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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  noisy ride - 2002 Acura MDX
  By RLJEB - January 21 - 2:00 am

  We purchased this vehicle for the supposed reliability and extra seating capability. After approximately 1,000 miles I began to notice a high pitch ringing noise when going over 30mph. I have taken the MDX back to the dealer 3 times for repair to no avail. Also, whenever I change gears (i.e. go into reverse after being in park) the is a loud thud when braking. Dealer tells me this a normal characterisitc of the MDXs brake callipers (sp?) adjusting. Who knows? What I do know is that I am unhappy with the entire Acura experience. I paid close to $40,000 for a noisy vehicle which I do not enjoy driving.

• 

  Classy - 2004 Acura TL
  By Sundance - January 20 - 10:00 am

  The ride is very harsh, brought about by racy tires etal, much harder than an Accord. These tires result in a wider turning radius over the Accord which makes it hard to manuver in tight spaces. The windows on both front sides rattle which would never happen on an Accord. While we like the TL, Honda needs to turn up the quality button. We also have an Accord V6.

• 

  Poor Mans Sports Car - 1999 Acura Integra
  By 6000 - January 20 - 2:00 am

  Almost 4 years old, and not one fault from day go. Best car I have ever owned. It beats my previous car, Volvo, with the exception of interior room.

• 

  RSX-S - 2002 Acura RSX
  By 0804 - January 17 - 8:50 pm

  nice car

• 

  Not quite the quality I expected... - 2004 Acura TL
  By kruseman - January 15 - 12:30 pm

  Ive had my TL for 8 months and have had it in twice for front end vibration at speeds over 45mph (still not resolved, plan a 3rd try at 15k miles). Other problems: CD player replaced (ate CD) and engine hesitates on quick acceleration. Liked the features and power but in addition to above, had a number of interior rattles and leather seats are wearing quickly. Lacking the quality of the Lexus ES300 I traded in.

• 

  Comfortable Ride with Tech Pkg to Make Geeks Happy - 2016 Acura RDX
  By Ralph Smith - January 14 - 8:58 am

  I bought this car because the ride is quiet, the acceleration is excellent, the ride is comfortable, it has a very good safety rating and safety technology is state of the art. I also liked the Acuras reputation for reliability. I enjoy a good sound system and the RDX with the Advance package is among the best I have heard in a car. We drive a lot of miles each year on long vacation driving trips. Since the car is also used around town, the smaller size of this SUV is convenient as it rides well on a trip but also easy to park in a city. There have been a couple of surprises. While I knew the car had great safety features, I had not really experienced the changes introduced to my life by this car until taking it on a trip shortly after buying the car. The surprise is that it requires changing how to drive in many respects and requires a new driver for this car to adjust to the technology. Specifically, the ability of the car to adjust its speed with the traffic. Dont misinterpret: I like the changes but on a busy interstate, one needs to pay attention to adjust to the changes. Cars and trucks pull in front of a car unexpectedly. The first time this happened, the Acura RDX slowed dramatically and automatically. I did not have to apply the brakes. Several days into this driving trip, I had adjusted and found myself becoming almost lackadaisical about this feature as the car almost adjusts itself. Driving is more relaxing. On a busy highway, I disabled the system though as the distance between my car and the next vehicle was long, even with the lowest setting, and occasionally a large number of cars would continually pull in front and constantly slow down our pace of driving. I did not like the feature of adjusting the steering when changing lanes or moving in traffic. I turned this feature off quickly. No doubt, I will try it again but doubt it will be useful or one that I will use with any regularity. I prefer to drive the car and change lanes as necessary without objection from the computer in the car. My biggest complaint in an otherwise excellent vehicle is the navigation system. I dont like it or how in integrates with the other system technology. The navigation systems in previous cars are much better. The Acura system is not intuitive or designed with the driver or consumer in mind. It works with the voice control but the list of possible commands is long and ignores some of the most common features available on other vehicles. I still do not know if I can send instructions to the car to follow a route I have created on the computer. The Acura site indicates I can do this. The salesman who sold us the car said he had never heard of that feature. A system like this works well on a Mercedes that I own. The manual is silent on on how to do it. The website offers no advice. I do not mind making a call with Acuralink to enter the destination but would prefer to map it out myself to select my own routes. The ability to use the smartphone with the Acuras system is an excellent innovation. I also like being able to stream a podcast or Pandora through the stereo system. Sirius XM generally works well with the Acura although the traffic and weather features do not integrate with the RDX. We used those features extensively with a 2012 Murano and this lack of integration is a significant failing of a luxury SUV. There is weather and traffic information on the RDX, it is not up to Sirius. Unfortunately, the navigation system operates in its own universe. The voice system giving directions cannot be heard clearly while sound is coming through these other systems. Instead, the systems yammers away incessantly with turns and directions while leaving the stereo system as a higher volume. Moreover, attempts to turn down the navigation system with the voice controls apparently cannot be done. At least I have not found a way to do this or to find in the documentation how it can be done. In my older Murano, I was able to know when the next rest area was coming up as well as when the next exit was coming up. Not so in the Acura. Asking for rest areas results in a list of rest areas, some of which may be behind on the route being traveled or may be many miles ahead. The information is useless. One friend who bought an Acura said he gave up and bought a Garmin navigation system to use instead of the built in system. I now know how he felt and I am inclined to agree. The nav system in the RDX is a major disappointment. As a person who uses a system like this extensively on trips, I have already found using Google maps or Waze on my IPhone to be much more useful and easier to use. With an MSRP of $45,000 for this luxury SUV, I expected much better. Moreover, the Acura salesman was not well versed in how to use the system so learning how to use it has been largely trial and error and stopping occasionally to check the manual to see if we missed something that would make it more useful.

• 

  Great Power and Style!! - 1996 Acura Integra
  By TurboGSRMark - January 13 - 2:00 am

  The GSR is a great bang for the buck! 1.8L and the hp Honda motors make! This motor is VERY reliable and come alive in the upper Rs. Pulls hard to 8k rpms. Great brakes, power, and style. Enjoy it all!

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  1992 Integra GS-R - 1992 Acura Integra
  By kompressedsilver - January 8 - 2:00 am

  Definitely one of the most fun cars to drive!!! Performance is fantastic due to the light weight and 8000 rpm redline! Reliability is fantastic. Ive brought in my 2000 Mercedes more often for warranty work than this car. I even try to use this car as much as possible for my daily driver - only if I could take clients out in it (non- existent back seat). Great car!

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  Fun Car - 2002 Acura RSX
  By AGAJU - January 7 - 2:00 am

  A great all around car with good performance for an automatic. My commute really stinks, so I wanted the auto for all the stop and go driving. Its nice to be able to shift yourself when traffic isnt bad too. My only real complaint is that the seat bottoms are too hard. Guess Im getting old. The glove box needs adjusted, its not flush with the dash. Also, the seat fabric by the headrest is comming away from the plastic that surrounds the hole.

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  Great Value, but you get what you pay 4 - 2001 Acura CL
  By BrianV - January 7 - 2:00 am

  Bought this car new with navigation. Front seats are sporty but get uncomfortable after long trips. Back seat has lots of legroom but the seats arent comfortable at all. Exhaust note is nice. Bose stereo is pretty bad for a Bose (no highs, no lows, it must be Bose really is true here). 5spd gearing is good, but the actual transmission is quite bad. It doesnt shift smootly at all, and there is major lags on the manumatic mode. Interior build quality needs attention, this thing rattles and it wasnt even a year old.