MNP

I just came back from a test drive here in Westchester County, NY. It was AWD with Tech, which is what I want. Thought I was going to sign on the dotted line. After telling the sales guy that I had bought my last 2 Acuras at the dealership, and simply wanted his best price. He quoted $38,000 including destination (MSRP $40+) I said..that sounds great. I was feeling good and thought I would give them a shot at trading in my 2004 TL. They came back with $4000. (the TL has only 90k on it) Haha. Anyway after many trips to the manager's office, the manager came out with his final offer-- $39K for the car and $5k for my TL. He raised the price of the RDX, saying that 38 was just a figure to bring to the manager. Now, if he had said $39 at first I would have thought that was fine.. but I hate these games and walked out.

Sorry for the rant. I enjoyed the test drive--the car felt great in most departments, nicer on my old bones as compared to the TL. I must say I'm a bit concerned about the Variable Cylinder Management. Can those engines last as long as the engine in my TL? Are they more prone to repair?

Coasting on the highway, the salesman told me it was now working on 3 cylinders. When I put my foot down, I felt 2 kicks: the first I thought was the engine kicking in on 6 cylinders, and the 2nd kick was a down shift. I'm not sure I liked that compared to my TL where you just get the downshift.

So now I'm going to try to sell my TL privately and then if I decide this is the car I want, I'll go to a different dealer because these guys really pissed me off.

Any comments about VCM would be appreciated.

Michael

docboy

$5K for your TL? Tell the stealership to take a hike. I agree, go elsewhere. No time for those games and tactics.

jchan2

Why not go ahead and buy the RDX now at $38k with no trade and then list the TL on your own?

MNP

Because the manager raised the price to $39! Which I would in fact pay, but I'm still fuming about their bait and switch.

Dorsey

I ordered a non tech today. Test drove a tech and did not observe the double kick down you described (and I tried to make that happen). I was concerned about vibration in the 55 to 75 mph range and felt none. This vibration was described in some of the earlier applications. There have also been a fair number of complaints of early engine mount failure on the first generation of VCM cars. Those cars did not have the 3 mode operation(3, 4 or 6 cylinder operation), only 2 mode. People complain that the motor mounts are expensive and they are ($350 to 400). However, there are only 2 of the expensive ones and I am a DIYer and they are not hard to change - I will deal with it if it happens in 70k to 100k mile range.

Mr Marco

????Need a little more info...what about the acceleration, handling, brakes, interior (seat comfort, rear cargo room), etc?

MNP

Acura says that the motor mounts have been completely redesigned. The used car manager (who wasn't there yesterday) wants to see my TL. So this afternoon I'll either be signing on the dotted line for the RDX, or I'll be walking away even more angry.

ABUZZ

Test drove a AWD Tech last Sunday and didn't notice a 55-75mph vibration or a double kick. I was going to sign this week but, I think I will go for another test drive first. Thanks for the observations.

TLtrigirl

iTrader: (1)

he jacked the price b/c you were trading in the TL. NEVER tell the dealer how you plan on paying for the car until AFTER you've negotiated the price. that includes your trade in.

take the TL to carmax or sell it privately.

Rocket_man

Actually just never trade in the car unless you just don't want to hassle with selling it yourself. You will always get low balled by the dealer. Afterall they want to make a buck on your trade in also. They are not a charity. Carmax is the same way. You can get a little sales tax break if you trade in, but financially you are normally best to sell it yourself.

I think everyone hates the new car buying experience. Can't take it personnally. It is just the way it is.... unfortunately.

TLtrigirl

iTrader: (1)

true. private sell will yield the most in terms of resale. dealers always want to find ways to make money on one end of the deal whether its the price of the car, the trade in or the financing or all three.

carmax will give you a fair price and more than the dealer will give you. it's easier than trying to sell it yourelf esp if it's a car that most likely won't sell privately too quickly and you don't want to hassle with it.

new car buying experience, used car buying experience...ugh...it's still all a game, and the dealer somehow makes out in the end (they do have to make a little bit of money).

juice13

I've driven both the FWD tech and AWD tech. My wife drives an '07 TSX we bought new. New little baby requires upgrade a more accessible rear seat and cargo area.

