YAY! Finally get to test the RDX in snow...Calgary/Edmonton folk any comments?

 

"Get to"? That scares me just thinking about it. But of course I live down in Virginia where if it snows just a little bit, every one loses their minds on the road...

Be safe out there and let us know how it did! Very interested to hear how good/bad it does with the turbo on snow. I can imagine when that turbo kicks in a lot of wheel spin. Would be cool to be able to turn the turbo on/off for conditions like snow.

 

I doubt wheel spin will be much of a problem. The electronics on Acuras are very good at regulating snow control. For fun my father and I took the TL up onto a long stretch of road at night when nobody was out. We floored it with the VSA on and the car got moving pretty quickly, and driving in the snow gave us a smooth traction band, and when it was off we would slide all over the place. 260ft/lbs distributed among four wheels probably isn't very bad given all the parameters the computer can regulate.

I'd also like to inform you guys who don't get snow that VSA is a real life saver. A few times when we would turn the car would keep going straight all of a sudden it would pivot around the rear inside wheel. When we were test driving it nearly two years ago I remember in the dealer parking lot the watching the rear inside wheel stop and the car pivot around it in the snow. technology has come a long way.

Mike

 

Two things. First of all, VSA can be a life-saver on dry roads as well. I was reading on the NHTSA site, I think) that a large proportion of accidents involve only one vehicle, meaning that the driver lost it. They say that about 50% (if I remember it correctly) can be avoided with a stability control system. When my son graduates from college, we 've promised him a new car and you can bet that stability control will be on the list of gotta-haves.

Now here's my test for wheel spin -- I do this every day. I come up to a stop sign with the car pointing uphill, which puts more weight on the rear wheels. I need to turn left (which is also uphill) and traffic moves pretty briskly, so I have to hit the gas harder than usual. So the front wheels are doing a lot with most of the vehicle's weight on the rear wheels.

I had a SAAB 9000 Aero which had a 2.3 liter turbocharged 4-cylinder putting out 259 lb-ft of torque (does this sound familiar?) and FWD. The experience was full of wheel spin and understeer, especially in the rain.

My next car was a BMW 330xi -- iook that turn flawlessly in any weather.

With the RDX, if I try, I can get just a bit of wheel spin in the rain, then VSA kicks in for a brief moment, and the car finishes the turn with no further excitement.

If you want to compare the BMW to the RDX, there are a number of things to take into account. The BMW had less torque (207 lb-ft), but about 500lb less weight. The BMW also ran with summer performance tires, which make a big difference.

So my tentative conclusion is that SH-AWD improves handling on dry roads, but might not do any better in the snow than any other AWD system. I'll have to wait for snow in New Jersey to find out, but in the meantime, I'd be really interested in anyone else's experiences in winter driving.

 

Totally agreed, I think that the AWD system is awesome for handeling and acceleration, especially during turning and in wet weather conditions, however, with the stock tires and high overall vehicle weight I dont think that this vehicle will be an all star under snowy conditions.

The VSA works by trying to regain vehicle control going forward in a straight line, however it does not correct a driver from going too fast. You add speed to the equation and it will be difficult to stop 2 tons from hitting something.

By the way, how did it perform in the snow in Alberta?

JD

 

Yesterday was quite the day for driving, I think the fire department responded to over 110 accidents.

Driving wise, the RDX actually performed pretty well, better than I expected it to. Acceleration was excellent even in the uphill iced-over intersections from people mashing the gas to get going. Cornering was not too bad as well as long as you had a little bit of grip, the SH-AWD obviously did not help on extremely slippery situations such as the slicked over covered parking lot going up 8 levels. Luckily there weren't too many cars around so sliding out a bit was not really that much of an issue. I think my biggest problem with that was I still have the all seasons on, if I had proper winter tires this really wouldn't be an issue. Again, in corners with even just a little bit of traction, very little understeer and the SH-AWD did help to correct itself. Braking was good as well albeit I never was really cruising fast and I definitely was not trying to stop quickly just in case.

My biggest gripe would have to be that because of the lower ride height, there seemed to be more noise due to snow being kicked up into the undercarriage. But at the same time, surprisingly enough, there is not a lot of buildup of snow kick-up on the side panels. And then again because of the way the snow gets kicked up underneath, its a good thing there's weather stripping at the bottom of the door because a lot fell off when I opened the door. The rear window spray is also quite lame, doesn't work that well.

Interior wise, seat heaters are definitely the best feature for cold weather. The engine warms up quickly and the heater does a good job of getting the inside temp up quickly. Windows seem to fog easily though but the front defrost takes care of that nicely. The only area that doesn't get enough heat to would be the top portion of the windshield, no real big deal but if the temperature was lower outside and more snow was coming down, I could imagine much more ice buildup. Oh yes, the all weather matts do a good job of trapping melted snow so my pants were nice and soaked.

