tgerold

I've got a light interior on my current sonata hybrid, it was the first one I've ever had and I really don't prefer it; I had an mk6 gti, g8 gt (modded, loved that car), an RDX, a Durango hemi, a couple q7's (new one has the luxury package, black suede headliner, is stunning inside), an s6 briefly (badass but it never ran, all with black interiors. With my current ride, I wanted a commuter appliance that would get great gas mileage and wasn't too picky, found a great deal on one local to me that had the tan interior. I tried to not buy an enthusiast car and I'm paying the price now, it's just so boring and bland lol.

I really prefer a dark interior, call me a caveman I guess 😃👍

rlx015

One thing I will personally never compromise on is the interior color. The only reason is: that is where you spend the time, experiencing car performance, comfortability, listening to music... looking at ALL inside the car - and one worse thing one can do IMHO is to compromise on color from the one that was top/first pick. If ebony is your pick, nothing wrong with not compromising, because sooner or later... sooner or later... you will get rid of the car because of the color inside not being what you want it to be... again, that is how my thought is on this... I initially wanted black ext/ebony int color, but one got away under my fingers that were on sale in Delaware... couple of weeks later I got white ext, ebony int combo - because exterior I can live with, but interior, call me too specific and too particular I was choosing not to budge on ...

I do agree in today's market, it will only get harder to find that combo you want, and even harder with gas prices, inflation, car market pricing, EV emerging trends, etc.

Q: Did you consider any other color where you would get an ebony interior? Perhaps it widens the choice selection with acceptable pricing...

tgerold

That's how I feel too 👍. I think the grey would look good with deleting the chrome, and the white too. I'm going to avoid black exterior. A red one would probably drive me to purchase asap, I'll be a bit more picky on the other colors.

Anyone here have an RLX SH with the espressos interior color? Looking at it in pics I'm kind of torn, seems a bit too much brown? I like the dark headliner though - would love to hear from someone who took the plunge.

phile

they’re even more rare. I came across one during my shopping. It was way too brown. Not sure what Acura was thinking. I know they named it espresso but it literally looked like someone threw coffee everywhere.

phile

But obviously someone liked it cause it’s gone from the listings.

Heres a red with graystone interior. But 3 prior owners and no pics 😶

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/t-Used...325063304/NONE

mrgold35

I don't think the RLX came in red/graystone? I've only seen graystone with the Fathom Blue Pearl. The seller might be confusing Seacoast with Graystone.

UPDATE: I put the VIN in the Acura's Owner's site and the CPO RLX comes up as red/seacoast. Purchased and serviced at Frank Leta Acura its entire life.

phile

^ you’re right. i remember buying my blue and they listed seacoast so i thought my graystone interior was seacoast. i didnt realize it got even lighter with the seacoast interior since I find my graystone to be pretty light as well.

mrgold35

I love the graystone interior in my 19 MDX and 06 TSX. Red/graystone would have been a good looking color combo!

phile

not sure why Acura is so stingy with the color combo. I like the graystone interior too but i wish they had kept the darker wood tone instead of the bowling ball trim. Im still looking to see if i can swap them.

robscharp05

They were originally asking MSRP when they got this in as this was one of my contenders before I purchased my 2020.

tgerold

Well, a red RLX SH (with the seacoast interior, grr) popped up at a local dealer here and I couldn't miss my chance for a test drive. I wanted to put some notes down to collect my thoughts and potentially help others in my spot. So here goes nothing:

About me: 32, 2 kids @ 5 and 7 (in boosters now, no more baby seats), commute around 75 miles a day.

Car history (from 10 years of marriage to my wife): 2001 Aztec (awesome gift from g'ma!), 2013 RDX, 2012 GTI DSG, 2006 Sierra Denali, 2014 Durango Citadel Hemi, 2012 Q7 TDI, 2009 G8 GT (loved that car, still miss it), 2013 S6 (amazing but never ran right) and currently have a loaded 2018 q7 (it has ruined other cars for me) as our family car and my commuter appliance 2016 Sonata Hybrid Limited (snooze, but great commuter).

