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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  A Lot of Bang for the Buck! - 2004 Acura MDX
  By Milt Payton - October 21 - 2:00 am

  My MDX handles extremely well in city traffic. For a large vehicle it is quite nimble. The climate control system is able to keep the vehicle comfortable with the sun roof open. The sound system is great with a killer sub-woofer. It a very convenient SUV to drive with all of the standard features like automatic wipers that turn on and change their speed automatically. The same is true of the lights that come on automatically although the should come on automatically when the windshield wipers are working to enable compliance with our state law. The seats are very comfortable especially on long trips. It has more features that my wifes BMW X5 at a lower cost and better city handling.

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  True Legend - 1993 Acura Legend
  By LoveMyLegend - October 19 - 2:00 am

  Car was passed down to me from my dad with 230,000 miles on it. The car is basically like new. Everything from the engine to the interior is as strong as it ever was. Very little signs of wear and tear. Like I said, the engine (whole car really) is extremely strong, and has one the nicest high revving sounds I have heard on a car. Put it past 5k on the tach. and it lets out a bit of a yell but no hesitation at all! I love this car and would only trade it for another legend (gs, 6 speed maybe)! The name really does say it all.

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  Great Luxury Vehicle - 2004 Acura RL
  By Miralee - October 19 - 2:00 am

  The Japanese have it together. They know how to take the best ideas, perfect them and the processes to build them, and make an unbeatable path to market. Unless US manufacturers can make a significant paradigm shift and radically change production methods and processes, we have given away one more card in the poker game of World Powers.

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  Nice, but youll want more - 2003 Acura RSX
  By minus9 - October 19 - 2:00 am

  I wanted a sporty 2-door and the RSX was the nicest. It beat the Celica, the Civic Si, the Tiburon, etc. You get Honda reliability. You get great milage. But after a year, the car rattles like crazy and I wish that I had more power and more smoothness. Save up and get the Infinity G35 and youll be happier in the long run. Youll soon outgrow the 2-doors and wish for more space if this is your only car.

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  2005 Acura TSX 6sp - 2005 Acura TSX
  By p man - October 18 - 11:40 am

  I have been very satisfied with this car so far. I test drove mazda6 and accord and they just didnt have any power. TSX manual has little bit more kick then automatic, but worse fuel economy. I wish traction control was working better. VSA is great...

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  What a grate car. - 2002 Acura TL
  By Getovait2005 - October 17 - 2:00 am

  this is a grate car, nice looks, Grate Power, A nice Bose sound system nice outside lights . Some things could be better like a little more room, bigger trunk.

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  Stay Away! - 2005 Acura TL
  By John Baker - October 16 - 4:33 pm

  Acura should be called "DAEWOO" as this car has performed so badly Acura is buying the lemon back! Electrical system was just the start....you would have better luck with HYUNDAI...at least they still know how to build reliable cars...maybe throwaways...but they got reliability down now!

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  Is this really a Honda - 2017 Acura MDX
  By Joe - October 16 - 3:31 pm

  Before you buy this car, try the electronic system with the caveats below I have been a loyal buyer of Honda cars for years. However this will be my last purchase from them. I have an 2017 MDX. The GPS and entertainment system is unusable. Dont take my word for it try it before you think about a purchase. GPS does not work- If you try take a different turn then directed on the route, most GPS is will recalculate and redirect you. Not this system. They have made a design change where the GPS will actually direct you off the road. Apparently my dealer tells me that they know about the problem for a long time and hoping for a fix. The car does not allow you to cancel the route as you are driving. The voice activated commands absent do not work. Dealer says they know about this. They tell you not to use the voice activated system. The dealer tells me that the MDX system is not entertainment compatible with iPhone (somewhat odd given their popularity).

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  RSX Type S - 2002 Acura RSX
  By Joe_McNabb - October 16 - 8:06 am

  Car is amazingly fun.

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  Reliable, Fun Car - 2002 Acura RSX
  By Bcpatters - October 15 - 2:00 am

  Have owned many cars, but owning this car has been one of the best experiences Ive had yet. It has worked flawlessly, is fun to drive (5 sp), and gets great mileage on reg gas (29 mpg avg, 34 on trips). Only complaint is excessive road noise - only a problem at freeway speeds. Engine and wind noise are minimal.