FWD vs AWD:

FWD will light up the tires in any sort of non-ideal traction situation when accelerating from a stop. VSA was not off or disabled and the sales guy was surprised to say the least. Like expect some flashing blue lights to ask you what is going on. The good news is that there was ZERO torque steer during this episode when pulling out at a stoplight to turn right while flooring it through a slight wet puddle. I understand the old FWD RDX was notorious for torque steer.

So that made up our minds about the AWD. Not as fancy as the SH-AWD but has to be better than burning rubber.

Driving the AWD felt more sure footed. After a few laps around a large traffic circle the AWD definitely kicked in when flooring it out of the apex. I also noticed very good grip when accelerating briskly from a stop going up a steep incline.

Car is quiet on the highway and I did once think there was a slight jarring similar to a gear change when the cylinders were disabled. I could not reproduce so perhaps I was mistaken.

FYI: Wind noise was more pronounced on the RDX that had the roof rails attached. The fit and finish was NOT good on these rails. Like rattle-can mottled silver gray. Long end pieces did not fit well into the mounts. I'll wait for Thule/Yakima.

Running boards were pretty cool. Just steps for the back seats (elderly or kids I guess). I'll try to post a picture I took with my phone.

Interior:

Leather is light years nicer than the -07 TSX base model. My expectations are low for Acura interiors but the RDX has a more mature feel inside.

Back seat is huge. Giant baby confining devices should fit fine.

Cargo is no MDX but very big opening.

NAV:
I've never liked any OE navigation system so I'll just leave it at that. It is much faster and better resolution than my buddy's -07 TL type S.

Conclusion:
Almost all the reasons we decided not to go with the previous RDX and live with on a daily basis have been addressed in the new RDX. Don't get me wrong, I love how the old RDX drives but that sort of thing starts to wear on you after a while on the baby/work commute.

And we feel like we have to buy the tech package just for HID's. I've put aftermarket HID's in other cars after swapping to OEM euro projector beams in the past, but don't want the baby hauler to blow a Chinese ballast coming home one night. (okay, the upgraded sound system would also be nice)

Dorsey

The wind noise bothered me the most but did not stop me from ordering one. I did part of my test drive on the interstate and we were having very strong (40 mph) cross winds. Unusual for Florida. At interstate speeds the closed passenger window (downwind at the time) was very noisy at the top. Almost like the draft was pulling it outward from the seal. I lowered and raised it twice to make sure it was fully closed. Neither window made the noise on the trip back when the driver window was downwind. I chalked it up to the individual car or the peculiar conditions. There is so much wind tunnel and aero design work put into cars now days that I doubt it is inherent. They did not have a second demo that I could try to replicate. Might be a bit more concerned if I still lived in Kansas. BTW - the car itself was unaffected by the crosswind and drove great.

corduroygt

Did you try programming a destination in the Nav while driving? Does it let you do it like the old RDX?

Dorsey

I did not fool with the nav system as I wanted a non tech. There is one post on the forum by an owner that says you can manually input destination while the vehicle is moving. Another says you can use previous destinations and points of interest or use voice commands to input a destination, but that the manual destination entry is grayed out. Either way it appears that you input a destination.

Dorsey

Meant to say that either way it looks like you can input a destination while moving.

weather

I am curious about the few posts about wind noise issues on the 2013 RDX. It will be interesting to see if this is a real problem or just a fluke. I cannot stand wind noise and turning up the music is not an option *lol*

buzzdsm

Keep in mind that we're coming from a Nissan roque, but I find it very quiet on the interstate. Just as quiet as my infiniti g35

Rocketsfan

Did any of you notice the steering to be a bit "artificial"? Like you weren't connected to the car? I swear during my test drive about a week ago, that's the biggest issue I had with the vehicle. Curious if you guys could comment. I'm currently driving an '04 TL and thought it would take some getting used to for me to drive that RDX because of the steering.

