SolidState

Just curious. I'm wondering if I should send someone at Acura some of my dislikes about the RDX. HFL and Nav issues in particular.

Colin

Acura is aware of what goes on in some of the boards. I've read your rants on the HFL and Navi. I don't know if you understand that Acura does not engineer or manufacture these products. These are made by other vendors that "sell" this technology to Acura.

Yes, in this case Acura is the "customer" (possibly one of their largest) but you can't expect them to "demand" that features be invented or included. The Alpine designed navigation is regarded time and again as the best out there. There is a new generation of HFL that will exchange info with the phones internal database. As of right now, there is a grand total of ONE phone that is compatable with this new system.

CL6

What issues do you have with HFL?

SolidState

That's good to know. I guess the way RDX was marketed I was expecting more or maybe my minimum expectations were far more that what the Acura RDX could provide.

Being an Engineer a lot of my issues seem like they can be fixed with a firmware update. Has a car company ever did firmware update for existing customers? I would even pay for an upgrade if it did what I want.

Colin

It is unlikely you'll see a firmware update for these issues. Why? Because in Acura's eyes its not broken. It's working exactly as it is designed to work. Unfortunately it's not working as you would LIKE it to work.

IMO you needed a better sales consultant or you needed to get a better demonstration before you bought the car.

SolidState

It's very mediocre. Other than the limited phone book, it's not better than using a headset. My 3 main problems are no auto transfer, can't use the phone to initiate calls (HFL seem to block the phone audio and trans will not work until a few seconds after the callie answer), and no phone book update from phone or PDA via bluetooth (I'm not even talkin' sync, just overwrite copy type update).

At the very least the auto transfer and initiating calls from my phone should work. Some might call these features but to me not working they seem more like bugs because it for my headset. I guess I was expecting the HFL to be a step above a headset. With the way it's RDX's HFL is designed you are forced to program all your telephone numbers into the HFL or remember telephone numbers. This is not always convenient.

SolidState

I know what you mean. Just like the music link "it's working exactly as it is designed to work." Yes, I should have took the manual home before buying the car, but for some reason I was expecting the HFL to be a step forward better than my headset $79 but to me it seem more like a step back.

Colin

Of course it's a step forward! It mutes the radio when there's an incomming call!

astro

Acura absolutely reads these forums, and many of the major complaints addressed here, tend to be fixed the following model year.

If you've got gripes/suggestions, or comments, air them here and they will surely be heard by people with the potential to make changes.

cheers,

Robb

SolidState

Yeah it's a step forward but in the wrong direction. I would give up radio mute, the phone book and the voice command, just to have the HFL do the basics right. If the RDX's HFL could just do auto trans correctly and allow me to use my phone's phone book to initiate calls without muting call progress, I would'nt care about about the HFL phone book or voice command.

Do you own a RDX? Do you work and live by your cell phone? If you did then you would know exactly what I'm talkin' about. I find myself still using my headset because it's more convenient to make calls.

Does anyone else have any experience with other intergrated Handsfree systems to compare?

schuchmn

Right. There's a difference between "working as designed" and "working as desired". But to play the devil's advocate, if Acura sells enough Alpine units, Alpine might be open to Aciura's suggestions. Depending, of course, on just how hard it would be to implement.

That's another thing -- a lot of non-techies don't appreciate the fact that what may seem to be a minor upgrade might be whole lot tougher to engineer than they think.

Teledatageek

Do you really think the salesperson knows the ins/outs of how all the features work in every car they sell. I think it would be the rare one.

My biggest gripe (actually my only one) is the requirement to "Transfer" calls when dialing from my Blackberry. Numbskull implementation that I do believe they will ultimately fix.

Frankly in this state it's against the law to talk/dial on your cell while driving if not in hands free. Other than repeating the number after reading it on the Blackberry screen or hoping that I have that person in the 50 person directory, there is no way to be 100% handsfree with the way the RDX currently works.

