Drove from far northern CA south on I-5 to I-80, west across the Bay Bridge into San Francisco, thru the city, south on 101 to Palo Alto. Fairly heavy traffic. Average mpg = 22.5! Not bad. Side trip over the Golden Gate, west on twisty and bumpy Sir Francis Drake Blvd to Point Reyes Nat. Seashore and back to Palo Alto. Average mpg 22.4. Back to northern CA with a rather strong headwind. mpg =21.8. For a new car I'm happy with the mileage. Wind noise non-existent. Seats firm and very comfortable for the whole ride. HID headlights the best I've ever had. My only complaint is the ride is very harsh on small, sharp bumps. California freeway hop very annoying. I wish Acura would offer 16 or 17" wheels with 65 or 70 aspect ratio tires. The trendy 18" with 55 series and short, stiff sidewalls are simply too harsh. I'd be happy to give up a tiny bit of handling for a less punishing ride. Don't need the dorky "boy racer" look. Dropping tire pressure by 2 psi makes quite a bit of difference in ride, none that I can tell in handling. The non tech package radio is better than the Bose in my former TL and 03 MDX.

 

Great write up. I agree 100%.

You are probably going to get a lot of disagreement here, though.

 

Would you say the ride is harsher than the BMW X3? I've been driving the family X3 for a few months now and it's manageable but I wouldn't want anything bumpier. I'm hoping to pick up an '08 once the lease on our Ford is expired.

 

No. The X3 is more stout. I upgraded to 19" wheels with considerably lower profile tires so my ride is much more similar to the X3, although still not as "stiff."

It is the nature of a thing. If one does not like low gas mileage, one ought not buy a Hummer. If one does not like firm suspensions, one ought not to buy RDX's and X3's preferring in their stead MDX's and X5's.


For my preferences, the major reason I bought the RDX was its firm suspension that handles to the extent possible, like a sports car. Up to its high yet nevertheless definitive limits, you really can drive this car hard and fast.

 

I'm getting close to 1k miles myself. Last week I did 100% local stop and go driving. My mpg took a serious hit (~15mpg) This was staying out of boost too. It burns up a lot of fuel just getting the car moving from a stop.

 

I don't think the tires have a huge effect on the ride issues you noted -- it's more the suspension that is causing the "rigid" feel over small bumps and imperfections. The RDX suspension is damped very heavily and does not have a lot of travel. This means it rolls over small bumps and imperfections rather than absorbing them. That's the tradeoff for the great handling.

Softer tires (taller aspect ratio) will transfer more of the shock absoprtion to the tires, but this is only going to help so much. I am sure it will degrade handling noticeably.