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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  Great Car - 2003 Acura RSX
  By bourge15 - November 9 - 1:38 pm

  Only had this car for a year, but in that time it has had no problems except for replacing the windshield wipers. Great to drive, tight gearbox, and revs really high. When you floor it, you can feel VTEC kick in about 6000rpm and starts to pull even harder. In the Type-S trim, the interior is pretty comfortable and the Bose stereo sounds great. People compliment me on the cars sporty but subtle looks. Most people guess the car is a 2008.

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  11 years and counting - 2003 Acura CL
  By bill2003cl - November 8 - 11:56 pm

  My CD player just died and I had to consider whether to pat $400 to have it fixed or possibly getting a new car and going with getting the CD fixed. After 11 years and 150,000 miles, its showing its age externally, but it still drives great. I just had the manual transmission fluid changed for the first time. With no radio for a couple of weeks I could appreciate how great the engine purrs. If you can find a used one with a manual, I would recommend it. It sounds like it should be good for another 100,000 miles and only an Audi or a BMW might seem like an improvement.

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  As good a Luxury SUV youll find - 2014 Acura MDX
  By aqc1 - November 4 - 2:38 pm

  This is my 3rd Acura and 2nd MDX (previous was 07 Tech/enter) so Im clearly an Acura fan. The new MDX is better than the old MDX in every way. Silky smooth 3.5L V6 with better performance and far better MPG (18/27 AWD. Im averaging 22 combined). Ultra quiet interior, luxurioius faux-wood and tech savy. love the adaptive cruise, lane departur warning and crash mitigation. I lean more towards Tech than pampering in my cars so Im all in. Love the touch screen, tablet interface is clearly the way to go. Ride quality is improved over the last gen MDX. My only complaint are the seats. Not as good as 10 TL SHAWD, best seats of any car ive owned. 27MPG!

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  Acura RDX - 2011 Acura RDX
  By mercurialrider - October 31 - 9:46 am

  Overall I am happy with my RDX. I would at least recommend taking a look at this vehicle if you like Lexus and Acura vehicles. The handling was surprisingly better than expected. The staff and ammentites at the dealership were on par or better than many of the more expensive options. My dealer Phuong Davidson took her time and thoroughly explained my vehicles features and options even after I bought it and was professional and patient. The rest of the staff and management were also polite and easy going. I would recommend a visit to Pohanka Acura.

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  Best in Class - 2014 Acura MDX
  By jlazc - October 30 - 7:15 pm

  Ive spent the last week wearing out SUV salesmen in many many show rooms. As a semi BMW loyalist, I went to look at the X5 to replace my Suburban and share garage space with my M Roadster and 7 series. The Suburban is too big now that the kids are grown, but the X5 was too small. I then proceeded to drive several of the other luxury SUVs (Lexus, Infinity, Mercedes, and Acura) and the MDX stands out in every category I saw important. It was close to the X5 in handling and better in ride (It blew the others away in both). Acceleration is strong and braking is quick and reliable. 2nd seat leg room rivals the 7 series. With the 3rd seat down, storage is ample and we can take 7 pax if needed.

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  Thoughtful Engineering - 2014 Acura MDX
  By russ01 - October 30 - 12:34 pm

  Got my MDX about six weeks and 2,700 miles ago. Love almost everything about it. Great build quality. You can see the engineers, designers and marketers all worked together to really think through even the smallest details. The knobs and buttons all "feel" solid. Super quiet. Smooth ride. Just a great car. My wife loves it. (btw, she is 52" and has no problems with the size of this car.) Mileage is around 22 mixed. Not what trip computer says. Love design and layout. Great stereo sound. Super space and storage, even in back. Rear camera is set too far out, so in rain, lens gets water and is unusable. First Honda product, but very pleased so far. No mechanical issues at all.

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  Great performance and great value - 2014 Acura ILX
  By stevenrose - October 29 - 7:39 am

  I have to say my new ILX is a great car. The engine is really responsive and the shifting is really smooth. The interior is finished very well and the leather wrapped steering wheel feels great on the hands. Handling is excellent, the car goes exactly where you point it. After the car is broken in, the car is really sporty to drive. I think the car is underrated. Consumer Reports does a great job recommending the ILX, other reviewers complain that the ILX is underpowered, but I would give it a test drive. I drove the new Accord and the Subaru Legacy and I liked the ILX a lot better. I like how compact and zippy it feels. I am an Acura Fan and in love with the ILX

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  Dont penny pinch on a premium brand - 2014 Acura MDX
  By mqc99 - October 14 - 11:39 pm

  We bought the 2014 MDX 2WD with Tech Package. The car looks & drives great and we are very happy about our purchase (well, almost). We have been a Honda owner for over 20 years and this is our 1st Acura. We were told by the dealer the 2WD model doesnt come with a spare tire, instead it has an emergency repair kit. OK, we can live without the spare tire. But, upon returning home, I discovered they also dont include a tire wrench or a jack. Are you kidding me Acura?!! Do you really need to save that extra $1.50 on a $50K LUXURY car? I guess it is hard for you to imagine that some of your Acura owners may still want to do some maintenance work themselves. I feels being nickel & dimed by you!

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  I Love My 02 TL-S!!!!!! - 2002 Acura TL
  By incinerary - October 13 - 6:53 pm

  This was MY first car. Parents supplied me with a 90 Civic for a year. Bought my TL early fall of 2012 with 169K and the fixed tranny and now a year later it has 187K with no problems. I take very good care of my car, I do 5000 mile oil changes with Mobile 1 Extended Performance oil and FRAM Ultra Synthetic Filter, & I dont beat on my car, keep it below 4K RPMs. When looking for a car, i wanted something nobody else has with a great mix of everything from looks to performance. This was the perfect match! It has a very smooth, quiet, and comfortable ride I can go for a 2 hour drive and not feel soar afterwards. If something happened to this car, I would no doubt get another one!!

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  Handling + Braking + MPG = Great Car - 2014 Acura MDX
  By deannie - October 5 - 10:24 pm

  Wow. I expected excellent fuel economy, but I did not expect to regularly exceed the mpg rating. Light throttle at 60-70 mph = 30-32 mpg. This is HYBRID-LIKE fuel economy! Make no mistake, handling and braking are crucial to active safety, and this car has it. It was upsetting, though, to have to opt for the tech pkg in order to get the 19" wheels/lower profile tires which make tech pkg cars handle and brake marginally better than those non-tech-equipped. Short people MUST test-drive before buying. My 52" wife BARELY found a suitable driving position. Love the side mirrors reverse-tilt feature, but prefer both mirrors tilt down when in reverse, not just one.