Acura In The Mid 1990s Was All Hits And No Misses

I just saw an advertisement from the Japanese luxury brand Acura from 1996, and it is a Murderer’s Row of great cars, but with like three Babe Ruths, and Tony Lazerri also has a cyborg arm. It is all hits, no misses, and I want to join those on the Internet who are making this case because I don’t think we talk about Clinton-era Acura enough around these parts.

Maybe it’s due to the fact that multiple staff members own ’90s/’00s BMWs that we, as autojournalists, look back at the E46/E39/E53 days as some sort of gearhead peak. German cars of the time were also expensive and, in many cases, somewhat overbuilt. Is it not more impressive that Acura, which only came into existence in 1986, should be able to produce such an unbelievable mix of cars?

This image first appeared to me on Instagram, which is my Twitter methadone now that Twitter is saturated with Grind Guys and alt-right troll bots. I’m sure AI/Meta/Whatever will ruin Instagram soon enough, but for the moment, it dishes out gold like this:

 

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A post shared by BIG LS3 ???????? (@ls3tee)

This is from Instagram GM worshiper ls3tee, who makes the completely fair point that the Acura NSX might be GOATed, but the Acura Legend coupe and sedan brought greatness to everyone, whereas the OG NSX was mostly only seen in video games, magazines, and television shows.

“The Acura Legend is the king of the streets when it comes Acuras of the ’90s.”

Bold words, but I agree. Here’s the full brochure image he’s using in the background there:

It’s so beautiful it almost hurts to look directly at it, right? The bright white is like an H-bomb of radness, and we’re all Cillian Murphy trying to reckon with the meaning of it all. Rather than burn out our retinas, I’m going to try and take these one at a time, starting in the back row and working my way forward.

The Acura SLX

This is a nicer, slightly upgraded version of the Isuzu Trooper with no manual transmission available. It wasn’t exactly a runaway sales success, as luxury SUVs hadn’t quite arrived yet outside of Range Rover. Troopers of this era tend to be loved in retrospect, and the version with the DOHC V6 is something I’d like to try one day. Some of the lack of contemporary appreciation might stem from this Consumer Reports test that showed the Trooper and SLX could rollover in certain situations. Because the Great Rollover Panic encouraged automakers to install various electronic aids and make suspension changes to correct this issue, it’s hard to judge now how big of a deal it really was. I just know that today, none of that would stop me from buying a clean SLX if I could find one.

The Acura Integra

People wouldn’t constantly be stealing Acura Integras if they were not worthy of being stolen. Specifically, this model. The can’t-be-venerated-enough third generation. It is the bobblehead they keep making long after the player retires. In 2025, I do not need a new Alan Ashby bobblehead, nor will anyone probably make one (no disrespect!). Not to keep going back to baseball metaphors, but this is Ryne Sandberg. You’ll always want a Ryne Sandberg bobblehead, just like you’ll always want one of these.

The best-handling front-wheel-drive car of all time? Some might say the short-lived, Isuzu-powered Elan. Others would say the Euro Focus RS we never got. Both of those vehicles are about as attainable as a Banksy, whereas the Integra in its various trims could be had for reasonable money. Also, I think it’s the rare case of the USDM car looking better than the JDM version.

I drove a nearly perfect DC2 Integra Type R, briskly but carefully, and it definitely lived up to the impossible hype. Even in non-R kit, here’s what the great Brock Yates had to say about it after Car And Driver’s long-term test:

If Porsche built this it would cost $65,000, smell like leather, have a sexier exterior, and R&T would treat it like the second coming of Dr. Ferdinand himself. This thing is a marvel.

Buzzy at 85 mph. But not bad. And that motorcycle rev limit and taut steering are marvelous. I love this thing—it’s the Sugar Ray Robinson of automobiles, the original Sugar Ray having been considered, pound-for-pound, the greatest fighter in history.

There’s no topping that, so let’s move on, shall we?

