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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  Disappointment - 2003 Acura CL
  By John4evr - February 3 - 2:00 am

  The car is a mixture of pluses and minuses, however, listening to the dash board creak and groan with all the rattles is a good reason not to purchase this vehicle.

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  Issues with infotainment - 2016 Acura ILX
  By Donald Bassett - January 26 - 2:06 pm

  This is my first Acura and generally I am very happy. I havent had it in for the first service yet but wanted to know if anyone is having issues with the infotainment system. About once a week when I start the car the radio stations will come up with all the programmed numbers wrong. The stations are correct if you select them but the numbers displayed are wrong. Sometimes it will correct itself after a while and sometimes it wont. Twice the backup camera has not gone off when I shift out of reverse and the upper display stays on the back up camera the entire time I am driving. Next time I start it will go back to normal.

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  Weighing my options - 2015 Acura TLX
  By SMMG - January 15 - 12:38 pm

  So, this is my first Acura...maybe my last. My car of choice over the last 20 plus years has been Lexus. (GS and ES) Im beginning to think I was spoiled by the customer service and overall quality and reliability of the 4 Lexus vehicles Ive owned. The battery on my less than one year old 2015 TLX died in a parking lot and thank goodness and not some place more dangerous. I had to have the car towed-the dealership said they were too busy to send someone to help me since it was a Saturday. They kept the car for 3 working days in order to replace the battery, which, I was told most likely had been on a shelf and was out-of-date before even being installed. They were going to send me home without a loaner...its Saturday, busy and so I cant help you. . I had to engage the dealership head honcho and finally was given a loaner. Evidently, the cars computer system went down when the battery failed and Im still having issues with various tech features. They cant seem to figure it out and I keep having to go back. Now, about the braking/transmission systems. When coming to a stop, or sometimes even when completely stopped, the car lunges forward followed by a forceful rear-end kickback. The dealership offered up this advice, "thats nothing to worry about, the TLX is known for this issue." Really? Why not fix it? I know I didnt buy a Lexus. I get that. What I dont understand is if you know theres a problem, why dont you fix it? Before the car depreciates any more, Im going to probably trade it in for ...ready for this ? Another Lexus!

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  what the dealer does not tell you untill - 2003 Acura TL
  By whatever - November 28 - 10:00 am

  What the dealer does not tell you is that the TL and The TLs models do not interchange. Tires will not exchange and neither will the upgraded struts and you cannot cannot install a stabilizer bar. I found this out the following week and tried to upgrade to the TLS and they wanted a 10,000 dollar difference. Bottom line is You do not want the TL only the TLS!

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  Regret Purchase - 2017 Acura TLX
  By BIndi - October 16 - 12:31 pm

  I own a 2010 Acura TL and it was time for an upgrade and I chose a 2017 Acura TLX. I cant tell you how disappointed I am in this car and the regret I feel for spending this much money on a car with so many flaws I cant begin to explain them all. The dashboard technology is so ridiculously behind and out of sync with other brands but of course I didnt realize how bad until after I owned the car and had a chance to deal with it on a daily basis. Just an example is turning on heated seats requires pressing a button on the touch screen then selecting again a level of choice. If you want to change it again that same two steps is required each and every time. I get so frustrated with how ridiculous this is when you think about safety and distracted driving. If you use voice control its the same two step process if it recognizes what you are saying. The car is completely gutless and unresponsive and I dont drive it the same as my 2010 TL because I cant. Im discouraged I spent so much money on this car when the manufacturer hasnt corrected the past problems with their brand and went cheap by not updating and keeping current with technology offered by other auto makers in the same class. Some things in this car just dont make sense and you wont know it until you drive it for awhile.

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  Poor Build Quality - 2003 Acura CL
  By qrqr199top - October 16 - 10:00 am

  Having been a long time Toyota owner, I am really disappointed with the build quality of my Acura CL. So far, my fog lights have burned out twice, my sunroof still rattles, my rear quarter panel had to re-welded, interior trim panels were falling off and still the car rattles and squeaks... Ive told the Acura dealer that my 96 Corolla with 120,000 miles makes less noise than my 2002 acura.

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  Great hype but no substance - 2016 Acura MDX
  By Ram - October 7 - 6:07 am

  The folks at dealership are great in service and sales but they cannot solve the issues which are congenital to Acura important one being Jerky transmission , the movement is jerky at low speeds, during accelration and marked in low gear (S). The climate control fans make loud noise . A software update made it worse. Even the seat memory fails !! Bluetooth cannot recognize my wifes Iphoe 6+!!!. Audio is good.

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  Jerky low speed transmission shifts - 2016 Acura MDX
  By David - September 11 - 11:08 am

  Rough shifting from idle into first and second. Jerky shifting at low speed if you do not accelerate uniformly. Not worth the $50K+ price.

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  Transmission Whiplash 2002 TL - 2002 Acura TL
  By fixerupper - August 16 - 3:26 am

  Major problem. Transmission hesitates then engages first gear very abruptly. Happens from a dead stop or when slowing down and speeding up. There is a very noticable delay from the time I start accelerating till the car goes hard into motion. After 5 trips to the dealer, and being told that they can not find the problem or thats the way it is supposed to work I am going back and demand at least a new trany. My first couple weeks driving this thing I developed a serious stiff neck.

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  Shifting issues. - 2016 Acura MDX
  By Vincent Cerbo - August 4 - 8:20 pm

  Ive only owned it for three weeks. The nine speed transmission has issues when shifting into second and third. Rough shifting from idle into first and second. Engine revs up then will often jump from first to third. Very pronounced action.