Malibu Flyer

I brought home a new RLX Sports Hybrid - Advance [Silver Moon/Ebony] today. I don't have much time behind the wheel yet, spent much of the afternoon figuring out the voluminous setting for the car. I'll bet there are at least 100 things to customize. After more driving time I will share some of my thoughts about the car. So far it has been awesome. It is a smooth, powerful drive. I'm not so sure about the infotainment stuff. My initial reaction is Acura has more work to do on it. Confusing, complicated etc. but I may feel differently after getting things set up to my preferences and becoming familiar with how it functions.

Just a quick comment about the pricing of the car. I contacted 4 dealers in Southern California, each of whom had a single Sports Hybrid, 2 were Advanced, 2 were Tech. The negotiated prices ranged from $500 below MSRP to $250 over invoice. I got lucky that my local dealer had both the lowest price and my preferred combination.....Silver Moon Advance [sorry Bob but Southern California does have some advantages over Cleveland]. I also did jump for the 8 yr./120,000 mile warranty which after calling around and talking with multiple Finance Mangers I was able to get a quote of $100 over cost, which was over $1,000 less than my initial quote. My local dealer wouldn't match the $100 over quote but did the deal for $150 over cost. It was better than driving 2 hours to take the lowest quote.

I was sad to see my RL go. It was a great car, reliable and very advanced for 2005. I still think the interior is superior to the RLX but I may feel differently after more time in the RLX. The RLX is certainly more subdued but still elegant. The SHAWD was rock solid for 10 years and 121,000 miles. While there were numerous early adapter issues with the Nav system and XM radio, they were replaced under warranty. It was a hassle making so many trips to the dealer to fix issues, but Acura was good to their tradition of repairing/replacing problem parts without a whimper. The only significant repair cost was a new hard drive for the Nav system @ 80,000 miles.

My primary anxiety with the RLX is its rarity. How the service guys are going to fix glitches when my car will likely be the only Sports Hybrid they see [at least for the next 12+ months until the 2016 arrive]? I also bemoan the fact that few of the members of Acurazine will be able to relate to issues, questions or comments since very few will actually have the Sports Hybrid. I feel like I am going to be flying without a parachute. I have always learned so much from the denizens of Acurazine.

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

Congrats! You're a trailblazer.

Ken1997TL

Very nice! Looking forward to your long-term thoughts on the car.

neuronbob

Congrats on being first! You got my #2 preferred color combo (#1 is Graphite/Ebony). Hopefully I will be joining you eventually. Still on the hunt.

Can't wait to hear of your adjustments to the car.

HDNBenjamin

Congrats! Please do post pictures when you have the chance.

Pens Fan

Best of luck and congrats as well. We are all looking forward to your impressions and experiences with the car. Please continue to make them as detailed as possible.

JonFo

Congrats! Please continue to keep us posted on your impressions of this vehicle, some of us plan to vicariously enjoy the SH until next year ;-)

TampaRLX-SH

Our HERO!

miner

Great price for a rare auto. looking fwd to your driving impressions. I respectfully disagree with your interior assessment though. I feel my '14 RLX interior is much more elegant than either my '06 or '10 RLs. Seats are more comfortable too.

Malibu Flyer

My interior thoughts are mostly based on a visual impression. I like the appearance of real wood even though the fake wood in the RLX is nicely done., there is just less of it. As I said in my original post the RLX interior seems more subtle. I may come to share your opinion after I get used to it. I guess I am saying there is less "eye candy". Certainly no offense taken. Some people like chocolate and some people like vanilla. I also wanted to both give you my first impressions and we will see if they change over time.

Comfy

Congratulations on your new car. Please post some pictures.

stagefoursurvivor

Congrats, just color me green!
I'm quite interested in MPGs as time goes by

neuronbob

Yes, do post mpgs after a couple of tanks. Honda seems to be grossly underrating mileage lately, so interested to see if that trend continues.

