2018 Acura Rdx on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2016 Acura RDX Review [w/video]

Acura is deeply confused as a brand. Is it sporty or luxurious? Conservative or avant garde? Truly premium, or just premium for Honda? At its heart, there is a simple truth: despite confused characters, Acura vehicles are usually very competent. The new TLX, for example, is a smart, comfortable, near-premium sedan. The new ILX, meanwhile, is a huge improvement over its predecessor, and finally feels like the entry-level, premium four-door stepping stone Acura needs. Then there's the RDX. Placed in a very hot segment, the Honda CR-V-based crossover never quite caught on. For its first six years on the market, it couldn't even break 25,000 annual sales. The more mainstream redesign in 2013 made some waves, nearly doubling sales, but Acura still fell way behind the competition. In 2014, the Lexus RX outsold the RDX nearly three to one. For 2016, the RDX gets a substantial refresh. The biggest visual update comes from Acura's polarizing, JewelEye LED headlights, which are standard. These aren't the best looking headlights on the market, but the many 'eyes' are better executed on the RDX than any other Acura. The LED daytime running lights round out a nice face during light hours, too. More subtle tweaks are given to the bumpers, with larger intakes in front and bigger reflector housings around back. The seats are broad, flat, and comfortable. The big change in the cabin cannot, sadly, be called an improvement. It's the addition of the Honda/Acura dual-screen system, and while it gives the interior a techy vibe, the user experience is convoluted and unintuitive. The rest of the cabin's design, however, is easy to like. Material quality is adequate for the segment. Plastics are abundant, but are soft to the touch, while fit is impressive and typically Honda throughout. The steering wheel is a parts shelf item and feels just a bit too large for a crossover of this size. The seats are broad, flat, and comfortable, and backseat passengers are treated quite well. Even with the driver's seat set for your six-foot, one-inch author, there's plenty of space in back, especially for long-legged folks. Small changes are found under the RDX's hood, where the 3.5-liter i-VTEC V6 gains six horsepower and one pound-foot of torque. Small changes are found under the RDX's hood, where the 3.5-liter i-VTEC V6 gains six horsepower and one pound-foot of torque. What hasn't changed, however, is this engine's general character.

NSX, S660, and a 4-motor CR-Z EV that goes like hell

AutoblogGreen Editor-in-Chief Sebastian Blanco was my road dog while visiting Honda's R&D center in Tochigi. Over the course of a long day of briefings, driving demonstrations, and a variety of strange-flavored candies, we saw quite a lot of what the company is planning for the next generation and beyond. Of course, Sebastian and I see the world through very different eyes. So, while he was busy getting details about the FCV Clarity successor, and asking tough questions about electrification (in other words, the important stuff), I was fixating on a tiny, two-seat sports car that will never come to America. Oh, there was an NSX, too. Honda's pre-Tokyo Motor Show meeting really did have plenty to offer for all kinds of auto enthusiasts, be they focused on fast driving or environmentally friendly powertrains. Seb's attendance let me focus on the stuff that's great for the former, while he wrote up high points of the latter. View 15 Photos S660 I joke about salivating over the S660, but honestly I was at least as excited to take a few laps in Honda's Beat encore, as I was to sample the Acura supercar. Conditions for the test drive weren't ideal, however. Two laps of a four-kilometer banked oval is not exactly nirvana for a 1,800-pound, 63-horsepower roadster. Still, I folded all six feet and five inches of my body behind the tiny wheel determined to wring it out. The immersion of the driving experience was enough to make it feel fast, at least. I shifted up just before redline in first gear with the last quarter of the pit lane rollout lane still in front of me. The 658cc inline-three buzzed like a mad thing behind my ear, vastly more stirring than you'd expect while traveling about 30 miles per hour. The S660 is limited to just around 87 mph, but the immersion of the driving experience (note: I was over the windscreen from the forehead up) was enough to make it feel fast, at least. Even after just a few laps, and precious little steering, I could tell that everything I grew up loving about Honda was in play here. The six-speed manual offered tight, quick throws, the engine seemed happiest over 5,000 rpm, and the car moved over the earth with direct action and a feeling of lightness. Sure proof that you don't need high performance – the S600 runs to 60 mph in about 13 seconds – to build a driver's car. I could have used 200 miles more, and some mountain roads, to really enjoy the roadster (though I would have wanted a hat).

Acura bringing near-production-ready concept sedan to Pebble Beach

Three years ago Acura turned many heads with the Precision concept. Said to be the future of Acura design language, the latest RDX crossover is the most full-bodied expression of the Precision Crafted Performance design language. The rest of the range has only gone as far as the Diamond Pentagon grille. That looks to change later this year, when Acura brings a near-production-ready four-door to Pebble Beach that's inspired by the Precision. Car and Driver, which got a peek into Acura's Southern California design studio, says the tea leaves "point to a new production Acura sedan in the Precision concept's gorgeous 'four-door coupe' form." Believing the Pebble display will be "a tribute to the best of Acura's past" and could presage a flagship to replace the RLX, C/D wonders if the carmaker won't reach into its deep past and resurrect the Legend name. That's seems a bit much, but we have only six months to wait. After that, the next-generation TLX sedan and MDX crossover will arrive, and are expected to wear Precision cues. Both are scheduled to make landfall at the end of this year or beginning of next year. Based on shapes bulging under taut covers, C/D says both will receive stretched front intakes and "hook-shaped, extruded taillights." A juiced TLX Type S with a ducktail spoiler appears to lurk in the near future, too. Eventually, the second coming of the ZDX crossover might get the nod as well. Acura sold the severely rakish crossover coupe from 2009 to 2013, well before crossover coupes had established themselves. Looking at what's happened in the past 10 years, the ZDX was either ahead of its time, or consumers only want diminished rear headroom from German crossovers; no Japanese luxury maker has yet put a sloped roof on one of its crossovers. That means if a new ZDX does come, it could be just as novel the second time as it was the first.Related Video: