I've been looking for one of these for the better part of a year now (there are only like 5-15 available for sale at any given point nationwide). I knew I wanted it in black but could go any direction on interior color. The one I just put a deposit down on is a 2018 black with seacoast interior, 39,450 miles and price tag of $33,997. This seemed like a pretty good deal, but curious what you guys think? By the way - sold my 2014 RLX P-AWS (Base w/nav) with 87k miles on it for $16,890 to Carvana today - i was shocked how much they paid me for this car.

 

It is getting very hard to find any RLX hybrid out there. I would double-check the maintenance records to make sure the RLX is up-to-date (mainly fluid changes for 7DCT and TMU). You might have to factor in 7DCT fluid, TMU fluid, brake fluid, cabin/air filter changes if you can't find a record of it. Any extras with the RLX like floor mats, rear spoiler, or spare tire kit?

 

Congratulations Jejo - I hope the car all checks out and the deal closes without incident.

I would agree that you got a great deal as the RLX Sport Hybrid is a great car and a deal at $50K, at $34K, it's a steal. I hope you enjoy many, many trouble-free years driving your Sport Hybrid.

 

What he said......SERIOUSLY!! 7DCT fluid change every 30K, and TMU first change at 15K (to remove break in fluid) and then every 30K after that.

Just sayin'.....

 

My wife's RLX is the same color in and out and she loves it. I will say that the seacoast interior grows on you after a while - much different looking than any other Acura interior The suggested maintenance items make sense that others have posted. I'd go for it!

 

I'm totally the opposite about the interior. My previous 16 RLX SH have a seacoast interior and it's a fine color but hard to keep clean. So I opt for a dark interior this time and got a black on black. Congrats on the new acquisition. This is a fine car. I'm sure you'll enjoy it

 

Thanks guys, I looked up the service records and found the following entries that look to be some sort of fluid changing services

FLUID (ATF DW-1) | WASHER; DRAIN (18MM) | WASHER; DRAIN (20MM) - This was at around 17k miles

REPLACE REAR DIFFERENTIAL FLUID WASHER; DRAIN (18MM) | FLUID (ATF DW-1) - This was at 34k miles

Is the ATF DW-1 fluid for the TMU? Looks like maybe it still needs the 7DCT fluid change but not that far overdue [size=13px]I[/size] guess.... I did notice the previous owner was diligent with the oil changes as well which is good.

Thanks!

 

My read is that the first one may have been the TMU maintenance, and the second one may have been for the ATF change. They both appear around the time those are required and the DW-1 fluid works for both.

If this were my car, I would have the dealer confirm that those two notes reflect, in fact, the changes we are discussing. ATF failures are NOT a cheap date!!

Good luck.

 

Congrats and a good deal for the market! Enjoy

 

Both the 7DCT and TMU take the same DW-1 ATF fluids. It seems the TMU fluid was changed at 17k and 34k; but, the 7DCT fluid might be original? I've only had the 15k-17k TMU fluid change and the scheduled 8k-9k engine oil changes for my 19 MDX hybrid (26k) and 18 RLX hybrid (18k) so far. I don't know when the 7DCT fluid change codes normally pops up? It wont' hurt anything to change the 7DCT fluid for piece of mind if you can't confirm the service at 34k.

 

great deal. Just did a quick carguru search in my area and there aren’t any ‘18-20 even available. All ‘16s with higher mileage.

 

Sounds like a decent price especially when you consider what else you could buy at same price point. Inflation has hit new cars hard and the price of used cars is very high so $34k seems like a relative value. I am at 42k miles on my 2020 RLX. Just drove it from Northern Va to NYC for the Holiday and 5 weeks ago drove it to Florida. It is a great long distance comfort cruiser and so far typical Honda/Acura stellar reliability. I would just inquire about cost of extended Acura warranty. I do have a 120k mile Acura extended warranty on mine as I wanted peace of mind with all of the electronics, hybrid system, and dual clutch transmission.
Small world as was in a NY restaurant last night with family and friends waiting at the bar for a table. Very nice gentleman sitting at bar with his family offers to move down a few chairs to make room for us. I thanked him and we had a brief talk realizing we are both from Queens NY and had a few things in common. Turns out he has an RL with about 350k miles and is on the hunt for a late model RLX saying it is almost impossible to find any of the on the market since so few were ever sold new.
Good luck with the purchase and will be curious to hear your thoughts of the '18 vs the '14.

 

If someone is hunting for White Platinum ext / Ebony int combo, 2018, low miles, leased - this is currently the best deal there:
https://www.acuraofpembrokepines.com...c128ae1853.htm

This one was just about 30-40 units behind mine lol ...

PS. Who wants to join the color combo gang with @jdpdata and me?

 

I really like the white/ebony combo of that RLX.

 

Storm Trooper FTW!!
I really have terrible luck with White cars. Crashed and totaled two white Acura Integras in the past. I hope this doesn't happen to my beloved RLX.

 

OP,
Did you ever get that all cleared up? Curious.

 

So the deal went through and the car was delivered mid-December. First off this car feels so much different than my 2014 P-AWS.....in a good way! I only have about 400 miles on it so far but man I really love this car and it feels so much faster than the specs indicate. The suspension is much smoother than my 2014. I took it to my local dealer for them to check everything out and they said everything looked to be in good shape and all required maintenance is up to date. The exterior of the car was in pretty good shape there were no dents or deep scratches anywhere and the interior looked pretty good as well other than the steering wheel which I plan to replace with a black version soon. The only bad thing is that it looked like the previous owner took it through a million automated car washes and the swirl marks and surface scratches were everywhere. I was expecting this to a certain extent being a black car and all. So the first thing I did was invest in a machine polisher and did a full paint correction and then applied a ceramic coating on top to (hopefully) lock in a perfected finish for a few years. I copied in a few photos of the before and after. I have a lot of plans for this car but other than the ceramic coating so far all I have done is tint the windows.

Day it was delivered - watching this guy get it off the truck was a little stressful, it did not look easy.


Before paint correction

After paint correction

Looks brand new :-)

With her younger sister in the stable!

 

Congrats, she's a beauty! Ceramic coating won't do anything to prevent future scratches. Look into PPF if you want to keep that paint pristine.

 

Love the view of the extra clean man cave with both his and hers Acura's. Any other mods planned other than ceramic coating and window tint?

I purchased my 18 RLX hybrid CPO'd and it also had a lot of car wash scratches and swirl marks. The bad thing was the previous owner must have put a partial PPF on the front end later without color correcting first. The same scratches were under the PPF that protected 12-18 inches of the front end. I had my PPF installer remove the old PPF, color correct, and re-apply new PPF for a consistent shine.

My PPF installer said you can put ceramic coating on PPF; but, it is extremely hard to put PPF on ceramic coating because of its hydrophobic properties.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, the award for the cleanest garage goes to....

Congratulations on the purchase, Jejo, I hope you have many, many years enjoying your new ride.

 

That is what my garage wants to be when it grows up.

 

Thanks and yeah i have a few other things planned....

• Rear spoiler - Acura brand
• Splash guards
• Illuminated door sill trim
• Replacing the seacoast steering wheel with a the black with light gray stitching wheel (this is going to be way more money then anyone in the right mind would pay but the steering wheel is the only thing that's really showing its age and its got to go)
• Vinyl wrap all chrome with gloss black wrap (except for the lower trim pieces which I am thinking about going with a gunmetal satin color wrap to give it a little contrast)
• Wheels and tires ( Avant Garde M520-R) 20*9.0 on Conti Extreme contact 265/35

I thought about the PPF but man it is expensive. If it was a new car I probably would go for it but I'm hoping the ceramic coating gives it a little protection - I am obsessive about keeping my cars clean and baby them more like they are Ferrari's than Acura's but I enjoy it so its a win win.

 

Conti DWS 06 Plus are my wheels of choice once the OEM wear out. I did gloss black vinyl wrap on the side chrome and gloss black plastic dip on the front and rear. My thinking was the front and rear are the high impact areas with road rash/debris or impacts/bumping/rubbing. I had to spot spray a few times the front grill on my MDX since it is my main travel vehicle. Doesn't take much to get down to the chrome on the grill at 80 mph hitting road debris. I also plastic dip the exhaust openings on my MDX (2 1/2 yrs ago) and RLX (2 yrs ago) and it has bee holding up 100% over the years. I even plastic dip my hybrid emblem on the front fenders and rear hatch Acura emblem (de-badged the rest of the rear).

The only thing I chickened out on at the last minute was vinyl wrapping the roof in gloss black to turn my RLX into a PMC.

Plastic Dip rear and vinyl wrap sides.

 

my graystone interior steering wheel is dirty too. Has seen better days. I briefly thought about just buying another steering wheel to change it out and it’s like $800+ for an OEM wheel.

 

If owners will clean and condition their steering wheels with Leatherique and Pristine Clean once a month there will be no issues with the leather. Most don’t properly maintain leather or they think they are with terribly inferior products that permanently contaminate and/or damage the leather grain.

The folks at Leatherique.com will be glad to help educate.

 

Yes it is not a cheap, cost me almost $700 for the wheel and another 175 for the dealer to install it but it had to be done. Even if the seacoast wheel was pristine, i just don't like that color for my steering wheel for some reason, but that's just me. Also nice having a new steering wheel on my used car, makes car feel brand new :-)

 

That totally works with black accent already in the RLX dash, doors, console, and floor mats!

