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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  I Love my TL - 2004 Acura TL
  By RubenR2445 - October 16 - 10:00 am

  Best car ever owned, just love it!

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  Awesome car - 2004 Acura TL
  By P McKenna - October 16 - 12:24 am

  Great car. Fun to drive. A great looker. I love the 6 speed manual transmission. Nice short throw. I love the Bluetooth which is now hooked up to a Treo 650. My only complaint is a rattling noise in the coin tray. Im actually disappointed with the sound system, its ok, but not as good as the marketing brochures.

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  Great vehicle - 2002 Acura MDX
  By MDXer - October 15 - 8:43 pm

  Bought it 8 months ago. Great family hauler. Feels and looks solid. Very comfortable inside. Very good handling and acceleration. Excellent crash test results by the IIHS. NHTSA,although they have not crashed it head on, also gave it 5 stars for side impact crashing and 4 stars for rollover(most SUVs are either 3 or 2). It comes loaded so the dealers cannot play many games with options. We looked at the RX 300 but the MDX won hands down in terms of pricing and features.

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  My MDX - 2006 Acura MDX
  By Love the MDX - October 15 - 7:32 pm

  The MDX is a very nicely built car. It is comfortable and rides like a dream. It is quiet and accellerates nicely without any laboring. Its gas mileage is good for the size vehicle. It does however lack some amenities that I think should be standard on all models since this is a luxury car, ie. power liftgate, memory seats and mirrors, telescoping steering wheel, power passenger seats.

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  Love this car!! - 2006 Acura MDX
  By Diznefreek2 - October 14 - 6:05 pm

  I use my MDX to bring my family (3 kids included) to the snow in the winter months and I have a hard time limiting it to that!!

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  my acura - 2004 Acura TL
  By PAG - October 14 - 2:57 pm

  Ive only had excellent experiences with my Acura 3.2TL. I have the 2004 model with Navigation, and fully loaded. The Navigation in this vehicle is a touch screen, which is much easier than my Jeep Cherokee Limited, and my Mertcedes S430 Navigation systems. The reliability is ougtstanding. I will definitely get a new Acura, or Honda loaded, at the end of my lease (3 months).

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  Best car I ever drove - 2005 Acura MDX
  By Natalia - October 14 - 2:06 pm

  I love it! It could use better gas mileage. Very good on handling wet roads, turns. Very smooth and quiet ride. I did not think I would use Navigation system, but I was wrong. It is very helpful, plus I am still learning about the vehicle.

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  Review - 2005 Acura RL
  By Lovin - October 14 - 12:47 pm

  I would rank this car in line with the Audi A6. It has absolutely everything you would ever want on a vehicle...the ultimate in luxury.

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  My RL - 2005 Acura RL
  By grimie09 - October 13 - 3:00 pm

  After driving most of the others in this group, the test drive of the RL was all it took to buy. Experiencing the combination of handling, killer sound system, build quality, technology & solidness was over the top. The car is fun.

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  Best Buy for the Dollar - 2002 Acura TL
  By Scott JT - October 13 - 2:00 am

  I have owned my TL for 1.5 years and the car has been wonderful. I looked at the competition (Infinity, BWM, Audi) and for the dollar none of these compared. I have had absolutley no issues with the vehicle.