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:

• 

  Shop around before buying - 2013 Acura RDX
  By dca2013 - September 27 - 1:08 am

  Ive had my RDX for about three weeks and I agree with what most folks have said about the features and ride. But I was very surprised to find that the sunroof would not close. It kept stopping half way. I had to reach up pull down the wind relector to get it to finally close. There is just no excuse for this. I had a few accessories added which so far may not have been worth it. The roof rack has a very poor fit and finish, of course that could be to the way the dealer installed it. The cargo cover is just a bad design. It retracts like a window shade, with a hard piece that just hangs free - makes access a problem. And even though this is a small issue, there should be no issue.

• 

  Wish Had Not Purchased Tech Package! - 2012 Acura TL
  By rfghmd - September 22 - 2:57 pm

  Had an Altima that had better electronics and it was 4 yrs old. The dealer and Acura dont seem to care to even discuss it. The $4000 really could have been better spent. GPS unreliable. Auto door unlock feature slow and undependable. And the air cond is terrible! The bluetooth constantly switches w/o warning to the handset. BTW, they even registered my name wrong with their website and still dont have it fixed.

• 

  2011 Acura MDX - 2011 Acura MDX
  By jack1973 - September 19 - 9:37 am

  I had this vehicle for 18 months and recently traded it in due to a couple reasons. - on a combination of city and highway driving I was avging 16 mpg. I understand its an SUV but find this number unacceptable. - The interior in this vehicle is horrrible. Not only is the design bad but the leather is cheap and showed massive wear with only 10,000 miles on the vehicle. The dash is covered in fake wood and there were many rattles in the car. The ride is extremely hard and road noise is prominent. Exterior is really nice but the interior and gas mileage really started to weigh on me. I guess thats what you get when you try to make a Honda a luxury car.

• 

  Acura did not stand behind their product. - 2012 Acura TSX
  By chelocueva - August 28 - 10:33 pm

  I bought this car last December, after two weeks of driving I notice a whistling noise coming out of the dash, only when the AC is on and the car is moving, it is a high pitch noise that come and goes in intervals of seconds, very annoying, I call the dealer, by the way the dealer was great they did everything in their power to fix this issue, it took 3 tries to notice but finally they heard it, to make a long story short, my car was out of commission for 60 days, 30 days straight, they replace the expansion valve, evaporator, performed recovered/vacuum/charge the system, and Ill almost forgot they replace the bluetooth too cause was not working, finally after phone calls and sending letter

• 

  Not worth the hype.. - 2011 Acura MDX
  By bala_71 - August 12 - 9:07 am

  First of all, I am surprised that why I am alone in finding lots of minute problems with this SUV. Are people insanely happy about owning a poorly designed SUV? These are not 20K Civics. Having said that, I am not going to argue that this should drive like a Ferrari or Aston Martin. But come on! With in the last 11 months, I had to visit the dealer for vibration issues many times. One issue they fixed by adjusting the suspension system. But now I have a vibration in steering wheel at above 70 mph. The dealer convinced me that thats how these cars drive. I think its due to the factory installed tires. But they wont accept it! I now have a vibration coming from the roof-top too!

• 

  Not Impressed - 2010 Acura MDX
  By jccai1 - August 9 - 5:03 pm

  Replaced a Volvo XC90 with the MDX in 2010. We were sold mostly on interior space, price (model year end) and perceived reliability. Two years later, I have to say Im not impressed. The car is just a chore to drive. The engine has very little low end torque. The ride is busy and floaty at the same time. The steering is loose and vague on center. A lot of road noise makes it into the cabin. And the transmission has slow and sloppy shifts, even after the software upgrade. After reading the horror stories about failed torque converters, now Im really worried. Since its the new 6-speed, I had thought Honda had fixed their transmission issues. I guess I was wrong!

• 

  Meh...its okay - 2012 Acura RDX
  By 1plusinfiniti - August 7 - 11:34 am

  I bought this after driving an 2008 Infiniti EX35, and I totally regret the purchase. The good thing is its a bit cheaper on the 36 month lease, but performance is unwieldy and Im not happy with the interior build quality.

• 

  Awful 6 speed Transmission - 2012 Acura TL
  By pjmaz63 - June 4 - 10:14 am

  The new 6 speed transmission is awful, in a weak attempt to squeeze extra MPG out of the car this is by far the worst transmission i have ever driven. It has a severe hesitation/hunting issue in off the line accelerations and awful harsh awkward shifts in low gears.

• 

  MDX transmission issues - 2010 Acura MDX
  By carollyn - May 27 - 10:04 pm

  My husband and I have a 2010 MDX and its been in the service dept almost 5 times with serious issues. two of those being transmission problems. It had to have a torque converter with less than 30K miles. It recently needed another tranny software update. Steering and axle issues......Wow. For 50K purchase, we shouldnt have these problems!!! I feel like we need to get RID of this car while it still has a decent resale value. DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT!! BUY ONE OF THESE CARS! Its been nothing but a headache for us. We are trading it in tomorrow. Will never buy an acura or honda AGAIN!!! EVER!!!!

• 

  Lemon from the factory - 2002 Acura MDX
  By bfoley80 - April 29 - 9:19 pm

  Bought the vehicle brand new off the lot and from day 01 the vehicle had issues, i.e. bubbles in the paint, EGR valve recalls (numerous), etc. The latest is the transmission. This is the second one in 160K miles. The first one was under warranty & the second was while still under warranty as well, however the Sunnyvale Acura dealership did not identify it and has now changed ownership & theyre not taking responsibility. The repair will be between $5K~$7K. This is the 1st and last Acura which I will ever buy. They use the term "Luxury Vehicle" - dont be fooled. My prior Lexus was a true Luxury Vehicle, over 250K miles on the trannie w/ no issues.