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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  TSX V6, no navigation - 2012 Acura TSX
  By mountainroad76 - February 15 - 1:53 pm

  I wanted a good sounding engine, reliability, and refinement as the three dominating factors in that order. I was sick and tired of hearing a nasty exhaust, the constant problems, and lack of refinement that my inherited 04 explorer had. This Acura is better in every way except cargo/seating capacity that I never needed. It is especially fun to drive it begs you to drive it hard. The deep, refined growl of the engine is priceless, though the effervescent purring of the I4 would have satisfied me. Handling is excellent, but the ride is quite stiffer than a Lexus, and it is louder at high speeds. At least you wont fall asleep! Not a great city commuter, but very fun for highway/mountainous.

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  Very happy but would like more options - 2013 Acura RDX
  By sbrows - February 14 - 12:49 pm

  We traded in our 2007 MDX for the RDX for the better gas mileage. We have had the RDX for 3 months and are very happy with the gas mileage. We are averaging about 23 to 26 miles per gallon with mixed highway and city driving. The RDX has plenty of pick up and drives very smoothly but still sporty. My husband likes it so much that he is now driving it and has left me with his BMW five series because he finds the RDX so much more comfortable (hes 61" and theres plenty of leg and head room) We have not experienced any of the other negative ride quality issues that other reviewers have complained of.

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  Best car ever. - 2004 Acura TSX
  By jesse357 - February 12 - 10:24 pm

  This is without a doubt the best car I have ever had. Always puts a smile on my face. Flawless quality. Not one single problem in 100,000 miles. Over 30 mpg on highway and maybe 25 in city. Im 45 and have always driven cars with Manual Transmission and they simply do not come any better. The snickt snickt feeling of that tranmission and turbine smooth vtec cannot be matched by anything I have had since. Acceleration and handling just top notch as close to BMW territory as you can get with front wheel drive but with much better reliability and handling in weather. Sold when I went overseas and will buy another when I get back to states. Just absolutely perfect.

• 

  Acura MDX Review - 2013 Acura MDX
  By love2drive111 - February 8 - 9:54 pm

  I recently bought a brand new Acura MDX and I am a satisfied customer. The primary reason I purchased this car was that it was a gift for my mother and I believed it fit her style, a blend of luxury and accomplishment. Driving impressions of this vehicle were satisfying as the ride is very sleek, you can hardly feel a bump on the road. The ride is almost too relaxing as if you were on auto pilot in a commercial aircraft. The vehicle is extremely fun especially in the rain, as its suspension is highly tuned for safety. Seeing other MDX vehicles on the road is definitely an eye catcher because of limited ownership. If you have the means of 50k I highly recommend it.

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  2004 Dynamic - 2004 Acura TL
  By claire9 - February 4 - 6:37 pm

  I bought my TL new in early 2005 and it has been dealer serviced with 110,000 kms at the moment. I have had nothing to service of significance except a new battery and a front brake job. I have regularly treated the leather and it still looks like new. The best tires I have found for the vehicle are Continental Extreme Contacts. Unfortunately my in-dash cd player stopped working last year and I had Future Shop connect an ipod cable to the system for running my music in the car on trips. I have had 4 acuras in my family (2 TLs and 2 Integras) and they have all been trouble free. They are indeed well designed and well built vehicles.

• 

  Excellent car! - 2012 Acura TL
  By numberjack - February 2 - 7:02 pm

  Very happy with this car. Excellent luxury car for a regular car price. Paid $32.7K + tax for TL Tech. Ive had it for 8k miles now and its been great! Absolutely no problems at all. Plenty of power, smooth, quiet, handles well, very comfortable seats, Amazing stereo system!! Decent gas mileage for a mid sized luxury car, averaging 25 mpg overall in mixed driving 28+ on long road trips. This is an excellent car for this price range. I paid about what a fully loaded accord/camry/altima would have cost, but got a much nicer & sportier luxury car instead. No complaints whatsoever!

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  An Excellent Car! - 2013 Acura ILX
  By geiim - January 28 - 4:22 pm

  I have had my ILX now for over a month and 1,500 miles. It is an excellent car. The complaints about the 2.0L engine being slow are not accurate. I find it to be very peppy and responsive. Plus I drive 64 miles back and forth from work 5 days a week and I have never gotten less than 30 MPG, with an average of 29 MPG city/hwy driving overall. The interior is of excellent quality and the ride is smooth and quiet. The electronics are excellent and the sound system is very good, I use the XM radio all the time and it never drops out. Im 6 ft tall, 250 lbs and I fit very comfortably in the car. Ive even ridden in the back seat and that was comfortable. It looks great and rides great!

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  I miss this car a lot!! - 2004 Acura TSX
  By booth1986 - January 21 - 1:24 pm

  Fast, sporty, decent gas mileage for its intended performance, great build quality and interior! I loved this car... The only reaon we got rid of it was to get a bigger car, this car is not suited for car seats or passengers on a regular basis. I am 511" and with a baby car seat in the back, my seat had to be up almost all the way. After 120K miles, the only issue we had was the AC system dies, and the alignment was always off (Later found out it was in a wreck that nearly totaled it which caused this)

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  Polished metal metallic/Parchment Premium Pkg. - 2013 Acura ILX
  By ilx2013je - January 21 - 9:00 am

  3 months of ownership and Im extremely satisfied with my new ILX. Very peppy for a small 4cyl. engine. Ride and handling are very impressive. Excellent use of space on the interior. Im coming from a mid-size and dont miss the little extra room I previously had. I dont want to see many of them on the road, but everyone should give this car a try.

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  Great well equipped SUV. - 2013 Acura RDX
  By marky1020 - January 15 - 8:24 am

  Have had it for 1 week now and so far, so good. Drives exceptionally well and is more car-like then SUV like. Traded in a 10 year old Hyundai Santa Fe which I felt was a bit of a choppy ride. Also had a Jeep Cherokee 15 some odd years ago which was totally truck like based on its 4x4 platform. Of the 3, the Acura feels like driving a car while still having the benefits of riding higher, hauling more when needed and having AWD. Of course you can get AWD on some cars, but my feeling is that once you start driving an SUV, its hard to go back into a car..not impossible, just hard.