darth62

Posted on their "Carblog", these are verbatim comments by individuals
conducting their roadtests (as before, I've not driven the RDX and have no opinion on the accuracy of these comments):

So, how does the RDX stack up? Let's see if our logbook comments give any clue:

"Turbo four goes good once going, though it lacks torque of V6 down low."

"Ride can get stiff [from] impacts on highway; short, sharp bumps cause noticeable kicks."

"One of the best [sounding] stereos I've heard recently, with excellent clarity and imaging."

"Where's the auto headlights? Self-dimming mirror? Keyless start?"

"Radio is a disaster. Main controls are set low, but some controls can be found in the nav system, while other controls are on the steering wheel. Also, the display is high up on the dash and not near any one control system."

"Ride has quick, stiff, and jiggly motions even on apparently smooth roads."

"Who at Acura thought it would be a good idea to copy Audi and BMW with the central rotary control knob? Why didn't they stick with a touch screen?"

"Great steering. It feels responsive and agile. Motor works well, but not as good as the RAV4 V6."

"Confusing steering wheel controls, and there are about 13 depending how you count them."

"Huge storage volume in the center console bin and its lockable."

"Love the shoulder wings on front seats, but the seats are hard and lumbar bulges in wrong place for me."

"Whistling turbo takes the refinement away from the Acura. Best advice - buy a Pilot."

We'll see how the RDX competes against the X3 and CX-7 in our upcoming test, scheduled for the January issue of the magazine and online in early December.

batman

Where all the good comments??

Roffles

I find it pointless to complain about contols and how intuitive/un-intuitive they are. Once you get acquainted with a new car's interior, you will find yourself complaining about your next car's controls because they aren't like the RDX. In short, unless the interior design is completely horrible and impossible to get used to, you shouldn't pay attention to these sorts of comments.

darth62

I'll have to disagree. I think CR's comments about controls are usually dead-on. Its true that a interior is easier to use once you get used to it - but that doesn't mean they aren't badly designed.

On the other hand, I don't really understand the comment in that blog. It seems like CR is dinging Acura for allowing drivers to view information in multiple places, and control the sound system from the wheel, screen, and radio.

dragontea

"Radio is a disaster. Main controls are set low, but some controls can be found in the nav system, while other controls are on the steering wheel. Also, the display is high up on the dash and not near any one control system."

actually for safety reasons, I think it is good they placed the radio, temp, A/C, phone display right near the windshield so driver's eye need not move so far to look... that's some getting adjusted to where all the buttons are but that can be said for every vehicle

darth62

The TSX and TL have similar controls, and they weren't critical of either vehicle.

jaobrien6

Bear in mind, these are observations from individual testers... so all this means is one person didn't like the control layout, that's all. That person might hate the TSX and TL controls too, and s/he either didn't test those vehicle, or we haven't ever seen his/her comments.

This is the kind of thing that I find helpful to read, even if I don't agree with the assessment. There are so many little things that can bug you about a car, and it's easy to miss something on a test drive, even multiple test drives. I just treat this kind of stuff as a reminder of something I should pay attention to when test driving the car for myself. In the end, I make my own decision as to whether the controls are intuitive, the seats are comfortable, the ride is too stiff, etc...

Boon

Yeah, I agree. If you summed up all the negatives from this board in a similar post it may seem like the RDX is a terrible car.

Some of the CR comments are a bit too subjective. They say the RDX lacks the low-end torque of the V6...but that's unfair as the RDX and CX-7 are taking the SUV/CUV into uncharted waters (the RDX has the least lag of all 4-cyl turbos). The "whistling turbo" they hated? The guys over at Edmunds loved it and I suspect so do some of the more enthusiastic drivers on this forum.

scott06512

I'm 600 miles into owning one and I'd agree with most of their statements. Its still a great car, its just not perfect. Is anything?

CL6

As with anything, one needs to learn where the controls are located. If you normally drive a Nissan or a BMW certain controls may not seem to make sense. However, the more you are around an Honda/Acura the more the controls seem normal.

I think CR is great for seeing which vehicles hold up, etc. but I think if you want a review of the overall car C&D or R&T or the like is better.

darth62

Very good point, Scott. When CR cames out with their review of the TSX, they offered up some negatives and few TSX owners were fairly angry. However, I found CR's assessment to be completely accurate. They picked up the weaknesses and strengths. The TSX is a great car, it just isn't a perfect car.

