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-S vs EVO vs WRX - 2004 Acura RSX
  By JDMDC5-S - August 15 - 2:00 am

  Great and awesome car all around. Perfect between performance and drivability. Has potential to be a pretty fast car. But not as much potential compared to WRX or Evo. This is not the car if you want to be extremely fast. This car is a balance between performance and luxury. Interior is very nice. Looks are awesome compared to WRX. This car will be hard to compete with cars like Evo and WRX STi since this car is afterall FWD. Overall I love this car and is a great all around vehicle. Bose system is kind of lacking. But other than that I have no real complaints. Perfect balance between performance and drivability.

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  Lots to like; easy to be with. - 2004 Acura MDX
  By DonMclRPI - August 15 - 2:00 am

  This is by far the most comfortable vehicle I have ever driven. Everything manages to be in the right place to find it and the little features of automation really work to make the driving pleasant. The heating system, while short of all the buttons, knobs and zones of some others, simply works. I (we) seldome change any setting, save the back seat control to allow passengers their say The second seats are the surprise.... they recline. Backing up with the camera is surprising. Try it in a pitch dark situation to really surprise yourself. And, six though it is, it goes! My advice .... drive this "bland" SUV a few miles before you buy anything else.

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  Best car Ive ever owned - 1993 Acura Integra
  By SEP - August 14 - 2:30 pm

  I bought my Integra in 96 with 40,000 miles on it and have added 120,000 to it since. Outstanding car, always reliable. Looks great, drives great. I only had to have it towed once, and that was because of a mistake the repair shop made that morning (an a/c belt was installed improperly). It hasnt been without its problems, but nothing unusual for the age of the car. I can jump in it and take a road trip without thinking twice. Id buy another one in a minute.

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  Dont buy it! - 2003 Acura TL
  By rockpub - August 14 - 10:36 am

  Have had 3 transimissions in this car, so far, not to mention little annoying items that dont work or break (air vents close when fan on high, center console latch broke within 2 months of purchase, etc.). Given the purchase price and expected quality, am extremely disappointed in this car. Will never buy another Acura!

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  good car - 2003 Acura CL
  By alex7899 - August 14 - 10:00 am

  Owned this car for a while now and its a joy to drive

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  Great Car for the Value - 2007 Acura TL
  By BWS - August 14 - 12:08 am

  I was mocked by co-workers for having a soccer mom car. Test drove Lexus IS 250 and BMW 3 Series and while the latter two had great reviews and drove well, the TL hands down feels more like it. For being a Honda it drove like a champ. I guess I got my mojo back with this ride.

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  Not all its cracked up to be - 2007 Acura RL
  By Wingnut - August 13 - 8:19 pm

  This car looked like a terrific value, but it has not turned out that way. I was looking forward to "Honda Reliability" but too many things just dont work well or are gimmicky. Fuel economy is atrocious (14-15), electronics dont work that well, run-flat tires are super loud, there is some wind noise, key fob/keyless entry never works the same twice in a row. Car is pretty slow off the line, but decent on the highway. Ride is too much of a compromise. Handling is good, but the Michelin run-flats are lousy performance tires in all but the correct temperature range. I came out of an Audi A8, and would NOT buy this car again.

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  Value for money - 2007 Acura RL
  By BigFan - August 13 - 8:11 pm

  We wanted an AWD sedan after a string of average SUVs. This vehicle is a beauty. Excellent build quality and finish. It would be difficult to beat the value for money. It rides smoothly and is very comfortable. We are delighted with our purchase so far.

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  A year with the new TL - 2005 Acura TL
  By kershnersk - August 13 - 4:06 pm

  After a full year of owning the 04 TL, I have only two complaints. First, is the lack of a trip computer feature integrated into the nav system. Some product manager just got it very wrong to put the trip computer into the message center instead of the nav system like the Honda Accord. Luckily, you can work around this by booting the nav system into the Honda version, just change a couple of file names on a CD-R and presto - you have the Honda nav features including the trip computer with real-time mpg bar graph. My second gripe is the way the driver door springs back at you as you attempt to open the door. No workaround or adjustment according to Acura.

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  Best choice on cars ever made - 2005 Acura TL
  By Brian in WA - August 13 - 3:30 pm

  With some apprehension I handed over the money to purchase this. It was the most Id ever spent for a car. It performs great around corners and in a panic stop the other day the brakes and antilock combination saved a hit with the car in front. I get many comments from lookers with the blue exterior & tan leather interior, a European look I at first did not like. But sometimes being different is a good thing. Power... plenty to get you out of a tight spot. Was almost going to get a BMW 330 but this offered more bang for the buck and maintenance will not require you go to the bank for a loan to fix something.