Drove 2 days. Compare to 2010 RDX

Good,
1. No noise from plastic parts inside the car
2. 6 Cylinders will be more stable then 4 Cyl turbo
3. 6 speed trans
4. no key start, lock/unlock
5. 1 inch longer, 1 inch taller
6. Rear view is larger

Con,
1. No HID head lights
2. CD from 6 disc to single
3. No fog lights

 

Congratulations! The HIDs can be installed with an aftermarket kit (if you decide you want then), and there's an Aux cable for your Apple device. Overall, it's a great car. Enjoy!

 

Congrats. Great choice (I have a base). Here are my solutions to the cons:

1) Not sure the better lighting offsets the cost of a bulb or transformer when that time comes.
2) Use an Ipod or MP3 player. 6 disc cd changers are fast becoming old school.
3) Depends on where you live. I use the fogs on my other car about twice a year here in central florida.

I was surprised you did not mention better fuel economy. I think you will be very happy with that aspect.

 

Add better fuel economy, looks like this forum can't edit after some time.

 

Normally I don't change my car. Prefer original HID

 

I think fog lights are vastly overrated. I live in the midwest and have foglights on two of my three vehicles and I can probably count on one hand the times I've used them over the last five years. Now, if I lived in the San Francisco area it may be different. I think most use them to look cool as I see them all the time when they are absolutely not needed.

Have said that, an RDX looks incomplete without them because of the way the bumper panel is designed. It's just so obvious that something should go there. They could have designed a panel to fit in there that would have looked more finished without fog lights. I think they were just looking to have dealers make some extra cash by installing fog lights after delivery.

 

Sometimes need it, like it has fog in the morning.

I found another good point, the change line turn light.

 

I've had the RDX for 7 months now and a grand total of one disc has made it in there, a learn-spanish mp3 CD from costco, haha.

 

The rear view camera is not as good as the 2010 one. When it rains, you can't see anything. Same thing happened on BMW X5, which killed a boy in an accident. We should be careful.

 

I wonder if there isn't a simple mod to the camera to stop the rain from obscuring the view - something as simple as a 1/4 inch piece of plastic ...

Regarding the sound system in the non-nav (non-tech package) ... having to load CDs to the hard drive (tech package version) seems like yet another crazy 'feature' from Acura (like the DVD audio in my '07 TL - never used it!) so I certainly would not miss that. Is the 'iPod' interface the same with / without tech package? These days all my music is loaded in iTunes on my iPhone, and if I can either play that via USB or bluetooth, I'm happy.

My specific questions regarding tech / non-tech package are:
1) is there basic bluetooth phone support in non-tech - ability to answer an incoming call? Importing and using the phone's 'contacts' never proved useful to me on my TL.
2) I understand backup camera still works on non-tech; is the display sufficient?
3) can I plug in my iPhone via USB and play? Can I use bluetooth streaming?

 

1. There is basic support for bluetooth in non-tech. You can make/receive calls, you have call display and you can see all your phone contacts on the screen. There are some small problems with iphone5/ios6, but overall it should work fine.
2. The display is sufficient.
3. You can use your iphone to play music by plugging it in the USB port or you can use bluetooth streaming as well. Both ways work fine.

 

Another good point, in 2010 RDX I can't make iphone 5 music work with the new lighting cable. In 2013 it works with the new lighting cable.