C'mon early 2016 MY release......

Malibu Flyer

I will be sure to do that. I am as interested as the Acurazine denizens. Very curious what the hybrid does, even though the gas mileage was an afterthought of the purchase decision. I will be taking 250 mile trip next week and that along with my normal driving will be a good first benchmark.

hadokenuh

Congrats!!

I think you are the 1st Sport Hybrid owner here ...

hondamore

I am filled with envy and at the same time glad that someone actually gets to enjoy the engineering marvel that is the Sport Hybrid RLX.

You hit it on the head with an earlier post when you said... Early adopters pay more but have more fun (paraphrasing).

Have fun!!!

George Knighton

I am unspeakably jealous because you didn't just get one, you got one in my color combination.

:-)

neuronbob

^^^^^
OK, that's three people just in this thread who like silver/black. So why does Acura insist on making so many black Techs? Do that many people like black? Almost every RLX SH in Ohio, SE Michigan, and western PA (i.e. within a 2-3 hour drive of me--trust me, I looked at almost every dealer website over the weekend) is black, and all of them are Tech models.

PS, also green with envy.

Edit: OK, I guess black is really popular. Who'd have guessed?
http://www.forbes.com/pictures/egdh45ijhf/2-black/

hondamore

Malibu Flyer, If you do manage to post some pics, I would very much appreciate a picture of the trunk. If you are heading out to do some golfing a picture of the trunk with a set of golf clubs in it would be wonderful. Apologies for nagging and appearing to be making demands, but the trunk size might be the only thing to keep me from buying the RLX Sport Hybrid and I am just curious.

P.S. I can see you smiling from 1400 miles away - enjoy.

stagefoursurvivor

Black/Seacoast for me!
Silver/Ebony would be second but, our Accord is Silver/Black.

Selfishly, I really hope sales are in the tank and the masses never catch on to the RLXh, especially since so few have been produced.
I received a "private" invitation to test drive one from the dealer we got our old TL from, I declined since I might end up sleeping in it if I bought one!

wstr75

Congratulations! You prevailed and succeeded in achieving your dream car. There are many of us here who are looking forward to taking the same journey. Enjoy!

Malibu Flyer

What i found strange in So. Ca. is that mine was the only silver but there are like 5 or 6 White and also a pewter, a single black but not one Forged Silver. When I last looked at CArs.com they showed 56 hybrids nationwide of which only 19 were Advanced.

Malibu Flyer

I will post some pictures if someone can point me to directions for posting them. BTW one thing that I think helped me make the deal was that I went back to the dealer who gave me the test drive [and from whom I bought the car] with a empty suitcase to see how it fit in the trunk. I used a medium sized case [the size up from a carry-on]. I probably could fit three at most in the truck but with no room for anything else. When I said how could Acura make a car with a room for 4 or 5 people and have a trunk that would not hold their luggage? The salesman had no reply but only winced.

I will try to snap a picture with some a suitcases in the trunk to give you an idea.

Malibu Flyer

Here are some pictures. I will try to get some pics of a suitcase in the trunk and post them tomorrow.

George Knighton

I don't spend a lot of time polishing cars, so silver is a good compromise for me.

Black...not so much. White...not so much. Black has the extra disadvantage of not working out very well in our subtropical summertimes around here. White, I'm not opposed to the looks but they just get too damned dirty too easily.

My current RLX is Forged Metal, which is so close to Silver Moon I'm not sure why they make both colors.

Things are looking up, too. I've heard from two people who knew to contact me when they got RLX Hybrid and I'm going to look at one of them tomorrow.

Trouble is...it's white. With a Seacoast interior.

I have a feeling this one is not going to work out, but who knows.

George Knighton

Tell us if those LED fog lamps do any good, too! :-)

George Knighton

Ha ha ha ha ha..... I hear you! :-) I've always sort of slept cheap. Respectably, but cheap.

And although I admit that I have more than one house, it's possible that payments on an RLX Hybrid would be more than any extant mortgage!

