Ack Attack Post 21: It's All About the Reputation

Honda is known for its reliability and for how great their cars are. Acuras are basically upgraded Hondas: they're reliable, comfortable, luxurious, relatively affordable, and eye-catching. Though they have had a few blips with the CL transmission, on average, they have improved looks and performanace. Acura was the first brand to bring in the VTEC technology in their engines, and then the Hondas got it. The Acuras were the first to have a relatively large number of airbage come standard, then the Hondas got it. It seems as though the Acuras were selling to well that Honda decided to include some of the specifications from the Acura into their own lineup to make the Hondas sell better.

Though many of the Honda parts fit on Acuras, there is a large difference in the service experience. The salesmen at many Acura dealers are not very attentive to the needs of the customer, and think that time is only a number and that if you can spend that much on a car, then you can spend it to fix them. The salesmen at the Honda dealers do not feel this way. They are exteremely kind and cater to the customer at all times. Many people who have Acuras will go to the Honda dealerships to have their cars worked on because the Acura salesmen are simply unkind.

So while the Acura brand has a great reputation, the salesmen and sales department make the experience for the Acura owners quite miserable. Overall, if you want to drive an Acura, you're going to get a great car and you will be doubly happy that it won't need to be fixed often because you will not want to deal with the people at the dealership.