Okay. It's not the only reason we buy Acura, but this is a big part of it.

It's hard to believe, looking at that, but this is exactly the result we want to see.

It is a very severe crash, but there is almost zero intrusion into the cage and the car was successful in reducing the G-force brain injury sufficiently enough to be able to say that you would walk out of that crash asking what happened.

:-)

The smaller wheels used on the Accord crash test made it even better than this TLX. In the TLX there is a chance the driver might've had a broken left ankle, and in the identical chassis Accord there was almost zero chance of that, 100% due to the smaller wheel size on the Accord.

 

Top Safety Pick - Plus, in other words.

 

To keep it relevant, here's the RLX PAWS 40 mph offset crash test. It rated "good" and is a safety pick + as well. No RLX sport hybrid tested but I assume it's similar.

http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/veh...acura/rlx/2014

 

It is one element of a car's characteristics that most buyers overlook based on the premise it ain't going to happen to me. The RLX and TLX both get great ratings. The salesman in me needs to run with this idea to my wife. "Honey your life is precious and all the money in the world is secondary to your safety now can I get that new RLX"!!!

2014 IIHS TOP SAFETY PICKs

Honda Receives Most Awards in New IIHS Safety Ratings | U.S. News Best Cars

 

wow! - if that was 40mph, then I definitely wasn't going 35mph like I thought I was on my recent front-end collision accident. Maybe more like 25-30mph? My steering wheel and lower footwell airbags went off but that was it. I also hit the driver full front, not from the side like in the video, so I think the hit was more centered and resulted in better energy transfer, hence no damage to the frame.

Great thread George!

 

It's hard to make an apples to apples comparison.

The test is against a sturdy permanent structure, and to some extent any opposing car you hit is going to be more flexible than that barrier.

But...on the other hand...you might also have the added momentum mass of the opposing vehicle!

0_o

 

Regardless of the fact that the Volvo S60 did much better than that, the reason I am stuck with Hondas and Acuras for the past 30 years is simple: you can fix them with a hammer! Not that you would want to but you get the picture. They last a long time. Considering how everyone else has messed up... they are reliable. Oh! The horror Audi and Mercedes and BMW stories I hear... and we are sitting here and complaining about ANC, or rattles on the sun roof and engine ticking. Look around the internet to read all about some crazy assembly line stupidities out there.

PS. other reason I buy Hondas and Acuras is that these scratches usually buff out

 

Could not agree more. Inexpensive to maintain, in most cases love the design, high quality paint job and you stated reliable. I have come close to driving 1,000,000 miles in Honda/Acura's. Old Fart but was putting 40,000 miles a year traveling for work. I have never had one odd thing go wrong just routine maintenance. My last car outside of an Acura was an Audi and regret not getting the extra tow truck option.

 

^but we do like to complain about things. And rightfully so. Especially when we move from one generation of a model to the next, we lose something and most of the times we gain stuff we don't need, or at least we feel we have no need for. Take for example a simple thing like the grab handle on the inside door panel. They removed it for no good reason other than to show us ... *cough*cough* the new direction they are taking. I know of one RL owner in my neighborhood who is fuming about that! He loves the RLX, took it for a test drive, almost made the deal and then backed out because of that grab handle. Oh well.

 

the experience my wife and i have had with hondas and acuras was very similar to your's over the course of 20 yrs. this was true right up to and including my 2010 tl 6spd shwd. reliability, value, style and performance. bullet proof. then, this all changed with the 2014 rlx tech. all of the defects and issues and acura's failure to respond professionally with analysis and timely permanent corrective actions, as well as the denial of serious issues by many dealers (not mine) and acura management's rejection of my simple request that they provide a loaner until the fix for the suspension defect is available, all contributed to our utter amazement at the extent to which acura has squandered its reputation, particularly when responding to long time, loyal owners. a shame to wreck a brand and shameful.

 

i'm astounded that the airbags on the passenger side did not deploy given the magnitude of the impact and damage. since there is no dummy on that side, there is no way to see what injuries a passenger would have sustained, but i suspect they would have been massive.

 

^^^^^^
The passenger seat has a sensor to detect weight in the seat. If no one is in the seat, the passenger side airbags do not deploy as it wouldn't be necessary.

It would be interesting to see passenger side information, nevertheless.

 

^ I suspect the real reason is that they put just enough weight on the passenger seat to prevent that airbag from deploying. Just like when there is a child seating there the sensor detects not enough weight on the seat and turns the airbag turns off. Part of the overall test, to test that feature, I guess... they can't afford to crash too many cars to test everything - lol.

PS. please stop crashing silver cars, its not funny!

 

^^^^^
Correct, the weight threshold allows for a small adult or a child in the front seat.

