The Acrua RDX is an inoffensive crossover for someone’s stay at home programmer dad to use between swearing at python and swearing at a barista. The A spec badge usually means performance. Where the fuck do these two intersect?

This is the kind of car – wait not it’s an SUV fuck me, I really don’t wanna pay lip service to this stupid thing.

You want your damn review? Take it:

The Acura RDX passes as a “luxury” crossover you could buy instead of say, an x4. It’s perfectly comfy, quiet, and honestly a bland experience. Keep this turbo i4 in comfort mode and let your mind rot in blissful ignorance while you loaf from point A to B barely registering a single thought. Let all million driver aids keep your oblivious ass in check one sensor short of being a useful “self driving” system but one sensor enough to get a high Euro NCAP safety rating.

Oh but, curb thy tongue! This is more than just a $38,000 regular RDX! This is an A Spec with AWD! It’s a performance car crossover.

Yeah sure it is. Ok so let’s put this angry decorative egg into “sport + mode”, because sport mode is half assed and we only go the full way in at MSIMA (hence “into my ass”). And also it didn’t wanna downshift enough in sport mode (stupid fucking 10 speed with a confused ECU).

So go look for that dial in a sea of haphazardly paced buttons they call a center console. Oh by the way, the transmission is controlled by buttons and paddles, not a stick or a dial to go between P-R-N-D-etc, because buttons are both the future and just soooo retro. Tactility at the cost of being like an Alfa 164 without the charm. Anyways, you twist the driving mode dial, to select sport or cumfort or sport + or whatever and then have to press a D/S button below it to confirm your selection and tell the transmission it’s okey to do it’s thing.

If you’re the kinda person who oodles over the thought of having to confirm my selection and engage the warp drive on my RDX A Spec because it is now a lethal driving weapon in sport+ mode, tuned by HPD’s IMSA experience and Honda’s F1 knowledge, and truly take that to heart… then go buy one of these used on Auto-trader for like $30k. If you find the idea of having to twice confirm your driving mode selection to be a stupid idea by the designers, then consider literally anything else.

Anyways, with it now in Sport+ mode, we can see how it boogies. Spoiler, it ain’t got a groove.

Ok so the RDX A Spec actually handles decently. From the drivers seat the crossover takes a variety of higher and high speed corners competently. The chassis is stiff enough and communicates well enough to give you confidence in what it’s doing. The driver feels little roll and a sense of control for the entire occasion. However steering feedback isn’t great. It’s very vague between center and +/- 30° off center, it loads up quite a bit when turning. Steering doesn’t feel too natural, nor does that change in steering weight feel smooth or “progressive”. There’s a bit of a sharp tick up between the light and vague on center slop and the rest.

Tires also help here, being on Michelins now vs some god awful Goodyears.

Brakes on this one also weren’t the most confidence inspiring. There was a lot of travel where nothing happened before it felt like you stepped on a lump down there. The car should really get that checked out, it doesn’t sound healthy.

But I think it’s now time to talk about the powertrain! And oooh boy do we have something special for y’all! A 16 valve, 2.0L turbo engine with V T E C baby! Ooo a Honda i4 in an A Spec Product! I bet it revs (to 6500) and probably makes a healthy amount of grunt (270hp, 280 lb-ft)! Ya know I’m sure the k20 is a great and fun motor when it’s in a different car, but this poor 2.0 needs to lug a bit above 4000lb, turn all four wheels, and deal with an inane 10 speed waste of a transmission when used for anything outside of daily driving.

Putting around town its, surprise, perfectly fine. And in sport+, it’s acceleration is on par with a Subaru WRX (mid 5s) but lacks much of the feeling or any of the theater. Ride height, active dampers, the 10 speed being smooth, whatever you wanna blame, the sensation of acceleration and speed is dulled a bit in this car, making feel like what it is: your mom(‘s car with a handling package).

And I can’t tell if I’m feeling “VtEc” or turbo lag when I step on it. But there is a boost gauge:

What is this pulsating orb that looks like HAL9000 was stolen and put into a bootleg mobile game? Ah so that’s the boost gauge and mood ring for the car. Off throttle, it displays vacuum, HAL is purple (which means the car is feeling sensual), the orb pulsates, and that bar on the left goes down. On throttle, it shows boost, HAL is red (which means the car is feeling adventurous), it still pulsates, and the bar moves up the circle. How much? Idk. Neither does the car. What was wrong with a traditional boost gauge? I guess it was just too last century for Acura to include, instead of you get witness the orb in different states of arousal. There’s also a G-meter. It stays on in comfort mode. I’ve never seen it do anything.

And that transmission, holiest of fucks. Honda should know how to build a damn gearbox, even if it’s a 10 speed automatic.

The ten speed auto in the ecoboost mustang was honestly a bit of a hoot. Shifts could be smooth or aggressive, the car allowed for some wheel spin, second gear would chip the wheels in the right mode, and it wasn’t plagued with lag to my inputs.

And the ZF 8 speed only seems to get better which each passing year.

The RDX A Spec takes full 1 to 2 seconds to register you flicking a paddle to changing gear. The spacing between all 10 seems way to short, but in manual mode you can’t even hit redline, because the car will shift for you. Yea. I’m used to autos denying up to downshifts when you’re too high or low in the rev range. But fucking hell Acura, you need to not assume that every one do your damn customers will be so inept as to get stuck into “manual mode proper”. No matter what mode or setting, the car will automatically shift around 6000 rpm. I have a good 500 left, LET ME USE IT!

This car might be idiot proof. Between the driving assists, front biased AWD, transmission that doesn’t let you hurt yourself, and engine that is both under worked and over stressed, you could probably shut off half your brain functions and still get to where you wanna be in record time.

You know, we actually tried something different for once here at MSIMA! We got a second opinion, and by that I mean we pulled up to a random kid on campus around 8pm and yelled at him to come over cause we had some questions. He ran away with a face of pure terror but ever persistent, we managed to get some other random guy’s opinion:

“Naw it’s Beautiful. It’s Fantastic… All around great car, sleek!” – Random guy from our Uni.

This only proves that the mass market are a buncha sheep who must not be trusted, tho our unnamed guest did seem pretty rad.

So then, the Acura RDX A Spec… it’s uh… something. The exterior is nicely done, tho it kinda looks like a gaming PC. Wether or not that’s good or bad to you should be an indication for if this car is right for you. The interior space is a nice place to be, colors and materials are really nice, though the center console area could use a lesson in ergonomics and not control the drivetrain with a bunch of random buttons and switches. Daily driving is probably its strongest aspect, but the A Spec is built on a “luxury crossover platform”, it better be.

The car is scarily planted through corners, had decent chassis communication, less than mediocre steering, and the wrong engine and gearbox (should’ve used the v6). However the amount of grip relative to how much power does encourage you to treat it like a 4100 lb moment car. The transmission should still be dragged to a field and set on fire.

It’s perfectly adequate transportation (it’s a 2020 after all) with a bit of an edge but it’s also about as opposite of my kinda car as you can get. To not piss on my friend’s car further I’m gonna end it there. Till the next one!