The Acura Legend/Legend Coupe

It is bold to call the luxury sedan from your startup marque the “Legend.” It is Chex Mix Extra Bold Party Mix to suggest that your luxury sedan from your startup marque, co-developed with Rover of all companies, is legendary out of the gate. Fittingly, that first-generation car isn’t, really. The fake-it-til-you-make-it didn’t last long, though, because the second-generation car is the true legend.

Debuting in 1991, this now fully Japanese car came in a stately sedan or Anime-proportioned coupe. I have to fudge the model years a bit here because the coupe wasn’t for sale in 1996, as the last year was 1995. That means that this vehicle isn’t in the photo and, instead, there’s the Acura RL. I’ll talk about that in a minute, but first, here’s a photo of the coupe:

A kid in my high school, who was this big Chewbacca-looking dude also named Matt, had one of these in white. It was glorious, and the custom plate matched his nickname, which was Wookie. He played trombone, and I’m not sure if he still plays the trombone but I hope he still has the Legend. The FWD layout V6 allowed the coupe to have this stunning rear-overhang-to-front-overhang ratio. It almost doesn’t make sense, but making sense is overrated. These also have a longitudinally-mounted V6, which was supposedly designed to package the engine in a way that it could maintain a tight turning radius.

The Acura RL

Somewhere along the way some marketing genius decided that the names were bad and, instead, Acura should use alphanumeric names like other German and Japanese luxury cars. This was wrong. Acura RL doesn’t have the same status as “Legend” and I’m bummed the genius behind that probably got paid a lot of money. The fact that Acura just brought back the Integra name shows the folly in this, and I hope Legend is next.

This generation vehicle, the KA9, is an obvious continuation of the Legend and carries over the 3.5-liter V6 in longitudinal configuration. I don’t like it as much as I like the prior generation, but it’s still a good car.

All-around Acura expert Tyson Hugie has detailed his experiences with these, and they seem robust.

The Acura NSX

Rare though they may be, the mid-engined Acura NSX is probably one of the best-handling and most interesting automobiles ever built. It was the Japanese attempt at creating a supercar that eschewed the violence of the Italian brands and the inconsistency of the English ones. This was a car that you could drive every day and would never let you down. Gordan Murray liked it so much, as recorded in this Road & Track post, that it would inspire the Zeus-tier McLaren F1:

“The moment I drove the ‘little’ NSX, all the benchmark cars–Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini–I had been using as references in the development of my car vanished from my mind,” said Murray. “Of course the car we would create, the McLaren F1, needed to be faster than the NSX, but the NSX’s ride quality and handling would become our new design target.”

High praise.

Also note how Acura puts this in the back. That’s quite the flex. It’s like inviting your friends over for pizza and not mentioning that the guy in your backyard hunched over your Ooni is Wolfgang Puck.

The Acura CL

I think the original first-gen CL, while not as concupiscent as the Legend Coupe, does have its place. I suppose that place is: Would you like a Honda Accord Coupe that slaps? It’s basically an Accord underneath, and the one bummer here is that the 1st generation CL definitely looks the best, but you’re not going to do better than a five-speed manual and a V6 good for about 200 horsepower. The second generation has a somewhat dopey appearance, but comes with a six-speed that’s apparently great and true LSD. If you find one of these, it’s kinda a grail.

The Acura TL

Full disclosure, I had to triple-check I was using photos of the TL and photos of the RL for the RL. This is the “they’re the same picture” of mid-90s Japanese cars. This is technically the replacement for the Vigor (another great name), and the important thing about this is that it’s the one with the inline-five motor. Who doesn’t love an inline-five?

The Current Lineup

The new Integra is enjoyable in every trim, the TLX IIRC is pretty good, too. The ZDX is, well, see TMD. The MDX, ADX, and RDX are properly handsome and capable vehicles, though, as Thomas said in his ADX review, could all benefit from hybrid power. Do they hit the same? I don’t quite feel it yet. Maybe it’s just the alphanumerics. Would the TLX be better as a Vigor? I think we all know the answer.