Nurseman74

So I got my 2016 Acura ILX white aspect tech plus in Augusta, GA, took it with me to South Korea, then now in Hawaii. I love this little car that can really push hard on demand. The engine sound in sport mode is aggressive and puts a smile to my face everytime I gun it on the on ramp to the freeway. No matter how hard I push this car, its held up great with no problems. Got my recalls fixed. Got it tinted, acura diamond cut wheels, and next week I'll be getting michelin super sport tires to get rid of my continental contiprocontact OEM all season tires. I'm able to park in many places with little trouble. The back of the car looks sexy, the front of the car looks elegant and somewhat aggressive. I came from a 2004 Toyota tacoma, then 2012 mercedes C250, then 2014 BMW 335i M sport, and now the 2016 Acura ILX. I went through a stupid car phase and now I'm really content with this ILX. Its great on gas and fun to drive. DCT transmission is smooth and so good in Oahu's traffic. Now I'm getting married and we want a SUV. We plan on keeping the ILX for her since she wants it because its that good to her. She has a civic EX 2009 and she's ready to drive the ILX. For me, I'm probably gonna bypass the BMW SUVs and go for the latest MDX sport hybrid. I'm not sure if its a placebo effect, but I do feel that Acura's so far gave me little to no problems thus far compared to the German cars I've owned. Don't get me wrong, the BMWs were super awesome, but expensive for what you pay and get.

I just wanted to post this as to let you all know that I love my ILX, don't want to get rid of it ever because it has lots of sentimental value and its a great gas sipper that fits about anywhere in the city when I'm driving around there (I live in a slightly rural area on Oahu), but want to add a SUV to our family, likely the sport hybrid MDX. But of course, if the new 2019 RDX is hard to pass, then we'll look at that as well. Anyone feel this way and have an ILX and an Acura SUV on this forum?

This is what I like:
1. Sporty ride, drive and feel.
2. Economical on gas
3. Lots of standard features
4. Lux suede or whatever feels great
5. Fits in anywhere for parking.
6. Sexy looking sedan.
7. The collision safety feature saved my life while driving in busy Seoul, South Korea. A Korean national driver suddenly braked in front of me in Gangnam for no dam reason.
8. I get lots of looks from people in traffic
9. Great ELS system, I heard the ELS system is the best out there in the luxury car market and it use to rattle intermittently in the subwoofer/back of the car when I first got the car and drove for less than 10,000 miles, but after that no matter what volume and EDM music I play, it doesn't rattle anymore and the music is crisp and there are no rattles. Maybe it had to "wear in" with time and use? I dunno...
10. My acura headlights are white and bright, gotta love it being standard.
11. convenient Acuralink system with live agent.
12. Navigation with iPhone app is very useful.

What I don't like...
1. Road noise
2. The infotainment system kinda slow at times
3. Wish it had more power at times.
4. Sometimes I get this rattling noise when closing the trunk from the lock component, but no problems with locking the trunk.
5. Wish it had a sunglass holder at the top by the garage link button like in bigger cars and SUVs
6. Sometimes finicky Acuralink system.
7. Wish it had power folding mirrors
8. Wish it had front and backup sensors as standard.

4cruizn

Nice summary. It sounds like the pros outweigh the cons which is good. Just curious, did you ever see any other ILX on the road in Korea?

NBP04TL4ME

Nice write up OP. and glad to hear your Acura is serving you well. Would it be a safe assumption to say that you are in the military??

In the past we had an MDX and a TL or TL-S in the garage. Today we have an RDX and a TL-S in the garage.

Nurseman74

Thanks everyone. I didn't see any other ilx around but I did see MDXs and RDXs. I guess people want to bring more SUVs overseas. Yes I'm active duty. I had so many Koreans ask me what kind of car this was and some were familiar with the brand since China has it and some have been to the US and saw the luxury brand. There were also some US people who said they thought the car looked very nice and sporty. So I got compliments here and there. This car served me well with no break downs or major concerns while taking 4 hour or more drives in Korea and bring far away from the nearest base. Luckily I have family living there and can speak the language but not 100%. Oh well I got by!!

