See the content at https://www.motortrend.com/news/acur...acement-coming

 

I saw it on Car & Driver.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a6...rid-confirmed/

And here's the official press release
https://acuranews.com/en-US/releases...will-go-hybrid

My plan was to buy a new RDX around the end of next year when the factory warranty on my current car is almost out (due to miles), but doesn't look like I will be able to do that. Will either have to buy one sooner before they stop being made, get an extended warranty so I can go another 3 years, or get an MDX (I think MDX is too big for me). I will decide what to do around March/April.

 

Maybe Acura should have kept ZDX for another year to fill the gap. The delay on RSX is not surprising at all.

 

Very sad that Acura is no longer going to be making ICE only version for their most popular car. This is a trend nowadays for automakers, Toyota no longer makes Camry or Lexus ES350 that is ICE, everything going to hybrid 😟

I will not buy hybrid car for as long as I can until I am forced because there is nothing else

 

Seems like the Acura brand is treated like someone's hobby or pet project under Honda with dwindling corporate support? The major differences between similar Acura and Honda models is mostly styling and premium price. I'm starting to think Acura might pull out or even fold in North American market sometime in the mid 2030s?

 

RDX sales volume in USA:

2019 62,876 units
2020 52,785 units
2021 57,013 units
2022 24,334 units
2023 39,228 units
2024 35,824 units
2025 (Jan–Nov) ~30,235 units

For comparison, these are the US numbers for BMW X3.

2019 70,110 units
2020 59,941 units
2021 75,858 units
2022 66,966 units
2023 48,502 units
2024 15,319 units
2025 76,546 units

And the global sales for X3:

2019 ~317,000 units production/sales data reported
2020 ~292,000 units (production figure)
2021 Not officially reported separately globally (production & sales aggregated in some sources)
2022 Estimated ~310,000+ units worldwide (third-gen still strong, aggregated from model trends)
2023 ~350,000 units, peak annual global deliveries — BMW’s top-selling model ahead of the 3-Series
2024 ~319,000 units delivered globally (BMW corporate product fact sheet)

And the CR-V global deliveries:

Year Estimated CR-V Global Deliveries Notes & Source
2019 ~730,000+ units (approx)
2020 ~736,000 units (estimate)
2021 ~700,000+ units (estimate)
2022 ~800,000+ units (estimate) New sixth-generation CR-V launched in 2022 with hybrid variants, typically boosting deliveries in many markets.
2023 ~810,000+ units
2024 ~850,000+ units (estimate)

 

^ BMW is much more aggressive with leases and rebates. I recently just casually reached out to local dealer about new X3 and he offered $6K off MSRP without even trying to negotiate and even before I even went to the dealer to test drive the car. Anyway, I decided to pass on it after watching some reviews on the X3. By comparison, local Acura dealer asks MSRP for the RDX, only offering loyalty rebate when applicable that Acura offers. And they have very low RDX inventory, less than MDX and much, much less than ADX.

 

i am doing something sooner

 

Honda was clear in 2020 that Acura pivoting to the EV brand while Honda was the Hybrid brand. This coincided with Jon Ikeda leaving Acura and tranferring to HPD.

It was obvious to anyone who saw the lack of electricians in the USA workforce that EVs had no chance of becoming mainstream until 2035 at the earliest, and that Acura's plan would leave a big hole in their sales right about now while their misguided 2020 strategy hits the market 5 years later.

ZDX was obviously their 4th gen RDX as it launched concurrent with the RDX 2nd MMR. Then as the GM partnership fell apart they were sill in an EV trance and replanned the RSX as the 4th gen RDX.

Dealers aren't complaining with the roadmap in 2025 as they had been in the past, so they must have announced their pivot to hybrids to dealers last year. Probably announced the embarrasing RDX MY27 gap at the same time, but dealers were likely so happy with the drop of the EV-only mistake that they put up with it.

 

What choice does a dealer have?

 

LOL, a lack of electricians is why US EV adoption has slowed. Is that a typo? There are far more other reasons why EV adoption slowed in the US (and didn't slow in the EU or China) than lack of electricians like cost, incentives, policy making, gas prices etc - nobody was thinking "I won't buy an EV b/c there's a lack of electricians."

 

EV and long term battery replacement is still
a big problem. Some people like to keep cars for over 10 years.

when battery goes out of warranty, on some
of these cars its more than a car value

 

Why not ?

 

don’t like the battery aspect of it, it’s not going last 15 years without needing to replace, and replacement costs a fortune.

 

I think you're over-estimating the cost of replacing the battery pack. You can use the Prius as a case study. Replacing the entire battery pack (parts + installation) is a couple grand, somewhere in the 150K-200K mile timeframe. In milder climates (like CA) they last much longer. That's not too bad considering what you also save from less brake wear, less wear on the gas motor, and better fuel economy.

