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:

• 

  A Blast to Drive! - 2002 Acura RSX
  By bigbbryan - August 16 - 10:00 am

  What can I say? I love this car. Chicks love this car. Does anything else really matter? Granted, its not the fastest or most luxurious car on the street, but for $23,000 theres nothing out there that can beat it. I looked at Celicas, Eclipses, and every other car in its class and nothing even compares. Celicas are way too pricy for what you get and Eclipses are too junky. This is a $23,000 car that looks better than most $30-35,000 cars. If your looking to get the most out of your money youve got to go with the RSX.

• 

  Excellent - 2002 Acura MDX
  By Gunnabe G.Garces - August 16 - 10:00 am

  The best car in the world

• 

  Slightly better than Passat - great car - 2003 Acura TL
  By slickb - August 16 - 10:00 am

  WE checked out the Passat GLX V6 automatic Tiptronic w/ 4 Motion and compared it to the TL (The TL-S) was not as smooth of a ride) - and both were pretty much equal. Each had its good parts and whichever would offer the better price or looks should be the one that you should pick. The Passat actually does have MORE features if you believe that. But it came down to black on black TL and that made the difference.

• 

  love it! - 1991 Acura Integra
  By dpenta - August 16 - 2:00 am

  My Integra has over 350,000 miles on it (I got it used from some friends) and is still running strong! Feels like it has less than half the miles on it it really does. Even with the automatic, the engine is still spunky, and (at least for acceleration) I prefer driving this over either of my parents Lexuses. Any problems Ive experienced are mostly due to age.

• 

  dependable integra - 1994 Acura Integra
  By bimmerdriver - August 15 - 2:00 am

  we have owned this integra since 95 and it has never let us down. it is a truly practical and dependable 4-door. the interior has adequate space for my family with two kids in the back. it has had no unexpeccted repair issues. just keep the oil changed every 3k and it will keep running.

• 

  The Best Car I have ever owned - 1992 Acura Legend
  By jaru - August 15 - 2:00 am

  I purchase this car new in October of 1992 and it has been a joy to own. I have owned new Buicks, Cadillacs, and Mercedes. But this car has been the greater value than all the rest.

• 

  Impressed on TSX - 2005 Acura TSX
  By mrjohn - August 14 - 7:46 pm

  The wife and I stopped by our Acura dealer, mainly because I wanted to test drive a TL. But after driving the TSX, I was convinced the TSX was a much better value, as I didnt feel the TL delivered enough for the extra $6,000. Bottom line: the TSXs 4 cyl really surprised me. It can ride somewhat rough on bumpy surfaces, but thats to be expected with sporty cars. About 30 mpg on highway, which is decent.

• 

  Switched from Muscle Car - 2009 Acura TSX
  By Gmdavis5 - August 14 - 4:00 am

  Switched from a 2005 Cadillac CTS-V with 400hp to the new 2009 Acura TSX due to increasing gas prices. The Acura is half the price and exceeds the Cadi performance.

• 

  Pretty Sweet Ride - 2005 Acura TL
  By Joe - August 14 - 2:43 am

  A really nice car. Quiet, solid feel, great acceleration. Very stylish, inside and out. Far more attractive interior than BMW3, Infinity G35, Mercedes C and all other comparably priced competitors. Much more bang for the buck, especially in the engine compartment. A big fan of DVD Audio. Great to listen to them in the car. Its my wifes car. The Nav is great and saves me from being her "mapquest" on-call. And, the Bluetooth makes it much safer for her to use her Blackberry (which is virtually all the time shes in the car). Not quite the luxury name plate as some of the others...but who cares? When I get a chance to drive it, Im the one who needs to be impressed. And I am.

• 

  Love it but... - 1998 Acura CL
  By Honda4life - August 14 - 2:00 am

  Ive had the car for almost 2 yrs now, and I do truely love it. Only a couple problems, I have this annoying rattle noise in the dashboard, in happens when I go over rough road and I cant for the life of me find it. I also have an annoying metallic chatter from under the front-end when the car revs threw 1800rpm, sounds like it could be the heat shield, but I have checked it and its tight. And lastly it has developed a exhaust leak in the S-pipe, rusted out from what I can see. The car is only 4 yrs old. I am very disappointed at this, seeing as my previous car, a 93 Acura Integra GS went over 8 yrs and 100k miles before needing exhaust work.