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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  Awesome Vehicle - 2005 Acura TSX
  By Julie - November 9 - 11:20 pm

  I did a lot of research and decided on the Acura TSX. I drove a Mercury Cougar for 6 years and going from a two door 6 cylinder to a 4 door 4 cylinder made me apprehensive but that feeling was long gone after the first test drive. It rides much smoother, handles extremely well and I am very happy with the purchase.

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  I love my car - 2005 Acura TSX
  By tatiana fuentes - November 9 - 8:30 pm

  This vehicle beats out the competition. You have every luxury feature, great price, fully loaded w/o additional for everything, great handeling and beautiful exterior and safe! I love it!!!!!

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  Open Road - 2006 Acura TSX
  By Lauren - November 9 - 10:17 am

  Even though this car has only 4 cylinders, it definitely has pep. This car is great on gas and the mileage per gallon on the highway and streets is accurate with the sticker. TOTALLY LOVE IT!

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  Regressing but still worthy - 2017 Acura ILX
  By SDA - November 9 - 7:33 am

  Feels like Honda literally sent Acura a civic LX and they "pimped your ride" with some leather and such. Back in 2007 with my first new Acura, the TSX was with navi or not, and came fully loaded with all the other features and was tons of fun to drive, especially in the twisties (mine was a 6 speed manual). Now they have packages and trim levels (no manual trans offering) and it seems the value of Acura has gotten lost and swept up to try and compete with heavily option oriented luxury brands where youre nickle and dimed for each and every convenience. "Pleather" and heated seats, bluetooth and a dual clutch trans are all nice and standard features but also very basic ones youll find on most cars with stickers in the low $20k range these days. If you want a touch screen entertainment system youll pony up $2,000 for the premium package and also get some nick-nack features like perforated leather and blind spot detection. If not youre stuck with the 2006 looking blue interface that is way past its due date to be redone. The 17" wheels they put on this thing belong on a base model civic in my opinion and make the car look a touch like its trying way too hard to be cutting edge styled, otherwise the styling of the car may be one of its higher selling points. 2.4L motor is standard now so 201hp but it still feels like it could use a kick in the pants in that department for being damn near $30,000. Truthfully it really is just a very comfortable, better looking Civic that you can lease for under $300 a month with $0 down, however, it may be the best thing you can get for that price in the luxury market.

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  2006 acura TL - 2006 Acura TL
  By cnn.com autos - November 8 - 1:51 pm

  I expected it to be quick and comfortable. It turned out to be both. I recently made a 2500 mile trip and it was excellent. I do not believe the 33 mpg listed by the onboard computer and premium fuel was a cost factor. I recommend it highly.

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  Great value - 2006 Acura RL
  By gdevine - November 7 - 12:39 am

  An excellent value. This car is so much fun to drive. Long trips seem short with the comfort and quality of the sound system. I drive slower or sometimes out of my way to relax in the vehicle.

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  Excellent Car - 2005 Acura RL
  By Houston 05 RL - November 6 - 10:06 pm

  This is an excellent car. Very well designed with all the features you need or want. Even better all the technology works and is easy to use. This is vastly different than so many of the other cars in its class. The BMW and Mercedes NAV Systems are hard to use and inferior, the Lexus GS has no back seat or trunk space, and the AWD puts all of them in the shade. It is a quality car for the real world, not a special use vehicle that can only be used part time for some things. The only thing I would add would be some additional torque since the AWD will allow it to be used effectively.

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  Little Wonder - 2006 Acura TSX
  By remee - November 6 - 11:15 am

  Its very easy to maneuver. It always give you more power when you need it. Its quiet. The only thing I did not like is that it feels hard on the road. Its not smooth. Overall it is a good car.The visor is wide enough that it protects me from the glare unlike the other cars I had. I had to buy an extender. You see I am on the short side.

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  Good SUV made better - 2005 Acura MDX
  By Nicolo - November 6 - 5:06 am

  Traded 03 for 05 touring with Nav. The new car is better in every way, quieter, quicker and with better body integrity. List of additional features compared to the 03 is very long: side curtain air bags, power lumbar, built in XM, better nav, voice commands for nearly everything, better dashboard display, better audio, six disc dash CD, bluetooth, Onstar, bigger gas tank. The Japanese, unlike American manufacturers, listen to consumers and make continuing updates.

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  pimp ride! - 2005 Acura RL
  By love it - November 5 - 8:43 am

  Powerful and very stylish. The ride could be a little smoother, but for all of the standard features that come with this car, its worth it to feel a couple of bumps in the road. The interior finish is impeccable, and the seats are the most comfortable car seats that I have ever sat in. I test drove the RL, Audi A6, Lexus GS 400, and the Mercedes E-Class ... the RL was hands down the best value of the bunch, or else I wouldnt be driving it! It had all the same features of its competitors, yet the price is thousands less. I dont see this as a quality issue ... I think that since the car comes standard with everything, Acura can cut its costs by making just one car and get economies of scale. Bravo!