My regular ride is a 2023 Tech.
Got a loaner which was an 2025 Advance.

I actually like the seats in the Tech better. They seem to have more padding even though they have fewer adjustments.
In comfort mode, the suspension is marginally cushier in the Advance, but it comes at the expense of a more isolated driving feel--less feel through the steering and less responsive to input.
I didn't try the audio system but I'm sure the Advance is better.
The ride is quite a bit more silent in the Advance. Not night and day different but definitely noticeable.
The rear camera on the Advance is of a really poor quality, barely usable IMO.
The HUD looks cool/futuristic but I prefer to have it off because I found it distracting. I want my eyes focusing on the road not admiring the display (which would probably get old anyway if I owned the car), and I also found it too bright at night (there's probably a way to make it less bright, still having white light continuously in my field of view is not my thing).

Overall, do I think the Advance is worth the premium over a Tech? Definitely NO. I was happy to get back in my car and didn't miss it at all.

I once had an A Spec loaner. That is one loaner that I felt bad returning. Even though I don't like dark interiors (both seats and headliner) and didn't care for the red gauges, the perforated steering wheel and the seat comfort made it feel a lot better than the Tech and surprisingly the 20" wheels didn't make the ride comfort noticeably worse compared to the Tech.

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

 

Thanks for the review. Always nice to get a gauge on different models and trims. Someone on this forum pointed out why the rear view camera on the Advance was worse than the Tech but I can’t remember the reason.

 

Another RDX might be our move when we part with our current 19 A-Spec, if we go that route def will go with A-Spec Advanced package.

I'd like an MDX Type S for the family but with only 1 kiddo, it doesn't make sense, until trips like this weekend we had 4 adults and a car seat and it wasn't great lol.

 

Make sure you pay attention to the rear camera quality when you test drive it to make sure you are OK with it. It might seem like a small thing but it bothered me every time I used it.

 

I think it has the 360 camera too right? My wife and I both like that feature, Is just the backup camera really that bad or different?

 

It has a 360 camera too, not all that great either. I never even bother to pay attention to it. The backup camera is really bad, both resolution and brightness.

Getting the 360 camera right depends a lot on good image processing software (stitching a bunch of images from different cameras) and I don't think Acura did a good job there either. This is unlike the rear camera which is just the image from a single camera.

 

I have an Aspec Advance---the 360 camera is very useful. it does not need to be HD quality to be useful.
The backup camera in the Aspec Advanced vs the Tech or regular Aspec I can confirm is worse. It is certainly not "unusable" but it is worse.

 

The following is a copy/paste from a post I made several months ago...............

I believe (in other words my guess) the reason is, that the "standard" RDX has a high resolution backup camera (guessing 1080p) , but the front and two mirror cameras on the "birdseye" RDX are lower resolution (guessing 720p).

If they tried to stich together the images from different resolution cameras, the images from the rear camera would not be in proportion to the other 3 cameras. So the solution was to degrade the resolution of the rear camera to match the other 3 cameras.

This may be more understandable if you are familiar with a PC's screen resolution settings. A common screen resolution is 1920x1080. If you change that setting to 800x600 you will see all the desktop items more than double in size. In birdseye view you need all the cameras to display an object to the same scale.

The quality of the RDX cameras is honestly the thing that I dislike most about my RDX. When parking on streets where the sidewalk is adjacent to the curb, I cannot distinguish where the pavement meets the curb, or where the curb meets the sidewalk. There just isn't enough contrast to see the 3 individual items. The fact that the birdseye display is also very tiny doesn't help.

 

Yeah, I would really have to be trying hard to make any use of the top view display.

For me, the better resolution camera + parking sensors + side mirrors is much more satisfying and confidence inspiring solution than the top view display.

The fact that the Advance trims make the rear camera worse while requiring I pay 1000's more makes no sense at all.

 

I have a 24' Aspec Advance. The rear camera quality does suck, but I love having the top view of the vehicle. That and the front camera are probably 2 of my favorite things about the Aspec Advance over my 21 Aspec.

 

I don't have any issues with our A-Spec backup camera, are they not the same? Can the cameras be swapped?

 

A Spec has the better rear camera. No known fix for Advance trims.

 

My post above explains that the models with Birds Eye View, will have an inferior rear-view camera. In Canada, the Aspec model did not have Birds Eye View.

I had to pay extra to get the Platinum Elite, with the poor backup camera.
In the last few years they have offered an Aspec Platinum Elite, which offers the inferior camera in Aspec trim.

 

Interesting points and I had no idea on the camera difference. I have to disagree on the HUD though. I've had a 2022 Aspec/Advance since new and it's not distracting IMO. I miss it when I drive cars without it.

 

I agree.

I had never driven a car with a HUD before purchasing this RDX. It will now be the top requirement in any car I purchase in the future.

 

Interesting. I have a Aspec/advance, I find the HUD SO distracting. I leave it turned off always.

 

Sounds like a YMMV feature (unlike say a backup camera that absolutely no one would say is a gimmick).

 

For me the 360 camera and HUD are things I use every time I drive the RDX and wouldn't have bought one without those features. The only time I look at the gauge cluster is to check on tire pressure or the trip odometer.

 

+1 to the 360 camera. Because of all the tight parking spaces in my city I would never drive without one. I even added aftermarket front/rear parking cameras to my older RSX.

The resolution is poor and obviously grainy, but it is more than good enough to do its job which is to see the location of any obstacles.