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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  MDX - 2003 Acura MDX
  By JASJASJAS - May 20 - 10:00 am

  This is one of teh best ever designed cars. This 7 seven seating "suv" (crossover more like) has a 2-3-2 seatign arangment, and the back 2 seats can easily (VERY EASILY) be folded down to expose a huge trunk.

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  Awesome - 1997 Acura Integra
  By joey g - May 19 - 2:00 am

  I love this car!... Its so fun to drive, so awesome lookin, and so cheap when it comes to gas...I only wish it had more than the puny 140 hp...i should of got a gsr...i wish my car had 200 hp

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  The Lux family sedan, for the ricer enthusiast - 2008 Acura TL
  By Richard Flanagan - May 18 - 3:39 pm

  This is the best upgrade for those of us that grew up, but not out of the Civic and RSX performance age. A family luxury sedan that you can feel proud of as an adult, but all the fun of the Honda performance, style, control and high raving V-technology - minus the judgments of those around you. Hehe.

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  A great SUV - 2002 Acura MDX
  By hdnordhaus - May 18 - 2:00 am

  Ride and handling for an SUV is excellent, more like a sedan than SUV. Seats, driver and passenger, are the most comfortable of all vehicles I have ever been in. Fuel economy is remarkable (I get better than the claimed 23 MPG on the highway) considering the power is more than adequate.

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  "if you have the means..." - 2002 Acura RSX
  By the_rev - May 17 - 9:10 am

  as mr. bueller once said, "if you have the means, i highly suggest you pick one up". not that this car is all that expensive... it is everything i thought my old Si should have been...

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  Best Value - Entry level luxury sedan - 2016 Acura ILX
  By ILX2016 - May 17 - 5:57 am

  If youre in the market for an entry level luxury sedan, youre most likely considering the Audi A3, MB CLA or the BMW 320, along with the ILX. Pricing-wise, the base MSRPs are not that far apart; but, once you start adding options, the prices begin to spread apart. Comparing all the features in an Acura ILX with Technology Plus and A-Spec, the price differences can vary as much as $5k-$10k. Add to that the recent year-end incentives, and the price difference can go as much as $12k. Considering the reliability of Acura, and its traditionally high resale value, the ILX represents the best value in this category.

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  GS-R has made a GREAT winter car - 1995 Acura Integra
  By jcorbat - May 17 - 2:00 am

  I have owned this car for nearly 4 years and still love to bang against the 8000 RPM redline while merging on the freeway. You have to drive it like youre angry to get any serious acceleration, but if you keep the tach above 5k it will really move. Drop to 3k and youre dead in the water. The fit & finish is superb as would be expected from Honda. I have had no real mechanical issues with the car and it still uses very little oil between changes even at nearly 110k miles. I did change the timing belt at 70k and brake rotors at about 80k, but based on seeing GM rotors go at 30k...thats not bad.

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  roth review - 2002 Acura RSX
  By brad roth - May 16 - 5:56 am

  Very fun to drive, after driving it for 6 months, I still love it! The ride feels somewhat TL like (very smooth) and very quick with the Type S. The outside could be changed a bit to set it apart from other cars even though acura did a nice job over all.

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  MY BABY - 2003 Acura RL
  By MikeeP - May 16 - 2:00 am

  I tested the Lexus GS 430 and the BMW 540i, then the RL. The RL satisfied me ALL THE WAY. Not only because of the price, but also the exceptional comfort and enjoyment this Dream Machine offers.

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  Sofa on Wheels!!! - 1999 Acura TL
  By TracieNA - May 16 - 2:00 am

  My husband and I just love this car! We do call it the sofa on wheels because of the comfort. I have 2 toddlers with carseats and we do alot of running around town running errands, and to preschool as well as family things on the weekend. I couldnt be happier - the trunk is roomy, easy to drive, easy to clean (leather!) and sporty. I dont feel like a mom in this car - very sporty and upscale looking - my sister in law has a Lexus and I think they are VERY comparable - except price.