oblio98

My 2019 RDX is about to come off warranty (3 years) so this is where I usually get a new car. The 2022 is not out yet, the MDX is too big for me (It's a bus), and I started looking around but most dealers in this area have very few cars I'm interested in. In checking out the other manufacturers websites, I got infatuated with an Audi SQ5 but maxed out it's almost $70K, and there are none in New England, so that helps me get that out of my system. However, the 2021 Q3 looks pretty nice and maxed out comes in around $48K. I would go test drive one but don't want to jump the gun with the 2022's coming out for both the RDX and the Q3 soon.

So, have any of you checked out the Q3? How does it stack up with your RDX? Just curious.

Thanks

fiatlux

Well, the Q3 is an entire class size down, so it's considerably smaller, the interior is cheaper, and it feels less substantial. If you're really cross-shopping against the subcompact segment as well, personally I liked the XC40 over the Q3, GLA, X1, and UX by a fair margin.

Showkey

“My 2019 RDX is about to come off warranty (3 years)“. …….??????????

2019 Acura RDX/Warranty
4 yr/50,000 mi basic, 6 yr/70,000 mi powertrain


I agree with fiatlux on the class comparison.

Madd Dog

Car choice is hard to come by at the moment.

Chargersix

You are safe with an RDX many years past the warranty. With a Q3, selling at the end of the warranty period makes sense. But it’s your dime.

JB in AZ

Well, if you trade cars at the end of warranty, you might want to take a good look at the Lincoln Corsair.

This is all I will say here. If you want more info, please PM me.

swttsx007

I am glad you confirmed this. I, too, for some reason thought the basic warranty was up after 3 years. I was just about to bust out the owners manual to check. Thank you!

oblio98

Wow, I thought it was 3 years, but I actually have 56,000+ miles on it already, so I think I'm out of luck anyway.

Thanks for the info on the Q3. I did not realize it was considerably smaller than the RDX, which shows I've never checked one out. As it stands, I will still wait for the 2022 RDX to appear to see if I'm going to make a move.

Thanks all

fiatlux

If you're looking at the Q3, and the SQ5 is out of budget because it's too expensive, why not look at the Q5? The Q5 is what the RDX competes with anyways; the SQ5 is what a hypothetical RDX Type S would be competing with. There's also the Q5e which is a PHEV, and Acura literally has nothing to compete with it.

hans471

If I were looking at any German vehicle I would really be thinking of trading it off when the warranty expired. The upkeep and repair costs for them seem high (as confirmed by C. R. and other publications). Ownership costs and depreciation on European vehicles seem to be amongst the highest.

anoop

I had a Q3 as a loaner. I think it's lacking in the luxury department compared to the RDX. There are so many better choices than the Q3. My top choice if I had to replace my RDX right now would be the Model Y. But I also like the XC60.

RBP3072

As others have mentioned, besides size differences, tech is lower as well. If your current RDX has HUD, know that the Q3 doesn’t offer it, (have to step up to the Q5 for it, which is the appropriate luxury-brand competition for the RDX too). There are other items not avail on the Q3, but that popped into my mind.

Madd Dog

The model Y is in my sights, too. But I am waiting for Y 2.0 with the new batteries and the mega castings and giving that some time to see how it shakes out.

anoop

I think that stuff will take a while to show up. I'm starting to get impatient. Let's see if the impatience hits the point where I actually make the purchase. The main reason I'm craving it is that I found, on the test the drive, that it has better seat comfort than the RDX AND drives better. I don't even feel like doing further comparison shopping.

sonyfever

I thought Y already has the casted rear frame? I actually like 3 better than Y, because Y basically drives like a raised 3, and on Y I feel the setup is s a little too sharp for a SUV. Also the suspension is crazy stiff at the recommend 40-something psi, and Tesla still need to figure out how to keep the agile handling without sacrificing the rear ride comfort so much. But like you said, if you only sit in the front, the seat is softer than RDX and super comfortable, and the ride quality is very good.

anoop

I find the ride in the RDX quite stiff too. During my test drive with the Y, I don't think it felt is was appreciably worse than the RDX in terms of suspension comfort. I drove the one with 19" wheels. I have heard that the wheel size can make a big difference. The ride with 20" feels a lot stiffer.

flames9

if your not a fan of a stiffer ride, you may not like the XC 60. I love my T8, but I find it is a bit of a stiffer ride. I do not have air suspension, but I had a loaner for a week that had it....I didnt notice much of a difference. But others on Swedespeed say the ride is super. When it comes to cars you truly need to test drive them. And yes a certain car may not be in the exact same class, but if you fall in love with it and meets ur needs, thats all that matters.

