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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  RSX - 2002 Acura RSX
  By Raymond Young - June 7 - 9:06 am

  This is the second RSX that I bought in 2002. The first one my wife hit a parked car doing 60 mph she walked away with only a broken pair of glasses (the air bag). We bought the second RSX exactly like the first. It is fun the drive and we have had zero problems.

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  Excellent blend of luxury and sporty - 2006 Acura TSX
  By TSXer_MD - June 7 - 7:42 am

  Have had 2006 TSX (Nighthawks) w/o NAV for over a month and love it! It has plenty of power for me to ride on busy DC Beltway with lots of fun. It is so nice to have everything (nice and yet useful) loaded in a package. Hands- free/Bluetooth works fantastic with my Motorola V600. Memorized seat positions allow my wife to drive on weekends without manually adjusting seat anymore. I am afraid she is abandoning her Odyssey for my TSX (kidding - Odyssey works great for the family). Sound system is excellent (still enjoy free XM for now - $15/mo seems worthwhile if you have long commute). Surprisingly the purchase experience was very pleasant (paid INVOICE PRICE exactly).

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  Review - 2005 Acura TSX
  By John - June 4 - 11:46 am

  Car has plenty of power, smooth transmission and very responsive. I cannot imagine a better car for the money.

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  Great Car and better value - 2006 Acura TSX
  By Tom - June 4 - 8:21 am

  Is a great car and an even better value. I came from a three-year lease on a loaded Saab 9-3, and although there are a few missing "luxury" features I used on the Saab, I really enjoy the TSX. Drives great, and the voice recognition and bluetooth features work flawlessly (see comment). Coming from the Saab, had to learn to rev engine higher before shifting for response, but never does the car feel underpowered.

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  GREAT VALUE - 2005 Acura RL
  By harvey - June 3 - 11:11 am

  I previosly owned an Infiniti and while I enjoyed that car for the price you just cant beat the RL. Very good ride quality and everything is standard including On Star and GPS. By comparison I would have had to spend $8,000 more for an M35 with the same equipment and not get On Star which is something I wanted ever since my wife has had it in her Mercedes. Everyone who has driven with me comments on the beautifull interior. I just wish the back seat had a little more room. No problems at all. When you compare features to features with other cars, its a no brainer. hb

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  Best car for the money - 2004 Acura RSX
  By Mikey - June 2 - 10:31 pm

  I love my Acura RSX !!! I have owned it for about 2 years now and have driven 45k miles with no problems whatsoever. It has good pick up at higher RPMs but lacks torque. The leather interior is much nicer than the standard cloth. With the automatic climate control and the leather seats and my new navigation system (going to be installed this week) this car feels like a luxury vehicle and I only paid 20k for it. Stock stereo system isnt the greatest but car is definitely efficient and fun to drive.

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  Acura RSX---Loving it - 2004 Acura RSX
  By GAF - June 2 - 2:00 am

  The car has excellent handling capabilitites, superb gas mileage and is an all around great car to drive. I had a Volkswagen Beetle before this car and I must say that this car is quantum leaps ahead of the beetle.

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  Bargain RSX - 2004 Acura RSX
  By netdiver - June 2 - 2:00 am

  Great value. Best car under $17K. Yes, really. Completely different ride then my 99 CL, but lot of fun to drive. All luxury features are standard, not like other car companies that try to nickel and dime you for things like floor mats, sunroof etc. Highly recommended.

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  Impressive Vehicle - 2004 Acura TL
  By roxie - June 2 - 2:00 am

  As a former BMW and Audi owner, those cars were at the top of my shopping list until I drove the TL. I also drove the Infiniti G35. For the money, the 04 TL is certainly superior to the BMW 5-series and both the Audi A4 and A6 and while the TL is comparably priced with the G35, the TL is a much better car than the G35, especially when comparing build quality. I cant imagine a better car in this price range anywhere. The power, style, workmanship and reliability are all equal to or superior than most higher priced competitors. It is indeed a head turner.

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  I must be lucky - 2015 Acura TLX
  By Damian - June 1 - 7:44 pm

  None of the problems I have thus far read about in the other reviews have crossed my path. Zero! Even the mention of acceleration not being up to par is far from my experience. One of the outstanding aspects of the 9 speed is the two dog teeth gears, one in the low range for fast departures from a red light, and another for amazing passing acceleration from 65 on up! On a lonely interstate I can easily pass a car doing 80 with a simple touch of the accelerator to a speed of 100. And it is anvil tough and quiet. I have driven the car for three years now with no complaints. The nav system is fun to use when I drive to places I have never been before just to explore new vistas and then hit the Home button. There is never an issue with becoming lost. The best technical aspect comes into play when backing out of a parking spot between two trucks that are parallel parked next to me. I cant really see beyond them whether a car is coming or a person is starting to walk towards the back of the car but the radar warns me in both situations! It sees around both trucks and warns me to stop. That is outstanding! What is simply less effective however, is the lane keeping tech. This is due to the fact that the highway does not maintain its lanes in top condition, so that when the paint ages, the car sometimes does not spot the lane correctly . Also, the self driving mechanism works at most for about 30 seconds at a time at which point it demands that you take control of the wheel for at least a second before it re-engages. However, it was never touted as an autonomous driving machine, like a Tesla, but it is fun to watch it drive around curves on its own. I like the soft material it uses in the interior but the push button mechanisms did at first take getting used to since I previously drove a 2000 TL with the combination manual/auto transmission. (That car also had no squeeks or rattles for the 15 years I drove it!). I also like that you can read the air pressure of your tires on your dash board along with the cars recommendation when to get oil. And as far as creep goes in city traffic, I have never experienced the jerkiness from 2nd gear to 3rd or any other jerkiness ever. It is smooth from first all the way to 9th gear. I am very happy I bought this car and glad the dealership reduced the price $300 simply because I said that would be the only way I could get under my credit limit, which was true. Putting it on my credit card allowed me to get 2% back which I thought was a good deal. As to gas consumption, I got 36 mpg on straight highway driving using sport mode. I like sport mode since it lets me react more quickly in case of emergencies. However keeping it in that mode in city driving I noticed I get less than the 24 (?) its supposed to get, but not by much. And I went with the PAWS because I believe the stop/start driving in the SH-AWD is not good for the engine or the transmission despite the gas saving. Besides, having 4 wheel steer around curves means you can take curves faster without needing to accellerate to keep the car in line. It automatically stays in the correct attitude around curves due to the rear wheels turning. It is simply a fun car to drive, anywhere! In re-reading this I noticed I have left off minor perks like the huge size of the trunk, the ability to lock my car by calling Acura, the rear view mirrors automatically changing to a darker glass if the car behind you is using his brights (admittedly an advantage that has been around a while), heated seats (I did not opt for the cooling seats), leather and one cool car color called Phantom Blue Pearl, where the pearl has to do with tiny specs of gold that show up under sunlight or lamposts at night but you have to look carefully for it. WHat can I say, I am a happy camper!