Acura is among the leading luxury car brands in the US market. The brand belongs to Honda which sells its mainstream cars under the eponymous brand, effectively leaving the luxury segment to Acura. The Tokyo-headquartered Acura draws heavily from the parent company for engines and other critical components. Like several other car logos, the Acura logo meaning and history has interesting references and a short but memorable performance by the company founder.
In the global world of car brands, Acura is a relatively new entrant with little over three decades under its belt. Outside of the US, the brand is prominently sold in China but has practically stayed away from other major markets, most notably Japan.
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Acura Information
| Founded | 27 March 1986 |
| Founder | Soichiro Honda |
| Headquarters | Minato, Tokyo, Japan |
| Official website | www.acura.com |
| Owner | Honda |
Acura Logo History and Evolution: Mass-market to Premium
Honda was already selling its cars in the US since 1970 and had established itself as a manufacturer of reliable and affordable cars. However, its products lacked luxury, sophistication, and power – typical traits affluent buyers look for.
As a result, Acura was conceived to cater to these affluent buyers while sharing vehicle underpinnings with the parent brand. The new brand debuted with two models – Legend and Integra – and managed to do well with sales of over 100,000 units in the first year of operations.
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Acura Logo Meaning: Caliper and Precision
The Acura badge was introduced only in 1990 on NSX – full 4 years after Acura-branded vehicles were launched in the US. The company describes the Acura logo meaning as a caliper – a measuring device used by draftsmen. The use of calipers signifies precision and accuracy and highlights the impeccable quality of Acura vehicles.
Ironically, the Acura logo looks like a stylized ‘A’ or ‘H’ letters, depending on one’s perspective and the connection to the caliper doesn’t become obvious at first glance. There is no mystery about what these two letters point to. The pair of calipers is enclosed in an oval with rounded corners which looks almost circular in shape.
Acura Badge Evolution: Last-Minute Change
Since its introduction in 1990, the Acura badge hasn’t changed much but there is an interesting anecdote in its historic evolution department. The story goes that the designers initially prepared the logo featuring the two calipers without the connecting horizontal line between them and this logo made its way to the production stage.
When the good old Soichiro Honda had a look at the vehicles, he noticed the gap between the calipers and reasoned that it didn’t make sense. It helped that the logo wasn’t approved by him so far. Honda suggested (ordered is probably a better word) putting a small horizontal bar to make the logo give an impression of the letter A (Acura) or H (Honda). This not only rendered thousands of ready logos useless but also resulted in hundreds of them being taken off production vehicles. Since the orders came from the top, every such ‘imperfect’ logo was destroyed.
Acura Logo PNG Vector
Acura Logo: Similarity with Changan Badge
The world of car logos is strange and despite all the creative freedom designers have, it is not uncommon to see badges which are too similar to each other. This indeed happened in the case of Acura when Changan unveiled its new logo for passenger vehicles in 2010. The Changan logo has similar design elements and features the calipers upside down with some subtle changes. Changan’s logo gives the effect of the letter ‘V’.