My headspace: finally have a great job making great money, looking for a decent comfortable luxury commuter with AWD and some power. Love German vehicles, but don't love the idea of maintaining one as a commuter (I drive 23k a year or so). Love the idea of a performance hybrid like the rlx or the Infiniti Q50 and really crave the AWD snow performance.

Other cars besides rlx sh I'm considering but haven't driven yet: 2018 Golf R, 2015 Infiniti Q50 hybrid sport AWD, Lexus rx450H fsport, bmw 530e decked out, maybe kia stinger/Audi S5 sportback, maybe genesis? Porsche macan? I'm all over the place, but the 4 i've got in mind are the golf r, q50 hybrid, rlx SH, and 530e.

Test drive impressions of 2020 RLX SH:

Nice exterior in person, HUGE backseat and smallish trunk, but I don't really care about that. Really comfortable upon initial entry, seats are excellent and heated wheel is also excellent. Love the stitching, even with the seacoast (not at all my preference), the space is clearly higher end, though doesn't hold a candle to my q7 (and I wouldn't really expect it to, but again, the q7 has ruined me).

Paired my phone and damn, the krell has NO bass. Like, I had to check if the sub was plugged in after maxing it out and cranking bass to +6. Really, really disappointing. Mids and highs are excellent, and no distortion even at full volume. Listening to Van Morrison's "Bright side of the road", I was in awe of how nice the high end is and how absent the low end is. I'd 100% have to add a sub to this car, and I don't listen to anything really after the year 2000. The krell is now a downside for me in this car unfortunately, which is very disappointing.

Ok, the drive. First of all, I get where people say the thing rides soft, but I LOVED it. I can see how miles would just melt away in this car. Really, really nice ride. In normal mode, hybrid doing its thing, looked like 28mpg easy, which is great for such a large car. Pretty lazy and laggy in drive though.
Man, the sport mode button wakes the car up. Instant torque off the line and then the 3.5L comes in strong. And the transmission, what a peach. Love me some dual clutch action and this thing was quite a pleasant surprise in this comfy of a car. It's stealthy quick too, love that.

Man, the tech interface is dated. Grom would also be a need for me, but that would be an easy fix. But I can't imagine laying down $62k in 2020 for an interface that I had in my 2013 rdx and wasn't that great at the time. Wow, Acura, wow.

Overall, I came away with a slight mixed bag. Love the power train and ride. It's not a slam dunk car for me, but if the krell would have had low end and the interior wasn't seacoast I may be singing a different tune.

I think I need to get drive some more stuff first before I'd take the plunge on one across the country. If the perfect car came up locally, I'd probably give it another shot and find a way to add a 10" sub to the trunk.

Onwards!

jdpdata

Sums up pretty much my own experience too with the RLX-SH. Love the power and plush ride. Krell is meh but I can deal with the lack of bass, I don't listen to heavy bass music anymore. I do appreciate the highs and mids without distortion at high volume. If you want thumping bass, just add a sub pretty sure it's an easy thing to do but you'll lose even more trunk space. GROM pretty much fixed all the short-comings of OEM infotainment. It made the car nearly perfect for me now. If we had MDX-SH dampers and IDS modes, it would be perfect. I'd imagine with today's used car market, if that Red RLX-SH is in good condition, it may not last very long sitting on dealer lot. You better hurry up make a choice. Seacoast may not be the color you want, but RED is very hard to come by. I rarely seen a RLX-SH here in SoCal not alone a RED one.

phile

^ I was behind a black SH just recently on the Jersey Parkway. I run into the RLX probably more often than anyone else here. Maybe it’s because we’re a densely populated state.