Wow or that's cool you still got the TL-S! Hard to find now days in good condition. Question, what made you choose the RDX compared to another newer mdx?

Nurseman74

Sooo I forgot to post above I got brand new Michelin super sport tires installed yesterday from the Acura dealer with a discount. These tires are so good. I got now less road noise, smoother ride, better grip on the road that I can actually feel a huge difference. I didn't know these summer tires were that good. I don't need winter or all seasons here since it doesn't snow in honolulu. It's been raining a lot because of hurricane season but it holds up well in wet conditions. The oem continental contiprocontact tires were bad in ride comfort and road noise.

skylineblue

My biggest problem with the car is the road noise and ELS sound. New tires took care of the road noise. They really messed up the tuning of the ELS system for the ILX and TLX. CD, USB, and HDD is less of a problem than radio and XM, but still pretty bad. I get that they tried to tune the radio for better sound but it failed miserably. Usually radio is extremely bass heavy and light on treble so they decided to dial down the bass and slightly increase treble. All they did was make the sound too bright with almost no bass in a system that already lacks bass.

I disconnected the ANC and the bass doesn't drop off as much with speed but the system still lacks a ton of bass. I used to be able to hear the bass get louder as I slow down to around 25mph. The most noticeable change was setting DSP/Amp flat to ON. This really increases the bass with the 40-80Hz range. It also brings the mids back a bit, around 2-3db at volume level 10 if I had to guess. Stock DSP settings have really forward mids so you can really hear the vocals over everything else. I do like forward mids since I love the sound of my Adam A5x studio monitors and Fischer Audio DBA-02 IEM but the ELS takes it a little too far. Vocals do lack a little presence with flat set to ON but instruments sound less congested. I think this is due to the ELS system boosting the 2-3k frequency range. Disconnecting the ANC and turning DSP/AMP flat to ON made the ELS system sound a lot better. If I had to compare the stock ELS system to entry level $200 studio monitors I would give them a 6/10. I would give the modified version a solid 8/10, still not close to what a premium sound system should sound. I leave the audio settings at center for everything except the sub, which I have maxed at 6 since the system still seem to lack bass at higher speeds. It sounds pretty neutral with the sub at 3 or 4 with the engine off. The bass and treble settings are pretty much unusable because they really change the tonality of the sound even by changing it by one. I also mostly keep DTS off but it can sound good with acoustic music.

skylineblue

Wow I can't believe that the PSSs give a better ride than the stock Contis. That is great to hear since most of the complaints has to do with road noise and ride quality. The OEM tires were much much louder than the P7s that I tried and noticeably louder than my current P Zero A/S+. The Grand Touring Contis (V speed rating) do ride really stiff since they ride about the same as my current Ultra High Performance P Zero A/S+ (Y speed rating). I just didn't expect a summer tire like yours to ride better than a touring tire like the OEM. How much better is the ride and road noise on the PSS? Can you try to quantify it?

Nurseman74

I focus on which roads caused me to have slight headaches and feel irritable when driving home from work after being stuck in traffic everyday. I read many reviews about these tires and asked around the forums. People were telling me the ride with the PSS wasn't gonna be that great and the road noise is still bad. Well I went on the forums and talked with some people who had them and told me bmw M3s also use these tires as a oem product but I believe they're run flats too. Anyway, I took the plunge since I couldn't stand these oem tires because every bump I hit on the freeway going 60-80 mph, I felt the loud thuds and that slightly high pitches roaring for a few miles since our roads are bad an full of pot holes that were patched up. Now I feel like I'm riding in my old BMW 335i M Sport with an Acura badge in regards to the ride quality and low road noise. I was amazed at the road noise being reduce by...if I had to quantity, probably by 40%. I don't really hear the loud thuds as often anymore on the same roads and no more high pitched roaring sound that was always noticeable and made me irritable. These tires definitely run softer than all seasons in my experience and also what the Acura parts guy told me who's a friend of a good friend. I took his word for it and he told me about how all seasons are going to be louder than summer tires since they're made for light snow too. When I'm going into my driveway, I don't have that bumpy approach to my driveway anymore and it's smooth. I already knew these tires would only last up to 30,000 miles but I thought who the hell cares if I can get good set of high rated ultra high performance tires cheaper than my oem tires and I can afford to change it out every 30,000 miles or slight sooner. Now I'm enjoying my ilx more and happy with my cars ride and performance more than before. These tires made a huge difference for my everyday driving now to work and home. No regrets spending money to replace my oem tires early than recommended. I feel like the handling improved that I'm driving it a little hard now thinking it's my old BMW again lol. Well of course we all know this isn't going to be a BMW but to me the ride and handling feels like it when I push it.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