I suspect the same cane be said of the RDX.

slo007

These comments, on their own, seem a bit worthless...

ihateyouguys

My turbo sounds rad. wtf with the "whistling" comment?

kylem

The touchscreen NAV is a must -- one of the reasons I bought the CX-7 . The joystick is a big step backwards. True, you have to worry about smudges (not scratches, this isn't a palm pilot), but with prior NAV systems I soon learned that even with the joystick, the screen needed to be cleaned every few days because it was a dust magnet.

darth62

I have the TSX that does have the touchscreen and a NAV system that is about 1,000 times beter than the system in the Mazda. And, I don't agree that the touchscreen is a "must." After about 10,000 miles, cleaning the fingerprints gets old. And, with the Acrua Nav system being so easy to use, you can get by quite easily with the voice recognition (which is far improved in the recent versions) and joystick anyway.

And, btw, I don't know if you are parking with your windows open or something, but I probably have to clean the dust off the screen once every three months. I'm guessing the cheap plastics used in the Ford/Mazda products simply attract more dust.

Final point: Do you have to try to turn every thread into a "my CX-7 is better than your RDX" commentary? You remind me of some of those Mazda6 drivers who used to visit the TSX forums to try and convince us they had made the better purchase.

vishnus11

CR are nothing but a bunch of fairies. They 0 - 60 times are laughable, and they're the type who'd complain about a Ferrari being too loud. They're good for getting an idea on the reliability of a car, and whether it will accomodate child seats and what not, but other than that, they should stick to kitchen appliances and vacuum cleaners.

schuchmn

Some of the controls are sort of funky -- not unuseable, just inconvenient. But I'm just starting to use the voice response system instead of the buttons and dials. I can't tell you how well it works yet, but if it does a good job, a lot of the inconvenient controls will become completely unnecessary.

darth62

Schuchmn - this is the sort of commentary I find invaluable. A balanced perspective from somebody who actually owns the car. Thanks!

oblio98

I have 1200+ miles on the RDX, and have no problem with any of the controls. Once you get familiar with them, you don't even have to think about them.

The Bluetooth is great. The only bad part about it is that you may be blasting down the highway, a great tune cranked up in the car, and all of a sudden there is silence! Whoa! The first time that happened, I thought my audio system crapped out!

It was someone calling me.

Very strange, but very cool.

(PS - I'm using a Nextel i870, and yes, the Direct Connect works - but you still have to use the talk button on the phone itself)

schuchmn

As I read the part of the nav system manual that lists the voice commands, it looks like you can do pretty much everything related to the nav, audio, and climate control systems by voice alone. The ones I've tried so far work well. The trick is going to be memorizing all of the commands. While the commands are logical, there are variations that are just as logical but wrong.

schuchmn

So here's my take on controls.

First, simple controls like wipers and lights are in standard positions. No problem there. Same for the climate control -- right up front where it's easy to reach.

The audio system is something of a pain -- I don't want to be looking down at the controls while looking up at the display and still trying to keep my eye on the road. Bur the voice response unit works really well. There are a handful of commands that I use regularly and they're simple to remember. The only downside is that response takes a second or two. But changing quick things like volume or station are easily done with the controls on the steering wheel. I initially hated the fact that the audio system was way at the bottom and the display for it was way up at the base of the windshield, but if you use steering wheel controls and voice commands, that display is in the ideal place. Just takes a little bit of getting used to.

As far as the nav system goes, this is the first one I've ever owned and so I don't have anything to compare it to. Entering a destination seems pretty easy via voice or the control dial. Since I set new destinations only when the car is standing still (I want to see the variations in the route), speed of data entry is not terribly important. A touch screen might be a little faster in some cases, but I don't see it as a big deal. But what I can do easily while driving is use the "Go Home" feature, and as I put destinations into my address book, they'll be just as easy.

There's only one control that annoys me and that's the control for the outside mirrors. What I'd do in any other car is to set the seat to my driving position and then set the mirrors. Easy, right? Well, it may be due a combination of my reach and my favored seating positon, but I can't reach the RDXS's mirror control while sitting in my normal position -- I have to lean forward to get to it. So it's an iterative process of seeing the mirror position, leaning forward to make an adjustment, and then sitting back to check it again. It's not anything I have to do often so it's no big deal. Like I said -- just an annoyance.

schuchmn

A couple of addenda.

