RLX-Sport Hybrid

Thank you. That is a lot of elbow grease and 4 hours of pain staking detail. Trust that the parts you can't see are just as immaculate. If it did not sound sick, I actually enjoy detailing the car.

holografique

Funny enough, it doesn't sound sick at all. You and I are a lot more alike than you probably think in that regards. If you saw how well I kept and maintained my RLX, you'd think I was the sole definition of excessive OCD, and I enjoy every second of it

With as much time during the work week spent using the old noggin focused on all things technology and business, it is very relaxing (and almost therapeutic) to spend my down time just doing simple things, working with my hands, but with great attention to detail and quality. Whether it's cleaning my G19 after hitting the range, doing small projects/improvements around the house, doing some type of yard work, or cleaning the cars, it helps break up the routine and keeps me fresh for the following week.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

I am HD-OCD when it comes to the care of my cars. Over the years between ones that I drive daily or that my wife and I have purchased together, that totals 13 vehicles. All of them at trade in looked brand new in every way. I too find it very therapeutic and cathartic at the same time. I get a feeling of accomplishment as well. My wife jokes with me by saying "oh go spend some time manicuring your cars", but in fact while she spends two hours getting ready to face the world outside our house, our obsessions are similar. Some people paint, some people invent, I clean. I like order and process which in its purest of components is not necessarily a pure characteristic of OCD, but I think doing things we enjoy should not be withheld. Now that it is finally spring up here in New York, it is time to polish the golf clubs again and hit the links.

The only wish I have for my car is that I purchased it with a different color mix. I would have preferred it to be Graphite Luster Metallic on the outside plus the interior from the 2015 Legend with the basketball color leather. The Advance model tech was not something I wanted and having rear seat HVAC controls like my 14 MDX was not needed. I rarely ever have the rear temp to be different than the front so it would be duplicity for nothing. The 360 camera would be nice as the A8 and the S550 have it, but again I don't think having it would make me feel better about the car. The two things I would have changed in the design studio was to use a 275/40/19 wheel/tire and exposed dual exhaust features. Other than that it is excellent. While getting bagels this morning, I walked out to see three guys eyeballing the car to figure out what it was. I told them and then they all lit up at the same time with the same reaction. They all basically said "NO WAY! That is the Sport Hybrid?" Of course they asked if I just brought it home from the dealer this morning and we all the the answer. They were shocked that it looked as clean and pristine as it does even though I drove it through our harsh winter and drive it everyday.

I just noticed a rattle that sounds like it is coming from the passenger side lower dash almost like the glass windshield is cracking. I had this in my last car too and it required the glass to be replaced to resolve the problem. I hope this is not the same thing. There are no visual clues but it does sound like something metal is rhythmically tapping the glass on the slightest of road imperfections. I will have to get that checked out because in any other car that is not as quiet, I might not notice it as much.

Enjoy your day.

holografique

Ha! Couldnt have described my situation any better, just minus the golf and the 13 cars. I can't play a course if my life depended on it. But get me on a game of pool or a hand gun on the shooting range and now you've got some competition

Hope you enjoyed your day as well.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

Just to be clear, that is not 13 cars currently owned. I meant since 1986 I have owned 13 cars. Just want to make that clear (not that anyone was wanting clarifications). I never shot or even held a gun. That sounds fun, but I'm too much of a weenie to feel comfortable holding a gun, much less shooting one. I would likely ruin a pool table by missing the ball. However, put a golf club in my hands and my +2.3 handicap means I could tear up just about any course.

How much of a geek am I? I got excited that new wheel brushes are on the way to me so I can more easily clean the inside of the wheels. Simple pleasures in life.

Also my glass rattle I noted earlier today is gone. Weird.

hddnav

The type of online "hate" for the RLX is mostly emotional and nothing technical. However, this is a problem for Acura because buyers of a car with $50k to 70k MSRP expect more than a basic "good" well-built car, which a benchmark like, say the Toyota Avalon, can already claim to be. After all, the RLX shouldn't be any worse of a car than a Honda Accord, per say.

