Mike734

Did anyone else see this review. I guess it could have been worse.

http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-h...s/SS-2-63399/#

robarsan

I like the response..... BTW, that link sucks

http://brianbenstockblog.com/?p=880#more-880

M T L T L

They wouldn't have bashed the RLX this way if Acura had released the SH-AWD version first. Acura should have went all in and fired its big gun first. But nonetheless, parts of the WSJ review underlines a sad reality that every Acura enthusiast would love to see realized, a luxury rwd car with gobs of power that screams "who's the king "mudafukas" to all its competitors.

oo7spy

Opinions are like assholes. Everyone's got one...

Why isn't this in the RLX forum? Or is it there too?

Mike734

Why do you think it's in this forum? Could it be that we RL owners are prime candidates to buy the RLX? Could it be that the RLX is the replacement for the RL? Why would you ask this question?

Mike734

Sorry about that link. Stupid wsj. Here is the article.


CHIVALRY DEMANDS that I offer Acura a blindfold and a cigarette, because the marque is about to get it right in the heart.

The car at issue is the 2014 Acura RLX, a 310-horsepower, six-speed, midsize luxury sedan (base price: $49,345) replacing the bereft and unloved former flagship, the RL sedan, of which a mere 379 were purchased in North America in 2012.

Conventional wisdom has it that the RL’s problem was dimensional; the cabin was too small and tight. The RLX, which gains 2 inches of wheelbase (112.2 inches) and nearly 2 inches of width, attempts to address that complaint.

Acura claims the RLX has the longest and widest greenhouse (the windowed part of the car) in the competitive set. So, orchid growers, look no further.

The RLX is indeed fractionally larger than many of its would-be competitors—$45,000-to-$55,000 stalwarts such as the Audi A6, BMW 535i, Cadillac CTS, Infiniti M37, Lexus GS 350 and Mercedes-Benz E350.

However, the situation becomes muddled if your cross-shopping includes the luxury-wannabe Hyundai Genesis 5.0 R-Spec sedan with a 429-hp V8 ($46,800). Comparing these cars is like witnessing a murder. The Genesis has more living space than the Acura (109.4 vs. 102.1 cubic feet of EPA passenger volume), to start. And, not insignificantly, it’s quicker, lighter, a lot more powerful, with more forward gears (eight vs. the Acura’s six), a richer, more luxurious interior, and…wait for it…rear-wheel drive.

In fact, all the other cars in this segment send engine power to the rear wheels—if not all four wheels, like the Audi A6. Rear-wheel-drive cars have inherent advantages in handling, cornering and weight distribution. The front-drive RLX with the Advance package, like our test car, has fully 64% of its weight on the front wheels (2,432/1,565 pounds f/r), as compared with the BMW’s nearly 50-50 weight distribution. Typically, drivers never come close to the cornering loads necessary to feel the difference, but in the RLX, the quicker you go, the more the nose-heaviness manifests itself in understeer, a tendency to lose grip at the front end while cornering at high lateral loads.

“Making the RLX bigger fixes nothing. The RL’s problem, and now the RLX’s, is that the car looks and feels like an exalted, compulsively over-equipped Honda Accord.”

Now, at this point, the Acura personnel in the room would jump up and start blathering about the RLX’s many handling countermeasures. It is, for example, equipped with a rear-wheel steering system (Precision All-Wheel Steer) that allows the rear wheels to be pointed, independently, up to 2 degrees of toe-angle adjustment in either direction (in or out, negative or positive), for 4 degrees of articulation. This system can do neat things like toe both rear wheels in, slightly, under hard braking, to improve stability. In a sharp corner, it can toe out the rear outside wheel, increasing yaw rate and helping to neutralize understeer. Meanwhile, there’s some code in the stability-control system dubbed Agile Handling Assist, through which the car, actively braking one of more wheels, helps drivers hold their line with smaller steering inputs.

These are heroic interventions and I admire them, but the best the P-AWS can do is mimic the linear response and cornering composure, the predictability, the traceability, of a more weight-balanced rear-drive car. I’m not sure what value all these acronymic systems have to the consumer if all they do is restore the RLX to merely passable luxury-sedan performance.

