It's been a while since I've been here - I had a 2004 TL that was totalled in 2008. Been away since about then.

I'm now considering a 2019-2022 RDX A-Spec SH-AWD. I'm curious what I need to be looking out for? I have read about transmission issues; quirky infotainment and less than stellar gas mileage - like 20mpg on the highway. With premium required, that will add up!

Curious what your experiences have been; what I need to look out for and, possibly, preferred years' I should be considering?

Many thanks!

 

others love them but personally its the worst car ive owned lol

some have the creaks the popping roof, the randomly blowing out back windows

every car model has some quirks but after 14 honda/acuras i dont enjoy my aspec at all

Im actively looking to replace it as we speak

thats just my .02

 

Premium fuel is NOT required, rather "recommended". The Label on the gas door says 87 MIN. I used only 87 in my 2019 for ~30,000 miles with zero related issues. Unless you drive with the pedal to the metal all the time, you will not likely notice any performance difference. This has been a hotly debated issue, so make up your own miind.

 

Thanks, all. Good to know on the premium fuel.

I've got my choices down to this vehicle, a Mazda CX50 Turbo, a 2023 Pathfinder (thank GOD no more CVT) and a Audi Q5. I love the value and interior of the Mazda. They've come a long way! I like the styling of the Acura. The versatility of the Pathfinder is nice - three rows os useable seats and then the Audi is just a stylish package that seems to combine all but the 3 rows. My challenge with the Audi is the price point and the reliability.

Keep the thoughts coming. Love to hear them - thanks!

 

I’ve had a 2022 ASpec/Advance since January. No issues so far and I’m enjoying it. I’m averaging 21mpg in mixed driving.

I would avoid 2019-2020 as those years seem to have more issues. It was refreshed in 2022.

 

2022 Advance+Aspec since March and no issues here as well. I use 87 fuel and average around 20.5 mpg - although I have a short commute. On highway driving/trips I get around 22-23mpg with cruise and 70mph+. Nothing beats Apec blue pearl for color and the RDX had the best room without getting a 3rd row (we have a highlander for that). I looked at the Mazda 5/50 and the 50 offers a bit more room but didn't love the drive. The CX-5 had a really nice interior but felt more cramped than the optima I was coming from. Also, the noise reduction of the 22 advanced + aspec is better than almost anything else I tested in this price range. Overall, really happy with my purchase.

 

Had my 20 A-Spec here for 2 years and 21k miles now and zero issues or noises. I'd highly recommend one!

 

I think you’re going to get opinions all over the place and likely heavy on the two extremes. The QC on this car is a mess and it seems folks get a good one or bad one. Mine almost killed me with the limp mode issue. After 2 years of nonstop repairs, I gave up on it. Acura ‘care’ from corporate is lip-service only - not much action, just promises. Dealer experience is hit and miss too. Some are good, others are mediocre at best. Do your homework with this car, look at service history, etc. make sure you have a good dealer as well. Be willing to acknowledge you may love the car for a decade, or you may get fed up with it and want out. As long as you’re willing to get out and put it behind you, it won’t be the end of the world of you get a bad one.

 

My experience has been largely a good one. I've had a few small issues with infotainment and a random fuel pump problem that the dealer took care of. Thankfully with updates, the infotainment (mainly Apple Carplay) has been working well for the most part. The car handles well, is plenty quick and has the features that were important to me. Still loving the vented seats, massive sunroof and ELS stereo! I used to run 89 octane only and tested 91 for the past year and won't go back to 89 given the lift in performance and bump in fuel economy. I travel for work and on highways using cruise control I average 27 to 28 mpg consistently and a few trips approaching 30mpg. I typically run at 75mph and live in Ohio (flatlands). Also a big fan of the adaptive cruise control, brake-hold feature and lane-centering. I've got 52k on it with the original Goodyear RS-As on it. Plenty of tread left but swapping those out for a better all-season tire. I'd personally buy a new 22' as I have heard many of the quirks have been resolved and the price of used RDXs is still quite high! Good luck!!