Rocketsfan

During my test drive, I really didn't notice much wind noise, but since that was the first weekend the car was available to be test driven, they were trying to keep the drive kind of short, I think. I managed to take it up onto the freeway for about 2 minutes and couldn't tell you I noticed hat much noise. Of course, the caveat here is that I'm currently driving a 3G TL that also needs new front tires, so I could probably have driven across an ancient lava flow with 100 rattlesnakes onboard and wouldn't notice much noise.

TLtrigirl

iTrader: (1)

i would assume so. the 12 TL let's you program while driving. isnt' honda/acura one of the few (or perhaps the only one) that actually let's you program a destination while you are driving?

corduroygt

This owner disagrees:
Voice recognition is horrible and is not a replacement for actual buttons, so I would count that out.

Dorsey

I had no problem with the steering. Yes, it is light and does not have much road feedback. But it is positive, stays where put and does not "float" like some GM cars.

I found the construction of the rear hatch interesting. Because it is almost flush to the rear bumper I was worried about damage if the car was bumped from the back. I rapped it with my knucles all around. Looks like the bottom of the hatch from the chrome divider down is the same material as the bumper - heavy flexible plastic probably with flex paint. From the divider strip up is metal. Pretty neat - should be tough and less expensive than metal to replace if needed.

deantl

These dealers are so ballsy it drives me crazy!! The guy at open road acura in east brunswick, NJ offered a trade in value on my 08TL tech @55k for $14,000 for a trade w/ a 12 TL. That was a few months back, I'm not really interested anyways.. I'm like the RLX concept, hoping for the best for the MDX, TL and TSX for the next year. Wonder if it will just be a big let down..

juice13

Another culprit of the wind noise could be the side view mirrors. They are HUGE. Maybe I'm just use to sedan mirrors but these are definitely going to get in the way while parked in the garage.

jfarabaugh

I test drove and ordered an 2013 AWD TECH. I had it up to 65 mph and heard no wind noise. There was also no roof rack installed.

dominik331

The online reviews I have read say it is very quiet with minimal wind noise.

TLtrigirl

iTrader: (1)

any cross bars for a roof rack (OEM or aftermarket) are going to cause noise. you're messing with the aerodynamics of the car. you need to put the cross bars further back away from the sunroof if you want to minimize the windnoise or take them off altogether if they are being infrequently used.

weather

Thanks for reporting and confirming!

I have read the same thing too but I have lost confidence in these road test from paid testers. Nothing beats real people testing the vehicles in real type environment.

I know and agree fully that any added roof rack or rails will no doubt change the aerodynamics of the car and contribute to wind noise. I have a phobia of wind noise....

TLtrigirl

iTrader: (1)

^^i guess i got used to the touch of wind noise my TL got with my roof rack on. though the windnoise directly in my Lt. ear from thedriver's side door of the MDX...that's a different story. i'm a little noise averse as well. the ticks and rattles =

richardyc

I wonder how well the 2013 will do in this up hill test without the SH-AWD system now.

Acura_Dude

^ Good question. I've also wondered about that.

TLtrigirl

iTrader: (1)

it would fail.

Kool Aide

Yes, the 1G RDX was the same.

Dorsey

Thanks. I looked at the 1G at an auto show a few months ago and didn't pick up on that. The rear bumper stuck out much further than on the 2G so I figured the 2G was a new design. Without driving it, I liked the 1G but as gas prices went up I ruled it out.

Another thing I have been wondering about - What is the specific function of the shark fin antenna on the 2G? Is it specific to the tech package or is it on both the tech and non-tech. I have not seen a non-tech in person and all the literature and test drive pictures appear to be tech versions (and show the shark fin).

buzzdsm

Non tech has the huge shark fin. I don't know why it's so big.

Brrr

If you're talking about the antenna at the rear that replaces the old short "whip" one, that's for sat radio. Not sure why the design change as it works fine on my '08. My Audi has a smaller "shark fin" antenna, as do most BMWs lately.

Rocket_man

It keeps the car tracking straight down the road during strong cross winds.

Sly Raskal

iTrader: (1)

Moved thread to the new 2nd gen RDX forum.

GRDX

The Shark fin is the same for both Tech and Base model. It contains two antennas. One for AM/FM and one for XM.