My 2020 RLX Advance is now 6 months old. After returning back to Arlington Va yesterday from a trip to the Mecum Classic Car Auction in Kissimmee Florida, the RLX has 16k miles now. It has been a very good car. The car had a slight steering pull when brand new, my servicing Acura dealer did a 4 wheel alignment to remedy. The only other annoying issue is the driver's exterior door handle creaks each time it is touched to open the door. I have noticed this on some other new RLX's. I believe it is combination of cheap plastic and perhaps something was tightened incorrectly during manufacturing. I will have my dealer check on this next visit when I have the 4th oil change done.
Overall fuel mileage from new until about October was pretty much 32-34mpg consistently. Since then (including Florida roundtrip) it has been a fairly consistent 28-29mpg. I wonder perhaps if this V6 is very sensitive to the winter fuel blends? I don't recall my past 2012 RL mpg dropping so significantly during the winter months.
The RLX is a great long distance cruiser. Very comfortable, powerful engine, quiet, excellent sound system and driver aides make it a sheer pleasure for long distances. I still think for the money (paid $47k brand new) it is one of the most competent, cheap to keep (assume), and pleasurable modern luxury or near luxury sedans. The navigation system is lousy, but then again Waze is better than most any in car Nav system anyway, the car could really benefit from an adaptive suspension (the suspension is very soft) and perhaps have a more sexy body. And perhaps most of this could be had on an Audi A6 Prestige trim, but that would be at least another $20K in actual transaction dollars plus the lofty Audi service costs and our Virginia annual car property tax.
I got to spend a day detailing my RLX in the beautiful Florida weather. I like the light Graystone interior. Griots Garage makes an outstanding interior cleaner that I use on all my cars to keep even this light color interior immaculate. I used McKee's 37 "Krystal Diamond" Ceramic Paste Wax and prepped the paint with McKees Paint Prep applying with my Griots random orbital polisher. I did put in WeatherTech front floor trays for the winter months and pulled out my Lloyds Berber carpeted mats till spring!
2020 Fathom Blue RLX - New Smyrna Beach FL

 

Looking good and thanks for sharing your update.

 

This car’s winter fuel economy is way less than advertised. I have threads here about my experience. The winter blend used in my part of Ohio really did a number on the fuel economy, as I was achieving 23-24 mpg. I kept wondering if it was just my car, or the ECU programming for this particular V6...or my heavy throttle foot.

 

Looking sharp. My innermost desires would've wanted blue, as my first Acura was blue too. I just wished Acura would've allowed Ebony interior paired with the blue. With the considerably high mileage you drive, have you considered clear bras? I had it on my TL, and after 9 years of wear, it doesn't look as sharp anymore, albeit the lack of any paint chips.

 

Same here in the Dayton region of Ohio. 30-32 in the summer, 24-25 in the winter with 20% highway driving.

 

I have the Xpel clear bra on the entire front end (full hood, front fascia, headlamps, mirrors, and full front fenders). I do this on all my cars. Xpel does a great job preventing road rash ie. sandblasting. Xpel does not "fully" protect against severe rock/stone hits which can cut the film and at severe incidents still chip the paint. I would say after having it done on 5 cars it protects against roughly 70-80% of stone chipping damage. In hindsight on this RLX I should have covered the roof with 1 pc of film. Last week within 4 days I had a rock hit the roof on the passenger side just forward of the sunroof while in Florida. Heading back on I95 in the Carolina's I had a rock hit the exact same spot again! It was very loud both times. While in Florida I stopped at Honda and picked up the touch up paint. Honda calls Fathom Blue "Osbidian Blue". So I have now touched up the same spot twice. Not perfect, but it looks a lot better than exposed metal on a blue car.
My 2012 RL was a CPO car. Forged Silver with Black interior. The black leather is very elegant, especially when maintained. Since I spend a lot of time in my cars I prefer lighter color interiors since they are just brighter. I like the graystone a lot and get compliments on how well the (faux) wood trim coordinates with the interior.
A few cars back I had a 2006 RL. I had the Xpel installed at 5k miles when I purchased it CPO in 2008. My friend that purchased that car from me in 20011 (with 170k miles) had the Xpel removed about 2 years ago at north of 250k miles. The Xpel was getting cloudy and old looking. I was amazed at how well it had preserved the paint and headlamps. That RL I only had the front half of hood and fenders done. There was no difference in paint shading/fade. A few stone chips that had pierced the Xpel, but amazing how well the paint was protected for 250k highway miles.
I do polish and wax the Xpel just like the paint. My other car I did spray ceramic and also ceramic coated the Xpel.
Kudos on owning a 6 speed TL! I love Acura sticks. Had a new 2003 CL-S 6 speed. My favorite stick for 183k miles. Short throw, super slick shifter!

