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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  driver - 2005 Acura RSX
  By izzy218 - November 10 - 11:22 am

  i like evereything about the car except the way u get to the trunk. I have a car system and its to easy for people that steal to get to the back of the trunk.

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  Honda build, Value Leader - 2005 Acura RL
  By j read - November 10 - 6:26 am

  The NEW RL 3.5 is a HUGE move in the right direction for Hondas premium line. When considering an E-350 M/B4-Matic, or the BMW-530, the RLs build and content wins, hands down. This car was a BEAR in the 10" snow we had in January. Who needs a gasguzzling SUV, when you can have this much performance and luxury for around 50 large. Sure it doesnt have the cachet that its German rivals have, but then again it doesnt have their "problems" either! For me, its not ALL about bang for thebuck, its about performance, quality,and luxury. To my mind the 05 RL 3.5 has it all. Did I mention "Japanese Build Quality" ??

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  My First Luxury SUV - 2004 Acura MDX
  By myfirstacura - November 7 - 11:56 pm

  We recently traded in our 2003 Suzuki XL7 Limited for a brand-new 2004 MDX Premium package since it was closeout to make room for 05s. What can I say - I absolutely love this car! The seats are awesome and there is very little body roll. The interior design and materials quality is much better than the SRX and is almost as good as the RX330. Overall, we are getting about 16-17 MPG in the city right now.

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  acura rocks - 2003 Acura TL
  By fumi - November 7 - 7:43 pm

  best decision i ever made. the horsepower is unreal compared to my last car a chrysler. handling and dependabilty are great. the looks i get in this car are worth every penny i spent on it. people say that its a souped-up honda. its so much more than that. i have had no problems with it so far except that the passenger side seat heater doent work, but i dont sit on that side anyway. great car up and down would recommend it to anyone, young or old.

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  Love this vehicle, it fits my busy life - 2004 Acura MDX
  By kelshine - November 7 - 4:35 pm

  Great SUV! Fun to drive, love the flexibilty it offers from carrying 7 people to schlepping bicycles in the rear, to hauling a boxed full size washer in the back. Very easy to lay down seats to gain full access to cargo area. The DVD was great on vacation with the girls, not once did we hear, "Are we there yet??" I love the back up camera, very helpful when small children are around to make sure is is safe to back up. Love the 77 inch width on SUV, I feel very safe, even when windy on highways not getting blown over! Only complaint, I have had 3 dead mice inside my blower in 4 months! Have had to take to dealership to have them removed. This makes our 4th Honda vehicle since 1986.

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  My Opinions - 2004 Acura MDX
  By Garnich - November 7 - 1:28 pm

  I am very pleased with this vehicle. It delivers everything that it promises. It is peppy, comfortable and very driveable.

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  Great Car..But! - 2004 Acura TSX
  By Tone6274 - November 7 - 10:00 am

  Got this car now a little over 2 weeks now. First off, VSA is great. you can go around curves with very little body roll. The engine is o.k. Having come from a V6 Accord, I have to admit I am missing the V6. Exterior and Interior is sporty and it is evident there is a quality craftmanship on the car. The ride is bumpy. You feel all the bumps..at least compared to the 2000 V6 Honda Accord. What this car really needs to compete with the BMW or Audi is the VTEC V6..but then again there is the TL for that.

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  Post purchase review - 2005 Acura MDX
  By Urugly - November 7 - 3:43 am

  I just got the touring MDX with Navi and love it to death. I have always like this car since 01 when it came out. All the gadgets that it comes with in its class cant be beat. Heated seats, power everything, 3rd row seating, AWD, Blue LED interior lights, Onstar, XM, voice activated navi and control.. the list goes on....

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  Vibrations! - 2016 Acura MDX
  By Not Happy - November 6 - 1:37 pm

  I had also recently purchased the MDX and had the same vibrations as the previous post. The story is the same - changed wheels, changed rotors, then balanced the tires. They also decided to deflate the tires to mask the vibrations. But I immediately caught them doing this and asked the dealer to inflate the tires back to 35psi. Acura is no help either. Both Acura and dealership say this is normal variation of the MDX, and the lemon law does not apply since "there is nothing wrong with the car". Seeing the prior post, this seems like a fraud or cover up. Anyone else having this issue? Finally the transmission is scary. It doesnt always shift to the correct gear.

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  I would rather go back to my BMW328CI - 2001 Acura CL
  By Type-S - November 6 - 12:52 pm

  Transmission problems, check engine light constantly comes on, and loud sunroof, and slight rattles. I wish I had kept my old BMW328CI which had over 140k miles and never had any of these problems that my Acura CL with only 60,000 miles have. I have heard/read that the better Acura CLs were the 1997 to 1999. My co-worker has a 1997 CL 3.0 and never had any problems with it and has over 110,000 miles on it. You get a far better car for the money you pay for a BMW 3 series.