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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  Cant Get a Better Car Dollar for Dollar - 2006 Acura TL
  By astropeter@gmail.com - June 9 - 10:50 am

  The 2006 TL might not have all the features available on other luxury cars, but I believe they did that to keep the price down, which allows people lie me to afford it. I considered many other cars, in fact I was shopping for about 6 months, but in the end the TL was the best I could get for my budget. I got my 06 Navi for 32,100, which I thought was a great price for the car. And after driving it for 6K I still believe it is the perfect car for me. It is not the best at just one thing, but it accels at almost everything. The combination of engine, gas milage, stlying, interior room, trunk space, amenities, technology, reliability, fun factor and price make it the best car for its class!

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  Finest Car in its Class - 2007 Acura RDX
  By BornToDrive - June 7 - 10:46 am

  I have a 300 RX Lexus but found it a little sloppy on the road. Yes it had a luxury ride and feel but wasnt quite what I wanted. Solution RDX with tech pak. It rocks, it has performance, ride, handling and about every bell and whisltle you can find a price that will not put you in the poorhouse. Go for it! Tech pack a must!

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  So Glad I Gave It a Second Look - 2004 Acura TSX
  By T Mitchell - June 7 - 10:00 am

  I spent 18 months looking for my next car and just couldnt find the level of performance and economy that I wanted without spending 35K+. I test drove the Acura TL twice and was about to give in to buying it in spite of the expense when I finally decided to test drive the TSX just to rule it out (truth is I was afraid of the 4- cylinder and "knew" I wanted a V-6). All of that changed during the test drive and I purchased one two days later. I now have over 10K miles on it and absolutely love the ride, performance, and economy. I am routinely getting 31 mpg on freeway trips and have not gotten less than 27 mpg to/from work. This car is very fun to drive and only cost me $25,500!

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  Loud Ride - 2003 Acura RSX
  By alrdythr - June 3 - 2:00 am

  I really love my RSX-TypeS but have a few wishes for improvement. The road noise is too high particularly on the highway and the radio sound system is sub par. The 6-cd in dash player is great but the sub woofer and speakers are lousy for the level of luxury I expected from Acura.

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  2003 Base Model in Sagebrush - 2003 Acura MDX
  By popejohn - June 3 - 2:00 am

  Have had the car for almost two months now. Very satisfied with the looks, ride, and quality. Car actually has more power and driving comfort than I expected. I have to remind myself I am driving an SUV and not go too fast into curves - it really feels like driving a much smaller vehicle. Really like the Sagebrush color - looks very dark at night, but looks almost grey in sunlight. Gets decent gas mileage - 17.5 mpg in mostly city driving.

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  Great Crossover SUV - 2007 Acura RDX
  By TColeman - June 3 - 1:50 am

  My wife wanted her latest vehicle to be an SUV. After looking at a few and noting the sticker price, we decided to test drive the RDX. Hands down it drove and felt better than a Toyota Highlander and Mazda CX-7. The engine has plenty of pep, the interior has plenty of luxury, and the Tech package has plenty of toys. The HandsFree Link for a Bluetooth phone works great and the voice-activate NAV system is impressive...lots of voice commands to learn. No problems with gas mileage. We are very pleased with our first venture into a luxury line of automobiles.

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  Great Bundles! - 2006 Acura TL
  By EWANG - May 30 - 6:00 pm

  One thing I love about TL is that there are only two option... Nav/Or No Nav.Great Interior design and bundled technology. Just wishing that they have a RWD or AWD version.

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  2003 Type S - 2003 Acura RSX
  By S^S - May 29 - 10:00 am

  I felt the type S was the best combination of practicality (FWD, hatchback, MPG) and fun available for a reasonable price. The engine is smooth and revs like a sport bike, but makes no torque. Power is: Econo car <3000, Adaquate 3000-6000, Small Block 6000- 8000. Sounds fantastic when approaching red line, but can get tiresome on long trips. Im getting 26- 30 mpg while driving it hard. Great trans except it grinds going into 2nd when cold and shifted quickly. Interior is ergonomically near perfect with superb sport seats and 3 spoke wheel. Good feel to steering with sharp turn-in, but brakes are a little soft.

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  Love my TL-S - 2003 Acura TL
  By A TL-S Lover - May 29 - 10:00 am

  It has been 6~7 months since I bought this vehicle and I like the ride of this car and superb control on the road. Leather seats are very comfortable and ample leg room in the rear seats. Trunk is also pretty big. Music system of Bose is awesome. Navigation helps me on the unkown roads. The V6 power is excellent and when using the manual gears power is much better you can feel it. Over all a very decent buy and you get the value of your money with all these standard features.

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  2003 TL type S Silver on black - 2003 Acura TL
  By cltmatt - May 29 - 10:00 am

  I shopped all entry level lux sedans for a good 4 months. It finally came down to 9-3 Vector and the tl-s. Price, reliability, non turbo, and inside room finally won out over its swede competitor. For the money you cannot beat this car. The engine is great, and the clutchless manual feature is fantastic.