Acura (アキュラ) is a brand name used by the Japanese car manufacturer Honda in the US, Canada and Hong Kong since March 1986 to market luxury automobiles and near-luxury vehicles. The brand was introduced to Mexico in 2004 and to the Chinese market in 2006. It is also planned to extend Acura to the Japanese domestic market in 2008. 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.