Review of Acura RDX

I was inspired by Brock's review of Assassin's Creed to actually try to use my blog to convey something that might be useful. :) Since we just bought a new Acura RDX about three weeks ago, I thought I would provide some insight on this car.

First, let me say that this is my first foreign car. I refer to myself as "GM spawn" in that I am from a GM family - Dad's retired from the factory, Mom works at a GM dealership. I've only ever had Chevys. I had to work very hard to get over my GM bias to even think about buying an Acura. It helps that it looks cool and has tons of great features. Also, this model is built in Ohio; thus, I am calling it my Japanese-American car. It eases some of the genetically encoded guilt.

Anyway, on with the review. The model we bought is the 2008 Acura RDX with Technology Package, so everything I'm about to say is based on that.

What I LOVE:

• The headlights. If you said, "Hey, nice headlights" to me as I was driving my Acura RDX, I wouldn't be offended as long as you were talking about the ones on the car. They are Xenon High Intensity Discharge (HID) headlights, and they rock. The beam focus is really tight, so that when you turn on the headlights you can see a perfectly straight line of light ahead of you. I don't have great night vision (bad eyes to begin with, plus contacts give all the lights that "halo effect") and I can see much, much better with these lights than any other headlights I've ever had. I am more comfortable driving at night because of them.
• The navigation system. I have a bad sense of direction. Actually, no sense of the direction. The nav system has an excellent sense of direction, and together, we make a great team. I confess I used it to find my way out of the mall parking lot one day. It's pathetic, I know, but it's great for me. Also, if you keep the subscription to XM radio after your three-month trial expires, you get updated traffic information in several major cities. Which brings me to...
• XM radio. I'm still in the free trial and I have become quickly addicted. I'm not proud of this; I always thought satellite radio seemed frivolous. But it is really nice being able to listen to actual music anytime you want, without being at the mercy of talking DJs all the time. And yes, I know I could just load up the 6-disc CD changer or plug in my iPod and listen to those instead. I didn't say it was rational.
• The rearview camera. When the car is in reverse, the nav screen shows you the view of what's right behind you, but too low to see through your back window - the scary blind spot in any SUV. This is one of the features that actually sold me on this car. I've always thought it would be so easy to hit something backing out of the driveway, because there's that spot that you absolutely can't see...without a handy rearview camera. And because lots of kids walk past our house to the school bus stop, I think this is an extra-good feature. It's also really nice when you're backing out of a parking space.
  
• The seats. Not only are they leather, which is just nice, but they are heated and they're designed so they kind of cradle you on all sides. It's hard to explain, but they're really the most comfortable car seats I've ever sat in.
• The driver controls. Okay, you can run quite a lot of this car from the steering wheel. I couldn't do that with my old car. So not only can I deal with cruise control, but I can change the radio station and adjust the volume, and flip through one of my favorite features, which is...
• The driver information center. This car will tell you, right on the dash, if your tire pressure is okay, how many miles per gallon you're getting, what your average speed is, how long you've been driving, how much power is allocated to each of the wheels (it's got all-wheel drive) and more. It is so cool. Just having the car tell you a tire is low is such a fantastic idea. I think it will also tell you when your car is due for service...or maybe that comes through the nav screen. I'm not sure, but this car is smart.
• The safety ratings. The Acura RDX has scored the highest in just about every safety test. I really, really like that.
  

What I Don't Love, but Can Totally Live With:

• The console controls. There's a lot going on in the console of this car, mainly because you have to control so many things (nav system, sound system, defroster, etc.). But some of the controls are kind of hard to reach from the driver's side, like the rear-window defroster button. And maybe when I've had it longer I'll be able to more intuitively hit the buttons, but right now I find I have to sort of search for things and really look to make sure I'm hitting the right button.
• The headlights. Not the lights themselves, which we've established I LOVE. No, what I don't love is that they aren't automatic. And this is because my last car had automatic headlights, so I got completely out of the habit of turning on the lights when it was dark. I have to really think about it now to make sure I don't drive around like an annoying person with just my running lights on. This is most likely to happen in a well-lit parking lot. It's a small thing, but with a car that does SO MANY things, it seems like they could go ahead and make the headlights come on by themselves, too.
• The rear window defroster. It just doesn't seem to have enough juice, somehow. I mean, it works, but I would appreciate some faster defrosting action.
  
• The size. While I like that it's a little smaller, and shorter, than my old SUV, I do miss being up a little bit higher while I'm driving. And while the loss of cargo space vs. the old car has not yet been an issue, I still wish it had more. However, this is totally mitigated by the fact that I'm really enjoying all the benefits of driving an SUV in an easier-to-maneuver vehicle.

What I Haven't Tried:

• The hands-free phone thingy. You can set it up so you can use your cell phone through the car's sound system. This sounds very cool, but it requires reading the instruction manual and syncing up some stuff, and I just haven't had time to do that yet. Also, it's been really, really stupid-cold here lately, and who wants to sit in the garage and set everything up when it's 2 degrees?
  
• The iPod connector thingy. I just got the cable for it, so I'll have to give it a go.
• The paddle shifters. I can't imagine I will ever use these. I don't even know what they do. But they're there, so if you're into paddle shifting, this car's for you.

Random Notes:

• There aren't that many colors to choose from in this car. Mine is "Royal Blue Pearl," which is a very pretty, very dark blue. I like it a lot. But other than that, you've got red, white, black and about three variations on gray.
• I don't see a ton of these cars on the road, at least around where I live. The MDX seems to be more common, probably because it's bigger. But I actually like that because I just traded in a Chevy Equinox...and I passed about 10 of them every single day on the way to work. And if it wasn't an Equinox, it was another GM variation on the same theme, like the Pontiac Torrent or the Saturn Vue. That got kind of annoying after awhile.
• I haven't really said anything about how the car drives, but I think it drives very nicely. And Brock had to drive it back from Indiana in blowing snow the weekend after we got it, and he said it handled fine in those conditions. It's a 4-cylinder "turbocharged" engine; I think I would still prefer a 6-cylinder, but it seems to have plenty of power. I mean, I only drive around the suburbs, anyway.
  

Overall Rating:
9.5/10

I really love my new car. :)