1092

You're not alone. I find it very displeasing when I try to initiate a call from the phone address book. I end up speaking the number from the phone screen to initiate. I believe I have the same HFL on my new '06 TL as what is in the RDX.

I really don't want to load the 105 numbers stored on my phone into the HFL, so I just have about 15 or so very frequent ones in the HFL book.

Colin

Well, I generally know all the answers to most anything a customer can come up with. I hate it when I'm shopping for something and I know more than the sales guy. I try not to let this happen when the tables are turned. I study and read a lot to make sure I'm knowledgable and informed.

schuchmn is correct, there are a lot of seemingly simple things that need a lot of cooperation between different parties to make is work. Phone vendors, bluetooth standards etc. Some other systems require you to use their phone (mercedes) to use Bluetooth. None work exactly as solidstate would like them to work. (as far as I know)

However, since we seen to agree that there are a lot of consultants may be deficient in this area, why don't you (not you personally but you as in "consumer") do more research on your own prior to the purchase? The HFL in its current inplementation is hardly new technology for Acura: It's been around since late 2003! You could get anectdotal comemnts from any TL, (late) TSX, MDX or RL ower... surely you must know someone with one of these cars?!

CL6

So the system is not malfunctioning it is just not doing what you'd like it to do, right?

The 07 MDX will do phone book grabs but only one phone is supported.

jaobrien6

Which phone?

SolidState

I feel your pain. I hope Acura do too. That's my whole point. I'm not asking for some new feature, I'm just saying the HFL should at the very least do what I'm able to do with my headset. The headset is convenient, HFL is not. The HFL can receive calls fine, but initiating calls and transfering calls with HFL is a pain. You have to go through the HFL calling routine which is not the most convenient thing to use if you have a lot of numbers that is always changing.

Teledatageek

Well, it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of a new car (and new model at that). My last two cars have not had bluetooth (2003 MDX and 2005 FX35) so the demo that I did see was great. I just didn't push the extra step and frankly didn't think I needed to since my aftermarket Motorola kit that I had installed in the FX35 18 months before did the automatic handsfree (I just figured they all did that). I think it's tough to weed out every single feature/want unless you have an inordinate amount of spare time on your hands, I don't.

So, of course it's two days later and no word from my friendly sales guy. I'll give him another couple of days and see where it goes.

livinglegend

You should always contact the manufacturer about comments. It cant cost anything but a little time on your part. Maybe they are working on adding in your concerns. This way they hear from the "owners" of the product... Without you..... they may as well go home.. My family has owned nearly 40 different HONDA/ACURA products in the last 30 years! They have worked to include cupholders back in the day... so there is hope!!!!

SolidState

Do you have an email address for Acura customer relations? So far the only thing I can find is on the owners link but not email address just phone number, fax and address. Looks like I may give them a call.

I think you're right if no one voice their concerns they will never do anything to accommodate. The problem makes me wonder do any of the people who implemented the HFL live with it in their own car?

OC-RDX

For any of you that haven't seen this site, it will give you an idea of how various phones & carriers will work with Acura's hands free link.

http://www.acura.com/models/handsfre...referrer=acura

CL6

Some sony-erricson. unless you own an 07 mdx it's not an issue.

ArthurKnight

Unfortunately some of these problems are limitations of the phones and how each phone implements bluetooth. Standards aside, as you can see from the link above, while each phone may be standards compliant, they don't necessarily support or support with equal finese everything you should be able to do with bluetooth.

With my phone I can dial the number from the phone, hit the HFL button, say transfer, and usually hear it ring. Now I have noticed that when I have the earpiece powered on and linked, the RDX just won't want to communicate with the phone. This sucks but I am learning to turn the earpiece off when I get in the car and turn it on when I get out. Not too hard. The other problem is the bluetooth on the phone turns off randomly....sometimes in the middle of a call. That's frustrating when you're having a conversation and suddenly the music comes blaring back with no warning. But that's an issue with the phone, not with the HFL.

Of course, I'm not saying it's perfect. It would be nice to have it auto transfer when you dial...but *shrugs* Oh well.