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Acura was founded in 1986 by Honda as the first Japanese luxury automotive brand, debuting a full year before Toyota's Lexus and three years before Nissan's Infiniti. The brand launched with two models: the Integra, a sporty compact, and the Legend, a full-size sedan that competed against European luxury cars. Acura's launch slogan "Precision Crafted Performance" established the brand's focus on engineering excellence and driving dynamics.
The Integra Type R (1997) became an icon of front-wheel-drive performance, with its B18C5 engine producing 195 horsepower from 1.8 litres without turbocharging, and a chassis that set standards for FWD handling. The 1991 NSX was a watershed moment: the first production car with an all-aluminium monocoque body, designed with input from Ayrton Senna, it proved that Japanese manufacturers could build a supercar capable of matching Ferrari and Porsche on performance while exceeding them in daily usability.
Acura expanded into SUVs with the SLX (a rebadged Isuzu Trooper) but found its formula with the MDX in 2000, which became the brand's best-selling model. The MDX established Acura as a dominant force in the three-row luxury crossover segment. The brand faced criticism in the 2010s for a controversial "beak" grille design, which was gradually refined. Recent models like the new Integra, the TLX Type S, and the MDX Type S have returned Acura to its performance-oriented roots.
The 1991 Acura NSX was the world's first all-aluminium monocoque production car, weighing significantly less than its steel-bodied competitors. Its titanium connecting rods (a Formula 1 technology), VTEC variable valve timing, and four-channel anti-lock brakes set supercar engineering benchmarks that took competitors years to match.
Acura introduced the world's first "Super-Handling All-Wheel Drive" (SH-AWD) system in the 2004 RL. Unlike conventional AWD systems that merely distribute torque front-to-rear, SH-AWD could actively overdrive the rear outside wheel during cornering, generating a yaw moment that effectively pulled the car through turns. This was a genuine engineering innovation that no competitor had attempted.
The second-generation NSX (2016) used a hybrid all-wheel-drive system , "Sport Hybrid SH-AWD" , with three electric motors (two driving the front wheels independently, one mounted between the engine and transmission). This gave torque-vectoring capability at the front axle, a configuration that was unique at launch and allowed the NSX to combine supercar performance with surprising everyday usability.
Honda launched Acura in the United States, debuting a year before Lexus and three years before Infiniti.
The all-aluminium mid-engine NSX rewrote supercar expectations, matching Ferrari performance with Honda reliability.
Acura's Super-Handling All-Wheel Drive debuted on the RL, capable of torque-vectoring at the rear axle for unprecedented AWD handling.
The iconic nameplate was revived as a sporty compact, reintroducing a new generation to the Acura performance brand.
How the platform works for buyers and dealers