Madd Dog

I think you mean “behaves”, not “performs”. A couple of false positives on the “brake” sign? A message saying drive mode not available? (The last time that happened to me, I twisted the knob and heard the little clink and saw the drive mode change on the little screen by the tach, even though I got no change showing on the big screen.)

would I like the various little electronic things to work perfectly? Yes. Would I rather drive a Camry that did? No.


I suspect I have different priorities than do some other people.

mathnerd88

If I wanted a car that just works and drives, I would just buy a Toyota Rav4. There's a reason why I bought the RDX. I wanted everything to work and spent $50k on a car that is supposed to 'work.' I would have gladly paid $30k for a car with more functionality than this, which there are plenty of options now.

Stew4HD

... Imagine that, another thread derailed

samiam_68

One of the reasons people buy new cars today is for the more sophisticated infotainment options, and when those options don't work, that is a good reason to down vote the car and not recommend it. Most people don't NEED new cars because, mechanically, their older 3-6 year vehicles are just fine. They WANT new cars because of the fancy new features. They EXPECT these features to work properly. If ANY feature is not working properly, and cannot be remedied, then the car is not reliable.

This is automotive Darwinism. When a car gets panned in the media, the automakers are pressured to either make things right, or risk losing future sales due to negative publicity.

mathnerd88

Exactly! I certainly wouldn’t have traded my G37x for this vehicle if it weren’t for the fancy new features that were advertised. If I wanted a car to just be an actual car my G37x would’ve been way better than the RDX in terms of driving experience, a radio/infotainment system that works 100% of the time, RWD biased AWD, plus with more HP and no turbo lag with a smooth running V6 and an actually cold AC. I can change the car to sport mode as easy as shifting the gear to DS mode.

What compelled me to buy the RDX was how great it looks and the upgraded infotainment system with all these new features that my Infiniti didn’t have. I mean, that's why most people are buying this vehicle right?

robnalex

And then there are people like us who bought an RDX because our 2001 CL and 2003 Saab are OLD and because we needed more cargo space for our trips. For us, the fancy bells and whistles are an added bonus. We plan to replace the CL with a new sedan in the next year or so (watching for the new incarnation of the TLX) but still having a hard time justifying that since the 19-year-old CL performs as beautifully now as when she was new, even though she doesn't look as pretty.

mathnerd88

It looks like the people you're describing are in the almost extreme minority. The average time of how long Americans hold onto new cars is only around 6-7 years. For used cars it is 5-6 years. The average age of a modern vehicle is 11.4 years.

https://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/28/amer...than-ever.html

Of course you can't satisfy them all.

JAB00

I replaced my 05 TL December 2018 with the 2019 A-Spec RDX. My wife replaced her 07 Ford Escape with a 2019 Subaru Forester. We plan on keeping our new cars at least 10 years.

Tony Pac

The fact that people are contradicting themselves is hilarious. People always find a way to downplay the success of a car that put German automaker in trouble! A car that fighting with big names like Lexus, Audi, BMW, and MB. A car that is getting rave reviews. A car that is making 1000s of buyers happy. Yet, there are a small % of people are trying to justify that the RDX is not good because of infotainment or it doesn't offer digital dashboard or it doesn't offer a more powerful engine.

When we bring facts that the reviewers are loving it or sales numbers aren't slowing down because 200 are complaints. What do we hear???? The RDX is cheaper than the rest of the other brands and that's why it sells. They say it as the RDX is $25K and Q5 $65K.

Keep up the good work folks! Acura isn't stopping! Type S is coming. the next car that will compete head to head with C300 and 3 Series. I won't say A4 as the current TLX is beating it.

mathnerd88

I think you’re misinformed. Being cheap is not necessarily a good thing, but you’re welcome to think the other way. Acura has to be cheap otherwise it won’t sell...lol. Majority of RDX buyers are buying the base and tech trims.

What you want is to make profit with the least amount of effort, not sell more. Please take an economics class.

I would rather sell five items at $100 apiece than sell 500 items at $1 apiece. More product can also mean more problems that can occur.

Tony Pac

To stay relevant to this topic. Honda and Acura aren't cutting thousands of job like some other companies I am sure you are getting my point.

The fact that Honda is investing to have a Halo car proves its profitability. Not easy to produce and maintain NSX. We all know NSX isn't selling like hotcakes but Honda is keeping it as a Halo car and taking cues to build the next TLX and MDX to challenge Germans.

robnalex

We resemble that remark.

mathnerd88

You can say the same about the Nissan GTR...

Yotrek

“After the mega flop QX50, Infiniti is coming with QX55!” Is this supposed to be a good news for RDX owner?

mathnerd88

QX55 is the coupe version of the QX50. It doesn't compete with the RDX. It's supposed to compete with BMW X4.

The OP is just very enthusiastic about how 'well' Acura is doing although he doesn't even own an RDX.

kurtatx

Does the public honestly want a coupe version of an SUV??