 

I did use XPEL Ultimate the entire RLX for dry and sandy southwest traveling at 75-80 mph. I even added PPF to the windshield with Exoshield to see how it works.

My mileage is way down on my 18 RLX in 2020 to only 5500 miles for the entire year (15,000 total). Agreed about the RLX needing the electronic dampers; but, the hwy ride+low road noise+Krell is so comfy. The only PITA is the 15 gal gas tank and limited trunk space. Perfect travel car for 2; but, pushing it for 3-4 folks. On one short road trip, ran really low on gas on a 325 mile run because of the small RLX gas tank and stiff +20 mph headwind at 80 mph. I get less mpgs in my MDX hybrid; but, have more room for 3-4 folks, and greater range in extreme windy and/or cold conditions.

 

I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on the windshield Exoshield over time. My cars windshields become prematurely stone/sandblasted from my highway miles and it drives me crazy being a little OCD about my cars, although the OCD seems be tempering off a bit with age!

 

I wanted to try the Exoshield because all my previous cars had pitted windshields driving in the sandy southwest at +75 mph hwy speeds. All those little pits start to add up if you keep your car +10 years and +120,000 miles. It can almost look like stars on a moonless night if the sun hits the pitted windshield at the right angle. I'm lucky in ABQ, NM, and we only get 5-9 inches of precipitation a year and I usually replace my wipers because of UV damage -vs- worn from usage. That was the only thing I would worry about is the wipers scratching the Exoshield if you use them a lot (rain or wiper fluid for dust, pollen, or bug guts). I keep Windex wipes in the both cars for bug guts on the road and Windex in the garage.

 

Thanks for the update CadiGTi. That blue is so gorgeous! I too wish it came with black interior option, I'd have jumped on that.

I wish I can take my RLX for long distance driving, but alas with the lockdown, we have no where to go. My RLX has pretty much been sitting in garage since purchase in Oct 2020. I manage to put only 1K miles so far running to Costco back and forth for supplies and picking up dinner. I too have Exoshield and full front-end XPel. I have turn-off automatic windshield wipers to minimize wipers usage. So far it's holding up well. Some minor lifting at the edges, but I tried to push it down with my fingers. It's like a giant phone screen protector for your windshield. Quite expensive to install and I'm not sure if I'd do it again. Too much of a pain being OCD about the film lifting over time but if it can prevent rock chips I'd put up with it. I've waxed the entire car with Meguiar's Ceramic Liquid wax and put two coats Hybrid Ceramic spray-wax on top of that as a superficial barrier. She's very shinny and stays clean even weeks without a wash. My MPG hasn't hit the 30's range yet since I don't have a chance to do any long distance freeway driving. Our MDX SH has been a several road-trips, so I'm sure one of these days when they lift restrictions, we can take the RLX up the California coast to stretch her legs. Keep us updated to any major breakdown as you put on more miles.

 

If you lived closer to me I would be more than happy to exchange RLX's every now and then to give yours some exercise and to even out the mileage on both of our cars! Thanks for the comments on the Exoshield.