The highest Honda model is the NSX, sold as the Acura NSX in North America, and it serves as Honda’s halo car—tying together extreme performance, cutting-edge technology, and the brand’s prestige.
What counts as the “highest” model in Honda’s lineup?
When people ask which Honda is the “highest,” they often mean the vehicle with the greatest price, prestige, and performance. That typically points to Honda’s halo car, the NSX (known in the United States as the Acura NSX), which tops the brand’s performance hierarchy. If you’re looking strictly at the Honda brand itself (not Acura), the most expensive new models sit at the top end of mainstream trims, such as top-tier minivans and SUVs, but they do not approach the NSX’s price or performance.
The halo car: NSX and the top spec
To understand the highest model, it helps to separate branding and markets. In the United States, the car widely considered Honda’s flagship performance model is marketed under the Acura badge as the NSX. Globally, it appears as the Honda NSX in some markets. The pinnacle variant is the Type S, which represents the highest specification and performance package for this platform.
- Acura NSX (Honda’s halo model in the U.S. and many markets outside Japan)
- NSX Type S (the top, most powerful trim, with enhanced power, aerodynamics, and handling)
- Price range note: NSX/NSX Type S typically sits well above most Honda-brand vehicles, often reaching into the six-figure territory before options and destination charges
In practical terms, the NSX/NSX Type S stands as the peak of Honda’s current lineup in terms of performance and price, even as the brand offers other high-end trims within its mainstream models.
Honda-badged competitors at the top of the lineup
If you’re evaluating purely Honda-branded models (excluding Acura), the top trims tend to be high-end versions of family-friendly vehicles such as minivans and SUVs. These are less about benchmark performance and more about premium comfort, technology, and space. Examples include well-equipped versions of the Odyssey and Pilot, which push into the high-$40k to low-$50k range depending on year and region, followed by premium variants of the Ridgeline pickup and the Civic lineup.
- Odyssey Elite or comparable top trims (minivan flagship within Honda-badged lineup)
- Pilot Elite or similar top trims (full-size SUV flagship within Honda-badged lineup)
- Ridgeline Black Edition or similar top trims (premium pickup within Honda-badged lineup)
- Civic Type R (highest-performance model within the Honda-badged lineup, but not the most expensive)
These Honda-badged top trims illustrate how the pricing and prestige scale within the brand’s own lineup, distinct from the Acura NSX’s position as the singular performance anchor.