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I have been contacted by the Acura Advanced Product Planning for an interview regarding the RLX Sports Hybrid. Have any of you heard of this part of Acura? Has anyone else been contacted by them or worked with them in the past?

 

Not yet. I'm sure it's just a letter of time, though. Keep us posted on the process.

 

Lucky you! I've heard of these before, but not recently.

 

Yes. I almost said something yesterday, but I didn't want to be a blabbermouth.

:-)

They said they were in touch with 21 owners of the Sport Hybrid, and I wondered if anybody else of the four of us was in there.

 

I am on travel so could not talk for long....did get call from a Saginaw MI number wanted to discuss the Acura. Will call them back when I get time...

 

I think I'd better clarify that when I said blabbermouth I was trying to be funny, not critical.

 

^^Maybe try ending your post with "bazinga" when you are trying to be funny. Just kidding.
Bazinga

 

Acura is really active in looking for feedback from me. I have gotten two different surveys from them this week. First Acura sent me the JD Power of initial quality survey. Then the next day i got a survey from Acura on the items important to me when buying a new car.

I'm doing the telephone interview with the AAPP folks on Monday.

Perhaps I should just tell Acura to follow the threads on Acurazine so they can get a good overall view of people's impressions and thoughts about Acura!!

 

If they are looking to talk to someone who is very interested in buying the Sport Hybrid RLX when they become available up here in Canada, I'll talk to them for as long as they want. I'd be willing to bet that I would be right smack in the middle of their target market.

I also believe that reading this forum regularly will give them much of the information that they seek regarding the market for the Sport Hybrid as well as some excellent feedback on the 2014 version. If they care at all about marketing the RLX, I'm sure they have been lurking here for some time. If they are...Hi there, please build a few thousand Sport Hybrid RLX's so dealers can keep them in inventory. Let the early adopters pay just a little below MSRP then start some leasing deals and incentives to the dealers to move the rest. Think of the incentives as a nice way to say "we're sorry" to the loyal Acura buyers who have waited so patiently for the Sport Hybrid to appear. Thanks for engineering such a great car.

 

That's what I'd do.

 

You will want to set aside about 45 minutes if it's the same group I had.

 

Oh. Definitive answer about the starter motor.

It usually starts with the 47 HP, 250 volt front electric motor.

But it has a regular 12 volt starter, primarily as a safety backup in the event of failure of part of the hybrid system.

 

Hope I pass the test

 

Ha ha ha ha....

Here, let me give you the list of stuff I forgot to mention....

:-)

 

I'm just afraid that if I don't live up to Acura's expectations they will repossess my Sports Hybrid. Too many other well deserving denizens of Acurazine who would love to be driving my baby.

 

I got the email to answer what is important for me when purchasing a new car. A couple weeks back I also got the chance to sign up to periodically take surveys and get "e-Rewards." Seems like Acura is trying to get a lot of customer feedback lately.

 

Product Planners are the folks who work with various departments in the division to bring certain options, colors, features and other things to the specific model they are assigned to. They work with marketing too. I know a number of them at BMW and it's a really fun job, but lots of travel and lots of work.

Definitely take the time to give them your feedback, you are talking to the real deal

 

I recently was contacted for another survey, but for some odd reason I didn't pass the pre-qualification that fits the "profile" they are looking for.

I think one of the answers I gave regarding my 2nd Acura vehicle (my wife's ILX) may have thrown it off...:/

 

At one point they asked about my Honda and Acura purchase history and I took them back to 1989 and worked my way forward.

I don't know if they are fully satisfied to attract people who've always bought Hondas. It might be so, because they're only talking to use (as far as we know).

To really get ahead, they need to get their hands on LS460 people to see why they bought them, and see what they like and don't like about them after a couple of years.

But...I have a sneaking suspicion that a big percentage of LS460 are leased, not purchased.

 

There also seemed to be a preconceived notion on the part of the woman asking the questions that the RLX needed to look different.

It was also clear that other people were listening to the conversation. At one point, I overheard something I couldn't make out, and she interrupted to ask if I were an engineer by any chance.

 

I got the same vibe about the Sports Hybrid needing to look different. When I mentioned the quietness of the car and the how nice the Krell sounded she indicated that others had said the same thing. I said my favorite thing about the car was the way it drove and seamless way the Hybrid/transmission switching worked. I also said the HUD was very well executed in contrast to the infotainment system.

The negatives I mentioned where the need to remove you hand from the steering wheel to sound the horn [rather than being able to reach it with my thumb. Also the problem in getting a call into my voicemail, where i have not been able to input enough characters to make it work [i need the call in number, my phone number, a password and numerous pauses and # signs].

I did give Acurazine a shout out as where i had heard about the RLX, both the Sports Hybrid and the PAWS.Want to make sure someone from Acura follows our discussions here. HELLO ACURA

i am going to send a followup email with two additional thoughts.

1. Some special paint colors for the Hybrid
2. The need for more Shortcuts for the audio system.

 

I hope that one of you can also mention (if you didnt already) some of the bigger issues plauging the RLX -

* slow Navigation system UI response (reported by other users, reviewers, etc)

* lack of additional luxury features such as multi zone AC controls, auto trunk door, IDS, and other additional features that exist in their lower end vehicles in their lineup. The flagship should be a flagship, period.

