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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  MDX outshines previous Volvo - 2014 Acura MDX
  By CH - January 8 - 10:26 am

  We got this because we needed more space and a 3rd row. This vehicle is great! We love the comfort and space. Would highly recommend it!

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  Best value I could find under $65K - 2014 Acura MDX
  By Frank - January 7 - 5:13 pm

  Family SUV dream car. Very satisfied and will keep it for at least 10 years.

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  Love the Acura! - 2012 Acura TSX
  By T. Judge - January 7 - 1:16 pm

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  Love my RDX - 2007 Acura RDX
  By Harriet Parker - January 7 - 12:51 pm

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  Acura TLX Better Than Lexus ES 350! - 2015 Acura TLX
  By Paul Grasewicz - January 4 - 7:11 pm

  Drove a Lexus ES-350, Mercedes C-300 and the Acura TLX V-6 Advance. The Acura was more spacious inside, it is wider and there is more headroom. Very quiet interior and the car seems to float over the road. Too much road noise in the Lexus. I really like the Acuras separate screen for the navigation and one for the sound system. The ELS 10 speaker system with surround is wonderful. The car has good acceleration and gas mileage. There are more technology features than other similar luxury cars. Plus it is priced lower than the Lexus and Mercedes C-300 (which is a small car). I highly recommend the Acura TLX. You get much more for the money. Test drive one, youll be convinced like me.

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  300,000 plus - 1999 Acura CL
  By Kuntree TLR - January 4 - 4:44 pm

  I havent. Had trans issue I got the car in 2012 with 181,000 replace starter ,battery ,

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  My Wifes Car - 2015 Acura TLX
  By Tim - December 31 - 1:06 pm

  Absolutely love driving this car! Its my wifes car but I make sure to drive it any chance I get! Interior is amazingly quite! Handling is superb and transmission shifts like a champ! The 2.4l is zippy and fun to drive despite only having 201hp. Maybe its because my daily driver is a pickup truck, but I love this car and would consider buying a second TLX.

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  If you dont love this car, shame on you. - 2015 Acura TLX
  By MICHAEL - December 26 - 1:23 am

  The negative opinions and reviews on here truly amaze me. Why on earth did you buy, or even lease this car if you dont love it? There are so many sedans to choose from, and I can think of five or six that are pretty close to the TLX in many ways. You could have gotten a Maxima, a Passat, a Lexus ES, an Accord V6, a Malibu, an Infiniti, a Hyundai, a Kia, a Camry, etc., etc. If you didnt choose the TLX because its such a great blend of technology, performance, reliability, and value then Im sorry, but youre blew it. This car isnt perfect but guess what..none of the cars I listed are perfect either. No car in this price range does everything exactly right. A couple of years ago I took a two year break from Acura (Ive had ten Acuras) and leased a Lexus GS350. It was a fine automobile, and nicer than any Acura Ive owned, but I had to reduce my debt to income ratio in order to buy a home, so the Lexus went back before the lease was up. I managed to lease a 2015 TLX AWD TECH this month, for 24 months, with 15K miles per year, and with zero money down I got the car for $439 per month with tax included. There was no better deal on ANY comparable luxury sedan. Period. If you didnt get a great deal too, thats your fault. If you found out later that you dont like the nine speed tranny, or the lane departure system, or the fact that theres not USB charger in the back seat, or that the car cant be rolled in neutral if the batter dies, ITS ALL YOUR FAULT! Its a car people. Its not supposed to be perfect. Nothing in life is perfect. Get over it. I love Acura. I love that its not a BMW or Mercedes or Audi because I think those cars are too expensive, and too prone to have problems, and I dont care about the perceived status people who drive them feel about THEMSELVES. Guess what....nobody is impressed with your German car anymore. They are ubiquitous nowadays. I love that my Acuras make me happy, that their ELS stereos sound great, that I can drive them without any effort, and that they never actually need to be rolled in neutral! Happy motoring everyone!

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  Best car Ive ever owned - 2002 Acura RL
  By Rob - December 23 - 7:54 pm

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  Just bought one - Pleased so far - 2006 Acura RL
  By Jim Billingsley - December 19 - 11:27 am

  I just bought a 2006 Acura RL. It has all the tech gizmos except Collision Mitigation Braking System and Michelin Run Flat tires (which you dont want!). I havent owned the car long enough to give credible Reliability ratings, but I am very impressed with the cars handling, brakes, "solid" feel, quiet interior, sound system and navigation system. A warning I should pass on to potential buyers is to test drive the care and beware of a speed dependent whistling noise (sort of like blowing over a empty coke bottle). It starts about 32 MPH and quits about 38-40 MPH. Being a harmonic, I suspect it would also reappear and disappear at twice those speeds, too. The RL I bought exhibited this noise on the test drive and I insisted it be fixed in order for me to buy the car. It turned out to be a fairly expensive repair. The noise is caused by a bad center carrier bearing on the rear driveshaft. This normally wouldnt be an expensive repair, but Acura only sells this bearing as part of the entire rear driveshaft assembly and that assembly retails for $2,229! (If you are facing this repair, you can get one online for $1,500 or so.) Attention Acura engineers!!! If you read these reviews how about designing a driveshaft assembly that has mechanic-friendly easily replaced components? Your driveshaft is carbon fiber and ought to last for centuries, but bearings do go bad and ought to be easily replaceable. If I hadnt insisted on this fix before purchasing the car, and had to pay for this out of pocket, I would have been very upset.