All in all quite good and certainly better than I expected so far. Turbo whine was noticeable but not annoying this morning (-14 celsius) but I was also parked in a insulated and drywalled garage. I'll checked after work when it would have been parked in -7 weather for 8 hours.

 

Right. The VSA system gets information from speed sensors, yaw sensors and wheel sensors and tries to detect when loss of control is impending. Then it can actuate the brakes and/or cut the throttle until the RDX gets back within its programmed limits So if you come through a corner a bit too fast, VSA will get you back on track. But the system isn't bullet-proof (or idiot-proof for that matter) -- you can still do things too bone-headed for the system to recover from. That's why VSA can't prevent ALL single-vehicle accidents.

It seems to me that some people think that with AWD, VSA, etc., traction is no longer an issue, that they couldn't possibly skid or slide or lose control. Wrong.

 

schuchmn. Just to let you know, saknife is going to be all over you about that saab. His dad has one and his family loves that thing more than life in itself.

I do know the VSA has its dry road benefits as well. I have taken some really hard turns but I am not sure if they were hard enough to get it to kick in. Fortunately it hasn't had to save us yet, to my knowledge.

Interesting to hear about the snow performance. My father refuses to believe snow tires make a difference with modern technology and all seasons, needless to say I'll be trying to convince him to get a set.

Mike

 

Yeah as crazymjb said.... Was it a 1993? It must have not had the TCS switch on it, the TCS for that year was notroiurs for being really shitty, in fact my dad got into a minor fender bender because of it and the early ABS system. One winter we got stuck in a snow bank going uphill, he pushed it the most I have ever seen him, he shifted at red line into second, while the speedo read 25mph....we where going no where fast. Sooner or later we got of out it, its alright in the snow.

Still that car in a straight line on the highway is probably one of the fastest older cars out there (thats not a old Ferrari).

Am sure the RDX will be fine in the snow.

 

Exactly! AWD does not mean AW STOP.

One thing I've always hated about some SUV drivers is the assumption that because they have 4WD or AWD they can stop on a dime. Not true - confirmed by the jeep cherokee that lost control and hit me head on in a snow storm a few years back. My first and only experience with an airbag!

 

First, Mike, tell your dad that I've gone with and without winter tires on the same car. AWD and all of the electronics are good but if the tires have no grip on the road, you're up a creek anyway.

Couple of years ago, I was driving home (in the SAAB, in fact) during an ice storm. I came up to a fairly sharp left curve and the car in front of me never made the turn -- it just slid straight off the road and ended up right next to a car that had had the same experience. I got the car into the curve and saw a car that had slid off the other side. So that fairly sharp left curve became a sharp left (to miss the cars on the right side) and then a right (to miss the car on the left side) and a left again to follow the road. Made it through unscathed. I had three advantages over the car in fromt of me. First, I saw him slide off so I had a second or two of warning. Second, I owned my first car when I lived in upstate New York (a big old Oldsmobile with, I think, no two tires that matched) and learned how to deal with bad roads. And third, I had winter tires in all four corners. Advance warning and technique are good, but, again, if the rubber had no grip on the road, I'd havce ended up on the side of the road as well.

As far as that SAAB goes, it was a '95 and, yes, there were times when the traction control was better left off. It really was a great car to drive, though. I had it with the 5-speed manual and that car accelerated like a bat out of hell. It had about as much torque as the RDX, but you got it at 1900 RPM -- that car was ready to accelerate any time in any gear. People rave about what Honda and Acura do with four cylinders, but that SAAB had the best one I've ever driven. Unfortunately, that much power to the front wheels was a real handful sometimes.

The reason I finally sold it was that it had failed on me mechanically just too many times. I'd found a really good SAAB speciialist to work on it and I asked him if they were all that much trouble. His answer was, "No, just yours." Ah well...

 

Ahhh, yeah, SAABs are like that, there like a money pit. Gonna get my c900 SPG, I would LOVE to make it AWD, just dont have the means or money to do it. I know it wouldnet be that hard, but too much for 16 year olds with out a steady source of money.

 

^Oh it would be a bitch, but doable, lots of number crunching and custom order parts.

Once we get the RDX(hopefully 3-4 weeks from now) I am going to try advocating for some winter tires for both it and the TL. I can't afford a set for my truck, so I'll get chains for when it gets really bad. Hopefully the all seasons on my truck will get me through the winter.

Mike

 

Ya know, it wasn't really the money that bothered me. It waiting on the shoulder for the tow truck to arrive. That happened all too often.