Acura Vehicles

Overview

    In 1986, Honda took an enormous leap of faith. Believing that American buyers were at last ready to accept the idea of a Japanese luxury car, Honda created a new sales channel, solely for the United States and Canada. Acura, the first Japanese luxury car company, was born. In the beginning, the Acura lineup consisted of only two vehicles: the sporty compact Integra and the high-feature Legend, both Hondas. First-year sales totalled 52,869, and were double that in two years. Acura was off and rolling. It was in 1989, though, that the company shattered all expectations with the NSX. An all-aluminum, mid-engined supercar with a high-output V-6, the it was a new breed: a daily-driveable supercar. However, the same year also saw the arrival of Toyota's Lexus and Nissan's Infiniti divisions. Acura's monopoly on the Japanese segment of the U.S. luxury-car market was over. While Acura continued to expand its U.S. portfolio, it soon found itself trailing Lexus in both sales and perceived prestige. One of the major reasons was the greater scope and ambition of the Lexus brand -- while Acuras projected Honda values of handling and efficient, innovative engines, Lexus set its sights on the industry leaders, and embraced rear-drive platforms and V-8 engines. These features, among others, turned Lexus into the most successful luxury marque in America in 10 years, while Acura fell further behind, despite being the first luxury marque to sell an SUV (the SLX, a rebadged Isuzu). In 2005, when Lexus sales hit 302,895, Acura sold 209,610 -- a solid performance, to be sure, but not in the same league. For this reason, Acura can be regarded with both admiration and wistfulness: a success, but not as successful as it could have been. The company's headquarters are in Torrance, California, but its cars are produced at Honda plants worldwide.

CARS

CROSSOVER VEHICLES

SPORT-UTILITY VEHICLES