Jerzy

I just finished 4400 miles two week trip Chicago - Utah (National Parks) - Chicago and have few observations:

Positive:
- Seat comfort and driving position are great. Adjustable head support is a blessing, allowing more alert position in the town and relaxed on the highway.
- Steering is precise and pretty much immune to the wind. Great traction on sharp mountain bends - no leaning or screaming tires. Acceleration is good even uphill.
- Wind and other cars noises are almost zero
- Adaptive cruise control is phenomenal. It doesn't react to cars on the other lanes, but follows cars on the same lane on sharp bends (radar must be turning).
- Grade control works in mountains fine on 6% decline, but it has to be in Sports and "S" otherwise slowly speeds up.
- Car is very quiet in general
- Lane Keep Assistance works well, but is a little weak. This allows to detect if I control the wheel. Taking hands off the wheel for longer than 10sec causes alarm message.
- Visibility is very good (for SUV). There is some dead zone behind rear roof pillars but side mirrors are large and blind spot warning does its job.
- Lights are very good - both low and high beam (I don't use automatic switching)
- Rear and side mirror dimming at night works well (dark yellowish lights)
- Navigation performs fine, except for some issues.

Negative:
- Car uses brakes for grade control (engine at low revolutions) and that is very bad. Engaging paddles set higher gear (mostly 5th) and requires quick shifting down two or three times on 6% downhill drive to prevent speeding-up.
- Navigation froze once for no reason and I had to restart car. Voice recognition is implemented poorly. It fails to understand simple commands like "Go Home" (that used to work well) "Calling Home" instead etc.
- HUD display is still showing wrong direction at least once a day. Mileage to waypoint is OK but text and graphics is shifted by +/- 1 waypoint vs main display that shows proper direction. Voice directed me one time in wrong direction, but perhaps I heard wrong being a little tired.
- About 50% of the time I get "USB error" or "No Data" or loading forever. It also loses random music setting often. I have tried different formats and 5 different USB drive brands to no avail. Infotainment and Navigation issues linger thru 3 updates (I'm at D.1.1.4) and at this point I concluded that Acura software engineers are simply incapable of fixing this. I worked all my life with software engineers, designing electronics, but I have never seen such incompetence. I'm very surprised that Acura management doesn't see it. Perhaps they should replace all of them - something has to be done. I love the car, but because of infotainment and Navigation issues next time it won't be Acura. There are many great car out there, while Acura is managed poorly.
- Tires become very noisy above 70mph on rough concrete. In fact it is even noisier than it was with my previous non-luxury cars. I'm not sure if it is poor cabin noise damping or very noisy tires (that otherwise perform great).


I have one question:
When coming fast to slowed down traffic adaptive cruise control breaks fast. I noticed that break pedal moves down, but I'm still not sure if my brake lights engage (I cannot see them). I'm afraid that somebody will run into me. Does anybody know?

Madd Dog

In that situation I take over. I can assess the situation before the car can, and when it does, it must brake hard. It is easy enough to re-engage cruise control. Happened today. Cruising along at 70 when there was a lane closure up ahead. I slowed down gradually, starting outside radar range, and reengaged cruise control at the lower speed. Then let it move with the traffic on its own.

leomio85

Adaptive cruise above 40MPH is absolute garbage ... and I'm being lenient with the speed. Anything above that speed and I turn it off, so essentially just use it for stop-&-go traffic. I find it more stressful using it than just doing it myself. I liken the adaptive cruise having the ability of a brand new teenaged driver who's constantly texting. Just awful. But to answer your question, yes, the brake lights do come on. It'd be a massive safety hazard if they didn't.

Waetherman

I disagree about ACC. I found it very helpful most of the time, especially at highway speed and in low speed traffic. It was worst in stop-and-go, where it needs to be reactivated to go again, and where it leaves too generous a gap between cars (allowing those asshats to cut lanes too easily). But most of the time I felt pretty confident at letting it take control. In cases where it went from highway speed to zero quickly, it was nerve wracking, but not more than it would have been had I been in control. Perhaps the only thing I would have asked to be different is that hazard lights be used in super-hard braking.

leomio85

I'm a fairly aggressive driver doing 70-80MPH. Doing those speeds on the highway I found the ACC to be terrible. Even at one car length, it leaves about 5. Coming up on someone going slow, it will slam on the brakes when there's tons of room left and the car is slowly creeping up on it. If I was driving with someone that drove the way the car did on ACC, I'd punch them in the face. LoL. That's the thing tho, I don't blame ACC because it can't predict things like a human can. It doesn't see what the car 5+ cars away is doing, so you can prepare to brake or simply let off the gas enough to slow to a speed that you get close to the car in front but not need to brake ... instead of stabbing at the brakes whenever it gets close-ish to a car. That being said, it's a far, far more pleasant drive when I'm in control than when ACC is doing the work, spazzing out with the brake pedal like it has goddamn Tourette's.

