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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  Tremendous Value - 2016 Acura TLX
  By Walter Rusnak - October 17 - 8:16 am

  I have a loaded 2016 TLX as a dealer loaner car now. My 2012 TL is getting some scheduled maintenance. The TLX is really quite impressive. Very quiet, yet powerful. Eight speed transmission is amazingly smooth. I actually like the idle-stop feature a lot better than in some other cars I have been in. This is a lot of car for the money.

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  1992 NSX - 1992 Acura NSX
  By walsh - October 17 - 2:18 am

  I have owned this car for one year this month. I have driven the car in all weather conditions except for snow, which I plan to do this winter. The car is great in any condition of driving and gets attention everywhere. It could use a little more power especially when shifting to the next gear up. There are plenty of aftermarket items available to remedy this small setback. My car has 68,000 miles on it and still looks brand new with the exception of a few rock chips and slight wear on the drivers seat and it is needing rear tires. I got about 7,000 miles out of them.

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  RSX - 2002 Acura RSX
  By MTOSVT - October 16 - 11:06 pm

  Great car!

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  "dr tsx" - 2005 Acura TSX
  By notoriousdk - October 16 - 7:50 pm

  Excellent performance, and fuel mileage, smooth engine, very luxurious and fully loaded for its price. It is a great value, but it does have some minor defects and rattles which is a bit surprising. Overall great car.

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  I Love my TL - 2004 Acura TL
  By RubenR2445 - October 16 - 10:00 am

  Best car ever owned, just love it!

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  Awesome car - 2004 Acura TL
  By P McKenna - October 16 - 12:24 am

  Great car. Fun to drive. A great looker. I love the 6 speed manual transmission. Nice short throw. I love the Bluetooth which is now hooked up to a Treo 650. My only complaint is a rattling noise in the coin tray. Im actually disappointed with the sound system, its ok, but not as good as the marketing brochures.

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  Great vehicle - 2002 Acura MDX
  By MDXer - October 15 - 8:43 pm

  Bought it 8 months ago. Great family hauler. Feels and looks solid. Very comfortable inside. Very good handling and acceleration. Excellent crash test results by the IIHS. NHTSA,although they have not crashed it head on, also gave it 5 stars for side impact crashing and 4 stars for rollover(most SUVs are either 3 or 2). It comes loaded so the dealers cannot play many games with options. We looked at the RX 300 but the MDX won hands down in terms of pricing and features.

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  My MDX - 2006 Acura MDX
  By Love the MDX - October 15 - 7:32 pm

  The MDX is a very nicely built car. It is comfortable and rides like a dream. It is quiet and accellerates nicely without any laboring. Its gas mileage is good for the size vehicle. It does however lack some amenities that I think should be standard on all models since this is a luxury car, ie. power liftgate, memory seats and mirrors, telescoping steering wheel, power passenger seats.

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  Love this car!! - 2006 Acura MDX
  By Diznefreek2 - October 14 - 6:05 pm

  I use my MDX to bring my family (3 kids included) to the snow in the winter months and I have a hard time limiting it to that!!

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  my acura - 2004 Acura TL
  By PAG - October 14 - 2:57 pm

  Ive only had excellent experiences with my Acura 3.2TL. I have the 2004 model with Navigation, and fully loaded. The Navigation in this vehicle is a touch screen, which is much easier than my Jeep Cherokee Limited, and my Mertcedes S430 Navigation systems. The reliability is ougtstanding. I will definitely get a new Acura, or Honda loaded, at the end of my lease (3 months).