PSS are the best tires I've ever driven on.
Great review, man...
I'm assuming you're in the Military?
Glad to hear you're still enjoying your car!

NBP04TL4ME

I've had my TL-S for coming up on 7 years, so it's condition is very good . In terms of the MDX vs. RDX, it came down to needs. We could have gotten another MDX, but simply didn't need the size. Our kids have grown and out of the house and the gas mileage on the RDX is better. We owned our MDX when 91 octane was selling for about $4.00 / gallon so we were spending $300+ a month on fuel for the MDX alone. Gas prices have changed, but again we just didn't need the size of the MDX.

Also thank you for your service -

losiglow

iTrader: (1)

I've considered the ILX several times, though I've never test driven one. It's gotten a lot of flak for a lack of power but I really liked the smaller size of my 1G TSX which is similar in size and power to the newer ILX. Sure, it's not as powerful and spacious as my 4G TL but the "smallness" increases the agility and total footprint. Having kids and all, I ended up still going the larger car route when I sold my TLX but I can certainly see the draw to the ILX.

skylineblue

I've always wondered about summer tires being quieter after seeing them being around 3db quieter on European tire websites. They actually test tire noise in Europe and have them in the official specs. I was hesitant since people have always said to expect summer tires to ride stiffer and be noisier. Makes me almost want to try out summer tires but that won't be a good idea since it does get into the low 30s here during winter even though there's no snow. Not a problem for Hawaii with temps pretty much always above 60.

mvidal6

Nice OP! I just financed my 3 Year Leased 2015 2.4 Premium ILX,

I def agree with the cons, I especially hate not having power folding mirrors like BMWs have. Also the lack of power but supercharger is in store for me later

Nurseman74

Test drive one and see for yourself. But the new 2018 TLX is definitely more comfortable ride. I test drove a new TLX and it is much more quiet, powerful to drive. The ride is fantastic as well. Handling is good. Red leather is gorgeous with the blue exterior. A value compared to German competitors. But its quite big compared to the ILX. I was tempted to trade my ILX for the new TLX Aspect blue exterior and red interior with all the bells and whistles and extra accessories or go back to a loaded 2017 BMW 340i M sport but decided to save money and spend it on new tires. Since putting on the new tires, its been a thrill to drive. I didn't know it made this big of a difference. Then I decided to get practical on our next car and get a luxury SUV later next year or in 2019. We decided to keep this nimble ILX pretty much forever, pay off the loan this year, and drive it until it dies. We have a 7 year USAA extended vehicle warranty on it so it should be good until 2022 since I bought the ILX in March 2015. I was going through another car buying phase and kept thinking, "dam I need a BMW again, this car aint doing it for me. I really want a 340i M sport for the power and the luxury, and the driving performance". BMWs are awesome machines but I thought where the hell am I going to use this power and not get a ticket/arrested or create a safety issue?

I would look at other car brands, build them online, spent time on forums, read about it on google news, but I keep coming back to this ILX aspect tech plus with all the bells and whistles I need and want. Paying more for less technology in other brands turned me off because my car was still in awesome condition and under warranty. The ILX safety feature of pre collision braking saved my life in Korea multiple times (people in Korea drive crazy!). The better side of me said to save my money, keep this car until it dies, and get a SUV as a second car for our family since we'll need one for future kids and that can either be the acura MDX, RDX or a BMW X3 M40i which I'll be using and my wife really wants my ILX for herself. So its a win win for me here. I have a hard time thinking of trading in my ILX for another sedan because to me, its that good.

skylineblue

It's a Honda so it'll probably still drive after 200k miles. The only power train failure I've had in my family was my dad's gen 7 Accord with the well known tranny failure at 40k miles. He got it replaced for free and drove it until he sold it for a gen 8 Accord at 170k miles. I think he got 5k or 6k for it after laughing at the trade in offer of 1.5k.

