I took my 09' in for a timing belt yesterday and received a 14' RLX as a loaner. Here's my thoughts on comparisons between the two:

Pros:

Tighter suspension - Not dramatically, but certainly noticeable.
4 wheel steering - This is dramatic! Cornering is incredibly precise. 09's SH-AWD cornering abilities do not compare.
Bigger back seat
Bigger trunk


Cons:

No AWD - I know it's coming, but not having it is a deal breaker for me. I don't know why this is even an optional upgrade vs. previous RL generations having it standard.
Acceleration seemed lacking - This is totally unscientific, but my 09 seems a bit quicker, or at least kicks with a bit more torque.
Interior - This is totally underwhelming, in my opinion. It feels like a slightly upgraded Honda interior where the 09' felt like it was in a class above any Honda models, and even the other Acura models. Instead of the RL(X) leading the entire company's vision, most of the interior elements just share with every other slightly premium car from Honda/Acura.
Dual Screen Interface - This seems to mostly show completely redundant info. The angle of the control screen made it hard to read from my vantage. It's hard to navigate a touch screen while driving vs. physical buttons you can feel for. Total gimmick.
Heated only seats, not cooled - Not an option as far as I know.
No adaptive headlights - The LED's have a nice color, but adaptive is a feature I love

Overall:

I can't wait to see the the new hybrid SH-AWD compared to the 4 wheel steer. I also hope that Acura makes adjustments to the interior quality and options.

It's a nice car, but I would not buy the RLX in it's current form. I'd take my 09 over it any day.

 

Maybe in tight corners at low speed. The P-AWS will not keep up with SH-AWD in high speed corners. Part of what you're feeling is a stiffer suspension as well. The fact of the matter is that P-AWS cannot defy driving physics.

 

Good point, that was the majority of my limited driving - in town and casual on/off ramps.

 

acceleration.. rlx's do the quarter mile in the low 14's... your RL not even close high 14's low 15's. handling wise.. shawd will eat the paws alive. paws just makes it feel like a rear wheel drive when you feel the back end kick out. honda interior?... lol no accord can match the quality of materials fit and finish that the rlx has. now the wood grain crap does suck. i dont have a gripe with the rest of it. the dual screen is redundant but then again having 40 buttons just gives it cluttered look. no need for adaptive headlights. the whole point behind the multiple bulbs in the jewel eye configuration is to optimize the angle at which each bulb is set to maximize the range from side to side. gives you the same effect without having something that can mechanically fail. to me, i see almost to reason to buy a RL over a SHAWD TL. i can even see the beauty in the 4G TL. the RL has never grown on me.

 

You're entitled to your opinion. At the same time, you're obviously aware that you're posting your opinion on a board consisting almost entirely of RL owners, so I smell just a bit of trolling instinct here.

If the RL has never grown on you, it's good that you haven't exercised your option to buy one. To those of us who have, the difference in build quality, interior materials, smoothness/quietness and cosseting details was worth the extra money for the higher-line model.

I think I speak for most of my RL peers when I say: We're well aware most buyers have voted with their dollars that these things didn't matter as much to them, and we're all right with that.

 

its all a matter of opinion and every of course has one. i drive these cars all day and i dont own either a RL or SHAWD 4G. no offense to RL owners it was just opinion. I never said the RL was a horrible car or bashed it.

 

First of all, cooled seats are an option with the Advance package.

My family just shifted from a 2011 RL to the 2014 RLX and I spent a fair amount of time behind the wheel of one a few weeks ago.

After spending some good seat-time, I disagree about the interior. I always felt like the old RL interior was good, but oddly shaped in places. To me, the ergonomics of the RLX are better and the material quality is about the same overall. In terms of acceleration, I think you are being fooled into thinking that the car is slower because it is quieter and there is less of a hard launch due to the lack of AWD. The new DI motor is stronger overall and without the added drag of the AWD hardware, should be a touch quicker to both 60 and in the quarter mile.

 

I spent 3 days last week with an RLX loaner...I will preface my experience by saying I have not driven the prior gen RL, but have driven much of the rest of the Acura line up. My responses will be in blue with regard to your observations.

The RLX is a very nice car overall (ext, interior, the drive etc). From my drive time with the RLX, I like the car a lot. it's really too bad the exterior of the car is so anonymous and bland, because it is a great driving car. it drives a lot smaller than it's size and the interior feels a lot bigger than the exterior would give away. Not really my type of car I would own (full size sedan), but I can certainly appreciate the RLX. It's a great car.

