Hi all,
Finally cave in and bought the 2006 RL. Surprisingly they still have 1 left. I must say I like it a lot. But I have some questions.

1. Voice Recognition is nice but not 100% accurate. Does this happen to a lot of people? I try saying "S" and it interprets as "F", for example.
2. I try to lock the car by touching the bump on the door handle and it does not lock the car. However, if I do the same thing on the passenger side, I got no problem locking it. Would this be a problem or a setting that I have to change?
3. XM radio and OnStar, do I have to activate them myself to get the 1 year free service? XM is in the demo mode right now. I haven't try the OnStar.
4. Speaking of OnStar, do you get a userid and password along with the car? If it is, where can I find it?
5. How do I sync the phone's address book to the RL phone book?

Thanks for your reply

 

1. Voice Recognition is nice but not 100% accurate. Does this happen to a lot of people? I try saying "S" and it interprets as "F", for example.

I have the same issue...it's not perfect but eventually, you figure out how to speak so you can best be recognized.

2. I try to lock the car by touching the bump on the door handle and it does not lock the car. However, if I do the same thing on the passenger side, I got no problem locking it. Would this be a problem or a setting that I have to change?

It's a somewhat common issue with the car. The door handle most likely needs to be replaced (warranty).

3. XM radio and OnStar, do I have to activate them myself to get the 1 year free service? XM is in the demo mode right now. I haven't try the OnStar.

Again, I had the same issue. The dealer should have had the account transferred to your name (mind didn't). I tried calling XM on my own and they were very insistent that I only get 3 months of free service. I finally had my dealer call to straighten it out. He said it took "forever" on the phone with XM. You can also leave it in demo mode and probably not have to pay for a while...but you won't get traffic.

4. Speaking of OnStar, do you get a userid and password along with the car? If it is, where can I find it?

Again, something your dealere should have done (mine did). Just push the OnStar button and they will help you.

5. How do I sync the phone's address book to the RL phone book?

You don't.

Good luck with the new car. You will grow to like it more each day.

LL

 

Welcome back! Did you buy at an Acura dealer? If you did, they should have gone over all that stuff as part of the delivery presentation. My salesman spent 1 1/2 hours detailing me on my car the night I bought it.

Don't forget to post your purchase details HERE.

In any case, to answer your questions:

Voice recognition can be impaired if there's a lot of noise in the car. The car will throttle back on the AC, though, and you to tell the other passengers to be quiet, the sunroof closed, etc. Failing that, speak with your head minimally turned toward the center of the car as that's where the mike is.

First, make sure your fingers are not inside the door handle when you are passing your thumb over the bump--the car will lock, then unlock. Failing that, your door handle is not working correctly and it is time for a dealer visit. They can either reset it, or if they can't, it needs replaced.

XM and OnStar should have been activated by the dealer. You don't have to be at the dealer to do that, though. Just call the service number for XM and given them your radio ID (go to channel 001 and it will display). They will know it is from a 2006 RL automatically and you will get the one-year trial. To activate OnStar, press the blue OnStar button and explain to the operator you get that your are activating OnStar in your 2006 RL. They'll walk you through it, try to sell you stuff (I said "no" ), and you'll be on your way.

Once you activate OnStar, they will mail some introductory stuff and cards with your OnStar cell number to your home.

Someone else will have to answer this one. I haven't done it yet myself. You may find some answers in the Navi section of this board.

EDIT: I guess lland was typing at the same time I was.

 

As mentioned, you can't sync the adress books. You have to load the address book in the RL yourself by speaking the names and numbers in. The RL's address book only holds 50 entries.

It may have to do with limitations of being able to ad voice tags to the number.

The only benefit to this is that the numbers are independant of the phone that is currently linked to the car. If you happen to forget your phone, but your wife has hers (Assuming you havebonded it), you can voice dial from the address book with that phone as well.

 

There's been discussion of the VR thing many times here, but I can't figure out what the problem is ... mine works almost flawlessly. Sure, there's an occasional hiccup when you turn your head to check traffic in the middle of a command, or when someone in the car thinks you're talking to them and says, "Huh?".

But I think the main mixups are occurring because people aren't using the right command language. For instance, if you say, "Where are the nearest Chinese restaurants?", it's probably going to do something with the air conditioner ("where" sounds like "air"). You have to say, "Find nearest Chinese restaurant" for it to know what to do. So the best fix is to bone up on the commands.

Other than that, my VR seems to work exceptionally well, in both my RL and my new MDX (and for that matter, in my previous TL). Just don't yell at it, and use the right commands, and it will surprise you. If it still fails, have it checked out by the dealer.

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Neuronbob,
I was sold to the RL since it was release. It is just trying to dig up the money to pay for it. I was bracing myself for the 50K+, but luckily thanks to this forums and the Edmunds forums, help me cut cost.

Anyway, thanks everybody for such a quick response. I forget to ask the last question/problem that comes up during my drive around the city (Washington, DC)

When you backup, does the passenger side mirror lowered? Like my TL, if I switch the set side mirror to neutral, when I set my gear to reverse, the passenger side mirror lowered.

 

You need to select either the right or left side mirror (by the position of the switch) and that one will lower when you go into reverse. I keep the right side mirror set, as the curb is usually an issue on the far side of the car. If the switch is in the middle, neither mirror will dip.

VR takes a little practice. The RL's VR is waaaay better than the TL's, which constantly misunderstood me. (And I'm a professional voice actor with excruciatingly clear enunciation. )

Welcome to the club!

 

Kewl, I did not know that about the side mirror. So it is not limited to just the passenger side. Things like this just keep telling me that I made the right decision to purchase RL.

You are right. VR on the RL are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than the one on my 2002 Acura TL. Back in those days we have no VR but we have touch screen. I thought I would miss the touchscreen a lot when I upgrade, but again thanks to this forum, help me realize that I would not miss it that much.