Consider that by the time you change the battery, you would have had already changed the timing belt, water pump, etc. twice on a pure ICE car and that's also a couple grand in total.

 

dont know about timing belt, many cars have timing chains now.
I dont know if old Toyota Prius is good example, its Acura,
and it will be expensive, I am thinking it will be $5k+ in todays money plus any inflation.

Bottom line if you are one of those people who keeps cars for 15yrs, you need to factor in new battery.

 

15 years is now a lifetime with how fast technology is progressing and by then the car could be worthless, the cost of batteries could actually be cheaper, who knows. I get thinking ahead but that seems to be a little too far ahead.

 

Ive never seen repair costs going down, only up. The labor costs really go up, they make components less serviceable.
Thats how they make new cars now. Planned obsolescence, they want you to dispose it in 7-8 years and buy a new one.

 

Batteries will for sure be cheaper but newer tech may not be compatible with existing cars.

 

Why do you think lithium batteries will be less expensive in future? The worldwide demand for lithium is increasing. Unless they come up with some revolutionary process
to make batteries cheaper, I dont see it happening.

 

I hear you...but I think you are in the minority of keeping your car for 15 years. For a lot of people, that is a third of their lifetime driving one car.
I had my 2004 TL for 7 years and THAT was a really long time.

 

I really can't think of a lot modern home appliance, internet/networking/computer tech, cellular/TV/audio standards, etc... that made for a +15 service life? I willing to bet the average person has spent more $$$ on an individual cell phone+data plan in the last 15 years compared to the one time cost of hybrid battery pack you "might" experience in the same time period? Planning to keep my 19 MDX SH and 18 RLX SH with a 1.3kWh battery pack in the 120,000 to 150,000 miles range. Other MDX/RLX Sport Hybrid owners are having zero issues with +150,000 miles on either vehicles and/or up to +13 years of ownership.

Sounds like offering affordable refurbished battery packs for BEV and hybrid vehicles in the future is a nation wide chain business just waiting to happen. You can spend similar amounts if not more rebuilding or replacing an engine or transmission for an I.C.E.

 

Probably. But the general trend is that newer cars are becoming more disposable. When your car is 7-8yr old it becomes one major repair away from being mechanically totalled.

my old Lexus is going to be soon 14 year old, its amazing how reliable it
is. I like things that last long.

 

There's more to the cost of batteries than the cost of lithium. There's silver in batteries, and the price of silver is exploding even faster.

But as manufacturing capacity increases, prices will drop.
https://insideevs.com/news/761338/ev...sts-down-2024/

Of course, if the dollar hyperinflates away, then in nominal terms, all bets are off.

 

Because over the past 13 years, the cost of batteries (measured on a per kWh basis) has been dropping year over year, and that's even with inflation factored in.

Technology continues moving forward and therefore prices drop even with increased demand. That's why replacement packs for Priuses and other hybrids are dirt cheap relative to what they cost back when they were new. The thing to recognize is that the batteries themselves are not commodities and there is an excess of battery makers, and as such prices are general inelastic with regards to demand. Instead of demand driving up pricing, demand just results in more production via more battery manufacturers.

 

Even if battery costs drops, I am sure automakers will make repair procedure very labor intensive process.
The new trend is to make things very difficult to repair and service.
I hope its not going to be the case with new RDX.

 

Why would they make it very labor intensive? It would be counter-productive because it would cost them more money to service it (bear in mind that generally hybrid systems are warrantied up to 8 years / 100K miles, and in CA it's 10 years / 150K miles).

Honestly, it sounds like you're looking all over for excuses not to get a hybrid, going as far as to speculating about something 15 years in the future...gives off old man luddite vibes

 

The general trend is that things are more difficult/time consuming to repair in modern cars.
Yeah, I wont buy hybrid until there is no choice,
and if I do buy one, it will not be from Acura, lol

 

There are so many different types of lithium battery chemistry, and yes battery costs have been falling steadily for the past couple decades. The newer tech part is quite the truth, the biggest hurdle I see is long term ownership and there's no standardization on EV and even hybrid models. So a battery for one generation of a model is quite unlikely to be used for the next even for the same manufacturer. Remains to be seen how long each manufacturer will support EV tech for a given model/generation. Considering how long Honda/Acura have been using some of their ICE and it's components, the tech there is quite evolutionary.

 

It sounds like Acura dealers had no idea a 2-year RDX "pause" was coming.

https://insideevs.com/news/784931/ac...-greenland-cm/

I am genuinely curious to see how the RSX fills in. If consumer interest isn't there, and I'm afraid after an initial surge interest will wane quickly, we might see some price adjustments/incentives in short order.

