It's that world-class GM build quality.

 

So on par with Acura then?

 

 

I feel the exterior turned out much better than in the first-look videos. Even the interior looks slightly better with functioning infotainment and ambient light, though it still feels like two generations behind compared to what everyone else is doing. I would also question Acura that if the keyfob is the same as Blazer's, why can't you guys stick to Blazer's window switches?

And everyone can see the horrible trunk alignment on the three show cars. I understand these are pre-production, but not showing the best of what you have is simply lousy.

 

And I hope Uncle Ikeda is doing ok. He seems out of tune at the LA auto show presentation, no wonder there is no press coverage at all about the event.

 

Saw this on FB, credits to Joe Anderson:
"Copied from another page: 11/8 or 11/15 will be preorder with deposit. As opposed to past Acura preorders where it only sent the request to the dealer and it was up to them to accurately order what you asked for and then up to them to assign that VIN to you once it was made. The ZDX will be made FOR each person directly by Acura. Dealers won’t be placing orders. Acura will send them a car that is specifically for person “A”. Each person will also get an assigned concierge who will be employed by Acura corporate to go over everything. Including pricing and financing. The dealers roll is to execute the agreed upon deal and deliver the car. Leases will be very attractive since this is a GM platform, Acura doesn’t want people in them long term (nor would you want to be in an EV while it’s rapidly evolving). They want to go through a couple of 2 year leases and then recycle the car and get people into the Honda developed EV’s. Deliveries now expected in March. This is all fresh from an Acura Dealer meeting."

Explained a lot why Acura skimped on the interior.

 

Well, I indicated interest in a preorder immediately when the website went live, and I haven't been contacted about putting down a deposit. I might actually be interested in a 2-year lease with attractive pricing, but no one has reached out to me. So either I've fallen through the cracks, or Joe Anderson's report is faulty (and the typos make me suspicious to begin with).

 

Have you received the pre-order survey? I got contacted by the dealership twice along the way, plus that survey from Acura. I don't mind the silence since then - when Acura is ready, they will let us know.

My guess/impression is that Acura took the pre-order feedback, and made adjustments to the sales process. Originally, I was told ordering started in Nov, and that obviously did not happen. I have a feeling that the early access program was not successful, and few people put in actual deposit for ZDX.

 

No, no pre-order survey. I suspect when I initially signed up for the preorder, and then the dealership reached out to me about my interest in a new MDX, and I told them I wasn't interested in an MDX, that they clicked some button in the system that said I wasn't interested any longer (never mind it was the ZDX I tried to sign up for).

 

From Acura website:
"The first all-electric Acura arrives in 2024. Stay informed about reservations and more for the all-electric ZDX in December."

Likely next week.

 

https://scope-art.com/show/miami-beach-2023/sponsor/


This is that tiger eye ZDX with add-on kits. Wonder why no news at all from Acura about this sponsorship.

 

Was in for service today and the SA pointed out their brand new repair bay that was retrofitted for the ZDX.

Said they were told to have it ready for sales at the end of 2023, though all Acura announcements are now saying sales begin in CY24.

 

Got an email from Acura, early access is now open.

 

Somewhat related to the ZDX w/the exception that it will support CP/AA:

https://www.autoblog.com/2023/12/12/...ion-reasoning/

"Another reason Babbit provided for axing smartphone mirroring is the user experience. Babbit suggests that Apple CarPlay and Android Auto phone compatibility issues are a common complaint in J.D. Power surveys, possibly dragging down GM’s perceived quality scores. According to Babbit, customers blame the automaker instead of the phone manufacturer for these issues, which hurts GM."

If what Babbit said was true, the use of CP/AA would hurt nearly every car manufacturer equally, no? Why don't they make more compelling products instead of making excuses?
Decision to make the Google apps available for free only for 8 years is also pure nonsense.