tgerold

Seeing the seacoast in person confirmed my choice to avoid it. Not a bad space, but I definitely would be getting a black interior if purchasing an rlx SH. I wasn't wowed enough by the car to exclude others from my search, so I'm back to square 1.5 in looking for some more test drives of different models. Or just waiting it out for a while in my commuter with car prices and gas prices going crazy. I thought I might come away from the RLX SH test drive with a 'gotta have it' mentality and I just didn't.

rlx015

I think once people experience RLX SH in a test drive, hopefully a longer test drive than just 10-15 minutes with the dealer sales rep there, not going to be easy to find such a car to match the power and all RLX SH offers for the money...

phile

Agree. I think the test drives should include an empty straight road where you can launch it. Ive never driven a car this fast in my life. I know there are faster cars, but they’re also more expensive than what I paid for a gently used ‘18. I think they did a great job with the refresh, I don’t find it as wallowy as others have described. It’s no sports tuned car, and that’s not what I’d want as a daily, either. I like the level of luxury, I think Acura could’ve done much better, but it’s not a fail in my opinion. So far all I’ve had to do was change the oil & repair a punctured tire, which was no fault of the car itself.

neuronbob

I have to say, I'm not a Seacoast person usually, but it does look pretty decent with the red. Almost a year into ownership, it cleans up pretty well and so far as I can tell, no permanent staining. With that color, it takes a little more work to maintain it than other interior colors.

leepenguin

I have the same concern since I'm in Hong Kong, and I believe I'm the only 2015 RLX Sport Hybrids owner(There are some new hybrid NSX though). I'm not sure if they know how to do the maintenance (TMU fluid change, hybrid fan system clean up or hybrid battery replacement..etc).

mrgold35

So far, it has been mostly fluid/filter changes and rotations for +40,000 miles (64,000 km) between my MDX hybrid and RLX hybrid. I would see about purchasing the DW-1 fluid for the 7DCT and TMU since that is unique to these vehicles. Everything else seems to be normal car stuff. I would make friends with the NSX crowd to find out where they service their vehicles since they both have extremely similar EV components. Others can chime in; but, the only service I can see with the EV components is changing the DC inverter coolant at 105,000 miles (160,000 km) with the same type used by the engine.

Here is link to Emergency Procedures for First Responders on where to cut if needed in an accident:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/veyqretzrt...Guide.pdf?dl=0

Here is a link on battery pack disposal for the 14-16 RLX Hybrid. It show how to remove; but, it could be used to replace a battery pack if you do the same steps in reverse (starts on pg 54 for RLX):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ldnm6p9kx6...Packs.pdf?dl=0

leepenguin

Thank you for your advice. Right now my 2015 RLX hybrid is 21000KM, but it is almost 8 years old. Hopefully no big issues. Do u think changing the brake fluid is necessary? I heard that the brake fluid needs to change every 20000km or the ABS pump may screw up. Thanks!

mrgold35

Brake fluid is recommended every 3 years because of the potential of picking up moisture from the air. I think it is for normal per year mileage 8,000-12,000 miles (13km - 20km per year) . I can sometimes go up to 4 year since I live in the desert southwest with humidity in teens or lower on most days. I can sometimes travel 40,000 to 60,000 miles in those 3-4 years between brake bleeds (65km-100km). I would change it out if the brake fluid out sooner if it isn't its normal fresh looking color.

leepenguin

Hm I guess I need to spend a lot on fluid lol. 7DCT, TMU and brake. Thank you.

xjokerz

Something that never gets talked about on here is the long-term reliability. I wouldn't want to be on the hook for repairs on that hybrid as it ages and racks up the miles and for that reason I'd go with a '16 or '17 RLX with PAWS Advance. I guess it wouldn't be a big deal for you, seeing as how you dropped 90k on an Audi.

leepenguin

Can I have ATF-Z1 fluid for 7DCT and TMU instead of DW-1? The service guy here says Honda has changed it. Thank you!

leepenguin

What is the difference between TMU and rear differential? What kind of fluid should they use? Thank you guys.

