I would highly recommend the tech package for the upgraded stereo and Xenon High-Intensity Discharge (HID) headlights alone.

I had a TL years ago and the one thing the replacement car did not have was HIDs and I missed them everytime I drove at night. Not to mention that the HIDs on the RDX are even better than my old TL's.

 

Totally agree on the HID's -- the difference coming from a 10+ yr old car without them is hard to describe -- it's like a bar of light in front of you, nice cutoff to avoid blinding other drivers, fogs fill in the area in front of the car nicely, covers what seems like 150+ degrees in front of you, and if you toss on the highbeams.. the whole road is lit up. I can tell you this, having had the HIDs in a few recent vacation rentals, and on the RDX, I would never go back to a car without them.

At today's car loan rates, the package would add about $60 a month...I think it's worth stretching if needed to cover this...pick up a coffee maker and stop getting the $2-3 coffees every day...or maybe one less dinner out every month...brown bag it for lunch 5 days a month...and you are in!

 

one of the things i like best about buying honda-acura is how they make it easy to buy.for the most part, base or tech. in the past i usually passed on tech.now im leaning more towards it. understand when you sell or trade you will get back some of that money for the package. my concern on the tech if how high the monitor extends off the dash. i dont believe the base has that issue. im looking to soon replace my wifes 08 base rdx,and she has some concerns about the monitor possibly distracting her or hindering her view when driving. we already took one test drive,gonna have to take another.anyone with the tech have any comments on the height of the screen?

 

Joe Cool....I have a Tech and the monitor is not an issue at all (for me anyway). There is no glare reflecting back to the driver, and like you, I like the Tech package. Sure you pay a premium for the goodies but that's what make buying a luxury (or semi lexury) vehicle fun, otherwise, its just a regular vehicle

 

Joe Cool, My girlfriend is 5'2" and she has no problems with the navigation interfering with her view of the road. We went with tech so there would be no regrets. Anyone on the fence leaning towards tech should just take the tech plunge and not look back.

 

try adding those option to BMW, Audi, Benz, etc....
IT will add at least 10k

 

Use a droid for your nav, lower the gate by hand without the power assist and put the money you save in your pocket. I heard both sound systems and the difference is minimal at best. The seats are the same, again there are only minimal adjustments on passenger with no height adjustments so what's the big advantage? The regular model downloaded my phone book from the droid and made speed dial set up faster. It's a CRV on steroids and I don't think it's worth 40K +.

 

I do not agree with sound.Some people cant tell different between speakers from 200 $ and 3000$( nothing personal) So with this opinion i will be a very careful.In my opinion the tech is worth the extra 3000$..Big nice GPS with display plus in my opinion sound much better (depends how you set the speakers ) DTS and DVD -Audio is amazing ..I have a lot DTS and dvd audio

 

I have a 2013 RDX AWD with Tech for several months. The Tech package generally has some nice features that have already been mentioned, but I would steer FAR clear of it if I could. On non-Tech cars, calling is as simple as pressing Voice COmmand and saying "Call [XXX]." With the Tech package, it's an incredibly convoluted, multi-step process (like 7 or 8 steps). Total waste of time, and money. Dangerous too, if you're driving down the road and trying to tangle with the voice dialing. And if you make a mistake in the process along the way, you've gotta start over. By then, you've probably plowed into the semi ahead or run over some kid's bicycle.

My 2 cents, YMMV.

 

You just set up speed dial and dial by voice. Then all you do is say "call xxxx" and it dials the number for "xxxx".

Regards, Jim

 

We got the tech package and when we we're driving the new RDX home the volume cut out. When we went to get it fixed they could not becaus they had to replace the hard drive. Very disappointing in an Acura vehicle of this price. Any one else have this issue?

 

Sorry you're having issues, but keep in mind that hard drives are like light bulbs. They can last 5 mins, 5 days or 5 years.

 

I think if the RDX works out for me, I'll be getting the Tech package. I like integration and everything in one place. I know a Garmin gives you more out of the Navi but for most of my Navi needs I think the factory installed one will do the job. I don't want to use my phone for Navi because I like to have it handy during drives.

Hopefully we're not far away from the day we our phones can feed into an external device easily while remaining usable. I would love have Waze running off a screen in my car (whether the Factory nav screen or a different external screen).

I need to get to the bottom of how the Navi is updated. The sales rep at the dealer said you never update it, it automatically updates but I don't think that's true. I feel there would be yearly hard drive updates. if that's not true and it can auto update on its own via the internet, that would be a dream come true (a sad dream since we should alreaedy have this).

I know I want XM for sure and I think that's part of the tech package. I'm not sure if I need a special XM for all the real time traffic stuff or whatnot. I've been doing the $77 for a year promotion for the past 5 or so years.

HID/Xenon and Fog lights I know you can do aftermarket but I don't want to get into all that. Also, I haven't seen it addressed if it would be just as good as OEM installed.

The real deal-sealer for me will be if you can hack the Navi screen to take input from external devices. My current car is a 2008 Lexus IS 350 and I've hacked the Navi using a Vaistech SL2vi to play videos off my ipod. If I connect my iphone then w/ internet I can play YouTube videos off it.

It's handy for passengers and as the driver, I can glance down at red lights.

