leomio85

I knew something looked off. Honestly, I prefer the black surround of the girlle. Something just looks "off" when it's painted body color. Maybe it's just me though.

Wheel. Usually they retained three of the hubcaps, but one was always missing ... and of the three remaining hubcaps, one was a different style.

leomio85

Hey hey hey, I prefer "wannabe". It does make me feel ... uneasy (for lack of a better word) when I see standard or Tech RDX's and know that my "faster looking" A-Spec has absolutely nothing extra under the hood. Then again, it's not like I'm lining up my RDX against anyone, especially not with your typical RDX owner. It just looks so much better IMO, faster or not. I'll probably give it another year or so to ensure there's no major flaws with this car before throwing at least a Stage 1 tune on it, and maybe some JDM and K&N stickers on the windows.

Midwestuser1

Fake your own death first! Then order under new identity

russianDude

What is so special about PMC, that it combines aspec and advance with a hefty premium?

leomio85

Exclusivity. You get invited to parties where you fart into wine glasses and sniff them. You'll catapult your social status into the privileged elite by purchasing a PMC.

fiatlux

It's also "hand-built", but not really, it's more just hand-assembled, and even then how much of that is beyond the normal production process is questionable. Per the article:
When people hear "hand-built', they think of the AMG motors that are literally built by hand by a single master engine maker. In this case, the engine, transmission, etc. are the exact same as what you get from a normal RDX.

If you've ever watched any of the car production videos on Youtube, you'd also notice that a lot of the assembly itself is actually done by hand.

For instance, for the Accord, fast forward to 6 minutes in (right after the painting process). You'll notice that a lot of the actual assembly does have human involvement, and I highly doubt the PMC folks are dropping in engines and lifting up transmissions without some machinery to help.

russianDude

They making it sound like you buying Ferrari...

fiatlux

Acura is masterful at the art of overselling. Their marketing department is probably the best in the business. I mean, when was the last time the hard product actually lived up to the hype they heaped on it?

russianDude

Hand-built is not necessarily a good thing, it depends who's hands are building, I might trust robots more...

fiatlux

What, you don't trust the renowned craftsmanship and the famed attention-to-detail of the finest $25/hr workers that the state of Ohio has to offer? Move over, Switzerland, Ohio now has the title of Precision Crafting.

leomio85

The person(s) who installed the interior bits of my A-Spec were surely on meth.

hand-filer

I think the same meth head had a part in building my 2013 Advance.

Funz51

IMHO...... It's ugly

russianDude

yeah, thats the issue with Honda being hand-built. Its one thing when Bentley or Ferrari does it, but Acura hand built? Common, they are out of their minds

Tony Pac

I think we will get 60 out of 360.

ESHBG

These will sit forever like the TLXs are. I am just wondering how long they will need to sit before they see any discount at all. Hell with the TLX ones it's an even tougher sell now that a new design is arriving.

Another boneheaded Acura move. I can just picture their meetings: "So does anyone have anymore ideas on how to lose money?"

fiatlux

It might not make them much money, but I doubt they'd lose money. I suspect that the workers who would have been sitting idle have some sort of guaranteed minimum number of work hours in their contract, so rather than pay them to do nothing, at least they're doing something. Also keep in mind that there's minimal additional development or tooling costs for a car like this; it's quite literally just marrying the A-Spec stuff with the Advanced stuff.

At the very least, this got them some additional PR and media coverage, so that's something.

The interesting thing with the TLX PMC is that even though it's got a $50K MSRP, it's actually a fair price if you look at what you get. If you add the $3850 Advance package to an V6 SH-AWD A-Spec, it also comes out to $50K after destination, so you're essentially getting the fancy pants paintjob thrown in for free. Plenty of people have been bemoaning the fact that you can't get the A-Spec look with the Advance package, so I don't think it's a lack of demand. I think the problem is that the dealers are unwilling to budge at all on price, which makes this car a comparatively bad value when compared to an A-Spec or an Advance.

JB in AZ

And then there is the color.....

fiatlux

The Valencia Red looks amazing, but does it look $8000 amazing if the dealers will cut the price of an A-Spec or Advance by that much but not the PMC?

ESHBG

I see where you are going but if you go through the expense of making 360 special cars and you only sell 60, you've definitely lost money. I got curious and did a quick nationwide search of the TLX and the same cars I saw when it first came out are still sitting. In fact it was apparently getting so bad that some dealers have been using them as demo/personal cars and are now selling them as used CPOs with a pretty significant discount all things considered ($7-8K).

JB in AZ

I thought it was Thermal Orange Pearl.

fiatlux

Here's the thing though: that means the dealerships are losing money, not Acura corporate. Acura couldn't care less what those cars sell for; they're already paid for by the dealerships (or more specifically, by the banks that financed those cars for the dealerships). If the dealerships are unwilling to sell those cars for the same profit that they do the non-PMC cars and are trying to hold out for bigger margins, that's their perogative.

fiatlux

I'm referring to the TLX, since we know the sales performance and pricing for that car.