 

I find this story scary to the point I may defer purchase as I hold/put Honda/Acura on a pedestal based on experience (cars that lasted 10 years with no major issues when new and drove similar to new at end). A year of an issue like this new... is not acceptable. Is the old quality, and quality ownership experiance of a honda gone or lost? Or not/never present with Acura. Is it better to get cars, if you can, after the model has been out a few years?

 

I think that you can still hold Acura up to the light as a high quality brand.

I wish that I had more information about the suspension clunk issue that has so very badly inconvenienced a couple of early adopters here, but I have not personally experienced it.

With close to 19,000 miles on a 2014 RLX Advance built in August 2013 and with 1200 miles now on an RLX Sport Hybrid built in January 2014, I have yet to hear anything untoward from the suspension.

Now that the TSB is out and dealers are becoming aware of it, it is just a matter of driving the car for the service manager to hear the noise. I don't think you'll get trouble from the dealer or the manufacturer, but you might get some resistance from the people between the dealer and corporate, people whose job description includes the mission not to spend money that does not need to be spent on frivolous complaints.

Sometimes these people get a little carried away trying to save money, but this is endemic to all manufacturers. It's not an Acura thing.

If the service manager at the dealer is able to hear the noise and represent to the people authorizing the TSB that it is a noise that he is not hearing in the cars of more recent manufacture, then you should not have a problem getting the TSB performed.

And let's step back and look at this TSB: It is a very expensive and complete replacement of parts to solve the problem. It's not a band aid solution. It's a complete solution and a serious attempt to satisfy purchasers.

Every manufacturer associated forum is going to see issues, primarily because people go there to ask about issues.

Don't think for a moment that Acura in North America is anything but committed to continuing to provide a high quality and trouble free vehicle.

 

Reading George's original post reminded me why there is an Acura in my garage today. A long time ago, we bought my wife a new 1990 Integra LS - a really great little car. Four weeks into ownership, a three-axle, loaded dump truck towing a backhoe blew a light at 40 mph in Northern VA and t-boned the Honey Beige Metallic Integra (luckily on the passenger's side). My wife was shaken up and scratched/bruised a little bit, but unhurt. Acura wanted pictures of the car that saved my wife's life (it was totaled, of course). After the truck hit our Integra, it hit two more cars, including a big Volvo, where it crushed/broke the driver's leg.


We promptly went out and bought another Integra, I later bought a 2G Legend Coupe, and so on.


Honda/Acura's engineering strength and commitment to safety are so fundamentally strong, they are hard to pass up, even where there is the occasional marketing/product miss.

 

Honda couldn't seem to do anything wrong around those years, and it's funny how many of us old timers got our Honda start around that time.

My own start was a little 1989 Honda Civic DX Hatch that I got as a daily commuter, and I've been with Honda ever since. :-)

I've owned other weird cars, all kinds of things, but the Honda (or Acura) has always been the solid, reliable daily driver.

 

Yes. Two things made us initially look at that Integra: one, the styling, and two, a guy I worked with bought one, and when it pulled up behind me one day while I was walking, I couldn't hear anything but a well-honed purr. I thought to myself - "that is a finely engineered piece of machinery." We loved ours, nice amenities for the time, solid as a rock, and when you revved that little 1.8 out, it was an entirely new and fascinating sound to my ears.


My 2G Legend coupe was all that and more. A really fine car that lived up to its name.

 

My life with Honda began in 1990, when I bought a gently used 1982 Civic DX with only 20k miles on it, as a college senior in the Bay Area. It was my first car, my first car with a manual, and, as it turns out, the first of 3 Civics I subsequently owned and now 10 Honda products.

My life with that first Honda ended only a few months later, on a cross country trip from Cali to Cleveland to start medical school. Tire blew on I-94 near Tomah, WI, at 70 mph. The little Civic lost control and I went into a grassy median. The car flipped side over side several times, then landed on its roof.

I was hanging upside down, suspended by my seatbelt. I was able to unlatch the seatbelt and crawl out of the broken window. I walked away from the accident with a few scratches, and was able to continue on my way in a rental the next morning.

I figured that if with 1982 tech a little unibody car like a Civic could help me to survive a multiple rollover crash, it must be well built (not to mention how lucky I was to survive the event in the first place). You'd better believe I bought another Civic as soon as I could, and when I started my family, I made sure my wife was in a Honda, too.

Even before I bought that first Honda, I had been paying attention to Honda cars. They were popular where I was in California. They were good looking. They drove well. My dream car back in the day was the 1990 Prelude with 4WS. Then the 2G Acura Legend came along. I agree that Honda could do no wrong in those days. Nowadays, not so much.

In any case, THAT is why I buy Honda/Acura. Even with the imperfections of the last decade, they generally make things right.