Stop & go, eh ... leave it at 1-car-length and just let it do its thing. I don't even care if people cut in front since nobody is going anywhere fast. As far as restarting it, it's literally just a flick of a button on the steering wheel, so it doesn't bother me in the least.

Ludepower

ACC is good but could be a lot better. Lane keep assist kinda sucks and doesnt inspire confidence. Sometimes it runs on the line before it corrects itself. Kinda scary driving at 90 mph and trusting the LKAS.

Waetherman

Chalk it up to different driving styles; I'm not aggressive at 70-80 mph; I prefer to ride in the right lane unless passing, and will tolerate 5-10 mph difference for a few minutes before deciding to go around someone. But in stop-and-go you can bet I will sure as f*ck not let that a**hole ride up and cut in at the last minute.

Wait, that's probably you, isn't it?

leomio85

Why on Earth would you be using LKAS while doing 90MPH? LoL

I plead the 5th.

Being from the NYC metro area, I've just given up expecting anyone to actually yield to faster moving traffic. People just cruise in the left lane, completely oblivious, so I simply pass slower traffic (sometimes the cunt will speed up, but they usually start backing off when we close in on triple digits) ... because 100% of the time, they never do, so why waste time, gas, energy and frustration. As far as heavy NYC traffic, I avoid it if I can, but if I can't, I've found it's just better to shut the brain of, plop in the center lane and just pool all your energy into not committing a homicide.

Madd Dog

I consider it a driving aid that takes some of the workload off, but doesn’t replace me.

On my long drives where I am doing at least a couple hundred miles, I set it at about 5-8 mph over the limit, and let the cruise and lane keeper do the small adjustments, and I intervene when necessary, The drive to my winter abode is 1300 miles, and these driving aids sure take a load off. But I do take over partially in some cases, or fully, such as high speed traffic on the DC beltway. For the most part, at least 1,000 miles of the trip is me sitting at a few over the limit, with the .ACC and the LKA taking care of the mundane changes.

leomio85

High speed? DC Beltway? Is that an oxymoron? Every time I pass thru DC and Virginia, it comes to a crawl of incompetent drivers who do 55MPH across all lanes while drooling against their windshields. Even in NY, anyone with a VA plate seems like they're driving with their eyes closed. They must not have road tests to get their licenses. Easily the worst drivers in the country ... and I deal with NYC drivers on the regular.

Jerzy

I made 4400 miles practically keeping my foot on the floor for the most of time (what a relief). I fine adaptive cruise control very helpful at any speed. I keep it at one car space (one bar) but it appears that distance is speed dependent - at lower speeds distance gets smaller. I also like the fact that it works all the way to zero. It quits after about 5sec standing, probably to prevent accident when driver thinks it is safe to leave the car. Small tap on the gas engages it back. Lane Keep Assistance helps me to center the car on the lane (less minor adjustments) but is not replacing steering - it was not designed for that IMHO. Why would anybody allow car to cross the lane before correcting? It also detects that my hands are on the wheel making it safer for long trips.

I think there is a lot of things to love in this car. I like the fact that floor on the back seat is almost flat - it is not in all luxury cars I compared it to including BMW and Volvo. Automatic seat cooling and heating works fine - once set to AUTO and you can forget about it. I also admire the fact that navigation works when GPS signal is lost, by use of accelerometer. It also correctly tells direction of the parked car - my Garmin couldn't do that. I found in few reviews that touchpad requires long learning curve. Nothing further from the truth - it is intuitive and easy to operate without reading any instructions. Alternative would be to bring display closer/lower (or second display) forcing my eyes off the road more. For the same reason I like blind spot detectors inside, where I can see them easier without turning my head, instead of being placed at the end of the side mirrors. Acura made smart choices most of the time - pitty that infotainment is so buggy.

leomio85

Just an FYI, when the ACC deactivates because you've been standing, the + button on the steering wheel will reactivate it while maintaining the pre-set speed. You don't need to lift your foot to hit the gas again.