I mean, Infinitis are okay, but come on. What is Nissan doing anymore?

mathnerd88

Which is why this thread is kind of irrelevant...Infiniti is simply releasing a new product to compete in a niche market that German brands have. It's not trying to replace the QX50, which is what the OP is alluding to in his title. He's suggesting that because of the QX50 failing, Infiniti decided to release the QX50, but that's not the case. The QX50 will still sell alongside the QX55, just like how the Q60 coupe is selling alongside the Q50 sedan.

Tony Pac

Hahahhaha

Tony Pac

At least I have an Acura and I have been part of Honda family for over a decade. Please kindly ask those people to stop commenting or creating fake reviews that they don’t even own an Acura. I love Honda products and I had nothing but best experience.

Tony Pac

All I am saying Nissan should shut down Infiniti division.

Tony Pac

QX55 will compete with Germans... good joke. Just like QX50 destroyed Q5, GLC and X3, now the QX55 will take the lead and replace RX350’s #1 positon in the suv market ��

Acura should build a coupe RLX to compete with E class coupe ������

fiatlux

Given the sheer number of GLC/GLE Coupes and X4/X6's that I see, I think the answer is a resounding yes, at least in California.

fiatlux

Because of sales volume? Acura barely outsold Infiniti last year, so should Honda shut down the Acura division? (Actually, that question is a bit too real because it's no secret that there's quite a big group of execs at Honda who think the Acura business unit should be defunded).

Tony Pac

Only last year since Infiniti was giving their cars at
at 20% discount.

If honda execs think that way, they wouldn’t invest in RDX, and now Type S and the new MDX. If you know more than us, please share an article with us.
i want to read like nissan posted to cut 1000s of positions. I didn’t come across any news yet.

al28

I don't like seeing Infiniti or any, business, fail. Someone out there is then out a job and life is harder. Etc. And I quite like the Q50. Today it's them, but could be you next time.

Also - about economics...

Profit is important but that's a number that's got way more factors playing into it.

Lets assume that somehow, Acura is selling cars and only makes about $1 profit on each of these vehicles. And then Infiniti is selling their car and somehow is only making $450 in profit. Yes, by your measure, Acura needs to sell 450 units before making the same profit as Infiniti selling 1 unit. But there's so many things ignored in that picture.

We need to set some facts straight. Luxury vehicles do not cost that much more to build than their mainstream versions. Even when the chassis is slightly modified and made better in the luxury vehicle, it's not a massive cost compared to the markup you can put on a luxury vehicle's selling price. For one, both cars will require very similar regulatory costs - emissions testing, government certification, crash testing, climate testing, etc. Then we move on the actual parts of the car. Both cars need 4 wheels, 4 tires, 4 brakes, body panels, 4 doors, glass, dashboard, transmission, engine, interior carpets, etc. Yes, adding premium materials and maybe changing the sizes of these things to...say, larger sizes will make it more expensive, but it wont be much
compared to your end product's value. Putting all the parts together is generally a similar process and won't add much to the overall cost either.

​​​​​​But then, there's the actual payment people make. Here is where selling 450 units is better than 1 unit of equal profit.
Most car companies make most of their money from...the financial department. Acura and Infiniti both offer financing through themselves, and you don't have much of a choice. If you sold 450 units, and you're going to make more money off of some people with higher interest rates. This is good money - you're essentially getting more money on top of the cars value that you just sold.

Then you look at the parts department. You're going to be selling way more parts & accessories when 450 people are driving each unit daily vs 1 person driving 1 unit daily.

Finally, consider the segment. This matters even moreso now. As you know, SUV segment is booming. Sedan market...is shrinking. So now SUV units sold is more important. Particularly because SUVs have bigger margins. Smaller cars sell for less. Bigger cars sell for more - makes sense right? As we covered, it doesn't really cost that much more to make a larger, more luxurious car. But since it's larger, you've got a much larger margin as well. So for every small ILX sold, Acura might make $3,000. But for every RDX sold, it's probably closer to $8-10k. Now you can see where things start to matter. If 450 units sold were 1/2 SUVs, it would make more profit than say, 1 unit of sedan. That's why just comparing global units sold is a bit silly. If most of infiniti's units were sedans, and Acura's were SUVs, the money parity is huge. This is especially true with luxury SUVs.

So Infiniti failing in the QX50 market is a very bad sign. Good thing their QX60 is so cheap that it's selling pretty well - at least anecdotally, since all the Ubers near me are QX60s.



I do have one thing to say about the infotainment issues that the RDX has vs Infiniti's infotainment. Infiniti still uses that awful 2 screen setup from 2010. If you were to compare them, it'd have to be Acura's old infotainment vs Infiniti's. And in that case both suck ass.