If I spend $2 millions dollars on a house (which would be the equivalent of a $70k car in Silicon Valley), I expect a nice piece of land, well groomed neighbors in a comparable social-economic class, a recently renovated house, and a grade-A school system for the kiddies. If I'm still trying to sell a $2 million dollar house (RLX) by claiming how it's such a great $1 million dollar home (a Toyota Avalon, for example), I'm not just going to find the kind of buyer looking for a $2 million dollar home.

By the way, for those in other parts of the country, a $1 million dollar home buys you the equivalent of a cookie-cutter 50-year old ranch style tract home in the Silicon Valley (and happens to be about the average price for a middle-income single-family home), so my example of a million dollar home is not a claim that a RLX owner is implied to be the top 1% wealthy.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

I my county just north of New York City, property values can vary drastically by neighborhood. For example Scarsdale NY is stupendously expensive where it is not unusual to find 10,000+ sq ft homes with 1-5 acres of land for $10-15 million where the annual property taxes can be as much as $25,000-$40,000 per acre plus the house! The next town over is Yonkers which is a pit and you can find a 3,000 sq ft home on ¼ acre for $800,000 and $12,000 in property taxes. In my area homes are in the $700,000 to $3,000,000 range with some exceptions. Here is an exception: about 100 yards away from me is a dump of a house that is maybe 500 sq ft and at least 100 years old. It is a plow down for the house directly behind it that is almost 10,000 sq ft and $3.2 million with 5 acres. Stupidly when I bought my home that crappy house was up for sale for $125,000 but I figured it was a tear down at best and why would I buy it. I never figured that 4 custom homes on 5+ acre plots would be built next to me at $3,000,000 + per and that $125,000 piece of crap would suddenly be worth $400,000 to be torn down. Surprisingly the owners still have not sold out so it could be torn down. If I owned it I would have gladly sold it just to make it go away, much less make a handsome profit. In my hamlet, an average 1 acre plot garners about $14,000 in taxes plus the house. So my neighbors, one with a 10,000 sq ft house and the other with 15,000 sq ft each pay around $100,000 in property taxes per year. Then there is the horse farm where race horses are bred that is on the other side of the street. That property was in Architectural Digest at one point in time and I don’t know what the taxes are for that property or what the estate could be valued at other than estimating it at more than $100,000,000 easily.

Where I am going with the dialog is one person’s crap is another person’s home. Someone living in Scarsdale would never want to live in Yonkers, and someone in my hamlet would not consider living 2 miles away in the next county, which is quite lovely and serene. Here is the connection: A person who would consider an RLX of any breed would not likely cross shop it with an Accord even though the Accord is a very nice car. The same goes for a Lexus LS and a Toyota Avalon. So if there are any short comings for any brand or model, it is easy for someone to have higher expectations for a particular brand or model based solely on price alone. However the price does not actually dictate quality. Range Rover/Land Rover are very expensive and luxurious, but even with their grotesque prices their quality is not equivalent to a VW or Audi SUV in my opinion and they are generally equally capable vehicles for 99% of their expected use.
Just my opinion.

MisterZDX

So true. But if an RLX owner is looking to downsize for whatever reason, the Accord Touring is one hell of a car. It offers just as much (if not more) tech than the RLX, still Honda reliability, front wheel drive like the RLX, sexier exterior, runs on regular unleaded, and a cheaper msrp. So if one does not care about the Acura badge, nicer leather and interior materials, P-AWS, etc. You can't go wrong with an Accord Touring.

Depending on what Honda decides to do with the Accord refresh due later this year, an Accord Touring may very well take the place of my ZDX and potential plans of owning an RLX in the future.

hddnav

No disagreement that an RLX buyer is not an Accord buyer, but rather a potential Lexus GS, Audi A6, or BMW 5-series buyer. This is the more reason why Acura needs to design and market the RLX to these buyers to be successful, not by repeatingly stressing how nice of an Accord the RLX is.

