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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  2003 3.2 tl-s - 2003 Acura TL
  By cliff wolff - November 7 - 10:00 am

  Amazing car for the price

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  Great car, a few rattles though - 2005 Acura TL
  By 2005 Acura TL - November 3 - 10:11 am

  I absolutely love this car, with just two exceptions. The frequent rattles are quite annoying and the leather seats could be more comfortable. Other than that, the car is awesome! Ive actually looked around at other cars, trying to talk myself into buying a new car, but there is nothing out there that is as appealing as the TL. Ill have this car for years and years as long as the upkeep remains minimal as it is now.

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  2003 acura tls - 2003 Acura TL
  By webman - November 1 - 10:00 am

  tremendous value no competition. extremely quick,dependable,fun to drive

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  Transmission Replaced 3 times! - 1999 Acura TL
  By Kristina - October 28 - 2:53 pm

  This vehicle was my favorite, wanted to keep it forever! Until I had to replace the transmission 3 times, so I dumped it at a pawn shop! Didnt have the conscience to sell it outright to a buyer, because of the tranny issue. I spoke with an employee of Honda Research and Development, and he told me there was an inherent transmission problem that wouldnt go away. He said to buy a Honda product newer than 2002. Other than that, I owned the car for over 4 years. Sexy car, but born with a lifetime defect that ended up costing me money, because the new transmissions were only covered under warranty for 10k miles. Dont buy it! It will cost you money!!

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  I have given the most accurate rating. - 2002 Acura TL
  By kenneth M Peterson - October 25 - 9:07 pm

  I absolutely love this car and if we did not have to sell it we would not. This is a beautiful sport sedan with lots of plush options and it is fun to drive! This car is a real head turner it is black on black leather interior, with all the options with the exceptions of navagation. The powerful engine and handling is very impressive.

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  Fun to drive but not impressed! - 2007 Acura RDX
  By dk168 - October 25 - 12:50 am

  Have had the car for almost a year now. Not impressed by AcuraÂ’s quality. Dashboard started to rattle after four months of having the car now is getting worse, both corners rattle at cooler temperature. Even the sunroof rattles during bumpy road. Turbo lag is definitely noticeable at low RPM with A/C on. I have to put the gear in the Sport mode to minimize the turbo lag when traffic is in a stop-and-go condition this seems to help. Ride is a little stiff (comments given by everyone who had ridden in my car). Poor gas mileage. I am getting averaged 18 MPG with roughly 60% hwy and 40% surface street driving. Okay, with all the negatives mentioned, I must say the car is a fun car to drive.

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  Not up to Honda quality standards - 2004 Acura TL
  By outside - October 24 - 9:20 am

  When I get this car on an open stretch of smooth highway on a nice sunny day with the sunroof open and the music blaring from its awesome stereo its an awesome feeling that soothes the pain I feel over the 10 days it has spent back at the dealer in the first 1000 miles. Call me a stickler if you want but Ive owned only Honda cars since 1990 and this one doesnt measure up to the quality standard I had come to expect. The dealer has literally had the entire interior disassembled in an attempt to find and repair the constant rattling the goes on inside the cabin. How Honda could let a car like this slide through their QA is beyond me.

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  I really wanted to give it 5 stars, but... - 2016 Acura RDX
  By Richard Lee - October 23 - 4:13 pm

  I love this car very much, and I really want to give it a 5 stars review. However, the breaking system seems not responsive enough, I have to press harder in order to make it stop. Within a month, I heard noise while I hit break this morning, within a month! The noise was gone when I drive it during my lunch break, maybe its the temperature, but still, it shouldnt do that because its a new car. Also, the engine is so called "smart V6", it switches from 3 cylinders to 6 cylinders depends on the situation, I can actually feel it. The car vibrate a lot while its on 3 cylinders mode, solid and smooth while its on 6 cylinders. Not very good. While the exterior is superb, its way better than the previous RDX models, but the interior looked outdated compare with its competitors. The Bluetooth is convenient, but it kept disconnected and connected, cant stay connected. Also, only the contact thats input to the speed dial (in car system, not phone speed dial) can display the caller ID when there is an incoming call. There are only 15 space speed dial for RDX. I missed many phone calls because I do not pick up number that I cant recognize, then I found those were actually people that I know but the car didnt display the caller ID because they are not in the car speed dial system. Its pretty dumb and outdated design. Finally, there is a backup camera, but no backup sensor... Doesnt make any sense. The sensor should be standard if the camera is standard. Therefore, I like this car, but I cant give it a 5 stars because of the flaws mentioned above.

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  Follow Up Review - 2007 Acura TL
  By Bryan - October 20 - 10:57 pm

  10,000 miles into my silver TL Type-S with 6 speed manual, and I figure I would give you all a follow-up. First, the bad: rattles in the door and steering column. Tsk, tsk in a near 40-grand sports sedan. Interior materials scratch real easily, and dashboard is starting to lose its color really quickly (from dark gray to milky gray). Torque-steer is getting old now. The good: this thing should be called a muscle-sedan instead of a sports sedan, because thats the demeanor it has. Big, mean looking, mean sounding, and fast. Handling is second only to BMW. Interior is very comfortable, and very spacious.

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  Engine troubles are a surprise - 2007 Acura RDX
  By CD - October 18 - 7:58 pm

  I love everything about this car except that I have been into the shop with engine troubles about every 2-3 weeks. The engine will suddenly rev uncontrollably and the turbo has stopped working 3 times. This car is downright dangerous to drive without the turbo support to get you moving. The dealer hasnt been able to figure out what is wrong yet -- just keeps erasing the codes which make the problems go away for a short while. Sadly, its time for a trade-in after only 5 months. So much for Acura quality, which is one of the main reasons I traded in my Saab 9-5 for this.