Acura at 40: The Five Cars that Made the Brand

One Giant Leap for Honda

If you were born on March 27, 1986, you share a birthday with Japan’s first-ever dedicated luxury marque. That fateful date in 1986 marked the official launch of Acura, nearly a year after it was first previewed.

Fast forward several years, and the range had ballooned from the initial two-car lineup. Models have come and gone, some were great, and some were not, but there’s no denying that Acura built truly great cars over the past 40 years.

With that, here are just some of the cars we think that defined the brand.

Acura Legend (KA7/KA8)

We’re well aware that we just wrote a love letter to the first-gen Legend, but the second-gen was, and still is, the definitive Acura flagship sedan. It was a huge step forward compared to its predecessor in terms of design, performance, and technology. While it was never exactly a rival for the Lexus LS (the price gap alone shows this), it well and truly held its own against the ES, as well as the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class.

It undercut the European opposition, but that’s not the reason why the second-gen Legend is one of the greats. The smooth and creamy 3.2-liter V6 first used in the NSX was a great complement to its wonderful chassis, and despite being front-drive, it possessed a dynamic flair that made it a wonderful car to drive.

Let’s not forget the coupe, with its delicious curves, that made it truly distinct from the sedan. Did we mention it was available with a six-speed manual later on, too? Honda and Acura made this generation so good that the succeeding RL and Legend generations just couldn’t capture the same magic for some reason.

Acura TL Type S (UA7)

It took a while for Acura to finally get the formula right for its junior midsize sedan. The strangely lovable Vigor was a false start, but the brand didn’t give up and replaced it with the 2.5 TL and 3.2 TL. While a step in the right direction, its generic styling did little to lift its image. The succeeding second-gen TL was a huge glow-up, but marred by catastrophic transmission issues. A shame, because we think it’s a bit of a looker.

But it all finally came together for the third-gen TL, more specifically, with the Type S model for the 2007 and 2008 model years. By this time, Acura had finally sorted the issues with its automatics (along with Honda), but we all know the TL Type S to get is the one with the six-speed manual.

The manual models also came standard with a limited-slip differential, double wishbones at the front, multi-links at the rear, and an upgraded spring-and-damper combo, making this a true sport sedan. Peak TL? Absolutely, and it practically made the RL irrelevant thanks to that 286 hp 3.5-liter V6.

Acura MDX (YD1)

Like it or not, the MDX deserves a spot in this list, even if begrudgingly so. We moan about crossovers now, but the first-gen MDX was a hugely significant and important model for Acura. At the time, the brand was losing out on the SUV craze, and Lexus was kicking its compatriots to the curb with the RX. The lazily rebadged SLX was never going to cut it.

Acura finally responded to the RX with the MDX in 2000. Like its main rival at the time, it was a crossover, but it offered three-row seating thanks to its Odyssey roots, a punchier V6 engine, and a far more clever all-wheel drive system. The MDX was also among the first crossovers in its size class to come with seven seats as standard, and its car-based underpinnings basically banished any thoughts of the SLX, not that it was even memorable in the first place. Today, the MDX continues doing a lot of heavy lifting for Acura as its best-selling model.

Acura Integra Type R (DC2)

For those who need proof that front-wheel drive cars can, indeed, dance, one has to get behind the wheel of the Integra Type R. Long before the Civic Type R finally landed in the U.S., the hot Integra was America’s first real taste of what the red R was all about. Spoiler alert: the car was well worth the hype.

As it is, the third-generation Integra was, and still is, one of the greatest front-wheel drive platforms ever made. It was made during the time Honda was at the height of flexing its engineering might, and it beamed through the car’s driving dynamics and characteristics. Let’s be honest, a car like the Integra didn’t need double-wishbone suspension in all four corners, but that’s exactly what made it such a high-handling benchmark for all front-wheel-drive performance cars.

The Type R simply distilled the basic platform by stiffening and lightening it, making it more focused, and slapping in that high-revving B18C engine. The combination of all those factors helped the Integra Type R establish itself as one of the true legends of the ’90s. Now that we think about it, Honda could’ve used the current Prelude, name it the Integra Coupe, and stick in that K20C1 engine to make a modern Integra Type R. C’mon, Honda, we know you can do it.

Acura NSX (NA1/NA2)

You thought we were going to leave out the NSX, didn’t you? Of course, we couldn’t do that to Japan’s first true supercar. It was, by all means, an ambitious project, but it ended up showing the world what Honda could really do if asked to build a Ferrari-fighter. Nobody asked for it, but we’re glad it happened.

Its backstory was incredible as it underwent so many changes throughout its development. Several Japanese motorsports legends, such as Motoharu Kurosawa, were involved in the project, as were Ayrton Senna, who urged Honda to further stiffen the chassis, and Bobby Rahal, who provided input on suspension work.

The end result was a car that could hang with some of the world’s best supercars at the time, that had little in the way of compromise. It was solid, well-built, and reliable, but also capable of delivering a whole lot of smiles behind the wheel. The NSX made its world premiere as an Acura first and Honda second, further highlighting its significance for the luxury division. Sure, it wasn’t a financial success, but that wasn’t the point. The original NSX was, and still is, an engineering masterpiece.

Honorable Mentions

There are a couple more Acuras that we think are still worth a mention. In chronological order, we’ll start with the CL Type S, Acura’s first model to receive the Type S treatment. Up next is the RSX, which was essentially the fourth-gen Honda Integra for the North American market, still great to drive, if not quite to the same level as its predecessor.

For our Canadian readers, we think the CSX deserves a shout, mainly because it was literally the Japanese/global-market Civic for North America, and it came standard with a 2.0-liter, not the 1.8. Last but not least, both generations of the TSX gave America a taste of the Japanese- and European-market Honda Accords at a reasonable price. There was even a Sport Wagon model for the second-generation, the one and only time Acura would sell a wagon in North America.