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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  As Good as Advertised and Better in Some Ways - 2016 Acura RDX
  By Jason - January 2 - 8:29 pm

  This is a really great car. I got out of a BMW X5 for this one and the RDX is way better than my old bimmer. The main thing I was looking for was a silky ride with a very quiet cabin. I get both with this RDX. The power train is exceptional with the standard v6. The cabin is very quiet although sone what less so than Edmunds reviews said. Where Edmunds gave it an "A" - I would say its probably a "B" or "B+". It is quiet at low speeds but gets louder on highways. As a plus, the ELS stereo on the Technology Package is an incredible system that makes the feint noise go away, replaced with beautiful music. Navigation system is lame, use Google maps instead. Edmunds says the screen controls for the tech is "confusing" but I disagree. If this control panel confuses you, you probably shouldnt be buying so.etching callEd a technology package. Love this car. Its the best Ive ever personally owned.

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  This is the only car to consider for 30K - 2003 Acura CL
  By spud - January 2 - 10:00 am

  This car rocks. A Honda with acceleration that actually comes close to my friends 1993 300ZX twin turbo! What more could you ask for?

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  The benchmark for the class - 2002 Acura RSX
  By Neil C - January 2 - 10:00 am

  Fantastic car, especially for the $$$ - lots of room, versatile and large trunk, unflappable chassis, interior finish second to none. Few complaints, had a fluke seat belt clip that was broken on delivery, stereo is clear and very functional, but low powered for my taste, a few mandatory features on a "luxury" car are missing, like retained accessory power (my 87 Legend, 94 Accord, 95 Camry, etc. all had this!!) puddle lamps, gas cap holder... all are completely forgivable in light of the dreamy power delivery and slick gearbox. No regrets thus far. All in all a fantastic package, no other car comes close - regardless of what the few naysayers (likely not owners!!) may report.