 

The ZDX is already announced with Carplay, Android Auto, and Google apps builtin. Essentially the same options as the latest top-trim Accord. Honda did state a philosophy that they will not charge a customer a recurring subscription for anything that doesn't incur recurring cost to Honda, so they likely will not do anything stupid like an 8 year expiration on Google apps - unless Google has some type of contractual limit on how long they will support the GM hardware (which I believe is reused in the ZDX).

 

Not a great start for the related Chevy Blazer EV:

https://www.autoblog.com/2023/12/20/...zer-ev-faults/

So who's up to be Acura's first couple of guinea pigs?

 

Still on the fence. Not too wild about putting $1k down right now without being able to fully build one & get a final price.

Also, the hype over EVs seem to be dying so maybe I will go with my other considerations: GLE plug-in or EQE.

Thanks for the link, this definitely makes me consider waiting for Acura's solo EV if I go that route. If Acura would just build a hybrid that would be most ideal.

 

Do you think Honda will do better with their own platform? Based on past records, I am not confident. There is a reason that Honda needed to double up on their SW asset.

On the other hand, there is no doubt that GM failed on the Ultium project: I am so glad that Honda aborted the partnership, and am determined to take control of their own fate. To me, there are serious management issues in GM, the upper-level are so disconnected with what are happening in the field, that I would say Ultium is a time bomb..
.
- Charging: DC charging is slow, takes 35-40 minutes from 20-80% in the best case. Many other brands can do 10-80% in 25-30 minutes. Besides, the charging time varies greatly from user to user.
- Infotainmnet: I thought GM would do a better job since their Android-based infotainment has been solid, but looks like they have problems taming the many control modules in the car. Issues are not wide spread, but there are different kinds of small issues here and there on the forum.
- Production: The delay is simply unacceptable for a large corporation. What is worse, I feel that quality has been sacrificed along the way to hit targets, making the own car a lottery of issues.

I put a deposit though, as I feel the e:architecture product will be expensive, very large, and probably with birthing issues initially. The other candidate on my plate is Gravity.

 

It's ride or die now for all car companies. If you don't come up with your own car OS, then you will have to pair w/established folks like Apple.
You want to talk "ticking time bomb"? Recent news for integrated Apple OS for future Porsche and Aston Martin cars:

https://appleinsider.com/articles/23...on-martin-cars

Can you imagine giving Apple control of your speedometer, HVAC, etc? It's just a matter of time before the car folks and Apple/Android folks start pointing fingers at each other for more serious issues!
Why can't we just let car folks do car things and Apple/Android folks do infotainment things?

 

Hondas biggest problem is that EVs are much more software reliant than ICE cars and the Japanese software industry is borderline third-world. I can only hope that they decided to utilize their US operations for SW development; otherwise they’re hosed.

 

There you go, Chevy issued a stop sale on Blazer EV today. There is certainly something wrong about the infotainment unit on the car.

 

Strange. The lyric has been on the road for a year and presumably has the same software platform, would hve expected GM to see these issues already.

These 1stgen EVs from GM are intended to earn long term goodwill while losing tons of money, so I'm not surprised that they are quick to call a ststoppage.

Sounds like an OTA fix so should be low cost to deploy.

 

From reading a couple of articles online, @mvl , those infotainment issues did also come up in the Lyriq. I guess there were just so few on the road that they didn't catch the automotive press' attention. This does not bode well for the ZDX, that's for sure.

 

Just talking to a buddy who just bought a CPO Escalade. As far as he knew/researched, all Cadillacs require subscriptions for supercruise after the warranty runs out.

Acura never talked about a subscription for Supercruise on the ZDX TypeS so that would be another huge tech advantage (on top of CP/AA) that Acura will have over GM.

 

You've drawn that conclusion because the potential for subscription services hasn't been discussed in pre-launch marketing? I think it's far too early to make that assumption. We're lucky if this kind of thing even comes up during the buying process unless the buyer specifically asks the question -- and even then you have to count on the salesperson to tell the truth. Since SuperCruise is GM's product/service, I'll be shocked if they give it away to Acura customers when they charge their own.

