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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  5 yr. ownership review - 2007 Acura TSX
  By hborgaonkar - October 13 - 10:56 am

  After 5 yrs and 50000 miles, tsx is still awesome and has aged well (not aged at all) drive is still sublime. All the tech goodies are still up to date

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  Great Car!!! - 2002 Acura RSX
  By tonyanytime - October 11 - 9:15 pm

  To all those who had bad experiences, suck it up! Ive owned over 20 different vehicles in the last 10 years, all used from Lexus, Audi A4, BMW 325i, 528i, Infiniti Q45, two F-150s, Oldsmobile, Acura 2.5 TL, 2 preludes, a civic with motor swap, dodge ram, and the list goes on. All had varying degrees of reliability BASED on previous care. All had maintenance concerns arise some more costly than others but you must accept that when purchasing a car. It makes me sick to see someone bashing this Acura. I havent driven mercedes yet, so until then THIS IS THE BEST HANDLING, SOLID DRIVING CAR OF ALL IVE OWNED AND DRIVEN. Im eager to drive it everywhere and i bought it with 129k. Its getting a turbo

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  Awesome vintage of the TSX line - 2006 Acura TSX
  By jpallen01 - October 11 - 8:59 pm

  Purchased this car new for my wife at Christmas in 2005. Did the bow thing. It has made us smile every day since. We just finally traded it in with 86,000 miles on it and it was still a very awesome car that gave me an ear to ear grin. This is a car that performed excellent. i felt I could drive it to its limit on backroads and still be comfortable and not in fear of my life. The tech package was great for late 2005. And the touch screen interface easy to navigate. We only traded it because our kids are about 6 years from driving now and we had to consider that we werent going to keep it 12 years, and we werent going to let the kids drive a new car. Planning is everything.

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  The Hard Ride... - 2013 Acura TSX
  By tomsjay - October 11 - 5:21 pm

  Boguht this car for it looks and size. Its a perfect size and proportions for a sedan for personal use. Good balance of quality and premium materials. spirited drive train, precice steering. Overall Quality feeling. Fun to drive However the big draw back is the jittery tough ride. car trembles when hit on seams and breaks on the highway. you have to drive some diatance to feel it then you feel like get out of the car. Its not a compliant drive. slightly lost on the well balance of stiffer suspension and comfort. its too stiff or what causes this is unknown less leg room. low roof. slighly lower car.

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  Great Buy - 2012 Acura TL
  By sramanathan - October 10 - 7:17 pm

  I did ton of research before buying this car. This is the best luxury car in terms of price that pretty much gives you an interior spacing of BMW 5 series for the price of 3 series. Absolute pleasure driving it. After buying it had to take it for a 1000 mile round trip drive, felt no pain or fatigue as compared to the other cars I had driven. Rear view cameras are good. Other than that nothing really great about the tech package.

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  Love at First Drive!!! - 2010 Acura TSX
  By bbimmer7 - September 30 - 3:06 pm

  It was an extensive car search, but the minute I got behind the wheel I knew this was the car for me! I wanted something that had the right balance of style, luxury, performance, and quality... the TSX V6 has all of that! I looked at a number of CPO luxury cars, but none of them could compare to value and reliability of the Acura. One of my other top considerations was the VW CC, but I didnt like its bland vinyl interior and below-average reliability. The TSX is a very attractive car. So many sedans these days look bloated and dull. The TSXs sleek profile and aggressive stance make it look like the sports sedan it truly is.

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  Satisfied new lease owner - 2012 Acura TL
  By hcpsmarshall - September 30 - 12:57 am

  Car handles well and is impressively equipped with the technology package. The sound system is great as is the voice command. The number of buttons can be daunting, but I find them useful. Styling is good and overall it is a great value, especially for a lease.

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  Shop around before buying - 2013 Acura RDX
  By dca2013 - September 27 - 1:08 am

  Ive had my RDX for about three weeks and I agree with what most folks have said about the features and ride. But I was very surprised to find that the sunroof would not close. It kept stopping half way. I had to reach up pull down the wind relector to get it to finally close. There is just no excuse for this. I had a few accessories added which so far may not have been worth it. The roof rack has a very poor fit and finish, of course that could be to the way the dealer installed it. The cargo cover is just a bad design. It retracts like a window shade, with a hard piece that just hangs free - makes access a problem. And even though this is a small issue, there should be no issue.

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  Rdx, Your almost perfect - 2013 Acura RDX
  By gby - September 22 - 10:36 pm

  Acura hit a triple with this one. Not a home run yet. I think this might have been a careful move on ACURAs design team. I really cant blame them.I own my 2013 rdx close to two weeks now and I must say its been a delight. I wish it just had a bit more luxury touches like the MDX, But you cant have it all. If you want to have it all then I guess buy the MDX. When I made my purchase there were alot to consider and the main one was reliability. Honda motor company consistently manufactures reliable vehicles. I have tried other brands and have found out time and time again there is nothing like a honda product, no matter what level of vehicle you want to drive.

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  Wish Had Not Purchased Tech Package! - 2012 Acura TL
  By rfghmd - September 22 - 2:57 pm

  Had an Altima that had better electronics and it was 4 yrs old. The dealer and Acura dont seem to care to even discuss it. The $4000 really could have been better spent. GPS unreliable. Auto door unlock feature slow and undependable. And the air cond is terrible! The bluetooth constantly switches w/o warning to the handset. BTW, they even registered my name wrong with their website and still dont have it fixed.