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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  1993 Acura Legend - 1993 Acura Legend
  By Mike C. - May 19 - 2:00 am

  A overall nice car. Gets you where you want to go in luxury and style. Could use more power, but overall great buy.

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  BEAUTY - 1991 Acura Legend
  By FJM - May 18 - 2:00 am

  Still turns heads everywhere I go. Very smooth ride. Lots of power if you need it.

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  Not a Legend - 2001 Acura TL
  By fillabuck - May 18 - 2:00 am

  Too much wind noise, front seats could be firmer, I like my 91 Legend much better.

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  Confort, a beauty to drive - 2003 Acura TL
  By flaco2 - May 18 - 2:00 am

  It feels like a very agile car, even though is not small. A beauty!

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  Great Car! I still love it. - 1992 Acura Vigor
  By Alabalan - May 16 - 2:00 am

  I never expected to keep a car this long, but I bought it new and 170K miles later it still runs beautifully. It IS like a sports car. I have standard transmission which I had to replace at 130K. Small back seat is the only drawback, but if you rarely have passengers, its a perfect car. I look for it to last to at least 250K.

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  35 more months to go! - 2016 Acura RDX
  By jrasero - May 12 - 2:01 pm

  Just leased a 2016 Acura RDX AWD Base. Picked it up on July 31st and have put over 500 miles on it so far. My purchase rational is comparing my parents Honda CRV EX-L Navigation versus a base RDX. First and foremost the biggest difference between the CRV and RDX besides the Acura beak is the great 3.5 liter motor which has plenty of kick and power unlike the whiny CVT. My father loves the great MPG on his CRV but hates the lack of power and secondly he hates the motor and wind noise. The RDX has great pickup, the exhaust notes are smooth and crisp, and cabin noise is much better than a CRV and equal to my 2011 Lincoln MKZ. The seats are comfy but the base comes with leatherette which is a little of a bummer, but the leatherette is still much better than the material used in an EX-L Honda. The base is pretty bare bones and really to get the most bang for your buck the Acura Watch is the best option to choice. Some standard features like blue ambient lighting, turn signals, power lift gate, backup camera, keyless entry, push to start ignition, and sunroof are all notable. The center stack and steering wheel still has way too many buttons. Visibility isnt great out of the back and getting Acura Watch w/ backup sensors would really help. For a luxury car I would like to have seen backup sensors and blind spot warning standard. Acura recommends premium fuel and on my first 2 tanks I have gotten 19 MPG average and 22 MPG average, hopefully after breaking in the motor and going for longer highway trips I will average 22-26 MPG. Steering is good but numb and ride comfort is okay. The RDX is firmer than I imagined and tends to bounce you around when going over bumps. Value wise the RDX is hard to recommend over the CRV unless your like myself or my dad who finds the CRV to be noisy and slow and you dont prioritize MPG. If the lack of power doesnt bother you a cheaper CRV is your bet.

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  Americans expect more for $90,000 - 2002 Acura NSX
  By Potential Buyer - May 9 - 2:00 am

  Yes, Im impressed that it has a top speed of 175 mph for only having 290 hp. Yes, I like the way it looks and handles and all the exotic materials like the all aluminum body and titanium connecting rods. The interior leaves little to be desired. I mean even the Acura RSX has a more modern looking interior then the NSX. I especially like the white gauges in the RSX. Come on Acura, or actually the Honda Motor Company, if you want to sell more NSXs you have got to get with the program. High "Horsepower" equals to high sales in America. Ok you got the looks, dont be stingy with the power.

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  family loves it - 1998 Acura SLX
  By Polvale - May 7 - 2:00 am

  Plenty of room. The family loves the large sunroof. Very happy with the purchase price (paid 17k) one year ago. No problems as of yet

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  hopeful, but disappointed - 2004 Acura TSX
  By jimc&hisTSX - May 2 - 10:00 am

  Only had mine 2 weeks, but have had a horrendous creaking in the right passenger A pillar area since day one; loud, annoying and constant! Svce mgr says its a prevalent problem with the TSXs. Great, just my luck. Anyone else had anything similar. Was it resolved? They tell me they havent had much luck resolving them. Have to wait 3 weeks to get it looked at. Otherwise, pretty fun car...especially the nav system. Its lots of fun. Wish it had heated ext. mirrors; why only in Canada? It gets plenty cold in the US also? Stupid! Traded in an A4. The TSX is nice and a good value, but its not an Audi. Thats what I get for boycotting German products.

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  Fix the new lights like the old ones - 2005 Acura RSX
  By THISisMYname - May 2 - 10:00 am

  This car has kick to it. The only draw back for me is to find the right color, cuz they sell so well.