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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  Polished metal metallic/Parchment Premium Pkg. - 2013 Acura ILX
  By ilx2013je - January 21 - 9:00 am

  3 months of ownership and Im extremely satisfied with my new ILX. Very peppy for a small 4cyl. engine. Ride and handling are very impressive. Excellent use of space on the interior. Im coming from a mid-size and dont miss the little extra room I previously had. I dont want to see many of them on the road, but everyone should give this car a try.

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  It just broke down, but Im not mad - Great Car - 1997 Acura RL
  By hab2 - January 16 - 8:47 am

  LOL, seriously just had it towed and I was contemplating a new purchase so I jumped on Edmunds to get a trade in value. The car has over 234K miles. You can belive this or not, but the transmission is still smooth, the engine strong, the ride comfortable and get this, no knocks, pings, or things shaking. I drive it and I dont believe it - I said 234K miles. Given the age, and miles its not perfect, dash lights, power windows, nav back light, washer pump, etc. Little things that need reapir. But I tell you - Great Car and it will be a great car for the next person. Hope this helps!

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  Great well equipped SUV. - 2013 Acura RDX
  By marky1020 - January 15 - 8:24 am

  Have had it for 1 week now and so far, so good. Drives exceptionally well and is more car-like then SUV like. Traded in a 10 year old Hyundai Santa Fe which I felt was a bit of a choppy ride. Also had a Jeep Cherokee 15 some odd years ago which was totally truck like based on its 4x4 platform. Of the 3, the Acura feels like driving a car while still having the benefits of riding higher, hauling more when needed and having AWD. Of course you can get AWD on some cars, but my feeling is that once you start driving an SUV, its hard to go back into a car..not impossible, just hard.

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  Potentially great car - if only Acura would add ... - 2013 Acura RDX
  By rgf99 - January 14 - 2:14 pm

  I have had my RDX (AWD, Base) for 6 months. It is fun to drive and very comfortable. Previously I had a 2001 Toyota Highlander Ltd. I looked at the MDX (too large) and the X3 (too costly) and finally decided on the Base/AWD RDX. Wanted some of the features of the Tech Package but decide not worth $4K for the. I almost did not buy the car because it was missing some key features I expected in Luxury/near luxury-brand SUV

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  What are they thinking? - 2012 Acura MDX
  By esw2 - January 11 - 2:50 pm

  Fuel efficiency poor. Why not use cylinder deactiv like on Pilot. Why not diesel? New Audi diesel sign better at motivating this much weight, efficiency about a third better. Voice tech terrible, useless, must learn the language. Blue tooth phone link also useless sound is so bad cant have a conversn. Rattles, lux Jpnese autos shouldt. Lots of rattles some almost seem to be designed into the car like the rattle that comes from the pssnger seat belt receptacle or the one that comes from the top of where the 2nd row seat splits. AC and fan direction hidden when you turn on HVAC. Why? Bttns are very hard to use.

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  Awsome Vehicle - 2002 Acura RSX
  By rsxc - January 10 - 2:50 pm

  Ive owned two 02 ACura RSXs Premium. Bottom line is that they are very reliable. They will last a long time before they break. But like any car once they break they will cost a small fortune. Most aftermarket retailers do not carry the parts that usually break on this car. This means you must go to the the dealer to get the part, which can be hole in your pocket. All in all, I love this car. Its very cheap on gas, it has a very attractive sporty look, its got all the goodies like: leather heated seats, heated powered mirrors, power windows and doors. I would definitely recommend this car.

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  Beware 2012 Acura TL- Deficient Handling - 2013 Acura TL
  By disillusione1 - January 9 - 12:54 pm

  Purchased a New Acura AWD Sport package 2012 TL. The purchasing process was exceptional. A Two hour drive home was a disaster. The new TL front end shimmied and pulled to the left. I took it to local Acura dealer because unsafe to drives. They balanced the tires, charged me $50. Brand new vehicle. Returned to original dealer to fix left drifting on interstate highways. They checked said all was in spec. Drove two hours back and it still drifted left. Took videos, took it back. They recommended different tires for over $900. Same problem. Requested to escalate with Acura. No response. Finally I elected to trade in 2012 AWD TL before I was seriously injured.

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  Good car but not great - 1997 Acura TL
  By divergentdan - January 8 - 3:35 pm

  I bought a 97 TL because the trannys on the 99-03s are notorious for failing. Bought the car with 138K and now its up to 176K. Ive replaced radiator ($150), axles+tie rod ($450), fuel pump ($250), starter ($150). Also replaced regular things (battery $100, rotors and pads $300). The car does tend to overheat, but its usually caused by air in the cooling system so you just need to bleed the system when it does and it takes care of the problem 95% of the time. Gas mileage is just OK (26-28 highway, 24 combined). Slow windows is a universal problem. Otherwise its a good car.

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  Very nice car - 2005 Acura TL
  By sleeper22 - January 6 - 8:16 pm

  I bought my 05 TL with a little over 54,000 miles. It now has 105,000 miles. The 3rd generation TLs are very good cars. Comfortable, quiet, roomy, refined and I like the FWD because we do get snow here in KY. I just did the timing belt replacement (almost $1000 at dealer) so guess I will be keeping it for awhile. I really like the TL as in my opinion gets great gas mileage for a car that performs this well. I average 22-24mpg combined and anywhere from 28-33mpg highway. The only complaints I have are the brakes. They perform well but rotors tend to warp easily and the calipers went bad around 95,000 miles. Other than this the TL is probably the best car I have owned.

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  GREAT CAR, ESPECIALLY FOR THE PRICE!!! - 2012 Acura TL
  By mbessette - January 5 - 1:59 pm

  I traded in my 2008 Range Rover Supercharged for this car and it drives just as good if not better than the Range. Also has better electronic features, reliability, and cost a third of the price. Overall just a good quality car very happy with it!!!! P.S the AWD handled better than any other i have driving and i also drove a Subaru and an infiniti in the past