Acura (Japanese: ????, Akyura) is the luxury vehicle brand of Japanese automaker
Honda Motor Company. It primarily competes with Lexus, Infiniti and Cadillac among
others as a certified luxury vehicle. It has been used in the US, Canada and
Hong Kong since March 1986 to market Honda's performance automobiles and near-performance
vehicles. The brand was introduced to Mexico in 2004 and to the Chinese
market in 2006. The Acura brand will be introduced in Russia at the end of
2008. Honda plans to introduce Acura to the Japanese domestic market two years
from 2008 or so. With the Acura brand, Honda is credited with being the first
to tap into a market for luxury Japanese cars outside Japan. Before Acura, automobiles
exported from Japan were primarily economical in design and largely targeted
at low-cost consumers.
In 1986, following a decade of research,
Honda opened 60 all-new dealerships in North America to support its Acura automobile
division. Acura was the first Japanese luxury brand to appear, and its
initial offerings consisted of two models: the Legend, a V6-powered sedan, and
the Integra, available as a five-door and three-door hatchback. The success of
these models led to competing Japanese luxury brand ventures (Toyota's Lexus and
Nissan's Infiniti) |
