- Acura updated the RDX for the 2022 model year
with more distinct exterior styling, a quieter interior,
more technology, and some differentiation in how it drives.
But there's still one major bummer
that might prove a deal breaker for some.
We'll cover the major takeaways on the 2022 Acura RDX.
And we'll get to that big bummer.
Now, overall styling changes for 2022 are fairly mild
but there's one noticeable thing here,
and it's these openings on the outsides of the front bumper.
These are more vertical now.
Before you had a boomerang-shaped
dual level opening outside.
There's also thinner framework for the grill here
and a new design for the front fog lights.
Less is going on in the back where the RDX can have circular
or rectangular-shaped tail pipes.
Now inside the RDX has plenty of upscale, handsome textures,
things like raised stitching here with padding
where your arms and your elbows fall.
Certainly feels fitting with the compact luxury SUV class.
We're not as thrilled about
the layout of some of the buttons here.
There's lots of physical of buttons.
And I wanna say, good for Acura for having that
because that's better than having
touch sensitive controls or burying too many things
into a sub menu on the display.
But the use of real estate here is a bit strange.
Check this out.
There's things like prominent automatic mode buttons,
not for the climate control, for the heated
and ventilated seats in our test car.
There's this giant piece here
that's just the drive mode selector.
Again, really, really large things.
And then you get really tiny climate controls,
a volume knob up here, that's an important control.
It's just really, really tiny on the dashboard.
So just a bizarre sense of placement there.
Now, Acura says for 2022
that it did increase sound deadening
and acoustic glass should be especially noticeable.
Acura says in upper trim levels of the RDX.
I can say we didn't experience too much road
or wind noise in this test car, this ASPEC vehicle.
So mission accomplished, it seems.
The RDX uses a turbocharged four-cylinder
which makes the SUV seem reasonably quick.
We had no issues with accelerator lag or transmission delay
and the standard 10 speed automatic kicks down
at 50 miles an hour
with no discernible amounts of too much lag
if you need more power
in either the comfort or normal modes.
It's even more responsive in sport mode,
down shifting multiple gears in quick crisp shifts
with no discernible stair stepping along the way.
All of that, we like to see.
Our ASPEC test car has optional adaptive shock absorbers,
which Acura retuned for 2022 to give more distinct character
across the various drive modes.
Indeed, the RDX feels notably softer
in comfort mode and firmer in sport.
There's clean, polished damping at both axles
when you get over anything significant
with good body control throughout.
It's a nice tight feeling chassis,
but it can feel a little bit busy at times.
I wish there was a little better isolation
to accompany the stiffness,
two aspects that aren't always mutually exclusive.
Steering is very low effort in comfort mode,
much weightier in sport mode.
Again, a lot of differentiation
across the two ends of the spectrum.
There's not a ton of feedback either way,
but sport mode does feel a little more dialed in
during clover leaves.
So what's the big problem?
It's Acura's true touch pad interface,
something the brand seems stubbornly committed to
here in the RDX.
Notice Acura says touch pad not touchscreen,
that's 'cause this isn't a touchscreen.
This is a static display up here.
You gotta work this touch pad down here to control it,
means fishing your finger around here
and making selections by pressing down.
It's just not very intuitive
versus a plain old touch screen up here.
And that screen itself though, it does measure a wide
10.2 inch diagonal dimension
is really wide screen in terms of its ratio.
We measured about nine and a half inches wide
a little over three and a half inches tall.
And what that means is that
for things like Apple CarPlay and the navigation system
if managing the interface is hard enough,
they don't show up on a very big area of the screen,
the equivalent of a seven or eight inch
diagonal display here for those units
which is small in the scheme of things.
Same thing for the backup camera.
The other thing difficult to deal with is this transmission.
It's a push button gear selector.
We've always taken issue with those in accurate vehicles.
It's not the most intuitive,
would be simpler just to have a conventional
lever style gear selector.
And despite all that seeming technology,
the RDX is still missing some basic tech features,
things like low speed lane centering.
And the RDX lane centering doesn't kick in
until you're going about 45 miles an hour or so,
which means that during the vast majority potentially
of your commute, if you're in traffic,
the lane centering ain't working.
And that is a pretty standard feature
among RDX competitors.
It's a shame the RDX has such a deal breaker
of a user interface because there's a lot to like otherwise.
Hey, maybe you can get used to it or maybe Acura
can finally abandon its effort to install this
across so much of the lineup.
We can always hope.