 

Since they're dropping the RDX due to supplier issues, could it be possible Acura themselves didn't know they were going to be doing this?

There's a good chance RDX will stop sales (sometime in spring) even before RSX begins selling (sometime in the fall). There's no way ADX or MDX can sub for the RDX. ADX is too cheap (and I don't mean price, but there's only so much you can do with luxury skin on a not-great-to-begin-with econobox) and the MDX is too big, pricey, and thirsty.

It's gonna be tough to get deals on the RDX, I think.

 

Acura is saying the supplier issue couldn't be helped. It's too bad they can't [or won't] offer the 2.0T and SH-AWD in the ADX -- that would have helped pacify frustrated dealers

."Langel emphasized that the decision came only after alternatives were exhausted. “We made every effort to extend this car as long as possible,” the executive said. “Some components are simply no longer available, and we’ve explored every avenue.”"


Below is a link to the full Automotive News story. Note that AN is typically subscribe only, but I was able to read the entire article.

https://www.autonews.com/honda/an-ho...articleGifting

 

Acura is in a tough place. They don't quite have the same $ as the German automakers or Toyota. But this is inexcusable and complete failure. At the very least they should have been able to keep the RDX going even if they had to find new suppliers and make some minor tweaks to the design, keeping major parts like engine and transmission as is. From the article, it almost looks like there will be some Acura dealers (smaller ones) that may be forced to close their doors.

 

I think the RSX is going to flop hard. Acura's clientele tend to be left-brain thinking and value oriented, and they're going to be hard pressed to build a car that's objectively a better value than something like a Model Y. Additionally, the bulk of EV sales are in CA, where it's going to have to go up against Tesla's offerings. There's a reason why in California RDX sales took a much harder hit compared to other luxury compact crossovers at the same time the Model Y took off. I rarely see any RDX's in these parts anymore, and heres why:

In 2019, the RDX accounted for 9.3% of luxury CUV sales in CA, with 8300 units sold. For comparison the GLC was top at 18%, followed by the NX at 15.4%. So overall, not bad.

Last year, the Model Y accounted for 59% of all luxury CUV sales in CA (they sold 110K units in CA alone). They sold nearly as many Model Ys just in CA as Acura did all cars in the entire country. The RDX on the other hand...fell off the list entirely. The list only shows the top 5 models, and 5th place goes to the Macan at 3.6% market share. Now, part of this is the fact the RDX is long in the tooth, but even in 2023 it was off the list. In 2023 the Y accounted for 65% of market share, while the Macan 3%, and the RDX somewhere below even that.

tl;dr the RSX is gonna get fucked.

 

It's like we're in a time warp and everyone is doing weird stuff

- The Germans and putting too much screen and cutting quality everywhere only peppering logos and fancy stitching all over the place.
- Lexus puts out RZ with no glovebox and NX on RFT and has next gen infotainment and electronics that no one asked for or likes.
- Acura is now with an incomplete and aging lineup. Maybe they hired the strategy team from Infiniti?
- Nobody even talks about Infiniti.

Next few years should be interesting. My money is on everyone selling Chinese cars eventually. Because everyone is broke and addicted to cheap stuff. And there's no fixing that. Once the whole illusion of reshoring manufacturing wears off (and it will), even Tesla will be importing their cars from China or they won't survive.

 

@russianDude I'm right there with you. Putting tons of work into my 2011 RDX and 2008 Accord. These cars should be good for at least another 10 years and half a million miles.

Old cars = cheap parts. Entire suspension rebuild on the Accord is only gonna cost $2500 when all is said and done. I paid $4500 cash for the car, so for $7k I'm building a brand new car.

I recently had the misfortune blessing of changing oil on a 2024 Civic. The center jack point in the front is not accessible unless the car is already lifted off the ground. This is the kind of dumbassery we have to deal with on modern vehicles.

 

My main concern with old cars is safety in an accident.

 

Not sure if it was mentioned, but I'm also curious how this "component shortage" will impact repairs on cars as they age. If it's a critical item, will we be looking at insane prices and months-long back-orders? Hopefully whatever they aren't getting enough of to build the cars will be something that is available from aftermarket makers.

 

Just don't get into an accident, problem solved.

Just kidding, sort of... once it's warm out again I'm back on the bike.

 

Definitely depends on the specific model.

In my case, 1G RDX has a ton of parts interchangeability with other platforms that use the traditional K20 and K24 engines (A and Z variants, not K24W or K20C). Honda Accords, Civic Si, Element, CRV, Acura TSX, RSX-S. Some of these were true mass-market vehicles.

As a random example: RockAuto lists no fewer than 20 different choices for ignition coils on my 18-year old Accord.