 

Yeah, I am pretty sure ZDX will be subject to the same subscription as Cadillac. Well, at least the price goes down to $15/month, or $140/year paid annually, when you bundle with an OnStar service.

 

More horror story about GM build quality...

https://www.cadillacforums.com/threa.../post-18230482

 

Yikes. Confirming the worst of my fears, and I strongly suspect the factory workers and quality checkers won't be giving the Acura models their best efforts either.

I know Honda and Acura have had their build quality issues over the years, but by and large I trust them to at least TRY to put out quality products.

 

To be fair all these fit and finish issues have plagued Acura as well, so it’s a match made in heaven.

 

They have? On what models? I don't think I've ever seen panel gaps that big, or paint globs dripping like that on any Honda/Acura product.

 

Plenty of gap issues when the current gen TLX came out.

 

Panel gaps on the TLX and Integra are quite bad, and the RDX had paint issues and exploding tailgate window issues. QC on Acuras appear to be no better (or possibly even worse) than Honda

When I went to get my Integra, every one they had on the lot (13 of them at the time) had uneven panel gaps in various places. I chose the best of the bunch and even then it was still noticeable, but the others would have been a dealbreaker. I’d say the fit and finish was worse than most Model 3s. Maybe it’s better now, but I doubt it. It was an issue even on my 1G TLX.

 

To me, the bad samples from Lyriq is much worse than the worst Acura that I have seen in recent years. Regardless, ZDX is pretty much cursed at this point. I start seeing a high $500 lease in the summer when MY23 is on clearance.

 

Acura sent out the magical House of Energy key to any reservation holders. House of Energy reminds me of.... Red Bull. Sadly, the key does not unlock any F1-related activities. Would be cool to be VIP in the US races, but I guess Acura is not luxury enough to offer that.

Recent FB ads on ZDX gave us a glimpse of the dynamic of a white ZDX-S. I would say the body transition looks good and somewhat similar to MDX-S. The car seems to have strong and linear front bite.

Meanwhile, Lucid and Tesla are discounting their cars like crazy. The clearance on MY23 Air is insane, bringing the Touring trim to 90k range with upgraded sound and assisted driving.

 

Hertz selling a third of their EV fleet is all you need to hear...

 

The reasons cited by Hertz has nothing to do with EV itself, but more about Tesla. I see positives out of all these negative news about EV. The goverment and the manufacturers are too deep into the game that there is no way back. These news should put pressure on them to deliver, to get the infrastructure further up, and to get either price down or charge time down.

Another big reveal: 01/25/2024 for Macan EV. I assume this car will be just as popular as the ICE one in Bay Area.

 

EV success is invariably tied to Tesla. The Supercharger network and its lease to other makes is the closest to EV life-support as you’re going to get. If Tesla dies, the rest may go along with it!

 

Why would Tesla fail? They have significant cost advantage than others, new 3/Y will kick off upgrade cycle like iPhone, and then there is Model 2 coming in a year or two. Besides, Musk and friends can easily fund Tesla operation out of pocket, to burn some traditional makers down. I like Tesla management in that they are not worried about stock price unlike GM...

Coincidentally, C&D talked about this as well:
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a4...tting-started/

 

Musk and his peers are in a Space Race to see who can be the "Rockefellers of Asteroid Mining". Costly gambles are coming now that his rockets are semi-reusable.

 

ZDX looks very beautiful for an EV. I don’t see myself buying any EV in the nearer future but some EVs are better than the others. ZDX interior is one of the most normal EVs there. You have proper dash, gauges and standard screen. It doesn’t look like a computer

I hope Acura delivers the performance aspect of it. Good luck to the potential buyers. I can’t justify that kind of money for EV… Acura or non Acura.