If you want to upgrade the handling of the ILX for cheap then you should replace the stock rear sway bar with the 20mm one from the 2015 Civic Si. Search for "sway" in the thread title under the ILX subsection. It should list all the parts you need to order. Should cost $100 for parts and an hour of labor, so around $200. It will keep the outer rear tire more planted while turning so you will feel like the rear end is rotating better in corners. Another thing you can do is adjust the height of the headlights and fog lights. I found that my fog lights were aim extremely low. At 5ft their cut off line was already down over 5 inches. That means they had a range of less than 15ft. There's an adjustment hole under them that you can stick a Philips head screw driver in to raise them. Even at the max setting their cut off drops an inch at 5ft, making their range around 70ft. I also adjusted my headlights and can see so much further at night now. I had to buy a 10in Philips head screwdriver to reach the adjustment nut. I found that the driver side headlights were more than the specs of 1% drop. It was actually 4in drop at 25ft. I raised it to 2in drop at 25ft and haven't been flashed yet. I noticed the passenger side was actually aimed up for some reason. It was almost an inch higher than dead even at 25ft so I went ahead and dropped it 3 inches. I know there has been complaints about the short distance of the headlights, which I kind of agreed with when I first got the car. After I adjusted them, I can see lane makers close to 400ft ahead of me.

Did the CMBS actually brake the car for you or did the "BRAKE" warning just go off and you did the braking yourself? I've noticed that only the ILX and RDX failed to fully stop in the IIHS automatic braking test at 25mph. All other Honda and Acura models with the system fully stopped while the ILX and RDX were still going at 10mph if I'm not mistaken. Do note that they tested the non Apsec model with the 215 width tires. Braking from 10 to 0 might only take 5ft so tires is pretty much the only factor since the brakes will be overpowering the traction of the tires at such low speeds. Another think I found was that the Forward Collision Warning actually works for the car ahead of the car directly ahead of you. I had the "BRAKE" warning go off when the car in front of me wasn't even on the brakes yet. The car ahead of him slowed down and before he did and the system still picked it up. The guy ahead of me ended up locking his brakes in a cloud of smoke but still managed to avoid rear ending the car in front of him. It was just like this video of the Tesla except we were in the suburbs doing 45.

aksilx

Can't complain either had the '13 ilx and not a single issue. Picked up a '17 and love it even more.

schen72

The CMBS will actually engage the brake if it feels a crash is imminent. It's the same system used in Honda as well. It uses the monocular camera and the radar in conjunction to determine if you're going to collide. In skylineblue's case, I'd guess that the radar picked up the decelerating car through the windows, and knew that an object large enough to be a car was rapidly slowing down in front of him.

Nurseman74

I kid you not, the car braked for me at around 15 mph and I had a late reaction. I was overwhelmed with the korean traffic, that this stupid guy just suddenly slammed on his brakes and my car automatically slammed its brakes. This happened twice there. close calls, the car saved my life and an accident. Prevented me from going on international hold because of a car accident.

skylineblue

The radar doesn't work through anything. If it's like other systems then it probably got the reading around the car in front because they weren't lined up perfectly or underneath it.

Good thing you didn't get rear ended. I've heard of a few stories about the CMBS causing the person behind to rear end because they're following too closely and can't react fast enough. I really want to test the system at higher speeds since both the ILX and RDX were still going at 10mph on impact in the 25mph test.

Nurseman74

I am already missing my car. I'm currently away for work for the next few weeks. Fortunately my sister has been home to drive my car for a little bit. I can't believe I missed this car that much LOL it's probably because of the new tires that are put in recently. The new tires ready to make a big difference. I'll probably end up keeping The car as long as possible and get the Acura MDX with my wife. Eventually if we ever have to replace the ilx will get the Accra TLX if it is the type S version LOL.