First, since the seats and mirrors have no memory, the mirror control might be a bigger issue if the car has multiple drivers. So check to see how it is for you -- depending on seating position, it might not be an problem at all. And as I said, for me it's an annoyance, not a major problem.

Second, having entered addresses into the nav system by both voice command and control dial, I find it's actually faster to use the control dial because the voice recognition program pauses after each bit of data you give it. But it's pretty slick otherwise. It does a good job of weeding out impossible choices. For example, if I enter a few letter my town name, it zooms in on it quickly. And it also disables impossible letter combinations. If I'm entering my town name, and input "R-A", on the next screen, a letter like X is grayed out if there's no town in the state that begins with "RAX". These may be common nav system features, but like I said, I've never had another one to compare ot to.

Ira Hartman

Idler Pulley noise

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I have a 2007 RDX, purchased August 5th,2006 and it was probable the first RDX the dealer sold. There is a constant noise that resonates into the passenger compartment (Which, by the way is very annoying). The Acura Technicians and the regional manager believe the noise comes from an Idler pulley? tensioner and the belt. They refuse to change any pulleys or the serpentine belt in order to possible rectify the problem, because they feel that this is a coherent problem with all the RDXs, and that it just seems that the noise is much more apparent in my RDX than others. Again let me clarify that I have probable had my RDX longer than most, I ask them to possible check on the quality control of the pulley or idler(tensioner) from the various manufactures that Acura uses to see if they had any Quality control problems. Again the the regional manager refused to follow-up with this request. Basically he is saying to me that I have to live with noise problem because it is not generating a mechanical problem effecting the performance of the car,thereby Totally disregarding the customers concerns and dissatisfaction with the quality of Life issue with the RDX.
There was a preious post about 3 weeks ago where one of the discussions was talking about a problem with a water pump bolt not be torqued properly, hsa anyone else follow-up on this issue, possible there may be a connection, that is generating this high pitfhed pulley noise. any and all comment would be appreciated. I hae been to the service department 4times in three weeks without any resolution. Please help. let me further explain that this noise is constant, whether the A/C is on or off, rRPM speed does not seem to increase the noise

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OC-RDX

The January issue of Consumer Reports will have a review on the RDX, X3 & CX7. It should arrive in early December.

snorton48

My treo 650 worked first time, just as advertised. Does anyone know how to get the callers name to show on the MID instead of just the number? I programmed numbers by voice only.

guia x

After coming from two generations of TLs with touchscreen Navis, I say no touchscreen is NOT a must. One of the main reasons I traded in my 04 TL for an RL is because the new Navi with the knob is a million times better to use than the old ones with touchscreen. I don't know why people still keep complaining about the lack of touchscreen. Have you even used it? Inputing data is so much faster and safer with the new interface. You do not even need to move your eyes away from the road with the voice feedback. Just simply turn the knob until the option you want is read back to you. If you simply cannot wait, just glance over to the screen and highlight the option you want. The options are all next to each other in and listed circular fashion. No need to stare at the screen to look for the option you want because they are listed fairly intuitively. The touchscreen navis normally have all the options scattered throughout the entire screen and you have to to stare at the screen and make sure you touch the correct field precisely. Ever try inputting anything on the touchscreen on a really bright sunny day? The system gets confused as to the buttons you press. How about inputing something on a really bumpy road?

Another thing is you can pretty much control everything using the knob and wheel controls. Want to tune the radio? Push the knob down and select tune and use the knob to tune to the channels you want. Want to change sound settings? Push it down and select sound and change the sound settings using the knob. Want to switch from FM1 to FM2? Push the knob up. All this without moving your hand from the knob. I could go on and on. The knob is so intuitive. I wish people would try it before knocking it. It does take some getting use to but I don't think it's any longer than someone going from one navi system to another, i.e. someone going from 2nd gen TL navi to 3rd gen TL navi.

Anyway, I don't have an RDX. I would have ended up with one had we not gotten the 07 MDX. I just hate it when people complain about the next gen Acura Navis when they have not really given it a chance because it does not have touchscreen or it's like an iDrive. I think it's the best Acura navi so far.

sasair

You can't get the name's to appear instead of the numbers... the RDX is only numbers. The acura models that do display names are the same ones that will transfer names and phones numbers into the handsfreelink system. 07 MDX & 07 TL I believe. probably the 07 RL too.

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