Serious question. It's time; and we're shopping and trying to decide wait for the new technology or lock in the V-6 w/ Advance. Out west with our big sky and bigger hills the V-6 is a nice feature.

 

Check this video. Basically suggesting lock in your desire for a current RDX with the V6 as 2019 it's all going bye bye.

 

Turbos kick ass in the mountains!

 

A 4cyl 2.0L turbo will not be as quiet or smooth as a V6.Also kicking in that turbo will use more gas than the MPG numbers.
No more V6, no more RDX for when my lease is up in early '19 unless I go with a leftover '18.

 

I'll beat the dead horse. If BMW and Audi can do wildly successful SUVs with the 4 cyl turbo formula (far outselling RDXs around here at least) then I have faith Acura can figure out how to do it right in 2019. Why would they mess up the successful formula with this all-important model (stranger things have happened of course)?

As a Honda fan (an Element, S2000 and RDX in the garage) I'm just excited to see what they come out with.

 

I agree that this is a serious question. Most Acura owners buy for the smoothness and reduced noise level. Many of the 4-cyliner turbos are very l noisy. Just open the hood of a BMW 4-banger or the Audi 2.0T. They sound like diesels. True, this does not appear to be a problem with new BMW or Audi owners. However, there have been many postings on the noise issues. Different strokes for different folks. I would hope that Acura has learned from their mistakes with the 4-cylinder turbo and "sport" suspension in the previous generation. I have a 2014 RDX with 22,000 miles which I love, however, it has with transmission shudder issues. I have been trying to work through this problem with the dealer (4 visits so far). Anticipating transmission or torque convert failure every time it shifts takes away the enjoyment of driving this otherwise fantastic car. Honda has had many issues with their more recent transmissions (just read the forums). I suspect that there will be many problems in the first year with the 2019 RDX.. Like most of the manufacturers, there are "growing pains" which the new owners inherit. That's true regardless auto brand.

 

IMHO the biggest mistakes with the 1G RDX was the styling and the size. It looked weird in the front, too weird for a lot of people and the size meant that trunk space was laughable for a family (which happens to be the majority of crossover buyers). I had a 1G and the suspension was fine, and I don't mean fine by my standards. I had an 07 which supposedly had the hardest suspension yet it was still more comfortable than a lot of cars I have owned. Besides there is a way to make a smooth compliant ride without utterly destroying the handling like they did with the 2G. The 2.3T is probably one of the best engines Honda has ever made as of yet, the issues with it were that it still used old school port injection and a top mount intercooler. They should have kept the 2.3T and upgraded to DI and then installed a front mount intercooler and upped the power. The V6 may be smoother but as with all Honda V6 engines, it feels anemic at low revs and the turbo did not feel like that at all. Fwiw the RDX with the V6 is slightly faster and better on gas than the 1G but I credit that to the 6 speed auto vs 5 speed and the 2G RDX lost something like 200 pounds iirc. The 1G at ~4000 pounds is on the porky side of the compact class.

 

My concern will be with the build quality in the 2019 RDXl. I'll be especially interested in the transmission/torque converter problems. Hopefully, thes will be minimal. Previously an owner of 5 Hondas with four-bangers with no problems EVER.

 

2019 RDX not RDXI.....

 

Same here - I have high hopes that they will take this redesign seriously - the competition in this space will only get tougher in the upcoming years.

Very true. I wouldn't touch the first year model with a 10 foot pole!

 

As there is no third generation yet, it seems a bit premature to devote a forum to it. Rabid speculation at this point. When the car actually appears in it's final form with specs, then it needs a forum subsection.

 

 

Give me a better 2.0 turbo than a sleepy old V6.

 

Yeah man I feel your pain.. all the problems I've heard or dealt with personally when it came to Honda transmissions were always the ones paired with the V6 models. My ex back in the day had a 1999 Accord V6 Coupe and that transmission went to crap. My wife had a 2004 Accord V6 Coupe and had the transmission rebuilt 2x. I too have 2013 RDX and have the same exact judder you're referring to which I've posted on another thread. Took the tech from Acura on a drive and he already knew what I was referring to. Before I could even show him the TSB that I've printed out he said we need to drain the ATX fluid update the software and refill the fluid. Guess what? It worked. Hopefully you can get them to do the same for you.

 

Thanks t0mdo,

The shudder/judder takes away from the pleasure of owning an otherwise great car. I actually had the transmission fluid flush TSB done twice and then they did the flush again but with the software update (follow-up TSB) and the judder is still there but not quite so intense. I have taken it back to the dealrship so that they could get a good snapshot of the transmission shifting to send to Acura. I rode with the chief mechanic and it kept shuddering but a low level. The one time he was not recording it really shuddered. He said "boy I really felt that one" but he couldn't record a real strong shudder. The car goes back again to the dealership October 10th. I must say that the dealership has been great. Appears that the more sophisticated these transmissions get the more unreliable they become. You are correct about the four-cylinders. I have own four Honda 4 cylinders (92' Civic, 90' Accord, 98' First Gen Odyssey and 08' CRV) and never had transmission problems. The TC can't do the job. These fail and then the transmission fails.