I bet no $40k TL buyer, much less a RLX buyer, cares about "sensible" FWD space efficiency. Neither are they compelled by anonymous Camry-like styling that's designed to be as inoffensive as possible. A car with Honda mass-market reputation and cachet, invisible styling, and similar specs to an Accord Touring is not going to be able to demand premium pricing. An RLX buyer sharing dealerships with street racing ILX customers in their twenties, with pants hanging half-way down their butts (ok, I'm exaggerating what the target ILX customer is, but only to make a point), is also not a winning formula (for the RLX customer, at least).

In other words, Acura needs to understand the mentality of a customer buying that $2 million dollar house to be able to sell the house at that price, instead of repeatedly using the same sales pitch it used for the $1 million dollar home over and over (and watching sales go over the cliff, generation after generation).

It's not even yet clear that Acura knows how to sell the TLX, as the March 2015 sales numbers have also looked weak (in line with the 2014 TSX+TL sales in their last model years). Perhaps Acura has become a company that can no longer command the sale of any car over $40k (SUVs are another story).

RLX-Sport Hybrid

My first car was a 1981 Accord and I bought a new Accord every time until I started buying Acuras. I got my mother to start buying Acura models starting in 1989 when she purchased an Integra. She has been leasing a new one every three years since. She now has a 13 TSX but will likely get the TLX in 2016. I would say that choosing to "right size" rather than "down size" may be a better descriptor because sometimes smaller is better based on your needs/wants. Personally I felt a little cramped in the TLX compared to the TL SH-AWD I had previously. For $45k it felt like less of a value to me, but that is just my subjective opinion. I liked the RLX-SH immediately as it just fit my eye, again totally subjective and not with any intention of saying anything negative about the TLX. I might have felt differently if the show car wheel/brake package as well as the front and rear bumpers were on the Advance SH-AWD version because I thought those were spectacular.

When I saw the RLX SH at the NY Auto Show I was smitten and made myself a promise that if this car actually came to the market, I would buy it. Well I did.

My car below:

Zoommer

I think the hate is because when they are driving next to you and you disappear in the distance they do not know what happened.

"They" hate it.

Just guessing.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

Thus the nickname of the car......Blackbird (ref: SR71 baddest Air Force reconnaissance airplane ever invented).

getakey

also nicknamed the Habu

RLX-Sport Hybrid

Learn something new everyday! I did not know that!

getakey

www.habu.org - What is a Habu?

I was on Okinawa as a kid - got to see those take off and land

RLX-Sport Hybrid

Awesome! I saw one at an air show and at a museum. Being a military brat can't be easy. I hope you have good memories though.

getakey

I actually enjoyed it and have many good memories
One of my best friend's Dad was an engineer for Lockheed and he was there to provide technical assistance for the engines

RLX-Sport Hybrid

.
#1 on my bucket list is getting a ride in an FA-18 but if the F22 or F35 end up replacing it that will be a shame. Considering that the F35 is a plane that is intentionally built with parts coming from 45 states, it is actually a plane to nowhere. The Navy doesn't want it because it only has one engine. The Marines don't want it because it can't really land like a Harrier without stalling its engines with the heat reflections (but is does do really short take off and landings). Well then there is the Air Force and the Army. They don't want it either. So what was the reason to build it? Politics.

#2 is a Corvette Z-06 with the Z-07 LT3 package. Better chance of getting #2 than #1. Now if my wife would be a little more reasonable... I said to her that when I have everything in life funded and every future dollar of earned income would be excess, I would hope she would support a luxurious gift of getting a car like that. I absolutely would do the museum delivery and drive it home. In fact I even have the flight itinerary picked out to fly to Nashville and then get a car service to drive me the hour or so north to the Bowling Green assembly plant. Here is the exact version that I want.

getakey

Nice

Zoommer

The story goes that the original name was supposed to be RS-71 which itself was the follow-on to the A-12. Lyndon Johnson revealed the existence of the plane and called it the SR-71 (after all R comes before S). It was forever called SR-71. Know a bit about this giant rocket.

2011TL

^^^
My favorite aircraft of all time. Visited it again today at the Air and Space Museum. A couple months ago, I had the honor of speaking with one of the former pilots.

Zoommer

That is great. Have worked with a few pilots and RSOs.

Amazing what we could build in the 60s but would struggle to get it right today.