 

I drove behind one at night, and the LED Jewel HLs were kicking some serious ass.

 

I have not driven it yet, but my impression is that the car has grown too big.....at least for me. My 07 is about as large as I wanna get....back seat room is not an issue. I carry pax there very seldom. I will look at the RLX and the TLX next car, and am opening up my apeture to see what KIA and Hyundai have.

The Genesis is in the same class....just too big.

 

The RLX is only a tiny bit longer than your RL. It just looks bigger because the passenger compartment has grown significantly in the redesign. With the P-AWS, it actually ends up feeling like a much smaller sedan from behind the wheel.

 

Only 2" longer, but 200-260 lbs lighter. Given the new drivetrains, all models should drive like a smaller car than the RL.

 

Let me also add to the driving aspect...the RLX feels very light and agile during acceleration and cruising on the hwy/around town considering the size of the car unlike my MDX which feels like she's dragging her arse. As I mentioned before, the RLX felt similar to my 6MT TL just in a bigger body and a slightly more forgiving suspension (the RLX is still firm).

 

I call BS on this. No doubt a multiple LED array lets the carmaker tailor the light pattern with great precision, but it's still a light pattern -- it's still constant, relative to the position of the car. Acura can't arrange the LEDs so they light up the area to the left of the car while you're making a left turn, because if they did, it would light up the area to the left of the car at all times, which would violate regulations and blind oncoming motorists.

I'm sure the Jewel Eye headlights work well, but for them to do everything that moving headlight beams can do is theoretically impossible.

 

The jewel eye lights up a very wide pattern.
One of the pros vs adaptive lighting is that there is no moving parts

 

The need for adaptive headlights is because the beam cast by DRLs, especially as projectors, is long and narrow. LEDs, with their multiple elements, are individually focused to spread the visible beam much more broadly than a comparable DRL.

I think you should take a drive in the RLX or MDX and you will see how much of a difference there is in how the beam spreads and how much more coverage you now get to the sides in addition to greater intensity in front.

 

There is no comparison, the Jewel-Eyes are significantly better. The adaptive only moves 15 degrees, which is insignificant when turning 90 but the LED's are very impressive. I had an RL, drove the RLX for a week and now own an Audi A6 with LED's and the Jewel-Eyes are by far the best that I have ever seen.

BTW - in 5 years, all cars will be LED, HID will join VHS.

 

and homes.

 

My home is already 100% LED and in 322 years I will recoup my investment!

 

 

the jewel eye LEDs...amazing. wide spread lighting...they literally light up down half a block (and this a is a long block) or so not just distance wise but the entire road way from side to side. the bi-xenons are really good, but the LEDs definitely cover more real estate. i'm currently in my 2nd RLX loaner in 2 weeks (had the first one for 3 days...and i'll have the current one for about 3 days). i'm enjoying the drive time in the RLX...the dealer can keep the MDX.

 

I want to report a couple of personal experiences in relation to this.

First off, I know that in weather the advantage would always go hands down to SH-AWD, by a huge margin.

Also, having had both a 4G TL 6-6 SH-AWD and an RLX Advance through T10 at Summit Point, the advantage will clearly go to the SH-AWD car.

But here's something that surprised me: There's a certain access ramp in NoVA that is a favorite of mine for a number of reasons, chiefly because it provides a certain high stress radius while also giving me the advantage of being able to look long ahead to see what else is on the ramp, and what's on the road to which access is provided, to be sure you're not going to be merging at high speed with traffic.

Top speed sustained on this ramp for the 4G TL 6-6 SH-AWD: 52 mph

Top speed sustained on this ramp for the RLX Advance: 52 mph



That really surprised me. I know it would be different in the rain, or in the snow, but, still.... That's tremendous.

This is using OEM Michelin in both cases, and this assumes that my perception of the analogue speedometer is correct.

 

This is also my experience, that the Jewel EyeŽ LED are tremendous performers. I'm not sure why the RLX Hybrid has fog lights because it's hard to imagine that it's going to be better.

 

PAWS is quite capable. i took my clover leaf exit in the RLX loaner at the same speed as my MDX and my TL with Aspec suspension. I really wasn't pushing the RLX as much as i probably could have if the weather was warmer, but it stuck to the turn at speed quite readily without feeling like a big car. I was really impressed with the handling in the RLX while i had the loaner.