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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  Dans Review - 2004 Acura RL
  By Dan Hartley - May 11 - 2:00 am

  Wonderful driving experience...I look forward to getting in this car and taking off....Solid, reliable, and comfortable.....

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  Best car I have ever had, hard to let go - 1992 Acura Legend
  By Suhling - May 10 - 2:00 am

  Bought car new. Now has 240,000 miles. Never had another car last for so long and be so comfortable. Do everything and go everywhere. None of my families cars last as long as this one with as few maintenance problems.

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  excellent - 1998 Acura Integra
  By ryan4186 - May 10 - 2:00 am

  Fun to Drive and is fun to drive when you drive it it to wherever.

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  Type-R Takes a Turn for the Better! - 2004 Acura RSX
  By RSXTACY - May 9 - 2:00 am

  My parents bought me an Acura RSX Type- S in October 03. The car is amazing. The performance is in a league of its own. Place a full cat-back exhaust, and a cold air intake and the I-Vtec roars to a second birth through every gear. Gear ratios are set perfectly, only if it reved like the S2000 then the RSX would be flawless. Beautiful interior, luxury with sport. Aggressive Exterior and brilliant Metallic colors. Truly in a league of its own!

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  Great Value - 2004 Acura RL
  By joep4542 - May 8 - 2:00 am

  I think the RL is a really well built vehicle. It is very smooth and the interior quality is incredible. The engine is a little weak, and I would have enjoyed it a bit more in all wheel drive, but overall this car is comfortable and fun to drive.

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  one happy customer - 2005 Acura RL
  By lance boswell - May 7 - 8:20 am

  Not only does the Acura RL do what I expected but it exceeds my expectations in just about every catagory. It accelerates faster, corners better, is more striking inside and out than I ever imagined. With all these pluses, after putting in synthetic oil, I now get nearly 28 mpg highway. Not bad for a car that goes from 0-60 in 6 seconds. Also, just wait until you get to Dallas/Ft Worth or one of 20 or so more covered metro areas and the nav system interacts with XM radio to reroute you around bottlenecks on the major highways. Out of sight!!!!!

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  ACURA TL ARE JUST O.K. - 1999 Acura TL
  By ANT612 - May 7 - 2:00 am

  IVE HAD MY 99 ACURA TL FOR ABOUT 9 MONTHS NOW AND HAVE HAD TO CHANGE THE IGNITION THE TRANNY AND THE CAT. CONVERTOR AND A WHEEL ALIGNMENT AND IVE ONLY PUT ON ABOUT 12,000 MILES..ITS A BEAUTIFUL CAR DONT GET ME WRONG BUT THE RELIABILITY IS QUESTIONABLE !

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  Gas Guzzler - 2000 Acura TL
  By Heide - May 7 - 2:00 am

  I love my tl.The only thing is I feel like Im gasing up every other day. Other than that I love the handling, comfort, and style.

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  Too bad its gone... - 1995 Acura Integra
  By integra_luvr - May 6 - 2:00 am

  Bought it with 4 miles on the Odo, loved every minute with this car. Extremely reliable, fun to drive (although vtec would have been fun)

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  well worth it 90 rs - 1990 Acura Integra
  By worthit - May 6 - 2:00 am

  My wife bought the Integra before we were married.I took over the Integra and its been nothing but fun. I replaced distributer and plugs/wires. Had new alternator and battery installed. It runs great. Only real problem is every once in a while it wont start right away on hot days. Took it to several mech. who say they cant find the problem. Well worth the money considering engine will last well into 200k