George Knighton

I don't want to be impolite but since I'm suddenly in the game again I want to pin this down a little bit, if you don't mind.

I'm assuming that when you say 250.00 over invoice, you mean over the published Edmunds invoice, the invoice before holdback, is that right?

So, that's what, something like 61,300 and then you added whatever you added?

hadokenuh

Looks great!

I hate Acura for not making this SH much different than a regular RLX. Something similar to a regular 5series vs. M5 would be nice.

Malibu Flyer

Right on the nose......I bought the car for cash, no financing or lease. I also did a trade which i negotiated seperately after we agreed on the RLX cash price.

woropallo

Did $61,300 include the $895 transportation cost?

Malibu Flyer

It includes the transportation cost but not taxes or registration or doc fees etc.

Terry RL

Congratulations on the RLX SH-AWD! Glad you great deal on it. I may jump on the same boat your in; trading in my 2011 for a CPO RLX SH-AWD in 24 months or so. I suspect resale prices to fall dramatically, it's already happening with P-AWS cars. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the RLX vs the RL. I must say, the dark chrome grille, the LED fogs, and new 19" wheels give the RLX a very nice 'stealth' and classy look.

Colin

Congrats!

Malibu Flyer

Colin

Have you received or sold any Sports Hybrids??? Do you expect to get any?

Any rumors that you have heard about when the 2015/2016s will go into production? I feel lucky but a lone wolf being the only member so far to have one in my garage. It would be nice to have some company.

Colin

Regarding the dual screen. Remember that the top row of buttons:
[Nav] [Phone] [Info] [Audio]
Indicate what is displayed on the top screen.

The buttons below the silver separator provide context sensitive interaction with the top screen. Thus, [Menu] provides different menus depending on what screen you're in.

It's actually pretty easy once you get used to it. On the down side, RLX and MDX seem a little less responsive than the TLX. Remember that one 'click' on the interface dial represents one move. Eventually, you'll be able to turn the dial '3 clicks' to arrive where you want without overshooting.

hondamore

I suspect the extreme rarity of the SHAWD Sport Hybrid RLX will mean that they hold their value better than most are expecting. I base this assumption on my 6-speed '95 Legend Coupe that was equally rare and I had quite the bidding war going on when I finally sold it.

Of course if Acura produces 5000 or 10000 of the 2016 version, then the extreme rarity will be somewhat negated. If they make 200 of them, then get in line and bring loads of cash.
Just my two cents.

woropallo

$61,300 including transportation for a RLX SH AWD look like a good deal when you compare it to what I paid for a 2015 RLX Advance, $57.100 including transportation. My understanding is that it has all the features of my car plus the HUD, Hybrid feature, 67 more HP, rear footwell lighting, LED Fog Lights, etc. Not bad for $4k more, makes me feel like I should have waited but the dealer told in early Sept they had no idea when it going to be released. It looks like you got a great deal and I look forward to your review as you drive it more. Congrats!

Malibu Flyer

Keep in mind that you got a 2015 while I got a 2014 so it is not quite the same even thought other than the difference between gas vs, hybrid the cars are very similar. If you had waited until the 2015 had been out for longer, say Jan you would have likely paid less. If I waited the Sports Hybrid would have all been sold and I would be waiting till the 2016 arrive. My point if simply that we all try to make the best deal we can when we decide to pull the trigger. I am happy with my car and what I paid and you should be also.

neuronbob

Colin's dealership received a white Tech, for which he provided pics in another thread. Only he can say whether it's sold.

+1 on any scuttlebutt about 2016 arrival. At this point, I'll have to leave my part of the Midwest to find an Advance in my preferred configuration for 2014. My work schedule doesn't allow for that, sadly. Nearest are in Maryland (5hr drive) and Louisville (6 hour drive). I'd rather wait unless my dealer can pull off a distant dealer trade, which I suspect they'd rather not.