acura TL
  By pjeffs - July 6 - 2:00 am

  My Acura has been somewhat disappointing. I have been a loyal Honda driver for over 10 years and I have not liked my 2002 Acura. There is a rattle in the rear speaker that I have had the dealer attempt to repair 4 times, to no avail.

• 

  Simply an awesome, awesome, awesome car! - 1994 Acura Integra
  By Spoiled in SF - July 2 - 2:00 am

  Ive owned my 94 Integra LS 2-door for almost 10 years, and it has been amazing and extremely reliable. Only now am I starting to make larger maintenance investments, but those are mostly the result of my hard-driving road style... but dang, its been a lot of fun getting it to this point! Great performance, great price, just a sweet car if youre on a budget.

• 

  my RSX - 2002 Acura RSX
  By Jon687 - July 2 - 2:00 am

  This is a fun car to drive, but i have had it in the shop a few times. The glove box door was loose, window came off track, dead headlight and the leather seats are cracking an wearing out, car is a bit noisy on the road.

• 

  A great appliance - 2000 Acura TL
  By Leszek - June 30 - 2:00 am

  Living in Montreal, the toughest place on earth for a car, this car is solid as a rock. Starts at-30 without a fuss. Returns reasonably good fuel economy, even at extralegal speeds. Handling was lousy, but HR springs lowered the car and improved high speed and cornering stability. Transmission could shift faster, specially in manual mode. Just a nice car to drive, no suprises, no excitement. Cd player does not play burned CDs, max volume not loud enough.

• 

  Not as good as you think... - 2003 Acura RSX
  By Shemy - June 27 - 2:00 am

  I purchased this car in Jan. 2003 after crashing my Beetle earlier that month. I chose the RSX-S because of its performance. I was very disapointed with 4 things: the first is that the gas mileage isnt true, the second is that after 5000 miles of driving it doesnt grip to the road as good as it did when I purchased it, the third is that the insurance is too high for this vehicle & last but not least, if Acura was smart they would put another 20 lbs of tourque for better peeling power with less RPM.

• 

  EXCITING RIDE - 1997 Acura Integra
  By CPR - June 17 - 2:00 am

  Great to drive around town, to work or simply to show off your stylin vehicle. Had no problems after 26,000 miles except for the ABS brakes.