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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  Love this car - getting better every day - 2013 Acura RDX
  By wdkymys - January 3 - 5:13 pm

  Shortlisted the RDX and Q5 (also looked at X3 and XC60). Q5 is a great vehicle but similarly equipped, was $7K more than the RDX. The RDX was so well equipped and drove so well, I figured $7K was too much to pay for the Audi badge. 1000 miles now on my AWD RDX and loving it. Ride is incredibly smooth, quiet and relaxing (better than Q5). The last poster who says it rides rough doesnt own this car and probably hasnt even driven one. If there was a problem here, at least one professional reviewer would have mentioned it. Handling is really impressive too. Q5 is better, but seriously, how often are you driving slalom courses? Ive hit 32MPG twice in highway driving vs 27MPG expected.

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  Relative Bargain - 2013 Acura TL
  By koryme - January 1 - 2:33 pm

  Regardless if you like the exterior appearance or not, you cant deny that this is a luxury bargain. Match the features this car has to the equivalent BMW or Audi and youre looking at 10 grand higher. And that may not be including AWD. Performance, comfort, features, quality, transmission, and overall satisfaction couldnt be better. Not that its a bad thing, but if youre looking for an AWD sedan with a manual transmission, this is your only option. Note: Ive only owned my TL for a short time. If I experience anything like the other reviewer on here did then I will update my review. As for now, I couldnt be happier.

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  Seat/ride comfort: Love it or hate it - 2011 Acura TSX
  By sumrtoy - December 31 - 9:53 am

  2010 and 2011 TSX review have similar comments about comfort... hate the seats/ride... love the seats/ride. In my case I hate them. Cant get comfortable no matter the setting. To be fair the car is very fun to drive on short 15 min trips, I have a blast. Get to the 30 min + and it can get miserable. And likewise with the ride. Feels like a go cart. After while it gets old. Overall however the quality is great. For sporty folk the ride and seats may work great. If you are from the Buick generation.... dont get this car. For me... its usually parked and i take the wifes mini van on most drives. If i owned it, itd take the loss and sell it, but its a lease... bad move.

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  My 4th TSX - 2013 Acura TSX
  By tsxbythesea - December 30 - 10:56 pm

  This is a great car, all-around. Good-looking, extremely reliable, and best lease value. Power moonroof, xenon headlights, foglights, bluetooth, leather, and adjustable heated front seats are standard. Decent stereo. A/C vents in the rear and a cooled center storage bin. The 4 cylinder 200hp engine is powerful enough for highway passing and delivers good gas mileage. I test drove several cars to try something different, but none compare to TSXs overall balance of price, standard equipment, fuel efficiency, quality, and style. I strongly disagree with the reviewer who listed "button happy console" as a con. The buttons become intuitive after a short period of usage.

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  Great car, ruined by Honda bean counters. - 2002 Acura RSX
  By thr33wayclimax - December 30 - 6:36 pm

  Ive owned this car since I was 16, and am now 26. Bulletproof reliability, only the A/C compressor has failed, twice. RATTLES/RATTLES....and more rattles. Maybe I never noticed or cared when I was younger, but this thing rattles like no other, the Tweeters, dash, trunk, doors, glove compartment I could go on, they all rattle. I feel like the car is going to fall apart when I hit a pothole. 2002 stock seats are terrible, NO support Hard seat bottoms. Replaced with seats from a 2005, much better! With all these issues, I cannot get myself to let it go, I dont think Ill ever sell this car.

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  What a waste, Honda. - 2009 Acura TSX
  By thr33wayclimax - December 30 - 6:28 pm

  I dont exactly understand the difference between this car and the Accord, other than this one is more expensive and smaller. Read the magazine reviews, they are all correct, terrible steering, too much roadnoise, SLOW. 201 hp in with a 5 speed auto?? NOT A PREMIUM CAR. Cheap leather on the seats, plastic door handles. The best feature, SAFETY, I crashed mine at about 45 mph and it kept me safe, maybe it was the cars way of apologizing for the utter failure this car was? Totaled and it was the best thing I ever did, sad to say. Acura and Honda need to get it together. I was a loyal fan of them, not after this and my RSX.

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  Three years, true love! - 2010 Acura TSX
  By amatista - December 29 - 6:12 pm

  Three years 36,000 miles later, I still adore my TSX. Superbly reliable (great after my previous car, a Murano, got bought back under the lemon law), great gas mileage (avg. 30 miles per fill up) and a joy to drive.

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  Is Acuras Brand Value Declining? - 2013 Acura RDX
  By barbieroads - December 28 - 7:26 am

  If you enjoy a ride that resembles rocking about in an earthquake or jerking your way through an amusement park ride then the 2013 Acura RDX will bring you joy otherwise, steer clear. The ride experience in this small SUV category is disappointingly uncomfortable and requires full attention from the driver in an effort to keep the vehicle in the lane. This ride is as far from relaxing as any ride could possibly get these days. Acura, youve failed me.

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  Sports car for the family man/woman - 2012 Acura TL
  By acuratloh - December 27 - 2:13 pm

  Owned the car for a few months, so its hard to rate the reliability. Its made by Honda, so it should be reliable. Once you drive the AWD version, you would have to be crazy to buy the front wheel drive version. I didnt get the tech version because I didnt want the navigation system. Built in ipod connection and usb port is nice. This car handles like its on rails. I no longer have to worry about pulling out onto a busy road when the roads are wet, this car flies. I get 26mpg if I drive freeway only at 75mph. I drive 70% city and 30% highways and average around 21mpg. Test drove the infiniti g37x, which was nice, but much smaller interior.

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  When it works its great! - 2010 Acura TL
  By lankysean - December 26 - 6:10 pm

  So I bought this car as a certified pre-owned 3 months ago and it broke down on Friday. At first the car wouldnt start but then when I did get it going I had no power breaks, power windows, or power steering and to top it off the car wouldnt turn off once I got it going. The loaner car they gave me (another TL) also has it fair share of problems. The air bag warnings keep coming on and when I picked it up 3 tires where under 20psi, etc.. Anyway, besides the reliability issues the car is very comfy, has plenty of power and is visually appealing.