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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  My Acura TL - 2005 Acura TL
  By mike massino - July 6 - 1:40 am

  This be beautiful auto is very well designed in side and out. The fact that the car has so many safety features in comforting to know when driveing in heavy traffic. The blue tooth handsfree feature is very useful. Overall build quality is excellent. I would surely buy another one.

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  Second time around - 2016 Acura TLX
  By Br Mills - July 5 - 10:39 pm

  Owned my 2006 Acura for 10+ years and over 105,000 miles. Loved it and when it came time to replace it, I purchased the Acura make, model, color, etc. that came closest to my previous car. Never considered any other options. Im sure I will love this model for the next 100,000 miles as well.

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  Second time around - 2016 Acura TLX
  By Br Mills - July 5 - 10:34 pm

  Owned my 2006 Acura for 10+ years and over 105,000 miles. Loved it and when it came time to replace it, I purchased the Acura make, model, color, etc. that came closest to my previous car. Never considered any other options. Im sure I will love this model for the next 100,000 miles as well.

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  Acura needs to fix transmission problem - 2004 Acura RSX
  By lizardgizzard - July 5 - 2:00 am

  I just traded in my RSX-S (9700 miles) and was glad to do it. Ever since I bought the car I have had transmission problems with grinding from 1st to 2nd and with 2nd to 3rd gears. Sometimes I was unable to get 3rd gear to engage without forcing it into gear. I then contacted the dealership for warranty repair for the problem and they would not fix it. They stated the problem was not bad enough and had to completely fail and strand me in the middle of no where, before they would fix it. Over all the rest of the vehicle is well built, but I would suggest dont buy one until Acura can fix the transmission problems or buy a used Integra.

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  Screamer - 2002 Acura RSX
  By Mister Gus - July 3 - 4:43 pm

  A blast to drive & Honda/Acura reliability

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  RL style and comfort - 2004 Acura RL
  By peachkdm - July 3 - 2:00 am

  car rides and hanldes very well, fun to drive, nav system is great voice makes very easy when driving

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  RSX Type S - 2004 Acura RSX
  By rgvivace - July 3 - 2:00 am

  I loved my 2000 Ford Focus ZX3 5-speed: brilliant steering and magic, compliant long-travel suspension. Wanted SVT Focus, but none available. Acura offered a GREAT lease deal: $1k down included 1st mo, 48mo @$275 w/tax for RSX-S w/15k miles/yr. Mazda 3S hatchback nice but only $9/mo less than better performing/feature-laden RSX-S. Mini S nice but too small, too $$. Best feature: tan leather, high-quality interior vs. cloth in coal-bin black. Type S = fabulous performance (esp. engine/6 speed), but rather too stiff & frenetic. Comfy seats, well bolstered. Why dont they put better, stickier tires on these??? Best-in- class bang-for-buck.

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  Awesome Car - 2002 Acura RSX
  By rsxlover - July 2 - 9:50 pm

  Most bang for the buck, by far.....awesome fun to drive car.

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  Good Performance and Quality - 2000 Acura RL
  By X5ONIT - July 2 - 2:00 am

  Got this car from soon to be ex wife. I traded my 740iL for the RL. I like the RL better overall due to number of features. The BMW was more bullet proof but the RL is solid also and will last longer. Navigation system is great and its fully loaded. V6 power is actually suprisingly good. Love the car.

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  Great car, but needs improvement - 2004 Acura RSX
  By Courbu - July 2 - 2:00 am

  This is a great car for the money. The interior is beautiful in its simplicity, the stereo is perfect, and its fun to drive. I still cant get used to the weird body design since I had two Integras before it that were frankly much easier on the eye. However, the driver-oriented interior more than makes up for it. The perforated leather seats are very sporty and elegant. The engine on this little car is great & kicks in if you know how to drive a stick correctly. It is also SO reliable! Ive never had ONE problem w/ any of the 4 Acuras Ive owned.