Whoa with the HDD option you can record sound from XM? If it worked the way DVR does that'd be awesome because every now and then I'll hear something where I missed the name.

 

http://www.navtool.com/acura_RDX-25.aspx

Navtool allows you to display videos from an external device. I picked one up recently on an Acurazine group buy. If you do a search in these forums, you can find more info about it. I haven't got mine installed yet but will soon.

 

It's been only about 3 weeks with the RDX and I'm really liking the remote power-operated tailgate. This thing is just so convenient for loading and hauling baby gear. I like how I can open it using the remote as I'm walking towards the car or just hit the switch from inside to close it if people are exiting and need to unload. Plus it gets a few stares in the parking lot when I'm out shopping.

One thing I was curious about was how the CD Song by Voice works. I know when I pop in a CD, it starts copying to Hard-Drive automatically, but how does it get the title/track information. Is it using my phone or is this done through the radio/satellite.

 

thanks. Jeez, that $650.00is hight. That 10% off helps a bit at $585.00 but is still up there. What does it come down to w/ the group buy?

When I bought my SL2Vi back in early 2009 after buying my Lexus IS 350, it was also through a group buy. The price $320 ($280 for the unit, $30 for the 2nd gen ipod charging adapter, $10 for shipping).

At the time, I thought that price was pretty up there. But something else that helped me justify the purchase was that my IS had no iPod integration at all, just the aux cable connection.

So it wasn't just about video off my ipod on the navi screen but also about being able to use the iPod in the car.

Also, can you get the video while the car is in motion? With my IS I had to do a little wire cutting behind the Navi and then I was good. Some further cutting, connecting and a switch install enabled Destination entry while driving too. I'm not sure if Acura locks you out of anything while the car is in motion.

The other car I'm looking at is the X3. And you can install this BMW App thing which lets you use the iPod with the car that's $250. Then the rapid charging cradle is $240 but that's what let's you send video to your Nav screen while the car is in motion. Officially it only works when the car is in park but hopefully there's a way to configure it while the car is in motion.

(whew, haven't seen any angry "I can't believe you guys are doing this!" comments yet)

 

The Acurazine group buy was back in August. The price was about 50% off + shipping. Unfortunately, the group buy ended some time ago. But you might try emailing them and to see if you can still get in on it some how.

If you watch the video on the Navtool site for Acura installation, you can see the install process. As far as I know, you can display video while the car is in motion. I will be installing mine soon. And when I do I'll let you know for sure.

 

^ Ah 50% off is awesome and more in the realm of what I'd like to pay. Keep me updated and if/once my RDX purchase gets official, I'll try to email them for the group buy.If its' too late, hopefully another one will be around by then

 

[quote=TampaJack;13882472]I also fall in the Base-biased group. The base model kept us well under $40k out the door, which was a psychological barrier for us.

I have the same psychological barrier which is one of the reasons the X3 is out. I just went to Acura last week and my pricing out the door for 2013 AWD Tech RDX would be just below $40k OTD

Where is this thread? I'm new to the forum and tried searching for it but didn't see it.

 

All have good reasons as why we do and why we do not go for the tech package. Most of us don't need anything more than a little box with seats, 4 wheels, and reliable engine to get us from point A to point B... But we are human and we always want more.

No, I don't need all these technologies and will do just fine without them. I remembered I was as happy as a clam in my 78 Cressida with no tech I might add - LOL.

All said, I am now one of the guy that pays extra cash for things I don't really need but want because I am human .

 

Agreed that the HD is very convenient. I noticed it also shows an icon on the nav when it's copying the CD so you can tell how much progress it's making.

Can't wait until I have a good collection going. I think I'm going to put together some playlists and will have fun being able to call them out by voice.

 

Hey did you do the install of navtool yet?

 

Just bought a '13 RDX AWD w/Tech. So far I love the car and most of the tech. To me, the bright headlights, 3-way rearview camera, better stereo and hard drive features are enough to make it worth it for me. Overall, I do not regret buying the tech package.

I will say that I was disappointed at how limited the voice activation feature is. The fact that I cannot find a specific restaurant by voice (ie. "Find Corner Bakery") is on the pathetic side. It's the same deal for inputting an address. So for these situations, I use Siri on my iPhone 5. Much quicker/easier/better than the car.

Bottom line, I bought this quality of car for the little luxuries...I'd feel like I was missing something if I didn't go for the options that the tech package gives me, even if the Navi isn't as tech'd out as it could be.

 

The 3-way camera is a standard feature on the base.

How well does your iPhone 5 work with your RDX? I noticed that it's not fully compatible (yet) - you can't receive calls through Bluetooth. Can you provide some feedback on that? Thanks!

 

I got Base AWD and I wish HID/ fog lights + power tailgate were included in the base model. Also kinda miss upgraded stereo. Did not want to pay $4,000 more for the tech package but $1,000-$1,500 for HID/fog lights+power tailgate, yes.

 

This is the kind of feeling I could do without and therefore I got the tech package. Whatever works for you though. Just be glad that we have a choice (wish we had more choice).

 

The 2016 version with the refresh may be interesting with a base, tech, and advanced.

Looking at the TLX it seems most of the newest safety features are in the advanced while tech is mostly Nav and the ELS radio. The tech does have a couple of safety items not on the base.