The new infotainment is new. That's why it's got bugs. When you've just created new programs/apps, it's going to be buggy. It takes time to patch and fix the bugs. And with each patch, new bugs will be added. That's how programs are. That's programming in general. So yes, we all whine and complain about the computer aspects of the car, and yes it's buggy. But, just give it some time. As the software is found across more and more of Acura's lineup, you'll end up with a better and better infotainment. Can't promise it'll be before some people's lease is over though...or Android Auto.

mathnerd88

I would agree with you about the infotainment except Mercedes, Audi, and BMW both also have "brand new" infotainment systems in their cars in the past year or two, but I don't see a pending lawsuit or any news articles about them failing.

I also doubt that Acura makes $8-$10k per each RDX sold. The base RDX barely costs more than a top of the line Honda Accord with the same engine and is a larger vehicle. I might tend to agree with you that they make more as you go higher on trim, but not on the base or tech models, which is what the majority of the RDX's sold are.

Also, I noticed that luxury brands tend to have much higher incentives than non-luxury brands, and most people don't buy it at MSRP anyways. Maybe for the first couple months of its release when there are no incentives is when Acura makes the most on them. For nonluxury brands, you're less likely to get such a big discount on them.

Madd Dog

The RDX more than doubled the sales of its competitor. More than double.

mathnerd88

Now THAT is a good joke. I would rather put myself in an Infiniti Q60 coupe with 400 hp than get in an RLX coupe.

fiatlux

From earlier in the decade, but according to some former colleagues that work for corporate in Tokyo, some of the bosses still sees Acura as a red-headed step-child and are looking for an excuse to dropkick it to oblivion. That's why Acura treads so lightly; they can't afford a misstep:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...on-in-supercar

FYI they missed on this goal badly
If you truly think Honda is fully behind Acura, why is it that the portfolio seems to be so lackluster, RDX notwithstanding? Acura has the hand-me-down ILX they've been riding forever, the TLX, the RLX nobody buys and will likely be killed off soon, the RDX, an aging MDX, and an NSX halo. Meanwhile, Lexus has a full set of sedans (IS, ES, GS, LS), plus a suite of crossovers (UX, NX, RX), a stable of SUVs (GX, LX), a couple coupes (RC, LC), and will soon have another halo in the LC-F. They've also got cars aimed squarely at the M/RS/AMG cars. Acura? They don't even have anything to compete with the M-Sport/S/faux-AMG cars, let alone the big dogs...

Tony Pac

Exactly!!! That was a joke and sarcasm.
You said Infiniti is building QX55 to compete with X4. Let’s think for a second and keep our love and hate for Acura and Infiniti aside. Let’s have facts and numbers.

1. QX50 which is in a perfect, hottest and most demanding segment can’t sell. Do you think the QX55 will sell more than that?? If QX50 can’t even sell 50% of X3, do you really think the QX55 will change that?
2. Do you know that the X4 and GLC coupe sell very low volumes? MB and BMW can afford that but Infiniti won’t be. Why! Read my next point.
3. QX30, another hot segment. Where Q3, GLA, UX, X40 and X1 and X2 are doing well and Infiniti shut down the entire vehicle. Japanese brand can’t afford just to produce car for fun. They need sells numbers. If SALES fail. The vehicle gets chopped!

All brands are chasing these segments and Infiniti is struggling. Why?? Please you tell me and I am asking you this with respect and absolutely no bad feeling.
The QX60 sells decent compared to other Infiniti vehicles for 2 reasons, cheaper than the MDX and RX, and also it is used as fleet vehicle by car rentals.

Yumcha

@ Infiniti...and this is coming from an Infiniti owner here.

Tony Pac

2013 article and your friend told you.

No further comments! I don’t need to proof anything.

mathnerd88

The RDX is the first Acura vehicle designed and engineered in the US and not from Japan...what does that tell you?

Effectively, it looks like Acura is going towards an American brand and not a Japanese one. It's a shame.

fiatlux

Believe whatever you want. The proof is in the pudding, but go ahead and continue being a fanboy.

Yumcha

Acura isn't terrible...but, if we're talking premium, they have fallen behind the pack for awhile now. The NSX revival was a nice step in the right direction...now, do something for the rest of that fleet and compete with the Germans. Please.

Tony Pac

Please kindly answer my post above. Let’s not lose focus. Thanks in advance.

Or do you need some time to digest my questions.

Tony Pac

All I can say, Infiniti is paying certain individuals here to post negative reviews about the RDX.

Definitely, RDX is having a huge impact on the success of Infiniti is a brand. Especially after the Type S and the media coverage that Acura received puts Infiniti in a difficult situation!

Not cool Infiniti! Focus on improving the QX50

mathnerd88

I think you already know the answers to those questions. No need to ask.

mathnerd88

Seriously? This is what you're resorting to? Calling others who are not agreeing with you being paid by Infiniti?

Tony Pac

Appreciate your honesty! I know very, very well the answers. I was reminding you and your crew who are spreading negativity about the success of RDX. But I still respect your opinion and you have all the right to like or dislike Acura. At least your this answer makes me believe that you know where Infiniti stands.

Have a good one brother. Let’s wait for the Type S success.