The Acura Legend coupe was replaced by the Acura CL in 1996 following Acura's alphanumeric naming of all of its vehicles. The CL had a 2.2 L straight-4 engine, which was later bumped up to 2.3 L and finally a 3.0 L J30 V6.

Sharing its underpinnings with the Honda Accord and the Acura TL, the Acura CL could never compete with the likes of the BMW 330ci. In March of 2000, Acura released a Type S version of the CL with a potent 3.2 L SOHC VTEC J-series V6. In 2002, a LSD model with a 6 speed manual transmission was added. Due to increasing costs and declining sales, Honda decided to end it's Acura CL line in the 2003 model year.