JB in AZ

"16-way power Sport Seats trimmed in Ebony Milano leather and Ultrasuede®, heated steering wheel and heated outboard rear seats."

No mention of the ventilated seats...but it does mention heated steering wheel and heated outboard rear seats.

Reason I ask, is I wonder how the Ultrasuede will handle the holes for the ventilation.

fiatlux

Check out the feature matrix
https://acuranews.com/en-US/releases...ge-pearl-paint

Ventilated front seats are listed there for the PMC model.

JB in AZ

Gotcha! Found it! Thx...not that I would ever buy the PMC model...

I guess they can punch holes in the suede just like the "Perforated Milano Premium Leather"

Wait, does the A-Spec have ventilated seats now?

tecwerks

hahahahahah

mcrompton

A-SPEC has always has ventilated seats on the 3G RDX

4th Acura

Acura.ca video. Only 30 available in Canada. The video states the cars are “hand made”

Ludepower

Will the PMC have power folding mirrors?

Hand built to me thinks panel gaps will be better than what's currently for sale. Also all the small issues u guys bitch get resolved.

No it doesn't make sense to upgrade to PMC. It's quick fix to add more attention into the showroom.

spoiler900

My dealership i worked at until recently couldn't sell their TLX PMC so sadly enough its now being used as a loaner car. Embarrassing. They still have their MDX PMC on the showroom floor

HOWEVER, being that those are old models going out and RDX is current, I do have to say, wow, it looks sharp in that thermal orange. I think it will sell better than TLX and PMC. But honestly, yes, Acura should offer an advance aspec thats not a PMC. But to be real, I worked in sales, and had I think maybe 1 customer who would have wanted that, the rest didn't care and were plenty find with tech aspec. So low demand is probably why they don't have that option, but if I personally was in the market for an Acura I would want fully loaded! Go big or go home

fiatlux

Was the dealership flexible at all on price? I do think there’s some demand for an A-Spec + Advance, but when you can get 20% off sticker on all the other TLXs and the dealership won’t budge on the PMC, it’s hard to justify buying it.

JB in AZ

OOPS! I didn't realize that! Thanks

DJ Iceman

I realize I'm biased because I just spent the past couple of days touring the PMC and some other Honda facilities as part of my NSX Insider Experience. But a few thoughts from the only person on this board likely to have seen a thermal orange pearl RDX up close:

- The color is spectacular, especially with all the glossy black parts. If you had described this to me before I saw it, I would have thought it was a terrible idea. But seeing it in person, it looks incredible. If I was in the market for an RDX, I honestly wouldn't even consider any other trim level now.

- To those who think Honda workers in Ohio can't build a world-class vehicle, I strongly beg to differ. These folks who work in the PMC blew me away, and I've spent most of my life in the world of building satellites (where you kind of expect the engineering staff and technicians to be a cut above). I'd say the average years of experience of people we met was 25. Before they can get a job in the PMC they have to pass a battery of tests and interviews, not just with management but with their prospective team members on the line. So not only are they individually spectacular, they function together as a team like few such groups I have ever seen. The obvious pride they take in their work shows in the quality of what they produce, and they take the PMC edition "regular" Acuras just as seriously as the NSX. Not a single one of them wants to be responsible for hurting the prestige of the PMC name.

- Of course all mass-produced automobiles have parts that are made or assembled by robots, and parts that are done by humans. And the parts that are done by humans use the help of fixtures and tools--it's not like "hand-built" means they're building a car like a sword on Forged in Fire. But at the PMC there are many more steps done by the humans, especially intensive quality checks on seemingly-mundane items like paint uniformity and panel gaps. I am convinced, after what I saw the past couple of days, that the PMC edition RDXs will be the best-built, highest-quality RDXs out there.

I don't know if it will be a rousing sales success--after all, this is a $50k+ RDX we're talking about in a color that, as spectacular as it is to my eyes, will not win over every potential buyer. Dealerships are also likely to overplay the exclusivity card, refusing to deal to the point where orange RDXs are sitting in showrooms all over the country. But to anyone lucky enough to buy one, I'm pretty confident in saying you're going to love it.

Funz51

thanks for your insight!... now to get rid of that throttle delay.....

russianDude

Sorry, but this is just bunch of gimmics with hand made and some special color. Who cares? How about they fix limp mode and sudden acceleration, or
provide more powerful engine. This is just all marketing BS

fiatlux

Yeesh, you used to be such an ardent Acura apologist who would always staunchly defend them. What did you do to the real russianDude?

https://acurazine.com/forums/third-g.../#post16526861

russianDude

I never claimed that Acura products are perfect. They do give you a decent car for the money you pay. Some things they do, I do not like. I still hope they fix limp mode.

SebringSilver

Part of me thinks Acura’s product planning and marketing departments are secretly being paid by their competitors to make these ridiculous decisions on purpose.

jmhumr

Orange is a gauche color for an SUV, but I'm guessing it looks way nicer in person than the pics/videos. From what I remember, the orange NSX is very active and depending on the light you see multiple shades ranging from reddish-orange to yellowish-orange.

In any event, I think we're at the beginning of a "special edition" resurgence in the auto industry.