And, before leaving P-AWS: In low-speed maneuvering, the system turns the rear wheels out of phase—which is to say, in the opposite direction—from the front wheels. The point is to decrease the car’s turning circle (another weak point in front-drive cars). And yet, even with P-AWS crabbing the rear wheels, the RLX’s turning circle is a still a relatively immense 40 feet (a Mercedes E350′s turning circle is 36.2 feet).

The trouble is, conventional wisdom was wrong. The RL wasn’t too small, and making the RLX bigger fixes nothing. The RL’s problem, and now the RLX’s, is that the car looks and feels like an exalted, compulsively over-equipped Honda 7267.TO -1.25%Accord. That’s what emanates from its disposition, its creamy inoffensiveness, its hand-sanitized sterility. It cannot stand toe-to-toe with European luxury sedans and therefore cannot command the $50,000 price tag of a typical midluxury sedan.

Let’s take styling. I’d first like to heap scorn upon the RLX’s “Jewel Eye” LED-headlight assemblies, which are a complete aesthetic failure, and massively gimmicky besides. The car looks possessed by the demon spirit of Liberace. In terms of body shape, the RLX suffers the undisguised, nose-heavy proportions of a front-drive car. In fact, 42% of the car’s total 196.1 inches in length comprises front and rear overhang (for reference, the BMW’s overhang percentage is 39%).

There’s some psychobabble in the press kit about the car’s “aero-fused” cabin silhouette and “decisive character lines” along the fuselage. Please. The shape is as somber as a medieval manuscript, and these wavering character lines induce moments of visual sag around the front quarter panels, making the car look like a suspension bridge that’s sprung a few cables.

Nothing about the foregoing should surprise Acura, the luxury adjunct of Honda. The RLX is a very calculated product, and the calculation is simply that the company could save development money by retaining a front-drive platform and winning over luxury buyers with the RLX’s wealth of onboard driver-assist, convenience and entertainment technologies. And man, there are chip sets aplenty, from the outrageous Krell audio system to the GPS-linked climate control to the app-laden center touch screen to the 8-inch color Navigation screen. This thing has more buttons and displays than a heart-lung machine.

And that brings me to what is really important—indeed, historic—about the RLX: its semiautonomous driving systems. The RLX’s Advance package (which brings the price to $61,345) includes the company’s Lane Keeping Assist System, which sees the road ahead and, if it senses the car drifting out of lane, will signal the electric steering to nudge the car back in line. LKAS is not exactly hands-free—the car will throw a caution light at you if it senses your hand is off the wheel too long—but it does quite significantly reduce steering workload. Similarly, the RLX’s Adaptive Cruise Control With Low-Speed Follow allows drivers to set a following distance to the car ahead, and the RLX will carry on, even slowing and stopping in congested traffic.

Now, to be clear, these are safety systems, designed to back up the driver in case he gets distracted. These systems are not currently programmed to step into the driver’s shoes entirely. But the potential is real, and the RLX’s ability to manage itself for the most part at highway speeds is remarkable and reassuring. Which is to say: I’m reassured that many of the numskulls on the road will soon have some driving help.

So they can build an Acura that drives itself. Can they make one that buys itself?

2014 Acura RLX

Base price: $49,345

Price as tested: $61,345

Powertrain: Naturally aspirated direct-injection 3.5-liter SOHC 60-degree V6 with variable valve timing and lift and variable cylinder management; six-speed automatic transmission with manual-shift mode; front-wheel drive

Horsepower/torque: 310 hp at 6,500 rpm; 272 pound-feet at 4,500 rpm

Length/weight: 196.1 inches/3,997 pounds

Wheelbase: 112.2 inches

0-60 mph: 7 seconds

EPA fuel economy: 20/31/24 mpg, city/highway/combined

Cargo capacity: 15.1 cubic feet (with Krell audio and Advance package)

Mike734

I would love a more modern, bigger RL. That's what I thought the RLX was going to be. FWD? Forget it!

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

This is already being discussed here: https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-rlx-2013-412/wall-street-journal-review-884036/

No need to open up a second thread in a different subforum.