coolsaber

The Achilles heal on any Acura product is drivetrain, specifically transmission (ZF and honda units) . They have never had any issues with engine persay, its the drivetrain that gives up the gouls. The new unit is Honda sourced, but fairly new. I`d wait at least a year to see what issues people run into.

Dmaxdmax

Freds430

My wife and I have owned over ten Acura's. They were reliable and enjoyable cars to own. Something happened at Acura around 2012. J D Power had them always in the top five in reliability. In 2018, they are 20th out of 31 car manufacturers. In the last five years they have been below the average. They are the 11th most expensive to maintain. Lexus on the other hand has been #1 in reliability for 7 straight years and is the third least expensive to maintain behind its cousins Toyota and Scion. Based on these two factors even if the MDX was better than the RX which it is not it would have to be a whole lot better. I just bought a RX450h. I was excited about the new RDX and test drove it. It is very nice but it is just not a Lexus.

coolbrazz

I have a 2008 acura, and it's a great car with very little problems beside wear items. The only thing that I'm proactive about is maintaining the transmission. It's a known issue especially with their early models.
I service the transmission more than the suggested schedule in the manual. I've had it for 10yrs with 150k miles and still runs good. I was aware of this possible issue before I purchased the car. If it was me after reading all the info of pros vs cons the RX is the best choice. Yeah, I made the RX choice and happy so far.

2016 RX350 loaded
20k miles...

coolsaber

On the flip side, the NX, which is a smaller vehicle is new with the 2t FI soo. Its hard to predict if their any issues. On the 1st gen RDX turbo something with turbo bearings became an issue due to heat. Its been a while since I recall these things, but these typically popped up when the RDXes were about on their 2nd 3rd owner typically with 100k on the clock.

Dare I say, that alot of the FI motors are warranted to work till warranty. After that, you kinda are on your own


EDIT: If your in it for the longhaul, like i mean 8 years 100k+, I`d stick with the RX. The only issues that you can bank on are sensor suite for LSS and navigation. But those arent essential to driving, and engine or transmission is.

Dmaxdmax

mikemu30

Wow - you cover a few miles here and there

Dmaxdmax

coolsaber

i wonder if thats the case. Side note of course but, is a van less lush then a midsize suv.

coolsaber

RX and enjoy. RDX might be better now, but later who knows

Dmaxdmax

mikemu30

Save the 900 miles - Key West may disappoint you. Try Sanibel Island on the west coast of FL - much nicer.

oldcajun

The new RDX is now much more of an RX competitor than before. It is very close to the RX in interior room and cargo space. The new interior is much nicer than before and close to the RX in luxury. The turbo 4 makes more torque at lower rpms than the RX so the RDX is quite a bit faster than the RX350, about 1.5 seconds faster to 60 with both having AWD. Acura's SH-AWD is among the best in the industry. The icing on the cake is that the RDX Advance tops out at around $48,000 or about $10,000 less that a comparably equipped RX350.

I really like my '16 RX, but the RDX will be high on my list when my lease runs out.

N4TECguy

If you ask this question on a forum full of Lexus fanboys who just spent $50-60k within the last 3 years...you will get a predictable response

​​​​I don't find Toyota reliability to be anything special. I stopped listening to the JD Power surveys. They include a bunch of nonsense in their calculations on "dependability" and "initial quality", and they pretty much only measure the first 3 years anyway. I understand if the entire infotainment fails you should ding the ratings, but if a 75 year old can't sync their $1000 Galaxy smartphone to the Bluetooth and fails to download the Scout GPS app, that causes a dent in points? I've even seen Porsche's dinged for brake noise. Why? They're designed for the track, it might be a little noisy...it's understood! All of it is asinine. Most of the people on this forum won't drive a car long enough for true reliability to matter. 150k isn't high miles. More importantly, there are vehicles on the 3RX forum that have had transmissions replaced in the 60-100k mile range, and yet here we are talking about how Honda transmissions are crap. There are multiple Honda/Acura's documented on the web with over 500k miles on original engines and transmissions. Don't believe everything you read, and remember if you are on a Lexus forum, which way the responses will bias towards.

As for me, I prefer the drive in the Acura. Toyota's always had a certain feel to me, and Honda's had a distinctly different feel, and I prefer the Honda/Acura feel. Good thing my wife drives the RX. I find it a little uncomfortable, with an unremarkable ride/handling trade-off. It isn't as fast (if I say powerful someone will bring up irrelevant HP figures) as other SUV's on the market, nor is the non-hybrid remarkably efficient. All you've got left going for it is the "quality" (nope, see the threads about crappy leather), "refinement" (nope! See threads in both 3RX and 4RX forums about droning and vibrations, going on almost 10 years now!), and "reliability" (see how many of these RX's have had blown shocks, replaced head units and amps, bad power lift gate motors, transmission issues, blown oil cooler lines on older models, etc).

I'm waiting for someone to tell me "the new ones are perfect though!" Would you expect any less from a $60k vehicle when loaded? Give it 5 years, get back to me. I've heard it so many times from fanboys...

coolsaber

Fanboyism, thats why the Acura MDX page, an acura product, has multiple threads regarding the newer 9 speed transmission with harsh shifts, atf and coolant contamination etc etc. Fanboyism is also why theres a long thread here about the dronining noise, a supposedly amazing lexus product. Personally would be stuck with the better of the two evils if it comes down to it, a noise over transmission failure.

No one has a crystal ball as to whether the vehicle you drive will last you 100K miles, all you can do is enjoy now and maybethe risks. JD power consumer reports are great for those who have no other source of information. Is the Acura a great product value for money, yup. But does it introduce a new engine series, coupled with a new SH-AWD system coupled with a new honda sourced transmission... YUP, and I`d say if you are planning on holding this thing long term, just dont do it, let a year pass and get the non beta product. If its outstanding as Acura states it is, the product will be even better to own. Same thing for any new model, why be a beta tester when you have the Stable release version?