mvl

As far as I know: TMU (twin motor unit) is the hybrid rear differential. The proper fluids are in the manual, for my 2020 MDX it is on page 663, and says both the 7DC and TMU take DW-1.

mrgold35

Sh-awd has an input shaft from the transfer case/transmission/engine to power the rear differential. The sh-awd rear differential has two clutch packs controlling each rear wheel to distribute torque evenly or to one side or the other as needed. It can send 70% of the engine's torque to the rear wheels AND shift 100% of that to one wheel or the other as needed. The sh-awd mechanical system does have an overdrive mechanism to overdrive the outside wheel to assist in torque vectoring in a tight turn (feels like the rear end is rotation around you; but, it is extremely stable). The mechanical sh-awd system only work with power from the engine and your foot on the gas pedal.

Hybrid sh-awd has 3 separate electric motors. The 7DCT has an electric motor that also works as 1st gear, 6 forward gears, 1 reverse gear, dual clutch, and input shaft from the motor. The 7DCT work pretty much the same as other DCT; but, the electric motor can do regen braking, assist in torque vectoring, recharge the battery pack, helps in EV to gas engine transition modes, and provide extra torque to the engine. There isn't a mechanical connection between the TMU and 7DCT other than power and data cables. The TMU are two separate electric motors that can work together or independently. Almost the same as the 7DCT without the extra gears and engine input shaft. The advantage of the TMU is it can work with or without engine power to torque vector & regen brake at the same time, work in reverse, help recharge the battery pack, and drive the RLX in pure EV mode for short distances. Way more features compared to the mechanical sh-awd. The big disadvantage is the electric motors are less effective in extremely cold climates and you get less electric motor power as you reach hwy speeds (no hybrid functions on my MDX hybrid past 84 mph, not sure about the RLX),

jdpdata

ATF-Z1 is much older fluid that's not in production anymore, I believe DW-1 replaces it. Z1 was not designed for TMU unit in our Sport Hybrid. I strongly recommend you check to make sure they used the right fluid. DW-1 is light Cherry Red in color. The older fluid are amber color, I believe. Using the wrong fluid could cause premature wear on vital components in the TMU unit. Luckily in my situation, they did use the correct DW-1 fluid, they just noted the wrong name on service ticket. Some dealers use Z1 and DW1 interchangeably which leads to more confusion.

leepenguin

Local service changed the fluid for DCT (DW-1), TMU(DW-1), and brake. Cleaned the cooling system for hybrid battery. However, they could not change the clutch fluid. Is changing the clutch fluid necessary? Thanks!

mrgold35

The DW-1 fluid exchange in the 7DCT also includes the clutch plates. the DW-1 is used to lubricate the DCT gears and dual wet clutch plates at the same time with the same fluid.

jdpdata

Yup as Mr Gold mentioned, DW-1 fluid change for TMU unit included the clutch packs. It's important to not miss the first change at around 15K miles and 30K miles thereafter.

leepenguin

Thank you all. My RLX is now good for a while!

asb32952

Looking for a pomegranate pearl which I believe was only made in the previous generation before 2018 with a gray or black interior. Can't find any production numbers like you can with the corvette model through Idaho Corvette site. That color combination(s) is the most rare rlx imo. The whole generation could possibly be in the hundreds or tens. Like a prayers chance in hell to find one.

asb32952

Looking for a pomegranate pearl which was only made in the previous generation before 2018 with a gray or black interior. Can't find any production numbers like you can with the corvette model through Idaho Corvette site. That color combination(s) is probably the most rare imo. Dozens or maybe hundreds were available at one point. Like a prayers chance in hell.
This is all I could find.
https://www.autopadre.com/colors/acura-rlx

Tomikraknh

Witam. Bardzo chcę ten samochód, ale martwię się o baterie. Chcę kupić ten samochód i dostarczyć go do Polski. Daj mi znać, czy to dobry pomysł? Chodzi mi o baterie, czy będą działać po np. 2-3 miesiącach przestoju? Pozdrawiam.