 

[QUOTE=19 RDX A-Spec;16839894]My experience has been largely a good one. I've had a few small issues with infotainment and a random fuel pump problem that the dealer took care of. Thankfully with updates, the infotainment (mainly Apple Carplay) has been working well for the most part. The car handles well, is plenty quick and has the features that were important to me. Still loving the vented seats, massive sunroof and ELS stereo! I used to run 89 octane only and tested 91 for the past year and won't go back to 89 given the lift in performance and bump in fuel economy. I travel for work and on highways using cruise control I average 27 to 28 mpg consistently and a few trips approaching 30mpg. I typically run at 75mph and live in Ohio (flatlands). Also a big fan of the adaptive cruise control, brake-hold feature and lane-centering. I've got 52k on it with the original Goodyear RS-As on it. Plenty of tread left but swapping those out for a better all-season tire. I'd personally buy a new 22' as I have heard many of the quirks have been resolved and the price of used RDXs is still quite high! Good luck!![/

 

If it were reliable which it is not it'd be a 9/10 car - my gripes are around road noise, poor shift logic, terrible brake pedal feel, and overly firm suspension tuning. Reliability wise it's the worst car I've ever owned - squeaky brakes, squeaky rear hatch, squeaky control arms, bad blower motor, CarPlay has never been stable, left passenger window stopped working, headrest leather came apart...list goes on. The car has never left me stranded but I sure know my service advisors way better than I should and it feels much older than its age (3 years) - my TSX felt like new for 10-12 years. Despite all those problems I'd still give it a 7.5/10 but that's not an amazing score when I'd give my other cars 9s (NB Miata, Protege5) and 10s (TSX, NC Miata)

Acura kinda has me by the balls with this car - it's the best fit for my needs in terms of practically, style, luxury, and price. Nothing else comes close and I don't drive it enough (9,000km/yr) to want to spend $25k upgrading to a GV70 or X3.

 

I think that's true with any car and any car forum...you hear more about the problems than the successes. We've had two RDXs and have been happy with both of them. No problems with either one. The 2014 my daughter has now is still going strong without issues, as is our 2021.
A lot depends on what's important to you. For us it's all just fine (altho there are some minor irritations with it) but as always, YMMV.

 

That list of issues is insane. What year is it? In all my years of owning cars I’ve never had one with more than a handful of issues. Crappy high school cars excluded….

 

52K on RS-A’s might be some sort of record. They must be super loud with that many miles. I hated them so much on my previous car I had the dealer replace them before delivery on my ‘22 RDX.

 

So long as you temper your expectations, you'll like the car. It may be a $40-50k vehicle, but it's built to the quality of a $25-35k vehicle ... they're built in the same plants as Hondas. This is why you'll see plenty of build quality issues for the new age Acuras. You're buying the car for the engine, SH-AWD and the sound system (if that's a priority on your list). It's certainly not the fastest, but better than a lot of the anemic crossover offerings. Driving experience is great ... ride could be better and handling when SH-AWD isn't helping could be better, but overall, it's the highlight of the car. If you expect the car to have rattles, creaks & clicks, they may not be as annoying than if you went to Acura thinking you were actually going to get better build quality.

 

For your entertainment, here's my list: -Replaced front control arms 2x

-Replaced front struts and dampers

-Replaced brakes all around 2x

-Replaced HVAC Blending motor

-Replaced tailgate motor assembly 3x

-Replaced tailgate top seal 3x

-Replaced left radiator fan 2x

-Replaced right radiator fan 3x

-Adjusted sunroof due to body flex popping

-Replaced sunroof due to body flex popping

-Adjusted sunroof again due to LEAKING due to replaced sunroof

-Infotainment issues - too numerous to list ranging from random freezes, hangs, process failures (beans converter has stopped, tuner stopped working, black screen, etc.)