 

I had someone contact me after I bought the TSX wagon (I was one of the first to do so)

Basically they did a few email surveys and on a couple occasions directly asked my input (pros/cons of the car) via email.

My wife and I had a similar experience when she bought her CR-Z (6MT), lots and lots of surveys from Honda and JD Power.

We seem to buy the oddball vehicles...

 

Relative to other vehicles, it's probably not all that bad. However, the fact is that increasing processor power and giving it another GB of RAM costs almost nothing relative to what people are paying for the car, and they should probably go ahead and do that.

They might've already thought in those terms. I haven't spent a hell of a lot of time in a TLX, but it seemed speedier.

I keep going back to the LS460 as an example of quality and content.

On the other hand, the RLX maxes out with a Sport Hybrid Advance at around 66,000 and the LS460 hits 80,000 quickly and gets to 100,000 if you've ticked enough boxes to match what you've got in your RLX.

Remember that rear airbags are an option on Lexus and most other brands!

"A flagship is a flagship" might work if we're talking about a car that costs as much as an LS460. But it doesn't appear to me from listening to them that they are prepared to compete in that segment at the moment, or anytime the next few years.

The NSX, on the other hand....

:-)

But, specifically, yes, I did talk about the infotainment system and how cheap it'd be to make it faster, and I did talk about the idea that some people might expect a touch screen in the rear armrest with HVAC and audio controls!

 

Something that catches me off guard almost every single day is that the RLX's voice commands are not universally resident and loaded.

So when you're giving some commands, you have to pay attention first to give the command to switch to the NAV, Phone, Info or Audio main menu.

I don't think it's really necessary to have to do that, and another GB or two of RAM would allow the car to load all of those voice commands at the same time. A very, very cheap fix that nobody thought about.

For some reason, thank goodness, they thought to have "XM Channel" loaded at every screen. So no matter what main menu is in the top screen, you can always say "XM Channel one-one-eight" (you gotta be careful with that) and get the expected result. But Music Search does *not* work from all four menus.

This system just slipped by the guy at the top, I think. I'll bet you anything that Matt did not let it slip by on the TLX, though.

 

A lot of this stuff is a software patch away from a fix, one would think. Compared to what's in my CTS-V (voice commands that simply don't work, even clunkier interface in many ways, you can tell that system was designed in 2006 for a 2008 release and then never changed over a total of 8 model years), what's in the RLX is 100 times better. Some of our system needs work, however. Still learning about the system so will comment when I have more knowledge to compare.

 

Thanks George! I think it goes back to the fact that the lower end vehicles carry features the RLX doesnt have. Forget the LS460 comparison for a second and just start first with the fact that you just should not have a "flagship" vehicle that doesnt carry features your lower priced vehicles have (eg. rear armrest controls, faster infotainment system, automatic trunk door, etc). It just looks sloppy and shows poor product design and planning, regardless of whether the intent was genuine or problems prevented otherwise. It's the end result that counts.

 

But I'm willing to bet that those lower end cars don't have the driving dynamics or long-term reliability the RLX has/will have.

 

I would normally agree with you on the driving dynamics, but after test driving the TLX a couple of times, in some aspects the TLX driving dynamics are better than the RLX.

I think George was on to something when he mentioned Matt Haggart not letting stuff slip on the TLX. I think the TLX is a clear example of what happens when you have proper product management and direction in place. And after seeing how well they did with the TLX, I personally believe its more clear than ever that the RLX program was not managed well, or at least not to the level that the TLX got.

As for long-term reliability, this is Acura we are talking about. A company that has essentially built their entire lineage and heritage in long-term reliability. So I dont buy that long-term reliability should be exclusive or a differentiator only on their flagship.

 

I think we misunderstood each other. When I said "lower priced vehicles" I am referring to features found in Acura's own lower priced vehicle lineup (MDX, ILX, TLX, RDX) that are not found in the RLX. Get that fixed first and then we can compare to other brand flagship vehicles like the LS460.

 

I notice lately a lot of ads for the 2015 TLX on TV but none for the 2015 RLX or 2014 SH AWD RLX. Obliviously Acura is promoting the TLX over the RLX.

 

After watching a TLX video about how to move your audio selection icons around (e.g., if you want Pandora on the first page, and you never use the CD), I hopefully went out to the RLX to move my icons around.

:-)

Of course, we can't do that. The functionality isn't there and I don't know if a flash update puts it there.

 

Ah, sorry. I get your point. It is a bit surprising (and I'm sure a source of displeasure).

 

I received my initial Acura survey via email yesterday. It's actually run by J.D. Powers and appears to be their initial quality survey.

So far, 11xx miles and no issues.

The survey asked at the end if I could make one comment about the car that could be passed on to other consumers. I answered that the car is a "sleeper" given the drivetrain and handling. It is really a sleeper, after all.

 

Some of you might find this thread related\interesting...

https://acurazine.com/forums/first-g...ch-rdx-681141/