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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  Love at first sight but faded after the honeymoon. - 2006 Acura TL
  By Joe - July 31 - 9:09 pm

  This car had everything I wanted but came at a price. Performance, technology, and looked amazing. There are many known problems with this particular generation of the TL. Bluetooth stopped working and the replacement was pretty costly. Cassette adapter for ipod/iphone music got stuck in tape deck. Went through 2 batteries within 3 weeks and Dealership couldnt figure out the problem. Once I was able to pry the cassette adapter out the problem went away. Another known problem is the nav system. The unit in the trunk doesnt last and the replacement is about $300 now from Alpine. Once the trunk unit stops working you lose all the touchscreen capabilities on the display (ie AC control, radio control, settings, etc). You also lose the voice control for the radio unit. Voice control for making phone calls still functions as it is not tied to the trunk unit. Lastly, the dashboard problem. AcuraZines website lists many people that have reported a cracked dashboard. Mine 1st cracked around the airbag border on the passenger side. At first I thought it was an airbag failure mode but upon research discovered I was seeing what many people were reporting. Shortly after this initial crack I started getting multiple cracks across my whole dashboard. Looks horrible. Exterior paint is still holding up but some of the plastic coating around the window edge is peeling. With all that being said I still enjoy the car but havent got to utilize a lot of the technology for about 5 years now. Im looking to get rid of it soon and most likely will not buy another Acura.

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  Another Transmission Failure - 2002 Acura TL
  By atlthinker - July 22 - 2:00 am

  I thought I bought a car that had great value for the dollar, but all of you folks whining about a particular street not being on the Nav system need to get over it...just wait til your transmission fails! You wont need to worry about where your going, but about how you are going to get there! This is not what I expected for such a highly rated vehicle and the build quality we have come to expect from Honda. And if you think this is a fluke, go to http://www.acura-tl.com and http://www.acura-cl.com and find out how many other Acura owners have experienced transmission failures...thats right...FAILURE, meaning needing to be replaced!

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  Not What I Expected - 2003 Acura TL
  By Dean206 - July 18 - 2:00 am

  Convinced to trade new, 1.5 month old, gorgeous 03 Maxima SE on new 03 Acura TL. Each day since purchase, (6 months ago) Ive regretted purchasing the 03 TL. Maxima was much faster, thrill to drive; loved engine, exterior, interior (everything). Honestly dont care for the Acura at all (engine, interior, exterior). Acura rides rough, and is sluggish relative to Maxima. Sometimes bump head (only 60" tall) when getting in (even with seat at lowest point). Loved the last Acura Legend, but 03 TL falls short. No complaints about reliability, but I plan to get a 2003 Maxima this year (dont like look of 2004 Maxima).

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  Excellent Idea, Horrible Execution - 2005 Acura TL
  By former acura lover - June 11 - 10:00 am

  Fell in love with this car when I bought it now I CANNOT STAND IT, all within less than 6 months! Why? Rattles, Rattles, and more Rattles Mislaligned body parts, especially trunk that rubs and has paint chipped off and rust on it! Very poor water based paint used. Chips started on drive home from dealer and havent stopped. Paint mottling (swirling on doors) uneven paint application at factory! Looks like an army camouflage vehicle under certain lights! Cheap leather on seats that has more wrinkles than a 120 year old ladys face. Wrinkle in seat within first 500 miles and it only gets worse. If you get black its gets even better! DASHBOARD FADES TO A MILKY WHITE COLOR! ALL TLs DO IT!

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  Premium car????? - 2016 Acura TLX
  By Jim - March 21 - 6:15 pm

  This is not a premium car experience. The dealership previously gave me a decent deal on a used car and I was treated fairly, so I decided to try their product. The car they told me was there was "sold" as I drove there. This was a new group of employees (common practice). I had to unnecessarily negotiate for hours to get close to where I wanted to be on another one. Test drove the four cylinder and it was noisy, buzzy, and slow. The car with the V6 is a good highway cruiser. Pretty smooth and powerful with the V6 on the highway. Has some road/wind noise. Car handles OK. Transmission is jerky around town. The ergonomics and electronics interface are a nightmare. You have to do numerous screen functions just to turn on seat heaters. Takes your eyes off the road. Banged my shin every other time I got in the car. The seats are not very comfortable. Ride is OK. We were so disappointed with the car we traded after 9 months. Not a premium car experience (did I say that already?). We previously had a Ford SUV and liked it. We bought a loaded Ford Fusion Titanium 2.0 Turbo. Better acceleration, smoother transmission, better seats, much better ergonomics, much better Sony stereo, better controls and sync3 interface. Better rebound characteristics over bumps, same amount road noise, same handling characteristics, more room, bigger trunk, very quite with less wind noise on freeway. All this much better car and with rebates and discounts it was $10,000.00 less than the "premium" Acura TLX. Would not buy again.

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  Great Car, Too Much Maintenece - 2006 Acura RL
  By Ricks RL - March 15 - 2:41 pm

  Bought new in 2006. Great Car absolutely no problem UNTIL it hit 10 years old. Within the last year i have spent a tic over 10k in maintenance repairs that hadto be done(brakes/struts/Oil&water pump/key less entry computer replaced/new motor mounts/new spark plugs/and fluids replaced.

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  Too many rattles inside & floaty ride - 2005 Acura TL
  By X-Acura TL Owner - February 9 - 7:10 am

  I was excited to get this car, but after 3 months of owning this car, I found the ride handling is floaty when hitting bumps or when changing lanes. Car tends to sway side to side. There is too much wind noise, rattles on the driver side door, rattles also coming from the glove box, and rattles from the rear speaker area. I use to own a 1997 Acura CL and I never had any rattling noises from that car. This new generation TL needs lots of improvement. Seats are also uncomfortable for long trips.

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  One Year Anniversary - 2004 Acura TL
  By WIFESTL - October 12 - 2:00 am

  Weve had our TL for 1 year now. For anyone out there, dont ever buy the first model year of a car. This car has had numerous shop visits to fix the seat memory loss, the transmission mod/repair, replace interior parts that didnt fit right and rattled, replaced CD/Radio that wouldnt return the CD, tires are still stiff and harsh, complained about uncomfortable seats (but I cant sit in Honda seats anyway without getting a back ache) due to poor support, and numerous other picky items that shouldnt exist (ie. missing interior pieces). Other than that the car continues to run great. We like the styling, handling, and power.

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  Front End Vibration - 2004 Acura TL
  By Runner78 - September 12 - 10:00 am

  My overall experience with this vehicle would be rated great if not for one major flaw that Acura has stated that they will not correct. There is a severe front end vibration when first driving the vehicle after sitting all night that disappears after about 5 minutes of driving. Acura replaced the tires, but that did not fix the problem. Was told by the dealer to contact customer service who has stated they will do nothing more to try to correct the problem. So much for Acuras supposedly superior customer service.

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  Transmission problem - 2005 Acura TL
  By srini - August 28 - 2:50 am

  Transmission shifts into 3rd and 5th gears at low driving speeds resulting in a grinding noise; the two head lights are not designed to evenly spread light on the road ( one is higher than the other ; the doors are so flimsy that the door speaker is rattling; the tires wore out in 25000 miles; navigation does not show the shortest routes