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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  2006 Acura TSX - 2006 Acura TSX
  By Armi - November 26 - 3:37 pm

  The TSX is a bargain. Based on the sportier European Accord, it is a sporty in-town grocery runner, and a comfortable interstate cruiser. Lots of headroom, even with a sunroof. Wish Acura would offer the white exterior with the quartz gray interior.

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  Great Car-Horrible Paint Job - 2005 Acura TL
  By Little Rich - November 20 - 1:40 am

  The title of the review says it all. This car needs to be built in Japan! The entire paint job is orange pealed and the deck lid has a sizeable foreign object under the color coat which will remain as Im not bringing a brand new car to a body shop.

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  Great Car, Great Value - 2005 Acura TL
  By Randy - November 19 - 12:26 am

  After driving a BMW 330 CiC for a few years I can say that this car is faster, but doesnt handle quite as well. The sound system on this car is superior. I love the XM Radio feature. The navigation system on the BMW, although not a DVD and in some ways not as complete, was more accurate. This one takes some getting used to and I frequently cant find a place that I am looking for. This car is fun to drive, fast, comfortable and offers a superior sound system. The back seats have plenty of room.

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  Pretty nice Id say - 2004 Acura MDX
  By AM4TA - November 17 - 4:51 pm

  My mom just bought this car for herself a little while ago and it came with the GPS system which is the best feature out of all in my opinion, especially for the out of town trips. It drives pretty decent but will not make you bounce back in your seat. The drivers seat however needs to get fixed because the back of the seat isnt straight, its at an angle which causes my back to slide down toward the right side all the time and I cant position myself straight. Also the right exhaust pipe is hanging a little lower than the left one but that shouldnt be a problem. Other than that the car is pretty nice. Not a standout but not a car that people will hate either.

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  This car certainly has room to improve - 2006 Acura MDX
  By klin - November 17 - 4:09 pm

  The ease of driving and handling was what attracted to purchase this vehicle. On May of this year, I bought a new Toyota 4runner 2006 before I purchased the MDX. In my opinion, 4runner is a better built vehicle overall. The interior of the MDX is slightly cheaper, and I found the cover of the door knob actually moves a little bit instead of fix to the door, a small but annoying defect, and the interior looks cheaper comparing with Toyota. The back door of MDX can not close completely without slamming it. What a pain... If you just try to be a little bit gentle on the car, then the door wont close properly. In comparison, The 4runner has automatic door closer, and quality is awesome.

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  Poor radio reception for TSXs - 2006 Acura TSX
  By Beth - November 16 - 12:49 pm

  I have had my 2006 TSX 6 sp manual for two months. I immediately noticed a problem with quality of the radio reception for FM stations that are based in my city, as well as for XM stations. Basically, if you get into areas of high voltage you either lose the signal (XM) or it becomes staticky (FM). My dealership told me there was nothing wrong with the reception and that that was how all the TSXs were. They gave me a loaner car to use and I noticed the same problem with reception on that car. I have owned 6 or 7 cars including other Acura and Hondas, but I have never experienced the such poor radio reception, which I consider a basic amenity, especially for a car in this price range.

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  Needs more power - 2006 Acura RL
  By Scott - November 13 - 12:33 pm

  Ive had this car for about a week. I love styling of the car, it has all of the amenities I would expect from a luxury car, but is generally lacking in performance. This car replaced a 2001 M5 (396hp) and was not anticipated to provide the same performance, but at 300hp, I had higher expectations. I believe the weight of the car materially decreases performance. In general it is quite comfortable and handles well, but needs a bit more power to round out the driving experience.

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  Transmission Problems at 56K - 2002 Acura TL
  By nldud - November 12 - 2:00 am

  I loved my car until transmission troubles! Car hesitates to shift when you first accelerate and then when it does shift, its a really hard jerking motion. Acura dealership replaced the A and B shift solinoid but problem is not resolved. Its a good thing I bought the extended warranty! Everyone kept telling me Acura will last for 300K but Im not going to find out. My 94 Nissan Sentra was still running smooth at 160K when I sold it to buy the ACURA. I took excellent care of the vehice had all the oil recommended oil changes and routine service schedule maintenance.

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  recommend it! - 2006 Acura MDX
  By AC and AS-C - November 10 - 3:26 pm

  Excellent, we are very happy with our MDX. We are impressed with the quality of the car. Well built.

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  Regressing but still worthy - 2017 Acura ILX
  By SDA - November 9 - 7:33 am

  Feels like Honda literally sent Acura a civic LX and they "pimped your ride" with some leather and such. Back in 2007 with my first new Acura, the TSX was with navi or not, and came fully loaded with all the other features and was tons of fun to drive, especially in the twisties (mine was a 6 speed manual). Now they have packages and trim levels (no manual trans offering) and it seems the value of Acura has gotten lost and swept up to try and compete with heavily option oriented luxury brands where youre nickle and dimed for each and every convenience. "Pleather" and heated seats, bluetooth and a dual clutch trans are all nice and standard features but also very basic ones youll find on most cars with stickers in the low $20k range these days. If you want a touch screen entertainment system youll pony up $2,000 for the premium package and also get some nick-nack features like perforated leather and blind spot detection. If not youre stuck with the 2006 looking blue interface that is way past its due date to be redone. The 17" wheels they put on this thing belong on a base model civic in my opinion and make the car look a touch like its trying way too hard to be cutting edge styled, otherwise the styling of the car may be one of its higher selling points. 2.4L motor is standard now so 201hp but it still feels like it could use a kick in the pants in that department for being damn near $30,000. Truthfully it really is just a very comfortable, better looking Civic that you can lease for under $300 a month with $0 down, however, it may be the best thing you can get for that price in the luxury market.