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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  rsx- satisfaction - 2002 Acura RSX
  By trevorr - January 9 - 2:00 am

  Car is excellent especially at highway speeds. Moves efortlessly and never looses its feel for the road, nor the sense tha you are in control even at very high speeds

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  1992 Integra GS-R - 1992 Acura Integra
  By kompressedsilver - January 8 - 2:00 am

  Definitely one of the most fun cars to drive!!! Performance is fantastic due to the light weight and 8000 rpm redline! Reliability is fantastic. Ive brought in my 2000 Mercedes more often for warranty work than this car. I even try to use this car as much as possible for my daily driver - only if I could take clients out in it (non- existent back seat). Great car!

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  Great Car - 1990 Acura Integra
  By DecFlispi - January 8 - 2:00 am

  This is my first car and I must say its great. I love it. This car give good gas mileage with plenty of power. This thing will hold its own even against most newer cars. Mine and almost 150K miles and my tranny and clutch are still good. Ive had no big problems since Ive owned it. The exhaust system and drivers seat wear are common problems of these cars, also the road noise is pretty loud, but can be fixed. It has great trunk space. Handles good and makes a great first car for anyone.

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  One of the best cars ever - 1998 Acura Integra
  By Mr. Vaughan - January 8 - 2:00 am

  With out a doubt the funnest car I have ever driven. Never have any problems but not speeding!

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  Type-S has been great the past year - 2002 Acura RSX
  By nc-rsx-s - January 8 - 2:00 am

  Ive had the car for 14 months now and still love driving it. It is a very comfortable car on long trips (though the lumbar adjustment doesnt do much) and the gas mileage is exceptional. I have taken the car on racetracks (road courses in the SouthEast US) several times this past year and the car handles and accelerates as well as most cars and brakes better than most. It has been reliable and proven to be a great value. As I like to drive on-track, I would really like to see a Type-R version of this car come to the US, with limited slip differential, more power, even better brakes, and lighter weight.

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  Performance and Luxury and no compromise - 2001 Acura CL
  By Purnell - January 8 - 2:00 am

  Great acceleration,ultra smooth 260 horsepower engine, excellent navigation system, very impressive handling in spite of front wheel drive setup, fuel economy is good especially considering power output of motor, very quite cabin loads of features traction control, vechile stability assist, front and side airbags an all around exceptional value

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  Love it! - 2007 Acura RDX
  By def - January 7 - 10:00 am

  We love our RDX. I no longer mind driving anywhere. It is fun to drive and I feel very safe. With the fold down seats I can haul a lot. This car is so comfortable and has a great sound system.

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  I had the firday night special - 1996 Acura Integra
  By BrianV - January 7 - 2:00 am

  This 96 GSR was fast. For some reason it was faster then all other GSRs, faster then the type-rs, and faster then most other cars. It ran mid 14 seconds stock. The car was bone stock and just moved like Ive never seen a GSR move. At any rate, this car was fast but had some fluke problem that no one could fix. It would blow radiators every 1k-3k mi, and ten mechanics including acura could never fix it. Had to sell car because of this. It will be my last Honda, the interior quality and maintenece on Hondas are disappointing. Nissan and Toyota is more reliable and less money for regular maint.

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  Acura the BEST BUY on the market! - 1993 Acura Legend
  By Eddie Willing - January 7 - 2:00 am

  When I bought my acura legend, I knew only that it was built by Honda, had 120,000 miles and was a manual V6. It felt fast, and it was cheap, so I bought it. Now, my next new car will be a TL. I am sold! This car is reliable, stable, holds turns well, has the acceleration of any large size sedan, is bilt safe, has all the power features youd want in a car, and has some of the crispiest handling of any car Ive driven. I desire to never again return to the world of auto tranny! This Legend shall hold its own. It truly will go down in history as a legendary improvement on the everymans vehicle!

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  Fun Car - 2002 Acura RSX
  By AGAJU - January 7 - 2:00 am

  A great all around car with good performance for an automatic. My commute really stinks, so I wanted the auto for all the stop and go driving. Its nice to be able to shift yourself when traffic isnt bad too. My only real complaint is that the seat bottoms are too hard. Guess Im getting old. The glove box needs adjusted, its not flush with the dash. Also, the seat fabric by the headrest is comming away from the plastic that surrounds the hole.