Hi Guys,

After owning an Acura of some sort for 12 years, I have finally moved in a completely different direction.

I bought a 2005 RL in 2009. I experienced almost every problem the 05 RL is known to develop. I used the forums to DIY a lot of the problems. Some others I had to take to the dealer (like A/C failure). I changed the timing belt last year, intending to keep the car longer.

Well if you ever been to the Car Talk section, you might have found this thread: https://acurazine.com/forums/car-talk-5/help-me-pick-2-door-sporty-car-853775/

I was intending to keep the RL and acquire a 2 door sporty vehicle. But this weekend, I traded the RL for a 2010 Nissan 370Z Touring.

It's a little sad because I did enjoy the RL a great deal. I love SH-AWD and I like the comfort of the car. I even just recently had JNC, the resident headlight guy, clear up and fix the headlights.

But last week, while washing the car, I found the RL side mirrors had become loose again. (I have to tighten them every year it seems ). The transmission was starting to hesitate (needing a flush maybe), and I think I hear the beginning of driveshaft whine. My car never had door handle issues but it always in the back of my mind. So I decided with 130k miles, I would see if I could still get something for it.

One thing I have to say about my particular RL is that I never quite warmed up to it because it had been hit from the front sometime during the previous ownership. I worked at a body shop as a high schooler so I have an eye for picking up poor repair work. This is something I knew buying the car, although a confluence of events caused me to use that as a negotiation tool instead of passing on the car.

I never could shake that so I did not take care of the RL's exterior the way I generally do for my cars. I only washed my car a handful of times myself in all of my ownership. Otherwise I mainly just had it cleaned whenever I got a complimentary car wash from servicing.



So for the first time ever, I am going to a highly impracticable two seater. I still have a Honda Accord sedan as a daily. I am sure I will come back to the Acura stable in the future, possibly when I can pick up a gently used secondhand RLX. We'll see.

Good-bye to all of you. Thanks for the tips and help along the way. I will still be on the Acura forums as I have been for 8 years now, but more in Ramblings and Car Talk.

 

sounds like you stuck with it to the end, I think it's only fair you move on to something you can enjoy a bit more and not spend the time on maintenance. Congrats on your Z and I assume a much higher insurance payment

 

You definitely soldiered on through having all those problems, you deserve some fun. Go enjoy your Z, I would.

 

Good luck, man. Glad to hear you are sticking around. I enjoy the majority of your posts.

 

Enjoy your Z - give us a report on it after you have become one with it.

 

Congrats.

 

Funny story.

I had a smart car and some idiot 23 year old rear ended it. Insurance didn't want to total it, they repaired it but it was never the same.

I went from that to the RL.
So I guess you leave, I come. It's a big cycle, this life.

 

I am looking forward to RLX...not really about coming and going for me, I go for value (read as: fun to drive, features, options, price, fuel economy etc..) for the buck ratio.

 

30mpg all around
I hope they do something about that fascia and the wheels.

 

Thanks guys for all of your support. This honestly is the best car forum out there. The level of maturity and camaraderie is a cut above.

 

No pictures of my car yet, so here is a stock photo. But mine is identical.


So after driving my new to me 370Z for about a week, I think I am ready to make a comparison and some impressions.

I know the two cars are hardly comparable so this is I guess just a collection of the main impressions I am getting from the switch. One interesting thing is just seeing how far technology has come. My car is the fully loaded model. There is literally nothing else I can get for my car from the factory.

The RL was cutting edge when it came out, but now a lot of the features have become more mainstream. It will be exciting to see what Acura packs in the upcoming model.


Driving impressions

Highway driving and from a move - The 370Z is always one paddle shift away from strong passing power and two paddle shifts away from ludicrous acceleration. I really like the full time paddle shift override. I know the late model RLs have this, but my 05 didn't and the two step procedure is really a hassle and kept me from using it as much as I do now. The Nissan implementation gives you two positions with the shifter. The first is standard drive, with full time paddle override. This mode behaves like the late model RLs. If you don't do any inputs for a time, it will return to automatic on its own. The second position is full manual control where the car won't do anything without paddle input (although it will downshift as necessary if engine speeds drop enough, and it will go to 1st at a stop). It's the best of both worlds.

The 370Z has seven gears. If it weren't for the paddle override, it would be a somewhat frustrating gearbox. By default, it enthusiastically goes to the tallest gears and can be slow to downshift on its own. The logic seems to have to calculate twice. First it decides whether to go down a gear, and only after it has downshifted once does it then decide to go down again. The 3.7 VQ is actually a somewhat peaky engine. Below 3,500 - 4,000 it is pretty sedate. I wouldn't say it is completely gutless, but it is surprising how little power is coming from it at the lower revs.

This is an area where the RL really hurts from 5 gears. You can only downshift once at moderate to high speeds. Dropping down a second gear will probably only give you less than 500 rpms before you're into the red. I think with 7 gears, the RL could perk up a bit.


City/stop and go driving - The 370Z is mildly annoying to drive in the city. That peaky engine means you have to give it a little bit more gas than I'm used to when leaving a light or stop sign. If you only go up to 3,500 rpms or so, I kid you not but a Toyota Corolla could probably out accelerate it.

