TheMechanic

Greetings,

Been poking around here for a week or so and thought I'd say Hi and give you a bit of an introduction. This is actually my wife's car a 2017 Kona with parchment base AWD. There seems to be some chatter as to how luxury of a car this is but since most of my cars are/were at newest 2008 this is quite a step up. The wife's car a 2008 BMW 335xi was prematurely retired after she had a run in with falling tree branches on the way home one night. Long story short between the insurance check and finding it a new home with and enthusiast (it was a 6 speed manual) we received almost retail for it.

We looked at many cars in this segment, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Kia, Infiniti, Volvo and others I have forgotten. We kept coming back to the RDX as we agreed it had the best balance for us. Kids out of the house and trips to Florida were getting a bit crowded in my 2008 Subaru Forester Sport. It has 127K on it and has been great but admittedly a bit spartan.

We had bought the BMW used and had been running without any maintenance agreement on it for years and it had become a bit painful even though I try to perform all my own maintenance. I was locked out of this car several times as when you change a fuel injector or coil pack and even the battery the computer must be updated with serial numbers and such. Then there was the no heads up on changing the transfer case oil on a regular basis that caused premature failure. I should have done more research and or just changed it anyhow. In my defence it was the wife's car and at times seemed like a perpetual motion machine that I had to fight for to perform even routine oil changes on. The exploding water pump while I was out of town was fun too.

I've read about the maintenance minder some have complained about on the Acura and I'm good with it. I'm also pleased Acura calls for routine replacement of all driveline fluids. The lower cost and more predictable maintenance on this should be just wonderful. She was getting a little sloppy shifting the 6 speed anyhow so the automatic is a good thing. The sport paddle shifting is something she will never use but I'll play with it a bit just for fun, whenever she lets me drive.

I'll probably spray a bit of Fluid Film on the underside and some of the suspension bits when the weather gets better. I did nothing on the Subaru when I bought it new in late 07. I thought it would be used up sooner in the world of computer field service but things change. Its undercarriage has more surface rust than I'd like and the suspension pieces all look like they've been on the ocean floor for years. I was not diligent with rinsing in the winters and it shows. There has been some galvanic action on the rear differential that is disturbing but it will most likely make it to 150-200K if I'm willing to put up with it.

I added some faux carbon fiber stick on stone chip protection film on the interior plastic door sill areas on the RDX. I'll post some pictures soon.

Thanks for listening,
TheMechanic

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

Welcome, TheMechanic!

Comfy

Congratulations and welcome to the club. Funny, how you mention it as Honda RDX. . Yes it is premium Honda I agree.

CanTex

Kona with parchment. That would have been our choice but none was available in Advance FWD in our area. So a '17 black over parchment Advance it was. For many reasons, surgery included, it's hardly driven, <1K miles in 5 weeks. We checked out alternatives but kept coming back to the RDX. Familiarity with the '13 for my wife was a major factor. We'd have kept the '13 but my son's '08 BMW 328 was getting closer to $6K worth of work and he wanted the '13. No regrets. I showed my son the service history - a few oil and filter changes but it was mostly state inspection and license charges in 36K miles. You'll love yours too. Wise choice.

TheMechanic

CanTex I feel your pain on the BMW. The dealer wanted $5000 to replace the transfer case on ours. It was time to move on.

Comfy

Kona with parchment ....! You just described my car. Congratulations. .