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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  The perfect SUV for us - 2008 Acura RDX
  By Alex - November 7 - 11:36 pm

  Handling and acceleration are far better than the other SUVs we test drove - Lexus RX 350, Honda Pilot, Toyota Highlander. Feature for feature, none of the other SUVs we considered could beat the RDXs value. Good thing too, because none of them were nearly as fun. This is an SUV that will provide us plenty of utility, allow us to grow in it, yet small enough for the city, and will continue to be fun so that we wont mind keeping it for a while.

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  BEST ACURA - 2003 Acura CL
  By candy - November 7 - 10:00 am

  Too good to have munual tranny!

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  How RSX is a car YOU want - 2002 Acura RSX
  By cdznutz - November 7 - 10:00 am

  This car is the ultimate sports coupe at this price range. This car is very fun to drive! The acceleration is unbelievable and it is extremely powerful; it dominates on the road. Many heads will turn when you drive this car. The interior is beautifully designed and the bose sound system is very rich sounding. I heard some nasty things about the Acura dealers, but the dealership i went to was great. Bottom line: This is the best car you can get at this price range.

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  2003 3.2 tl-s - 2003 Acura TL
  By cliff wolff - November 7 - 10:00 am

  Amazing car for the price

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  A Nice "Sporty Sedan" - 2007 Acura TL
  By RBSC - November 6 - 12:04 pm

  After 10 yrs and 145,000 mi I sold my 528 BMW for a TL. First things first IMO the BMW E39 is superior to the TL in all dynamic driving categories period. But having said that the TL is still a very fine car. Reasonably quick, stylish, comfortable, quiet (no rattles here) and good gas mileage (got almost 31 mpg on our last trip). But the TL does have issues. First is the transmission, under normal everyday driving its flawless but try some spirited driving and its slow to kick down and the computer gets confused hunting for the right gear. Second is the suspension, its jittery and on less than smooth roads the front will bounce, this is not a good thing, especially in a sports sedan.

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  The 2008 RDX beats all the competition - 2008 Acura RDX
  By Dan - November 4 - 8:35 pm

  I love my RDX. Ive had this vehicle for almost a month now and Im very impressed with everything about this SUV. I spent a lot of time researching and comparing different vehicles but once I started test driving them, the Acura RDX with the Tech package really beats all the competition. Its the best luxury for my money. Stereo sound is amazing. Interior and exterior finishing fantastic. Its fun to drive because of the smooth and powerful handling. Im really happy with my purchase.

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  Great Car.. Great Drive!! - 2007 Acura TL
  By Venkata Bhadri Raj - November 4 - 4:30 pm

  This is my first brand new car, amazed with the handling, music system and Nav. Excellent value for money. Best in its class!!

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  Perfect - 2000 Acura Integra
  By ...nAs... - November 4 - 11:51 am

  Driven the car for 5 months now, put roughly 7000km on it. Already Ive had to replace the radiator, however everything seems to be working fine with nearly 115,000km on it now. Fun to drive, kind of plain inside but the leather interior has held up really nicely and the car leaves the driver all kinds of options to upgrade at a reasonale cost including the deck and accessories. The cup holder is in a poor spot but everything else Im really happy with. Would recommend anyone to pick it up if possible!

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  This Is A Great Car - 2004 Acura TL
  By I Count! - November 4 - 10:00 am

  I have owned many cars in my lifetime, and I currently have four - including a convertible Corvette and Lexus LX470 - but this car is by far the best value AND is fun to drive! I bought it to be a utility car / basic transportation. But I find myself wanting to drive it all the time.

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  Great car, a few rattles though - 2005 Acura TL
  By 2005 Acura TL - November 3 - 10:11 am

  I absolutely love this car, with just two exceptions. The frequent rattles are quite annoying and the leather seats could be more comfortable. Other than that, the car is awesome! Ive actually looked around at other cars, trying to talk myself into buying a new car, but there is nothing out there that is as appealing as the TL. Ill have this car for years and years as long as the upkeep remains minimal as it is now.