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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  great car! - 2010 Acura ZDX
  By dsb - September 6 - 10:51 pm

  i love everything in it...

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  Had to come back fro seconds.. - 2007 Acura TSX
  By Wilmington, DE - September 6 - 9:28 pm

  I got my first TSX in Feb of 2007 as a 3 year lease. 6-speed manual, carbon gray. Absolutely loved the car. fun, sexy and reliable. I reluctantly gave it back in Feb of 2010. I bought a BMW X5, but after a few months I missed my TSX so much that I bought another one, another 07 - white, automatic. Cant say enough about this car. My only advice is GET ONE!! personally I think its better than the TL!! especially if you live in the city because its a little smaller. PS-Also one of the safest cars on the road.

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  This one is great - 2010 Acura TL
  By Basker - September 6 - 11:24 am

  The dealer gave us a good price for this car. We immediately drove this for a 200 mile ride. The comfort and conveniences are great. The best part is the audio storage. Once we insert the CD, the songs are automaticaly stored in the hard drive. We will not need to use any existing CDs once we finish playing them in our car. The car drives great. It is too early to comment about the reliability and other things. Having owned 2 Hondas earlier, that is something we will vouch for anyway.

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  My Favorite Car of All So Far - 1998 Acura Integra
  By liz09 - September 5 - 6:23 pm

  Amazing Car! Have owned for 4yrs bought with over 100,000mi now has 175000mi and still runs perfect. Only problem Ive had was distributor cap had to replace at 140,000mi and radiator hoses at 125,000mi. Is extremely fun to drive! Stops on a dime, handles as on rails and has power when you need it. I have updated the car with new Cd player (although old one still works great) have USB drive which I love. Added heating/massaging seat cushions for comfort. Added minor performance mods, catback, cold air intake & rims with kumho tires-this car is a dream will never trade in or sell

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  Real nice! - 2009 Acura TSX
  By WA husky - September 5 - 12:05 am

  We have had this car for a year. It is comfortable, sporty, and fuel efficient. Zero problems. We wanted something upscale, safe, and completely reliable, and we got it. We felt this was also the best value in its class. While other cars may have better performance specs, we are not stunt drivers and in our urban environment, theres not much need for huge amounts of power or acceleration, although I have not found the car lacking when accelerating onto the highway from an on ramp, for example. Only gripe is the taupe interior looks great but is hard to keep clean.

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  Tech dream - 2010 Acura TL
  By tnf - September 4 - 9:40 pm

  It has been 45 days, and 1K miles since I bought a new 2010 Tech SW-AWD TL. I am impressed with the car and these are my observations. The car has excellent build quality, has sharp and distinctive interior and exterior styling, has oodles of power available when you need it, is very comfortable and is loaded with cool technology. It is built in the US (in Marysville OH), is designed in Torrance, CA, and these aspects did matter to me. The car is reasonably priced in its class, rated high on safety, and no car company can touch Honda in reliability and cost of ownership. Simply put...this car is an engineers dream.

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  3 yr. ownersghip review - 2007 Acura TSX
  By harshad - September 4 - 8:18 pm

  3 rd Bday coming up for our 07 Artic blue TSX. So far its been smooth sailing. except a power steering hose recall we have done regular maintainance. its regularly gives 30+ mpg on 100 + mile trips and around 27 in city. love all the tech goodies. it looks better than the new model. overall good value for the money. the dealer in twin cities was offering 120% of the blue book value. looks like there is demand for these.

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  Best car for around $40,000!!! - 2010 Acura TL
  By W1980 - September 4 - 9:53 am

  I have had the 2010 TL SH-AWD with Tech for a couple of months now and I love it! It is powerful yet refined and quiet, and truly a blast to drive! The sound system is amazing - the only comparable system at this price point is the Audi B&O system. The interior is beautiful - luxuriously soft leather everywhere and a very user friendly console. Gas mileage is pretty good for a 300+ hp car with AWD - considering that I have only had 2200 miles so far and its already giving me 21mpg on average (50/50 local and short distance freeway driving), its already exceeding its stated gas mileage on the EPA sticker and it is still getting better! I also like how striking and unique it looks.

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  Best Handling & Very Roomy - 2010 Acura MDX
  By danny1878 - September 4 - 9:48 am

  Acura electronics, SH-AWD, ACC and body roll is the best (feel like driving a sedan). Wish it has better MPG than 19.7. Roomiest seats among competitor such as RX, BMW, etc.

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  Good long term buy! - 2007 Acura MDX
  By traeger - September 1 - 12:25 pm

  Looking at many CUVs, I went with my mdx. It is fantastic. Tight construction, sure footed ride and handling, spacious second row!, good entertainment package with fantastic features. This is a very good all around car for all variations of travel, weather, and conditions.