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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  Disappointing - 2009 Acura MDX
  By amital - May 7 - 4:46 pm

  Save your money folks -lot better stuff out there for the price. Have owned new MDX for about a year. Maintenance costs are VERY high. Differential fluid changes every 15,000 miles - not kidding. Its based on the service code. Dealers are all old school and in terrible condition. Have been to 3 different ones and theyre all unprofessional -- and crooks to boot! Today I took the MDX in and apparently the brakes went out at 25000 miles. Fog/DTL light cover had melted from heat and they told me the exhaust from someone backing up real close must have done it -- unbelievable! Acura cust svc is just as bad. I have a Lexus too-the service experience and reliability is in a whole diff. league.

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  Is this really what I waited for? - 2009 Acura TSX
  By myfirstacura - May 2 - 9:20 pm

  Prior to owning my current Acura TSX I owned an 04 Mazda 3 Sport. I wish I had simply kept that car! The TSX is seemingly slower (much heavier than the MZ3) and has a terrible engine rattle, which is widely reported. Dealers are stating this is a "normal" sound. I would probably be happier with the car overall if it had more power and the engine didnt sound like my 1993 Saturn with 180,000 miles on it. There are also tons of rattles in the cabin, which the dealer (of course) can not duplicate.

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  Transmission problem at 400 miles - 2009 Acura MDX
  By rams - April 20 - 1:20 pm

  Bought my MDX 4 months back. After 2 months transmission fluid started leaking, noticed oil marks on my garage floor. Took to dealer - they had to open the whole transmission and check inside. The problem was a faulty "O" ring which was causing the leak. If a $20 part is faulty after 400 miles not sure what to expect from this SUV. The dealer had to remove the whole transmission, unlink it with the engine, opened up everything connected to the engine to get to the faulty O ring. Dont buy this car, for this price there are much better options in the market. I have Lexus SUV as well and it far exceeds Acura from performance and reliability.

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  Almost a year - BP up and down - 2008 Acura RDX
  By khanna111 - April 11 - 2:43 am

  It has almost been a year since I bought the RDX. I was impressed by the kick from the turbo and the Acura reputation in *quality* etc. It all started with the rattles, squeaks and then somehow the turbo lost its zing. Got the rattle on the tail gate fixed. The dealer said that he has seen this with other RDXs as well. The drivers door has an intermittent issue with some sort of flapping sound and an even more infrequent window glass rattle. The dashboard in front of the steering has an infrequent noise coming in. It gets more regular and easier to hear when the sun is out and at low speeds. The zing from the turbo and the acceleration is missing out recently - should have gone for infinity

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  Rear main seal - transmission - 2005 Acura MDX
  By Van Sean - April 4 - 11:55 am

  Barely out of warranty and the rear main seal (rear crankshaft seal) failed. The sad part is I just paid off this sucker. Transmission also started to develop problems. Replacing the rear main seal can cost upward $2000 (mostly labor) but this wont stop the other transmission related problems. I finally gave up and traded it in for a new car. This was a loss-loss situation for me. Acura quality is falling apart. Sadly, I am not the only ones being affected by this...avoid at all cost!

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  Quality Issues - 2004 Acura TL
  By jcmmm - March 31 - 10:00 am

  The Acura TL is definitely a great looking car. However, it has many problems that Acura is not willing to share...well here is the list: The paint has shrinkage. You can see this in proper lighting. I have seen the defects on almost every car. The paint on the bumper cover peels at the mounting point. Rattles in the dash area. Rattles in headliner. The center console will sweat when using the air conditioning. I was told by the dealer that the coil was located in the center console. No fix available!!!

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  Honda is Plastically Challanged! - 2004 Acura MDX
  By Ken - March 12 - 6:11 pm

  Pretty nice overall, aside from the front air vent falling off in my hand and the rear speaker covers can be easily pried off without tools. The whole interior is bland and it drives like the Queen Mary II.

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  Not Buying an Acura - 2002 Acura MDX
  By Not Acura - February 25 - 10:00 am

  For sure, this vehicle is fantastic in terms of price, but the quality and the detail of this vehicle is second to the bottom when compare to anothers SUVs like (Highlander, RX300, ML3s and X5). Fake wood trims, unacceptable wind and road noise, unprofessional Acura salesmanship (went to 3 of them, they are all like that, basically Leave it or Take it attitude), lack of feature and feel of a luxury vehicle. Though it is my parents car, but I will definite will not consider an Acura.

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  Love/Hate relationship - 2016 Acura TLX
  By Mark - February 20 - 1:56 am

  Let me start by saying I have mixed feelings about this car. When I first began the lease, I was in love with this car. Great highway fuel mileage, very comfortable, love the safety tech, great night visibility with LED headlights, good amount of power, and with the SH-AWD this car is a unstoppable in snow. Seriously, I have never owned a vehicle that performs so well in snow. I leased my TLX due to the Acuras reputation for outstanding reliability. Unfortunately, I have learned that reliability is not one of the TLXs strong suits. The car has been back to the dealerships 3 times within under a year of owning it. Each time with a list of problems. The fuel pump has been replaced already, entire dashboard of car removed to replace the fan blower motor that screeched every time climate control was turned on. The car is pretty quiet going down the road, just making the many rattles within the car even more noticeable. The blind spot monitoring system on the passenger side acts up, and the adaptive cruise control will turn off randomly, not working again until the car is turned off and started again. At random times the heated seats refuse to work until again, the car has been turned off and started again. I was planning to purchase this car after the lease was done, but that is the last thing I would like to do at this point. I am extremely disappointed as this is not the reliability I was expecting from a $45k car, especially an Acura. I am currently working with the dealership to have this car taken back early.

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  Mistake - 2009 Acura TL
  By ArtNob - February 6 - 10:46 pm

  Decent car to drive, unfortunately my daughter owns 08 328i and Acura loses again. I like the car for what it offers in terms of technology and features for the price however, driving experience, interior design (finish) and outside look is far from good. The cheap look and feel of silver plastic trim and wired feeling driving makes me feel like in Honda Accord! After driving for a month I love the electronics, hate the MPG (really bad). Bottom line is, if you are 50+ (like me) and take life carefully, its a great car for you but if you like to feel the car, take corners with engineered perfection and avoid car with vegetable slicer between the lights, get a bmw!