DanF

So far, the car has been wonderful. Very tight, no rattles, no squeaks. It handles beautifully. Fit and finish are top-notch. Acceleration is suprisingly quick for a 4-cyl engine. It cruises on the highway in cruise-control with no issues. The navigation system is great, especially with the real-time traffic map information, and my wife loves the real-time verbal traffic information supplied via XM Radio. The bluetooth option is great (it's fun to see "Incoming Call" show up in the display). Voice commands are pretty good. Seats are very nice, but why did Acura do away with a power passenger seat? Was it because of weight or cost?

My gripes:
1. Why did Acura do away with the seat position memory switch like my '02 CL has? My wife drives with the drivers seat kissing the dashboard, and I can't get in. My '02 had two remote keys, and each key matched it's own position on the seat switch. God I miss that feature, and every time I get in and fiddle with the driver's seat, I get mad.
2. The gas pedal seems to light. Unlike my '02 CL, I can't lay my foot anywhere on the gas pedal without the weight of my foot pressing down on the gas and causing acceleration. I use cruise-control every chance I get to get my foot off the gas pedal.
3. The 7 speaker DVD audio system (with subwoofer) seems to pale compared to my lowly Bose system in my 'CL. At highway speed, it just seems too muffled. Maybe it's because the RDX is noiser than my CL at highway speeds, but I figured with the advanced DVD audio system, this thing would blow me away. It doesn't. To get full audio capability, I need to turn up the volume so much, passengers complain.
4. Gas mileage. My 260hp CL-S gets 29mpg on the highway (even with 62K miles on it), and the RDX...well I can't get more than 22 on the highway. There's something wrong with this picture, Acura. This is a 4-cyl car and it should do better when cruising at 60mph.
5. Finally, I wish the car came with a reading light for the passengers. The front-right upper light works OK, but it spreads light into the drivers eyes. This isn't limited to the RDX...most cars have this problem. The back passenger are out-of-luck. They need to use the lousy ceiling lamp which stinks for reading. Again, this isn't limited to the RDX. I guess no one ever thought a passenger would want to read a book at night on a long trip.

sherwood

gas mileage: The engine is a turbo engine and the car weighs well over that of your CL. It also features AWD with torque-assisted steering, of course it's going to hog the gas.

Gas pedal: It's drive-by-wire, it probably has something to do with the pedal feel.

Audio system: I imagine that there are some settings you can tweak to make it sound better, but in general the RDX was made to be sporty. Get some new tires and that may help with road noise.

Samson

my rsx gets no better than 24mpg average h:

and the gas pedals in these cars, along with the tsx are light because they're very springy. i know what you mean.

sherwood

You must romp on that thing, I get 28 in my teg and I drive it like i stole it.... what oil you using budday?

DanF

I figured that once the RDX gets up to cruising speed, where I don't need the turbo (the turbo guage is at '0'), that the mileage should even out and do better than 22, especially since it's using a 4-cyl engine. But, I guess not. The mileage is just a bit dissapointing.

Gas pedal being a "drive-by-wire"...that must be it. I'm tempted to put a squishy sponge ball under the gas pedal to make it not so light. A feather-light gas pedal is just irritating. Doesn't anyone test this technology before they use it in production vehicles?

Audio system controls: I've been into each and every adjustment and nothing seems to help much. The cabin has a much larger volume than my CL, so I'm sure this is part of it combined with tire noise. I figured changing the tires might help. It did with my CL-S. When I finally got rid of the stock Michelin's and got some Bridgestone's, that helped. I just can't spend $600 on tires at this time, especially since the car is new. Anyways, this bothers me more than my wife, and the RDX is her car, so I'd have a tough time convincing her to get new tires at this time anyways.

My "gripes" are pretty minor considering what they could be. I'm finicky when it comes to my cars. Overall the RDX is very nice.

finch13

I've never worked with a turbo before, but for some reason 0psi of boost at highway speed doesn't seem right. also, at highway speed the turbo is needed and is important for gas mileage and power. the awd does drain a lot of gas, on all cars, but the turbo should make up for that with the power it makes... about the audio, we have the bose system in our mdx and it's not very good either, they use a slim 12" subwoofer that puts out next to nothing, i personally have never been a fan of anything bose, they just love to use paper in their speakers.... again, the 0psi thing doesn't add up, the only time you would drop that much in boost would be shifting... even at idle the turbo has to be boosting something....

autofreak

Really? I thought that's why there was "turbo-lag" because it would take a while for the turbo booster to engage thus causing the car to feel slow off the line and then pick up once the turbo kicked in. IDK i'm not too fluent in how a turbo works.

finch13

Well Im not fluent either... now that I think of it again at idle the turbo will be spinning at the speed of the exhaust and depending how fast that is it could be boosting or it couldn't. Turbo lag is just the slowness of the turbo spinning up when you're accelerating.

DanF

After taking the RDX on a short summer vacation (a bit over 3,000 miles and touching 7 states), the RDX is finally showing 24mpg on the highway. I'm figuring that the Turbo guage simply shows a relative indication of boost...meaning that when it's boosting at it's lowest, it shows "0". I realize that the turbo is turning, so it's always doing something, but to what degree? What I noticed is that the turbo in the RDX feels very responsive off the line. There is no noticeable lag.

After spending time in my bother's Ford Expedition on vacation, I was so happy to get back into my wife's RDX. The trade-off was less room, but it was sure nice to drive something that wasn't a rattle-trap and didn't feel like I was driving a boat. But I'm still perplexed as to why Acura chose not to include a memory seat button for the driver's seat. Also, for $36K+ with the Technology Package, couldn't they also have included a passenger power seat instead of clunky manual levers for adjusting position? My last complaint: With four people in the car, the front passenger seat needs to be too far foward to make accessing the glove compartment even possible. It's way to low in the dash. Overall though, it's a pleasure to drive. Oh yeah, the satellite radio was great to have in the middle of nowhere.

sherwood

The RDX is pretty much a sport sedan in a crossover body. It's not surprising that they omitted such things for weight as well as financial reasons. It also explains the cramped interior when passengers are involved.