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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  Fun to drive, reliable, great car! - 2003 Acura RSX
  By Ryanoby - August 11 - 2:00 am

  I drove a lot of cars in this price range before deciding on the RSX. You get so much more car for the price, you cant beat it! Of the two doors out there, the Eclipse and the Celica are the only real competition - both are much more expensive. The Ecliipse has questionable quality and the Celica is a little too stylistic for my taste! I also drove the new Accord coupe - which completely lacked the sporting character of the RSX. All is all, I couldnt be happier.

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  Best car Ive ever owned - 2002 Acura TL
  By Jeff Traintime - August 11 - 2:00 am

  This car is just pure fun. Looks, power, safety, everything. Each time I look at it I smile, whenever I drive it, its pure joy. The extra $2,000 for the S model is clearly worth it, in that it turns this great car from a mere low end luxury model to a powerful beast with attitude.

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  Great Car/Great Price - 2009 Acura TL
  By BensTL - August 10 - 10:33 pm

  Have had the car for about 2 weeks now and so far all I can say is awesome. Had an 04 Infiniti G35 AWD and it rattled like crazy. Then a 07 Lexus ES 350, great car but boring to drive and expensive with options. The new TL takes the best of both those cars and puts it into one attractive, fun to drive package. The nav. system and sound system are top notch. Fit and finish are great and with only 600 miles on the car I am avg. 20 mpg in the city, not bad for a car with 280 hp. The seats feel good and the steering wheel has a nice feel to it. The kid in me loves the paddle shifters.

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  Highly competent daily driver - 2005 Acura RL
  By david41750 - August 10 - 7:00 am

  This car is not only a pleasure to drive, but its a pleasure to be driven in. An exceptional body structure, sophisticated electronics, excellent handling characteristic, and more than sufficient power for every day driving experiences made this an excellent choice for me. My other car is a Boxster S, so I get to play with something that is much more fun, but for a satisfying commute to work, golf, or a long trip, I know of no car in this price range that I would find to be of greater value. I test drove the e-class Mercedes, Audis A6 and the 5-series BMW and preferred Acuras RL to the Germans.

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  MDX is the best! - 2005 Acura MDX
  By Massie - August 8 - 8:40 am

  More than a year of research and finally decided to get the MDX. The 2005 model have almost everything I wanted in a vehicle, the voice controls, blue-tooth tech., navigation, DVD entertainment, power seats, memory, on-star, backing-up camera, rain- sensing wipers, 7-seats, AWD, blah blah blah... etc. It is worth every penny and the whole family loves this car so much.

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  Dont understand the poor reviews on this car? - 2016 Acura TLX
  By Will Hudson - August 7 - 7:06 pm

  This car is a dream to drive and if "your are alive" really fun too! With the 8 speed, it can be a real "hot rod". Once the cam and ignition advance at 5,000 RPM, it is hard to believe it is a four cylinder!!! It can hit 100 mph on on-ramps. . . how much more do you need? The "engine matching" rpm works great and always smooth at RPMs above 3,000. Extremely quite inside, great sound system, and a very luxurious feeling with the high quality leather seats. The drivers seat retract each time you enter. . make it so easy! The four wheel steering really makes cornering very stable and faster than normal, with confidence that you will stay there! For $28,000.(April 2016) I think it was the best buy out there!!!! I just put 315,000 "hard miles"(full acceleration most of the time") on a 97 Accord and am looking for this one to do 350,00 to 400,000 miles!!!(their advertisement said it is fun to drive a 4 cylinder that red lines @ 6,800 rpms and it is!!!)

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  Nice Ride - 2003 Acura RSX
  By RJ Canuk - August 6 - 10:00 am

  Great car to drive, its a ride. Many freinds have tried the car and all have one response, they cant believe how fast and with how little effort they catch up with the car in front of them. Or haw fast the car behinf is lost in te rear view mirror. And thats not even pushing the car.

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  All around great car - 2003 Acura RSX
  By khuang - August 6 - 10:00 am

  I love this car. Had it for more then 2 months now. I did a lot of research and its the best car in its class. I could have chosen Celica or WRX but the best car for me was definitely RSX Type- S. I think Celica GT-S looks better but cost more with same options as RSX. WRX is more practical and faster but i dont like the styling, and dont need the added complications of AWD and a Turbo. I ended up with RSX because its fun to drive, handles great, relatively luxurious, gets good gas mileage, and has a very reasonable price.

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  very good car - 2007 Acura TL
  By gils review - August 4 - 11:20 am

  I am in love with this new car. It has very exhilarating performance. I think that the fuel economy is marginal. The transmission shifts quick and smooth.The TL Type-S is the perfect blend of performance and luxury comfort.The STANDARD rearview camera is very convenient. The nav system is very easy to use and to understand. Love the STANDARD bluetooth.

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  GREAT CAR!!!!!!! - 2003 Acura TL
  By Raland - July 30 - 10:00 am

  This car is great on the road. For the money it cant be beat. So far has been fabulous car.