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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  Best car ever - 2003 Acura RSX
  By tchoughs - January 3 - 9:21 pm

  I bought this car a few months ago, and ever since I first test drove it I have been in love with it. If you are looking to buy an rsx, understand that it takes a certain kind of person to live with this car, as it is rough, bouncy, harsh and generally unforgiving. My rsx has many modifications, but I would love a stock one just as much. I have never experienced any problems that have not been caused directly by me. This car handles beautifully despite the fact that it is fwd. I had a huge bias against fwd but this car changed my mind. It can even drift!(sort of, this has just been an experiment by me) I highly recommend this car. Also VTEC!

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  Great value and fun to drive - 2014 Acura TL
  By baymate - January 3 - 5:39 pm

  Unassuming, low-key upscale sedan. Fun to drive. Highly responsive acceleration. Great cornering ability. Pleasant interior and exterior. A performance sedan that can serve as a secondary family car. One of the best value.

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  What a piece of heavy junk!!! - 2013 Acura TL
  By terryj5 - January 2 - 4:18 pm

  The TL is probably the worse car in the market, Acura should close their business forever! This is super super bumpy and noise ride. I can feel every bumps on the road even tiny bumps and there are rattles from center console when go over bumps. The suspensions also make thumping and popping sound when go over bumps .The engine runs rough after just 10k mils. What a horrible ownership of this car. Cant wait to get rid of this junk. What a waste of money. I should do more research before i buy this car. First and last Acura! Do not buy any Acura cars!!!

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  someone will sue Acura - 2005 Acura MDX
  By unhappykris - January 2 - 9:35 am

  second MDX, 7th Honda vehicle, last one had tranny issues, this one had the tranny noise slightly. 2012 I get a letter saying transmission software upgrade, so I took it in. Especially in case I had tranny issues in future they would say that I had not done this upgrade they suggested. The upgrade made the 5th gear come on at 45 MPH instead of the original 40 MPH. This removed the noise, but, the gas consumption is terrible now as 90% of my city driving is below 45 MPH! The should fix bad designs, not make us pay for it. Also, I cannot prove this yet, but another "recall software upgrade" has disabled my Vehicle Stability Assist". This is NOT how a luxury make should do things!

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  OK but..... - 2014 Acura RDX
  By newro - December 30 - 3:19 pm

  Have had Acuras since 1998, always a TL. My wife needed an all wheel/4 wheel drive that was not huge so we got out of a 2010 TL and into a 2013 RDX without the tech package. Its nice, but its not going to blow you away. As with all of my previous Acuras, its a quality build and reliable. Quick enough but I find it a little herky jerky in the steering, but, I have a 2010 Pathfinder which is like a tank compared to the RDX. It is pretty good in the snow, which is why we got it so I suppose that all in all, it does what its supposed to. It shares a radio with the Honda CRX and from what I am told, the all wheel drive platform as well. I guess its the Acura version of the CRX.

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  great bang for your buck - 2014 Acura MDX
  By stegrin - December 28 - 9:22 am

  love the MDX..i do a lot of hwy driving..only thing i am disappointed with is that i am averaging apprx 24.8 mpg on hwy..a little less than advertised..but not terrible...i looked at many of its competitors, i.e mercedes, infiniti, bmw to name a few..mdx is def cheaper than its competitors for a comparably equipped vehicle...

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  Best kept secret in Japanese comfort and reliability - 1995 Acura TL
  By samson17 - December 27 - 5:59 am

  I purchased our 95 Acura TL 2.5 with 165,000 miles on it from a little old lady and she had just had the timing belt and water pump replaced. It now has 171,000 and this car runs perfect, pwr steering is better than our new challenger,brakes perfectly with its 4wdb, interior is comfortable, engineering wise its rock solid. It really is a pleasure to drive this car long or short distances. I wouldnt hesitate to buy another wel taken care of TL. The 2.5 engine is very smooth, starts right up, has pretty good power and is very quiet, what more would you want out of a old Japanese VIP car? So far its been a very good buy, and even if the engine does blow up ill put another 1 in and keep on .

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  So Far Disappointed - 2014 Acura RDX
  By tramm - December 18 - 6:25 pm

  The RDX replaced my 2011 Q5. I bought it because it had more standard features than a Q5, was $5000 less than a Q5 and positive reviews. It is a good car in many respects but the suspension, interior quality and road noise reduction are not quite as good as the Q5. However, my biggest issue involves a subtle but obvious drive train vibration that occurs at certain speeds and RPMs. Acura is aware of the problem, claims it is "normal" but is working on a fix. If you do a lot of driving between 35-50 mph I would wait to buy a RDX until this annoying problem is fixed.

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  Great value and decent features - 2012 Acura MDX
  By sebring95 - December 7 - 8:56 am

  Weve had this for a little over a year and 30k miles. It was really no more expensive than a loaded Honda/Ford/GM SUV. Normally I wouldnt buy a "luxury" brand for our family hauler given the 25k-30k miles per year we drive, but operating costs on an Acura are a fraction of the Euro brands. Depreciation also appears to be significantly more favorable. Transmission is relatively lazy and you have to keep after it to capitalize on the 300hp. Backup camera is terrible at night. Gas mileage is as expected...averaging 19.5 and 21-22 on long trips at 75mph. Unless youre comparing it to something significantly more expensive or smaller, this is a great overall vehicle.

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  2013 TL SH-AWD Tech package (Black on Black) - 2013 Acura TL
  By defielding - December 6 - 2:15 pm

  Incredible value for the money and also exhilarating performance. The car is beautiful inside and out. I waited until October and got the AWD and Tech package TL for the same price as a base model! I tend to keep my cars for many years (buying, not leasing). Down the road, the maintenance and repair costs of Acuras competitors would prove prohibitive in comparison. Order all the features this car includes with the tech package and the TLs competitors price goes way out of this ball park.