-Adjust rear tailgate due to misaligned panel

-Auto brake hold would release on its own and the car would begin rolling at stop lights

-Limp mode - the one that can get you killed - this car would randomly go into limp mode with NO codes stored. Dealer could never find evidence of the issue. The last time this happened, I was nearly hit by a semi due to my sudden loss of power and reduced ability to get out of traffic. I’m very lucky I wasn’t killed. I restarted the car that day, it behaved just like nothing happened and I made a beeline to the Lexus dealer. The car I wanted was in stock and was out on a test drive. I was so mad at the RDX I plunked my debit card down and bought the Lexus right out from under the person test driving it.

 

Outstanding advice. Set expectations properly with this car when buying will save lots of frustration downstream.

 

Well, it used to be that a $25k Honda was pretty much the most reliable, well built car you could buy (next to a Toyota) so I don't think saying to expect build quality of a $25k car is an actual excuse. The current Civic is well screwed together and has the normal Honda reliability record. It's the RDX out of all Honda's cars that's an unreliable mess.

2019, in service date of July 2019 so it's just over 3 years old with only 30,000kms on it. I checked my logs and these are the things listed:

2020: Tailgate springs replaced (squeaky), brakes replaced (squeaky), new driver's seat motor/seat bottom (seat doesn't return to correct position), seat motor ECU replaced, front control arms replaced (squeaky)
2021: Brakes replaced (squeaky)
2022: Front passenger side window stopped working (loose connector), blower motor replaced, rear driver's side headrest replaced (leather was coming apart)

I can reliably expect CarPlay to crash every second time I drive the car and I've noticed the sunroof popping that others have reported as well but just can't be bothered to report ANOTHER issue to the dealer. My tailgate is ever so slightly misaligned but it's minor enough that I've left it. Even the brakes today will occasionally make grinding noises.

I owned my TSX for 13 years and drove it around 110,000kms and the only thing that it ever needed was a new alternator. It was just fluid changes - we haven't even gotten to new spark plugs yet.

 

Seems like in an effort to differentiate it from a Honda product, Acura took one step forward and two steps back.

 

The Acura RDX was a good choice from 2019 - 2022. The Lexus RX around that time felt dated. However, the new 2023 Lexus RX has a lot of bells and whistles with this refresh. I personally would save the extra $4k to get the Lexus RX. The Acura RDX was "worth it" pre-COVID due to people getting $3k-$5k off MSRP. If we are just comparing MSRP vs MSRP pricing, the Lexus RX is a better priced car. Prior to COVID it'll be Acura RDX (MSRP - $4.5k discounts on average) vs Lexus RX (MSRP - $1k discounts on average). The price gap was much larger. Price gap has become much narrower in the COVID-19 environment where a good deal is MSRP.

 

Maybe the Lexus NX. You aren’t going to get an apples to apples RX priced lower than an RDX.

 

Overall my 21 RDX Aspec SHawd has been without any issues in 12k miles. It's a "sporty" SUV not a "Sport or performance" SUV. Here are some of the pro and cons:

Pro:
1) Overall quality is good. Some cheap parts (push pins that break when trying to remove things) and so forth.
2) SHAWD is amazing - for all that live or travel through the snow - its a goat and will go places others vehicles will not when heavy unplowed snow on the streets. Works great in the rain too.
3) Inside comfort is good, quiet enough for a 12 hour road trip.
4) Electronics are ok - some phantom braking from time to time.

Cons:
1) Gas mileage is horrible. Use regular, as premium difference is not noticeable.
- Lowest was 14 mpg in the city, temps between -10 - 20 degrees and snow.
- Average is 20mpg over 12k miles. That includes 4k miles of hwy road trips.
- Typical city driving is 17-19mpg.
- Hwy mpg is 23-25 - at 70-75mph - wind and hill have a huge negative affect on mpg.
2) AC is not strong, take it from a Texan where summers are north of 100 degrees.
3) Sporty - not a Sport perfomance SUV. Not quick, ok brakes and stiff suspension (for those with no-adjustable suspensions).
4) Kind of cramped in the driver area - more of a sports car cockpit than a SUV.
5) Electronics + safety is getting outdated.