A 707 was designed with slide ruler and lasts forever--still flying today. Airbus 330/777 groan and creak after 10 years even though designed with CAD/CAM. I guess we can build in obsolescence these days since we know so much about materials.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

getakey

My Dad was also stationed at Beale AFB that also had the SR71s like Kadena.
At Kadena, I had a summer job working on the runways (cleaning the emergency braking systems). I have been within several 100 yards of them taking off.
Saw the Pilots get in - they are suited up almost like astronauts

neuronbob

SR-71=sheer awesomeness. My parents have a large poster proudly displayed in their house, and it's been in every house they lived in since I was a teenager 30 years ago.

FA-18 and F-16=Sound of Freedom.



Fellow Air Force Brat reporting for duty, but saw and heard F16s taking off from the airstrip next to my high school in Germany.

But yeah, Blackbird looks good in its polished glory today. No RLX hate from me today.

JM2010 SH-AWD

^^ If you haven't done so, you guys should read "Sled Driver," written by an SR-71 pilot. Fascinating book about a truly amazing airplane (or perhaps I should say rocket with wings).

xjokerz

5 year old thread, I know. I think a big reason why the RLX has gotten a lot of hate is because the stupid, biased automotive reviewers love their rear-wheel or all-wheel drive systems and wanttwant that are sporty looking. They also throw their nose up in the air when they see this car doesn't have a V8. I've seen many reviews of this car on YouTube and read a bunch more because I'm thoroughly interested in it, and they all have that in common. The 0 to 60 is subpar, it doesn't handle exactly like a BMW 3, it doesn't have all wheel drive even though it does have their new technology precision all wheel steering and rides on 245 width tires for extra grip, and even though it has over 300 horsepower it's still not enough according to them.

So so here's my story. Yesterday I woke up at 12:50 in the morning to drive 45 minutes to work. I've been thinking about getting rid of my a cord and thinking about what I really value in a car. It seems that the RLX all checked all the boxes. So I found one on CarGurus 4 hours from my work site. Is a 14 RLX with the Krell audio package. So I did research on that and I started getting excited. I drove 4 hours to go look at it. I fell in love right away. It was like love at first sight. Everything about the car was amazing. Currently I am awaiting a decision from the bank.

Long story short. People who have never sat in it and are biased towards their all-wheel drive and V8 engines need to actually give a fair assessment of the car. It's comfortable, it's fast enough, it's dead quiet in the cabin thanks to the sound deadening glass, it's very smooth, it has premium materials literally everywhere, like in the headliner and even then door pockets are soft touch, has some really nice amenities like power tilt steering wheel, power sunshade and rear manual sun shades, killer sound system, etc. Some people forget this is luxury. it doesn't have garbage it's going to break like the Germans. I believe all of this damage is a big reason why the car is being discontinued.

jpadilla

Lol, back from the dead, congrats.

Currently sittiing in my 14 rlx krell with 75k miles. All the points you make are valid. Who would buy this new for $55-60k when it's lacking v8 and only fwd? I bought this used with under 10k miles and under $35k ... Smart buy if you ask me. I also compared to a new touring accord, and I can tell you the extra $8k I spent on the rlx was worth it. You don't see the rlx on the road alot, but again who would buy this new when you can get a gently used A6 or 540 for the same price. Would I buy another? Probably not especially if Honda drops their v6 for an i4 turbo.

xjokerz

​​​​​​
Yeah yeah they have depreciated like crazy. I couldn't believe that I saw several of them with like 9,000 miles for 33 or 34 thousand. Buying this thing new would be an absolute waste of money. And I was doing some thinking. People who want a car like this likely have a lot of money to buy new and are probably older, so if you find a one owner like I did, the chances are they took care of it and the one I saw with 80,000 miles looked immaculate and it drove really well. It's soaked up bumps really well. I bet it would do even better with 18's. Very nice solid built car and I love the rarity and how they are built in Japan. Big Toyota and Honda fan. I had a 2005 Camry for 10 years before I wrecked it in the snow and is very quiet and smooth unlike my Accord. I also have a 2008 Sequoia I drive sometimes if me and my kids need more room. This RLX is such an amazing car, I can't say enough about it.