Test drove an RDX with tech package yesterday

[CaliMike]

Its very nice. The seats are comfortable and supportive have have a good range of adjustment. The steering wheel tilts and telescopes. It feels like a slightly higher version of the TSX or TL: Very easy to drive with good handling. The side mirrors are attached lower on the door than other cars which I think reduces the parking lot visibility problems of having a mirror right at the intersection of the window sill and the A pillar. The mirrors were pretty big and I didn't notice any blind spots while using the right mirror despite a rather thick and opaque D pillar.

I think I'll have to read up on the paddle shifters operation. On my last Acura auto, I could move the shifter from D to S and get manual control. Sort of, at least. In the RDX, the paddles seemed to work either way. I downshifted with the paddle while in D and it did it but I think it went back to full auto at the next stop light.

The only disappointment was the low end torque. It got the chance to stomp on it from a dead stop several times and it actually reminded me of a Prius right off the line. (The Prius shuts down the gas engine at a stop light and starts it again after you're rolling when it realizes you want to go faster than the electric motor can muster.) There was this weird almost stumble feeling. It was plenty fast once it got going but the off-the-line torque was nill. This is the first turbocharged car I've ever driven so maybe that's just the way they are and I'm expecting too much from a 2.4L engine trying to get a 3900lb car moving before the boost kicks in. I'd like to drive another one on the freeway and see how the passing power is once I'm already going 60 or so.

I'm surprised at the low 23 mpg highway mileage estimate. The RDX looks like it would be pretty aerodynamic, overall weight isn't much of a factor while cruising, and it doesn't take much HP to keep rolling on the highway. I wonder if the RDX's top gear is very short or what's going on?

[spyder5786]

Good review. Yeah the turbo sounds like it take till 2-3k rpm to spool up, after that it pulls pretty good. Did you get a chance to see what SH-AWD can do?

The bad highway mileage is probably due to a combination of weight/SH-AWD/poor aero. Just compare it to the RL which weighs about the same and has SH-AWD, but is slicker aerodynamically.

[CaliMike]

I didn't really get crazy with the handling but I did take some right turns faster than normal both on and off the throttle and chirped the tires on the sidewalk paint. Despite weighing almost 2 tons and having a higher center of gravity, it probably handles better than my CL. Body lean wasn't bad either.

[CaliMike]

I forgot to mention the navi and backup camera. I like the big screen but thought it could be brigher. The route calculation time is way faster than mine but hey, its 6 years newer so it better be. I'm not sure I like the joystick/ring interface over my touch screen. Entering an address is definitely more tedious on the RDX because you have to scroll back and forth to get to each letter.

I played with the backup camera a bit. I tried backing up toward a parked Explorer. I felt like I was pretty close to it while the camera made it look like I had tons of space left. I'd definitely want to practice with someone outside the car watching my ass until I got used to it. I know its minor, but the color accuracy was way off. So much, that I wasn't sure that the back of the Explorer I saw in the screen was the same thing I was backing (and turning) toward. It was orangish/gold in real life but very washed out in the screen.

[spyder5786]

Yeah, I don't like back-up camera in general. The concave (convex?) lens distorts the image too much.