On the other hand, power builds very quickly if you give it enough gas. Traction is a problem with this car, and I'm not talking about pedal to the metal action either. Launching the car at a light to get out of the right or left lanes because of parked cars (a common issue in the city driving that I do) is something of a tricky affair. Not enough gas and that Honda Fit or Corolla will spank you. Too much gas and you'll burn out or spin the tires. Maybe its because of the SH-AWD that I am a little sloppy on throttle control but I find it can be tricky to get a fast but not overkill launch for street driving. Downtown Houston also has pretty bad and uneven roads which exacerbates the traction problem.

Because of the all wheel drive and the characteristics of the RL engine, the RL actually feels more powerful if you're doing a lot of city light to light or stop sign driving.


Noise and road feel - Road feel is great. I think the steering is spot on in terms of feel and weight. Noise on the other hand... People on the Z forums believe Nissan intentionally withheld sound dampening from the 370Z in order to better differentiate with the Infiniti G37. For me, coming from the extra quiet cabin of the RL, this problem is magnified. I am probably going to end up pulling up the interior and putting down some dynamat (as some on the Z forums have done). It isn't the engine noise that is the problem either. It is tire and road noise that fills the car at any speed over 30 mph. It's like driving with all of the windows open--if the windows were your floorboards.

Despite how well the 370Z handles, I have to say the RL handles pretty good. SH-AWD really works. Considering how big that car is, it is very good. And I did not have the A-Spec.


Navigation and Interior
The interior, for what it is, is quite nice. I have synthetic suede inserts on the door and seats. The plastics are soft touch and faux leather wraps a lot of the cabin. Compared to 350Zs I have been in, this is a class above.

Ergonomics are excellent. As a matter of fact, my only complaint as far as ergonomics go is that the A/C temperature adjustment knob is on the far right of the console, whereas the fan speed adjustment knob is on the far left (close to you). If you're leaving the A/C unit in automatic mode, temperature is the more important adjustment. Messing with the fan speed knob will kick the system out of auto so that is a pain. The car is very driver centric and the seats coddle you in tight. So reaching for that A/C temperature knob is actually a bit more annoying than you might think.

I love the thick meaty grip I have for closing the doors. I was always afraid of snapping the RL's crappy interior door handles and actually closed the RL doors using one finger hooked into the recessed window control panel.

Visibility in the car is poor. But this comes with the territory for most sport coupes I have been in.

Navigation and comfort features - The nav unit is hard drive based. It is superior to the unit the RL and other Acuras of the time have in most areas.

1) Voice commands seem to be better. The voice commands in the RL seemed useless above 45 miles per hour. I could never get it to recognize the correct input like the Nissan unit does. Despite the 370Z's interior being so incredibly loud, the voice commands work very well.

2) There is both a joystick style input, and a touchscreen. Some things are just better done with a touchscreen, like inputting long street names.

3) The font and layout is easier to see.

4) Real time traffic data is available across a larger zoom range.

5) It is much more responsive because of the hard drive.

6) There are on the fly route adjustment options. As you're going along, it will pop up alternative exits/roads you can take. If you tap these (touchscreen), it will re-route using the new road you're taking.


Cons of the Nissan unit:

1) Real time traffic information is not as easy to discern as the Acura. If you have a route entered in the Acura, traffic along the route will turn the route yellow or red instead of blue. The Nissan keeps the route color the same and tries to cram in the traffic information as a thin highlight on either side (to depict the coming and going lanes). The problem is the highlight is very thin. We're talking mere pixels wide. The screen on the 370Z is also smaller than the RL.

2) There is a lockout when the car is moving above a certain speed. But voice controls still work.

3) The address book system is needlessly complicated. It is a two step affair. First you go into "address book" mode. Then you enter the address you want to store. It will store this entry as something like "123 Street Dr." You then have to go into "address book editing" mode and change the name of this entry to whatever you want.


So the Nav unit itself is better. But the Nav is not very well integrated with the car. One glaring example: the Nav system has this neat maintenance reminder thing. You can set up your own intervals (say an entry for "oil change in 5,000 miles"). There is no automatic maintenance minder like in the RL.

This is great until you realize that the multifunction monochrome display panel on the driver gauge cluster also has its own maintenance minder. Why? That's because the 370Z was designed as a 30k car, and then as an option they can toss in the standard Nissan navigation unit.


So anyway, that is my review and impressions thus far. I am having a blast with this car and it is getting a lot of comments from passerbys. I don't regret dropping the RL one bit, but I don't regret having bought and owned that car either.

Let me know if you have any questions or you're thinking of getting a Z yourself.

 

Nice write up. I think the RL A/C is a bitch so...

If you do tear up the interior, don't put Dynamat down. Use a Mass Loaded Vinyl Barrier. Dynamat is a Constrained Layer Dampener (CLD tile) that turns vibrational energy into heat which dampens vibrations but isn't designed to block sound. A MLVB is designed to block sound.

 

Nice tip 007.

 

COngrats Wackjum!
lets take that thing to the twisties.........wait, there are none in houston.