 

I am finally getting around to some of the changes I intended to do to this car and thought I'd share the progress. At this point I'd say phase 2 of 3 is complete. So far I've done the following:

• Machine polish paint correction and ceramic coating
• 20% tint all around
• New black w/grey stitching steering wheel to replace the seacoast wheel
• Rear Spoiler & Splash guards - Acura brand
• Full chrome delete w/gloss black everywhere except for the front side and rear lower trim pieces where I went with a dark satin grey to give some contrast.
• Black chrome rear A emblem, RLX and SH-AWD badging

Still to come.....

• New wheels and tires
• New performance brakes
• illuminated door sill trim
• 35% tint on windshield

These are not the best pictures but I plan to take some better ones when she is 100% complete :-) - BTW - I really love this car!

 

I did RLX Racing Pedals from Ultimate Pedals. The ebony interior of the RLX was really dark with the window tint. The pedals help brighten up the interior a little bit. They didn't have the exact fit for our +18 RLX Sport Hybrid when I first looked back in Jan of 202. I worked with the sales/tech department to test fit paper templates for making pedals for the +18 RLX.

ttps://www.ultimatepedals.com/




Same pedals for my 11 MDX and 08 RDX:

 

Your RLX looks incredible! I would be curious to know what products you used to condition, polish, and ceramic coat your RLX? I have been using Adams Liquid Ceramic topped with McKees 37 Ceramic Paste Wax after decontamination and paint prep steps. I had Detail Authority in Fairfax Virginia install the Xpel Window Tint and Xpel clear bra to the entire front clip of the RLX when brand new as they do all of my vehicles.
I am at 55k miles now and my RLX will be 2 years old next month. I find I like the car more and more as time goes on and the MPG's are very good. The RLX (and RL) has to be one of the most underrated modern cars.

What wheels are you considering? RonJon made great looking wheels for the RL but it looks like none for the RLX. I am not a big fan of the RLX wheel, but will keep them. Need to replace the OEM Michelins in the next 10k miles or so.



2020 RLX

 

I also use Adams products, I did the machine polish paint correction with Adams blue compound and the white polish and it worked really well. Then I used Adams graphene ceramic "advanced" kit for the coating. Only been about 6 months but its holding up really well. Makes weekly washes/wipe downs really easy and fast.

I have an order out for Avant Garde M520R 20x9.5 with continental extreme contact 265/35's - I cant wait, they should be here in a few weeks

 

I converted one of my OEM rims into a full size spare when I upgraded to aftermarket rims (still have the donut in the trunk). Decided to do so when I got my first pinch flat with the OEM rims after hitting a winter caused pot hole on the hwy. It took almost 2 weeks to order and get an appointment with Discount Tires for a replacement. Ended up parking the RLX with the donut after a few days on because of all the X-mas warning lights in the dash with the smaller tire.

 

I got a nail in one of my Michelins right by the sidewall so tire was not repairable. I was leaving to drive to Florida the next day. The only place that had a replacement Michelin tire was my local Acura dealer Pohanka Acura. They deal with “Dealer Tire” who is a large wholesaler who only sells to new car dealers and provide same day or next day delivery. Even Tire Rack had them on back order at the time.

 

Finally my new wheels and tires came in. Just put a ceramic coating on them and hoping to get them on this weekend. I went a little aggressive on the size so hoping they fit with no rubbing issues.

 

You're gonna love those DWS 06+ tires. The wife is loving them, and the few times I've driven the RLX after replacing the Michelins, I can say the overall handling and ride is amazing. We went with the stock size.

 

Those wheels look incredible! Can't wait to see pics on your RLX!

I spent my first 16 years after college with Michelin. They hired me while I was still in college so I am very partial to them. I just put a new set of Pilot Sport 4S on the RL. I hit a large pothole in Baltimore some weeks back. Shocked I did not blow a sidewall, but had to have both of my front rims trued ($390 for both). It looks like the OEM Michelin tire is being phased out and replaced with the Pilot Sport 4S. The PS 4S did improve the ride and handling a bit and they are very quiet tires. Most OEM tires have some compromises in traction and handling for fuel efficiency and other priorities of the car maker that are usually contrary to an enthusiast driver. I have put almost 1k miles on the new Michelins and seems to be same mpgs as OEM tire.

Love your Adams racks! I really like their Ceramic Waterless for quick detail and their Ceramic Boost that works especially well on wheels after each wash.

 

I finally got my new wheels, tires and brakes installed, cleaned her up and took some decent photos. I am pretty much done with everything I wanted to do and really happy with how it turned out. The oversize rim and tire on the SH fit perfectly with no rubbing issues at all, even on severe dips. And yes, I love these tires, I already had them on the wife's RDX and they are great. Let me know what you guys think.

 

very nice!

 

You may have the best looking RLX out there. The wheels look awesome. Very impressive and so does the entire pkg. Well done. Enjoy!

 

Love those rims! Great looking RLX SH bro