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:

• 

  The Best Car Made!! - 1994 Acura Integra
  By CHad - January 3 - 8:52 am

  I just got my 94 Integra GS-R and I love it, everything about it, the power the handling and its just an all around great car. The overall gas mileage is excellent for a car with so much power, the gas mileage is great!!

• 

  First Tank RDX - 2007 Acura RDX
  By NorCalJ - January 3 - 12:40 am

  First tank 19.7 mpg mixed highway (60%) and city (40%) with some aggressive driving mixed with mostly conservative driving. Drove up to Tahoe in snow and the AWD worked great. Love the car so far.

• 

  Great car - 2006 Acura TL
  By Paul L. - January 2 - 8:25 pm

  This is the second Acura I drive. First one was a small Acura 1.6 TL sold only in Canada. I am impressed with the quality of this Acura TL and the features it has for this price compared with other models. The car is a blast to drive and the quality of interior is excellent. It looks very nice from exterior. I found the sound from the audio system great and I can barely wait to purchase and try the first DVD-audio. I played only regular CDs so far. I found both manual/automatic shift as a plus and handy for people in love with manual transmission. I dont have too many complaints so far. I drove this car for less than a month only.

• 

  Extremely happy after 22,000 miles - 2016 Acura TLX
  By Gerry McFaul - January 1 - 10:40 pm

  Ive read the complaining and dont get most of them. You buy a spare tire when you get the car since it doesnt have one. Another $400 for me. I still drove off with a fantastic car for less than $40,000. I had everything on it I could get. I really enjoy the lane handling assist. It turns off after 30 seconds if you dont pay attention, so it makes you drive. And you can easily over ride it if you want to. Sometimes I"m to lazy to signal for a lane change and just do it. The LKA nudges me back but my 2 year old grand son could easily over ride the nudge. It wont pull you back into danger; in fact it wont even make a turn if it is too sharp because of the inertia in the car. The car is extremely quiet and gets over 30 mpg on the highway all of the time, unless its below 10 degrees F. Traction in snow (with snow tires) far surpasses anything Ive ever owned. Im extremely happy with this car.

• 

  Great Car, Great Value, Great Fun - TSX - 2007 Acura TSX
  By Howard - January 1 - 1:45 pm

  I bought TSX a month ago to replace 02 Accord. From the number, the engine size increased from 2.3L to 2.4L, power and fun are a huge step up. The TSX displays a marvelous balance between smooth power delivery, sure footed handling, responsive steering, and luxury comfort. The TSX is great fun to drive. After I managed the SportShift mode, its even more fun than before. Besides fun, it comes loaded with just about every feature standard. I like Xenon lights, bluetooth handsfree link, memory power leather seats, XM radio, sound system, and all interior design. Highly recommend this vehicle.

• 

  Take a look..... - 2002 Acura RSX
  By You_Cant_Go_Wrong - December 31 - 10:00 am

  I wanted a front-wheel drive car (I live in MI, SNOW!), decent gas milage, something I could have fun driving to work, but refined enough to take a girl on a date. Out of all these requests, I ended up with the RSX Type S. This car is shear "WOW!" Im a tall guy (64") and I fit comfortably in this car. I had one factory assembly issue with the steering wheel column cover. I just re-assembled it easily and all is fine. Other than that this car is exactly what everyone writes about it. I dont need an arm rest because I never take my hand off the shifter. I love driving and love this car!

• 

  Excellent - 2005 Acura TL
  By Kelly - December 30 - 11:43 pm

  Simply a wonderful car! Luxury mixed with sportiness. I love the way it handles. It has all of the technology you can ask for, for the price. I wouldnt trade it for anything!

• 

  Great car for the money - 2007 Acura RDX
  By Dzenan - December 30 - 9:33 am

  I used to work for a valet parking co. and drove all kinds of cars, but nothing like this. The RDX has the punch, it is techno loaded, interior & exterior design is superb.

• 

  Got to get past the transmission issue - 2001 Acura CL
  By tboneh - December 30 - 8:50 am

  If you can get past the transmission issue this is a great car to drive daily. It is comfortable, quiet, and has the best of both worlds, power and good gas mileage. On a recent trip I drove from south Ga. to Delray Beach Fla. on one tank. I averaged 80 mph and 29 mpg. The ride is firm enough to make handling very good. I did have the trans. replaced at 53K and plan to change fluid in pan every 10K. I hope that will help. I was told that Honda has made several improvements to try to make the replacement transmissions better. Its a shame that tramsmissions are a issue because the rest of the car is rock solid.

• 

  92 NSX, truly remarkable exotic - 1992 Acura NSX
  By Steves NSX - December 29 - 11:27 pm

  Design & production of the NSX is truly remarkable. Probably one of the most thought out designs of any exotic sports car ever built. The NSX was hand-built, making it a rare & special high performance car. An all aluminum/magnesium body coupled with 270 hp produces a potent pound/hp ratio. The NSX had the 1st VTEC engine in a mass produced car. Handling is excellent. Interior & exterior design is like nothing else. I dont plan on changing any features, performance nor visual.