That's a honest evaluation from 18 months of ownership. Good SUV, just not great and so many other options out there. The mpg is a real negative in my view, as way off from EPA and with gas prices north of $3.50 - she's a thirsty one.

 

That's my point.
Year 2019: Acura RDX Tech FWD 2020 you'll see $5k off MSRP so price was at ~$37,500. 2020 Base Lexus RX you'll only see $1k off MSRP so price was at ~$43,500. $6k off is a huge difference.
Year 2022: Acura RDX Tech FWD 2022 you'll see +$2k market adjustment so price is ~$46,000. Base Lexus RX you'll see MSRP so price is at ~$48,325. $2,325 is a small difference.

Above is based on truecar prices near my area of California.

 

I recommend too!

I have a 2021 A-spec with 21k miles. Average 24 MPG in suburban driving. The popular complaints are laughable compared to the real mechanical problems other car owners face.

A quick rundown:

• I had the brake squeal, but it eventually went away on its own. Not worth all the complaining you read.
• I occasionally have the sunroof “popping” sound, but it doesn’t actually hurt anything (no evidence that it causes any leaks, glass shattering, etc.). Nor is it very loud.
• I occasionally have the issue where CarPlay doesn’t startup, but it’s super easy to reset and you’re back up and running in 30 seconds.
• Never had the “limp mode,” but there’s a free fix for it so I couldn’t care less. It also has only affected a super-teeny number of owners and probably was permanently addressed on 2022+ models. Shouldn’t even factor into a buying decision, imo.

If you want a car that drives sportier than a Lexus, has a great sound system, and has a rock solid engine and transmission, I’d keep the RDX on your list. Other cars I cross-shopped were XC60 (too high maintenance), CX-5 (too small for family trips), Blazer (too cheaply made), and Grand Cherokee (too heavy to drive and cheaply made).

 

I had a 2022 aspec advance. It was pretty drama free. Mpg matched the window sticker. The only issue was the tech was iffy. The hands free lift gate sometimes worked, sometimes didnt, and android auto was iffy. You could ask Google to call someone and it would say "Calling so and so..." and then turn the music back on having made no call. Stuff like that. Also, the limp mode in the rain. I actually only had it once. It was drizzly and misty for 2 hours of my drive, when a vehicle lost some cargo in front of me. I swerved to the other lane and floored it to get around the debris. It downshifted and went, but newr redline it stumbled, downshifted, and ran like crap with a blinking engine light. I pulled over, shutdown, restarted, and was fine. Still sucked bad.

 

You already got rid of it? Wreck or traded it for something else?

 

Your '22 had the LIMP mode issue? I thought Acura had a TSB that resolved it. One would think/hope that the fix had made it to the production line.

 

It only did it once, but it was definitely that. It wasn't even raining hard, I had just been driving for @2 hours in drizzly/misty conditions, and apparently that was enough that when I went WOT, it provoked it.

 

Traded for a Volvo C40.

 

No issues at all w my 2022 RDX PMC, though the sales rep said the PMC factory does a much better job at assembly.

I'd suggest an Acuracare warranty for those who want to keep the RDX. The online dealers sell them at huge discounts wiping out a lot of the margin, and I suspect the reliability hasn't been baked into prices yet so you may end up ahead. They have to be purchased before the 4yr/50k factory warranty runs out.

 

I dunno. I've seen some wonky body panel gaps on those PMC's. I agree 100% on warranties! I bought a 10 year, 150K mile bumper to bumper warranty for my C40 due to it having a $25K battery, lol! Aftermarket but sold through the Volvo dealer. CNA. I've had CNA warranty before and they are absolutely legit.

 

I mean that is quite surprising as they mentioned they had a fix last May in 2021. What did the dealership say? Makes me wonder if the supplier supplied a bad intercooler or if the problem could linger when driving in longer periods of wet conditions.

 

Nothing. I got rid of the car.

 

I don't have any concern with my 2021 no problems at all. My previous car was a 2010 Subaru STI with 378 HP but at the end it was to much for me because my left knee and to loud. Except for a bigger turbo I install almost every mod available and very happy with the performance.