Editing Acura (section)

===1980s===
The brand was created around the same time as Japanese rivals Nissan and Toyota developed their respective Infiniti and Lexus premium brands. The Japanese government imposed voluntary export restraints for the U.S. market, so it was more profitable for Japanese automakers to export more expensive cars to the U.S.

[[File:First Gen Legend Coupe.jpg|thumb|right|270px|First generation [[Acura Legend]] coupe]]
Following a decade of research, Honda opened 60 new dealerships in North America by 1986, to support its Acura automobile division. Acura was the first Japanese luxury brand, introduced under the slogan, "Acura. Precision Crafted Automobiles." Its initial offering consisted of two models: the [[executive car|executive class]] [[Acura Legend|Legend]] and the [[compact (car)|compact class]] [[Acura Integra|Integra]], available as a five-door and three-door hatchback. The Legend was the result of Project XX, a joint venture Honda entered into with the UK's [[Austin Rover Group]]. It was mechanically related to the [[Rover 800]] series, while the Integra was an improvement of the [[Honda Quint]] hatchback.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.acura.com/ |title=Acura History page |publisher=Acura.com |access-date=20 November 2010| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101114173531/http://www.acura.com/| archive-date= 14 November 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref>

The success of these models, particularly the Legend, led to competing Japanese luxury brand ventures ([[Toyota]]'s [[Lexus]] that began development in 1983 as the [[#First generation (UCF10)|F1]] project, and [[Nissan]]'s [[Infiniti]] who began development in 1985 by revising their Japan-only flagship [[Nissan President]]; in the late 1990s Mazda planned but never launched its own Amati luxury division). The goal of the Legend was to compete with rivals [[Toyota Crown]] and the [[Nissan Cedric]] and [[Nissan Gloria|Gloria]], but due to its 1986 introduction worldwide, Toyota, Nissan and other companies like [[Lincoln (automobile)|Lincoln]] took notice of the markets reaction to the Legend and later the [[Acura Vigor|Vigor]] and offered vehicles that addressed the executive size car. Toyota introduced the [[Lexus ES]], Nissan introduced the [[Infiniti J30]] and Ford utilized the [[Ford D186 platform|Taurus platform]] and named their new sedan the [[Lincoln Continental#1988–1994|Lincoln Continental]].

[[Image:1989 Acura Integra.JPG|thumb|right|First generation [[Honda Integra|Acura Integra]]]]
In 1987, Acura's first full year of sales, they sold 109,000 cars with the flagship Legend sedan accounting for 55,000 sales and the rest were of the smaller Integra. By 1990, Acura was selling 138,000 vehicles, including 54,000 Legends, compared to Mercedes-Benz's 78,000 cars and 64,000 each for BMW and Lexus.<ref name="acura">{{cite web|url=http://www.businessweek.com/autos/content/may2006/bw20060523_579325.htm |title=A Short History of Japanese Luxury Cars |publisher=Businessweek.com |date=23 May 2006 |access-date=19 July 2011| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110628223731/http://www.businessweek.com/autos/content/may2006/bw20060523_579325.htm| archive-date= 28 June 2011 | url-status= dead}}</ref>