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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  Rattling Sound - 2005 Acura TL
  By Got A Lemon - April 29 - 4:16 pm

  Bought a new 2005 TL. Love the power, sound, responsiveness. Only 1800 miles, and dealership cannot fix rattling sound. Now dealing with Acuras Customer Representative, dead-end there. Tells me its a known problem with this model. I got a lemon.

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  Why two screens?? - 2016 Acura TLX
  By Diann Cox - April 26 - 2:51 am

  The car drove very well with good acceleration. It would have been on my contender list except for the awkward navigation display. The car actually has two screens, one a touch screen and the other is a navigation display screen. The screens take up so much room and the navigation screen is pretty far from the driver...too far to touch and a little tough to see.

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  Great car 12 years strong - 2005 Acura TL
  By todd gower - April 24 - 10:42 am

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  The new TL Rocks!!! - 2004 Acura TL
  By LilBluu - April 24 - 2:00 am

  Had my baby for over 3 months now - purchased 2 days before official sell date. I considered 03 model, but heard of redesign and waited. Worth the wait! New TL is a totally different car than the 03 - for the better. Power is amazing. All the luxury refinements you could want are here. Handling is great, but could be better with some new tires. Exterior styling is near-perfect, sleek & aggressive. I dont know why people complain that its still FWD. You cannot tell a difference, unless you drive the streets like a race track everyday. Any way you look at it, this car is hands down the best bang-for-the-buck in the luxury sports sedan class.

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  A Fine Purchase - 2004 Acura TL
  By Raytl - April 24 - 2:00 am

  I am extremely pleased with my 2004 Acura TL which is redondo red with a parchment interior. Performance is excellent and the car is more comfortable than I expected. And, everything works!

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  PLEASANTLY SURPRISED - 2004 Acura TL
  By MKING - April 24 - 2:00 am

  My wife and I have owned two Porsches and two BMWs--marvelous cars. We were, therefore, surprised by the Acura TL we drove while one of our cars was being serviced. A week later we bought a TL.

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  2005 RL - 2005 Acura RL
  By BoSox - April 23 - 8:30 am

  As Fun a car to drive as I have ever owned. The only issue with it was when I went on vacation and the car sat for 2 weeks, it did not start. I was originally told that due to the amount of computers in this car, the draw on the battery was causing the problem. I did not buy it. After the second time it happened, the dealer said they found the problem and fixed it. We will see if the next time I park it for an extended period it starts.

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  Fun to drive - 2003 Acura CL
  By mikemichel - April 22 - 10:00 am

  I traded my 97 SHO for this CL-S. I was pleasantly surprised by the acceleration and handling of the CL-S, but a bit disappointed with the minor 03 face lift. Where are the driving lights, and the new wheels are a bit boring. While I really enjoyed my SHO, Ive not really missed it. I do miss a few features that the SHO had over the CL-S, things like auto locking doors, auto on-off headlights, and the combination lock on the drivers door. But these are all just nit picks.

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  Love it! - 2001 Acura CL
  By flipper - April 22 - 10:00 am

  Love this car. I did 6 mos of research and this is the best bang for the buck. Fun to drive, looks cool (black w/ aftermarket rims), and no mechanical problems at 15,000 miles.

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  LOKO MDX - 2002 Acura MDX
  By lokoforever - April 22 - 10:00 am

  The car has exceeded all of our expectations--its very attractive inside and out, its very comfortable on long trips, and it performs much better than any other SUV weve ever driven. The Acura Navigation System is well worth the money!!!