The Acura RDX is an important compact luxury SUV first released in 2007.
For Honda/Acura, the RDX was the first production vehicle for North America with a turbocharged engine. Since then, the RDX has undergone many changes to become what it is today, with the 2019 changes to be the most radical and significant.
Acura’s commitment to sportiness, practicality and luxury is evident throughout the new RDX, from the bold new looks to futuristic, state-of-the art interior. Undergoing a huge makeover was a big gamble for Acura, but with sales booming since the RDX’s release and projected to increase further, the risk-taking might have paid off.
The new RDX was designed and engineered in the U.S., and it represents an important milestone for Acura as it carves a new direction in the luxury market with more emphasis on performance and sophistication.
Design
Even though the predecessor was well designed and sold in good numbers, the 2018 RDX was a generic-looking SUV that simply blended with all other Asian SUVs. The 2019 RDX, on the other hand, signals a fresh styling and first-class performance that finally sets it apart from the likes of the Lexus NX and BMW X3.
The 2019 Acura RDX projects a much sportier feel inside and out, particularly in the first-for-RDX A-Spec trim – thanks for blacked out rims and bold front design. The fancier design of the A-Spec carries into the interior with sports steering wheel, paddle shifters, metal sports pedals, and a red glowing instrument panel.
The other trim models are equally impressive in terms of overall design, but they adorn chrome trims and wood panels to highlight the luxury environment. Honestly, the A-Spec model is the one to get, with just the right amount of standard features mixed with sharp design.
As a luxury SUV, the RDX has a premium feel to the cabin with soft leathers, brushed aluminum accents and upscale touches everywhere.
Acura designed the interior of the RDX with a focus on two avenues: space and “silence.” Triple-sealed doors, Active Noise Control, a whisper quiet HVAC system and a super-wide panoramic sunroof provide the right feel. Rear seat comfort is as good as the front seats and three adults can comfortably sit in the back. A very roomy trunk can swallow 881 litres of cargo.
Acura used the concept of “Kime” – a word in Japanese martial arts meaning “focus and power” – to develop the new True Touchpad Interface (TTI) for the infotainment console. With a 10.2-inch centre display, this puts the in-car touch experience directly under the driver’s control. This new interface uses absolute positioning to give the user a more streamlined and intuitive infotainment without all the messy fingerprints and distracting buttons. Having said that, it’s still easier to use a real iPad-style touch panel versus the laptop-like touchpad, and so I wish that car companies stop using the touchpad and just let us touch the infotainment screen directly like those in BMWs and Audis.
The 16-speaker ELSE Studio 3D sound system in the Acura RDX was designed by an award-winning engineer and producer named Elliot Scheiner. The audio quality is truly like a symphony within the cabin – Acura even included a flash drive with songs that have been produced exclusively for the RDX. Listening to them in the RDX is like having a full orchestra playing all around you.
At the end of the day, the interior design is futuristic but it’s also very busy, making it less practical than an old-fashioned design with more buttons and switches.
Performance
The 2019 Acura MDX has a 2.0-litre 16-valve Direct Injection DOHC VTEC turbocharged four-cylinder engine. This engine produces 272 horsepower and can pull 280 foot-pounds of torque, impressive numbers indeed. While the car itself is heavier and there is a loss of seven horsepower due to the change from the previous generation’s V-6 engine to the turbo-four, the new engine runs more efficiently and delivers a better torque curve. At every point from about 1,500 r.p.m. to 5,000 r.p.m., the 2.0-litre engine provides much more torque and power than before.
This is most apparent when driving uphill or accelerating on the highway; there is plenty of “pull” power to make the RDX competitive with cars costing much more. The steering feel is also improved, but the overall feel is a bit numb in comparison to the new BMW X3 or the Audi Q5. Both the handling and the steering, however, feel better than the Lexus NX which offers truly boring driving characteristic.
Potential buyers should be happy to hear that the Acura RDX comes with four driving modes, including the Comfort mode, Sport, Sport + and even “snow” driving modes. There is a new 10-speed transmission as well, delivering an efficient fuel economy. Fuel economy is 11/8.6/9.9 litres/100 kilometres for city, highway and combined respectively.
The RDX comes with Super Handling All-Wheel-Drive, which means that the system can provide up to 70 per cent of the engine’s power to the rear wheels and up to 100 per cent of that power can be transferred to either right or left. The Acura RDX shares some design similarities with the iconic NSX supercar as well, showing that performance runs in the family. Similarities include a cockpit interior design, Super Handling All-Wheel Drive, as well as the NSX-inspired Integrated Dynamics System (IDS) with four drive modes.
Trim levels include the base level Acura RDX, the RDX Tech, the RDX A-Spec, the RDX Elite, and the RDX Platinum Elite.
Summary
With sensible features, a sporty style and luxury flair, the 2019 Acura RDX is a solid vehicle with great value and performance. The base price for the 2019 Acura RDX is $43,990 and climbs up to $54,990 for the Platinum Elite package. With sporty styling and performance strength at the forefront, the new Acura RDX is already one of the top selling luxury compact SUVs on the market, competing with the BMW X3, the Infiniti QX50, the Audi Q5 and the Mercedes GLC300. Taking into account the value-for-money factor, the 2019 RDX blows the doors off these competitors.