Jerzy

Good to know, thanks.

RDX-Rick

The bars for ACC on the MID do not indicate car lengths but rather the number of seconds that will be left between you and the car you are following. For example at 60 MPH you are travelling at 88 ft/sec. So one bar on the MID will leave an 88 ft space, If you are travelling at 30 MPH (or 44 ft/sec) that same one bar will result in a 44 ft space between you and the other vehicle.

The last paragraph was an example to demonstrate the principal of operation. Here is a table of the actual spacing intervals.

In the case of "leomio85" travelling at 80 MPH, the gap when set for a single bar should be 128 ft according to the table below, (80 MPH = 117 ft/sec x 1.1) which is 8.9 RDX car-lengths.

Jerzy

It appears that "Short" is not safe (only 1.1sec), but I counted two seconds passing the same point. It is possible that I counted too fast, but distance seemed to be adequate. In fact other drivers jumped into the space all the time, but it doesn't bother me - I call it "idiot factor".

RDX-Rick

I agree with your thinking that 1.1 seconds is too short. Even when I was younger and the best driver on the road, I don't think I could avoid running into the car in front if he slammed on the brakes while I was 1.1 seconds behind him.

Now that I am a tad older (and wiser), I use the "long" setting at 2.1 seconds which feels more comfortable for me.

Madd Dog

I generally drive through there on a weekend, and while there is always traffic, speeds can go anywhere from a crawl to 60-70 on different segments.

Waetherman

I was taught to use at least a 2 second gap between myself and the car ahead, so I always maintain that while driving manually. Wnen I got the RDX I timed it out and the shortest distance on the ACC seemed to be about 2 seconds to me. Travelling at lower speeds this seems to be fine, though at one point while travelling at highway speeds I did increase it to two bars because it just made me feel more secure.

iforum2005

Well, speed limit is 55 on Beltway and most of the Northern Virginia. I know some who have gotten pulled over for speeds a little above 60mph.

Waetherman

Haha. I actually got stuck in NYC traffic this weekend and I have to say the ACC kept my blood pressure in check.

mcpagano

"It fails to understand simple commands like "Go Home" (that used to work well). If you say "Navigate to Home" or "Navigation Home" works well.

Jerzy

I've tried it - it says Playing song ....... It doesn't make any sense. I thought it might be something wrong with my voice, but when I tried Google Map on my phone I have almost 100% success rate. There is always chance that microphone is bad, but replacing it might bring whole another bag of worms.

jhstl

I find the RDX to be a very good cruiser around town. It's geared well enough that it always seems to be able to feel peppy even though in reality it isn't the most powerful CUV out there.

In comparison, I've owned a 2019 CX-5 Signature as well as a 2020 Macan GTS. The GTS is obviously in a different world as far as pure acceleration from a standstill. It did feel like it needed to be in the upper part of the powerband or driving it hard for it to shine, which I do not push the envelop on when I'm just going about my business. In that regard, I actually prefer how the RDX responds in terms of daily driving. Build quality and fit / finish on the Macan was superb. The 18 way adjustable seats are my favorite I've ever been in. But those vehicles are definitely in different segments of the market so all of that is understandable.

I'm surprised to hear anyone singing the praises of the CX-5 in terms of performance or fit/finish. I thought overall it was only OK. It had decent torque but did not have enough top end to feel quick in my opinion. The infotainment system was super slow to boot up (I'd be out of my garage by the time the rear view camera would actually come on, and it was actually worse resolution wise than the RDX which is saying something). The knobs were made to appear as if they were metal but they were cheap plastic material with no weight to them. And for as much ground clearance as it had, the bottom plastic part of the doors came down too far for no reason at all, so they would constantly get hung up on grass over curbs when parallel parked along a street. My other gripe was that the tires seemed too narrow for the vehicle - they should have been at least 20-30MM wider. I never felt comfortable cornering in it and the AWD definitely did not handle like either of the others I had.

Of course all of this is subjective though, so to each their own. We're happy with the RDX for now.