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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  Impressive - 2010 Acura MDX
  By CR1970 - October 8 - 2:00 am

  I purchased one of the last 2010 Advance/Entertainment MXs that the dealer had on the lot and couldnt be happier. We test drove a number of SUVs including the new RX, Highlander, and BMW. The vehicle handles so much better than the RX and just seems to have a good balance of sport and comfort. I love the selectable ride option as well as the blind spot warning indicators. The stereo system is AMAZING and light years ahead of my RX. Voice recognition and navigation system were much better than the BMW we looked at. The new 6 speed transmission shifts smoothly and pickup is impressive for a vehicle of its size. Fit and Finish is also impressive.

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  2011 MDX - terrific nav and stereo - 2011 Acura MDX
  By jon - October 7 - 2:00 am

  Picked up new Acura w/ tech package a week ago with silver roof rack and running boards, very comfortable seats in front and second row with plenty of leg room, love the exterior styling and just today went on a trip to the airport to drop off a family member and returned rush hour crossing the nyc metro area made much easier by the nav system which redirected around various congested traffic areas and the upgraded stereo is probably the best I have owned or heard. Performance has been improved in 2010 by Acura on the MDX and it makes it a much smoother and peppy drive than the 2009 and prior.

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  Amazing Balance - 2010 Acura TL
  By David - October 6 - 2:00 am

  Test drove BMW, Infiniti and Audi and dont understand why "they" dont see this car as an option versus the S4 (but then again dont really care). What I noticed most about this car was the overall balance of features, performance, engineering and safety (2nd to none). Too many buttons? Who cares as you can do almost everything through a great voice command system. 6MT certainly does allow for immediacy and the handling is idiot proof. Huge rear seat area.

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  Great Car - 2006 Acura RSX
  By Brian - October 2 - 2:00 am

  Great car in every way, very fun to drive, some road noise but its still a sports car so whatever. No problems since i bought it, car has 20k more miles and runs like the day it came out of the factory.

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  very well refined - 2010 Acura TSX
  By Dave - October 2 - 2:00 am

  I always thought of Acura as an overproced Honda. I had an Accord for 12 years and test drove a new one. Very nice ride but really bored me. Test drove a VW CC and liked it but not sold on VW reliability. I considered the 328i, the infiniti and the Audi. All very nice cars and from a driving purist perspective, all better handling than the TSX. However, the price tags were all over 35k and this I got for around 27k.I like that it has a lot of standard features and is comfortable. Acrua always does things that makes sense and I am happier every day I drive the car.I opted for the 4 cyl as the 6 cyl pricing would have steered me in another direction.I like that it doesnt look like every car uc

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  Great vehicle - 2010 Acura TSX
  By Kevinmac - October 1 - 2:00 am

  The V6 TSX is a great vehicle, being fun to driv3 and acceleratin is above pr. Edmunds has 0-60 sprints as 6.4, its more like 5.7- 5.8, with 1/4 miles coming in at about 14.5. These time were measured in sport mode. Great car fun to drive!

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  You want quick and reliable? Start here - 2003 Acura CL
  By airplane nerd - September 29 - 2:00 am

  By a large margin, the best car Ive owned in more than a half-century on the road. Impressive response to throttle inputs, smooth shifts, excellent torque, even in 5th gear, pretty decent mileage (22 with a lot of stop-and-go 25-mi commutes into DC and back). Virtually no shop time other than for reg maintenance, brakes went 60K before replacement. Finish holding up very well despite outside parking at home. The kid wants to know when Ill be too old to drive it so she can have it, even tho shes not sure why there are three pedals. When they pry my cold, dead fingers from the shift knob, thats when. Or when Acura builds me a suitable and acceptable successor.

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  93 acura gs-r - 1993 Acura Integra
  By dohc vtec - September 27 - 2:00 am

  this car runs like power of dream.fast and quick.one of the rarest acura on the streets and collector.

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  Keep going and going - 2001 Acura TL
  By The Ottoman - September 27 - 2:00 am

  I have been driving it for about 7 years now and had to change its transmission once. Other than that no issues at all. I havent changed the brakes even after driving 90k miles. I only changed battery, wipers and tires, and thats about it! Gas mileage is 29 in city which is excellent. It still drives like new and Im planning to keep it forever or give it to my college kid in 10 years...:-))

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  love it - 2010 Acura TL
  By oscars - September 27 - 2:00 am

  I had a 3G TL (2007) leased, and with the lease coming up I started looking around at new cars. Specifically the luxury/sporty/AWD sedan market. The 2010 TL was always in the running, but I didnt like the front end on most colors (though it looks good in white and silver), and some other cars seemed more sporty - G37, BMW 335, and others seemed more luxurious - MB C class, Audi A4, Lexus GS. Then I saw they had a 6spd manual, and I had to go drive it. When I drove it, I had to have it. The interior is top notch for the price point, the exterior is distinctive in a GOOD way (esp. the back end), and the combo of 4 doors, 300 HP, AWD and a manual transmission is a very rare and good thing