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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  True Legend - 1993 Acura Legend
  By LoveMyLegend - October 19 - 2:00 am

  Car was passed down to me from my dad with 230,000 miles on it. The car is basically like new. Everything from the engine to the interior is as strong as it ever was. Very little signs of wear and tear. Like I said, the engine (whole car really) is extremely strong, and has one the nicest high revving sounds I have heard on a car. Put it past 5k on the tach. and it lets out a bit of a yell but no hesitation at all! I love this car and would only trade it for another legend (gs, 6 speed maybe)! The name really does say it all.

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  Great Luxury Vehicle - 2004 Acura RL
  By Miralee - October 19 - 2:00 am

  The Japanese have it together. They know how to take the best ideas, perfect them and the processes to build them, and make an unbeatable path to market. Unless US manufacturers can make a significant paradigm shift and radically change production methods and processes, we have given away one more card in the poker game of World Powers.

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  2005 Acura TSX 6sp - 2005 Acura TSX
  By p man - October 18 - 11:40 am

  I have been very satisfied with this car so far. I test drove mazda6 and accord and they just didnt have any power. TSX manual has little bit more kick then automatic, but worse fuel economy. I wish traction control was working better. VSA is great...

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  What a grate car. - 2002 Acura TL
  By Getovait2005 - October 17 - 2:00 am

  this is a grate car, nice looks, Grate Power, A nice Bose sound system nice outside lights . Some things could be better like a little more room, bigger trunk.

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  RSX Type S - 2002 Acura RSX
  By Joe_McNabb - October 16 - 8:06 am

  Car is amazingly fun.

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  Reliable, Fun Car - 2002 Acura RSX
  By Bcpatters - October 15 - 2:00 am

  Have owned many cars, but owning this car has been one of the best experiences Ive had yet. It has worked flawlessly, is fun to drive (5 sp), and gets great mileage on reg gas (29 mpg avg, 34 on trips). Only complaint is excessive road noise - only a problem at freeway speeds. Engine and wind noise are minimal.

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  So Far - So good - 2007 Acura RDX
  By pete - October 14 - 10:10 pm

  So Far my RDX is working as advertised. It handles well and is very responsive. I have the tech package and would highly recommend the addition.

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  RL - 2004 Acura RL
  By Taha - October 14 - 2:00 am

  I have a RL. It is very good and very nice vehicle and I like it very much.

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  great car - 2004 Acura TL
  By lov2xlr8 - October 13 - 7:36 am

  i love the car, and after 6 months, i cant wait to take a drive whenever possible.

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  Great little car - 1999 Acura CL
  By tneef - October 11 - 2:00 am

  Bought the car for my daughter when she turned 16 and now hate to give it up. Fun to drive, great gas mileage and no problems.