Jim7707

I test drove the Model Y LR 3 times, Model 3 LR once and Model 3 Performance once, all in April. All have a pretty stiff ride but in test driving the MY & M3 back-to-back I felt the MY was a little too firm for my tastes although it didn't feel a lot different than my 2016 RDX. The M3 felt a click better as far as ride comfort and I generally liked the way it drove better than the MY although they aren't that much different. All are a hoot to drive but M3P was by far my favorite. None of them are particularly quiet but the MY had some boom from the rear the M3 didn't. Placed an order for the M3P but backed out. Still will probably get one at some point. Wish I could afford a Model S Plaid but probably don't really need a sub 10 sec. ¼ car.

Here is an article on the new mega casting to be done at the Austin plant when it get up and running.

https://electrek.co/2021/05/17/tesla...factory-texas/

anoop

We are totally derailing this thread, but what the heck... (sorry OP)

Did you pay attention to the tire sizes during your test drive?
Did you end up losing your $100 ordering "non refundable fee" when you canceled your order?
Did you get a MY with the updated interior?
Also, when I complained about electric whine from the rear after my test drive, I was told that is something they have a fix for.

Madd Dog

The model Y LR is almost sold out for Q3.

anoop

That would make sense since they have been showing September delivery.

RBP3072

I'll contribute to the derail, haha.

For potential Tesla purchases, I highly recommend checking out your local Tesla Service Center options and local reddit/regional Tesla boards/etc. Depending on where you're located and what exists, you could run into some issues. My brother is on his second Tesla (always been a huge tech guy, from his career field, to his material possessions, etc). That said, he has been debating selling his current Tesla due to several warranty service-related issues he's had over the years, and in particular correcting them here in the CenTex area. We were actually chatting about this via email last week, (I was asking him about repairs after major damage from a recent storm we had), and here's a snip of that exchange -

"Supposedly my car will be finished with its hail repairs tomorrow, but we'll see. The damage impacted the resale price enough that it was worth it to do it, even taking into account the payout from State Farm. Still on the fence about selling. After all, I have no commute, and neither does ***, and we've been ok for these past two weeks without a second car. It IS a damned good car, with great features, and it's amazing not having to go to the gas station. But Tesla still has just the one dinky little strip mall service center for all of Austin and the surrounding area, and that's f'ing ridiculous. Someone else had their battery coolant start leaking, and the soonest Tesla could see them was three weeks. A battery coolant leak effectively means the car is non-operational, because you can't drive it if you can't keep the batteries at the right temp. So three weeks minimum with no car for that person. And that's under warranty. My warranty is up in less than a year. So, despite it being a great car, the company hasn't kept up with the scale, and it's not like you can just take it to your local mechanic for work."

Make sure to do your homework. Perhaps for our region, getting the new factory and potential future projects will lead Musk to want to have a flagship service center in the future, but who knows, no mention, just other rumors so far for his plans.

Madd Dog

We are certainly not ready to pull a trigger.

My wife just opined that when her 2014 Accord goes, we will just go down to one car. She drives it fewer than 5K miles a year. I make sure it gets out at least once a week and gets fully up speed and all the appropriate fluids get to temperature. For the past two years we have been on time oil changes and not miles oil changes.

So as much as I’m intrigued with the Tesla, I am going to hold off and, as I said above, see how Model Y 2.0 shakes out. While I can only do level 1 in my garage, there is a supercharger station less than a 1/2 mile walk from me.

DJ Iceman

I read this sentiment a lot online. Pardon me for extending your quote, but thoughts along the lines of, "I'd never own a German car out of warranty because they're unreliable and expensive to fix," frustrate me.

I had a German car, and it didn't cost me a thing for maintenance because thankfully it was a lease and I got rid of it before the warranty was up (and scheduled maintenance was "free"). But words can't describe how awful the ownership experience was, even though technically it didn't cost me a thing. The car was in the shop, on average, more than once a month for the three years we had it. All kinds of things went wrong, and they never had parts in stock, and half the time the part they ordered didn't fit or fix the problem. My wife and I were on a first-name basis with three different service departments (due to military moves during the time we had the thing). So we drove loaners *a lot*, when they had loaners to give (as apparently our car wasn't the only one in the shop for extended periods of time). But unless you've been through it, you just can't imagine how disappointing and ultimately stressful it is to not know, every time you went for a drive, whether or not the car was actually going to make it to the destination.

That's why I push back on these "just trade it in before the warranty expires" posts. Even though the repairs may not cost you a dime, there is still an intangible cost. Not every German car is a lemon (like mine certainly was), but the numbers don't lie--they simply DO have more problems, on average, than Japanese cars.