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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  fun to drive - 2004 Acura RSX
  By BETA - July 6 - 2:00 am

  Great little car could have a little less road noise. ALSO Acura what about a soft top model Honda has the 2000.

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  Type S - 2002 Acura TL
  By markvi - July 6 - 2:00 am

  Great performing vehichle. Quick, handles beautifully. Only bad point was replacing the transmission at 25k. Flaw in the design of tranny, fortunately under warranty.

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  My Acura TL - 2005 Acura TL
  By mike massino - July 6 - 1:40 am

  This be beautiful auto is very well designed in side and out. The fact that the car has so many safety features in comforting to know when driveing in heavy traffic. The blue tooth handsfree feature is very useful. Overall build quality is excellent. I would surely buy another one.

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  Second time around - 2016 Acura TLX
  By Br Mills - July 5 - 10:39 pm

  Owned my 2006 Acura for 10+ years and over 105,000 miles. Loved it and when it came time to replace it, I purchased the Acura make, model, color, etc. that came closest to my previous car. Never considered any other options. Im sure I will love this model for the next 100,000 miles as well.

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  Second time around - 2016 Acura TLX
  By Br Mills - July 5 - 10:34 pm

  Owned my 2006 Acura for 10+ years and over 105,000 miles. Loved it and when it came time to replace it, I purchased the Acura make, model, color, etc. that came closest to my previous car. Never considered any other options. Im sure I will love this model for the next 100,000 miles as well.

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  Screamer - 2002 Acura RSX
  By Mister Gus - July 3 - 4:43 pm

  A blast to drive & Honda/Acura reliability

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  RL style and comfort - 2004 Acura RL
  By peachkdm - July 3 - 2:00 am

  car rides and hanldes very well, fun to drive, nav system is great voice makes very easy when driving

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  RSX Type S - 2004 Acura RSX
  By rgvivace - July 3 - 2:00 am

  I loved my 2000 Ford Focus ZX3 5-speed: brilliant steering and magic, compliant long-travel suspension. Wanted SVT Focus, but none available. Acura offered a GREAT lease deal: $1k down included 1st mo, 48mo @$275 w/tax for RSX-S w/15k miles/yr. Mazda 3S hatchback nice but only $9/mo less than better performing/feature-laden RSX-S. Mini S nice but too small, too $$. Best feature: tan leather, high-quality interior vs. cloth in coal-bin black. Type S = fabulous performance (esp. engine/6 speed), but rather too stiff & frenetic. Comfy seats, well bolstered. Why dont they put better, stickier tires on these??? Best-in- class bang-for-buck.

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  Awesome Car - 2002 Acura RSX
  By rsxlover - July 2 - 9:50 pm

  Most bang for the buck, by far.....awesome fun to drive car.

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  Happy, so far. - 2004 Acura MDX
  By robmac - July 2 - 2:00 am

  Fun to drive, nav system is incredible (but slightly out-dated restaurant locations), Bose sound system is good, great acceleration (but feels slow), slight wind noise (but 200% better than my Integra), simple instrumentation, slightly wider than I would have liked (77"W is from door to door, not including mirrors), rear camera is awesome, smooth ride. What else can I say....so far, I really like it. I waited until the last day of June to buy. On the last day of the month, all Acura dealers dropped their prices to at least $500 over invoice. I paid invoice price, plus they threw-in a decor package.