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now throughout recent memory Acura has only been selling to crossovers but both of them have been very
Successful, this RDX is perhaps the greatest success story. So sales have shot up 30 percent over last year
Taking it but a handful of units from the top spot in the class
So that's why we're out at courtesy Acura today to check out the latest
2020 version and see if they've made any addition to the already winning formula
So with that said, let's see why customers have been flocking to the RDX
So getting started here with the exterior obviously there's not been any significant changes since it was just radically reinvented a year ago
That means up front we find Acuras latest rendition of the diamond Pentagon grille
Which is almost the same across all models except for the a speck where the chrome is blacked out
In addition to the lower areas and the headlight lenses
Beyond that aspect the lights themselves are the same being jewel eye fully led across the lineup
Additionally on the a spec in advance. You will find fog lights at the bottom
Checking out the rest of the styling
It's got an athletic look to it with a side body line that sweeps right into the tail lights
The lights themselves have an interesting boomerang shape and they are fully LED except for the incandescent turn signal
Of course just like in the front the a spec does darken out the rear lenses plus enlarges the standard dual exhaust outlets
So overall the RDX does a better job than many of the rivals as striking a balance between being too aggressive and too
boring
They also don't penalize you for going with a lower trim like in the case of this best-selling
Technology whose 19-inch wheels actually look better than the 19's on the advanced trim in my opinion
Even the base model does come with 19-inch alloys and the a spec will come with the largest wheels at 20 inches
Heading on up to the mirrors they are heated and power adjustable front
But the blind spot monitoring system located on the inside pillar is not included on the base model
However as far as all the other safety systems, they are standard across the board
That means every RDX comes with four word emergency braking Lane Keeping Assist adaptive
cruise control with low speed follow and automatic high-beam headlights
Which is something that the more expensive German rivals cannot say
Finally wrapping up the outside we have 1500 pounds of towing capacity and a 17.1 gallon fuel tank
that tank can be filled with either regular or premium fuel and allows for ranges of 410 miles with front-wheel drive or
393 miles with a super handling all-wheel drive system
But anyways, that's it for all the exterior details so let's go ahead and hop inside and check out the cabin
So every version of the RDX does come standard with Acura smart entry system
As well as they're very nice feeling key fob with remotes from along the bottom
remote start abilities are not available via the fob, but they are available through the Acura link app three four six months
Now do you inside the vehicle it is very simple
All you got to do is just reach behind the handle since there is a sensor
All right, so checking out the cabin of the
2020 RDX of course
This was just fully redesigned last year with a totally ground-up design for Acura and that does carry over for 2020
Now as far as your colors and materials are concerned Acura does give you a lot of different choices
So only your base model is going to come with leatherette seating and that's in parchment gray stone or black
however, as soon as you go up to the technology model, which is what this one is or the advance trim
You're going to have the real milano leather in those same three colors plus an additional option of espresso now
When you go for the ace back that gives you some really cool options
You have milano leather with the ultra suede inserts and either ebony or the really really cool red color
Now as far as your door trim is concerned it is also very high quality
so you can see the almost the entire thing is covered in leather with a color contrast stitching and
Then once on the technology model and up you have this really nice speaker grille as well as the real aluminum trim
Definitely looks very attractive
now you do have two person memories seedings surprisingly standard across all of the trims and
Then all four of your windows are one touch automatic
Cutting down here to your seats. These are the standard 12 way power adjusting seats
They come on all the trims except for the advance which bumps that to 16 ways that gives you light power
By extension as well as power bolsters
Then like I saying this is the real Milano leather it feels fantastic
also really nice and attractive design you would get additional color contrast piping if you go for the advance trim
It's like I already mentioned the RDX really represented a turning point for Acura in terms of interior design
And they did really upgrade the interior materials as well
So across your upper dash you do have a soft touch plastic and then moving down here to your lower area
You've got this nice leather trim as well as a piece of real brushed aluminum
this would be changed out for a
Open pore olive wood if you go for the advanced drum
And then all your other materials are also very nice
You've got all this leather out through here where your knee will touch and the build quality in here is phenomenal
Of course all models do come standard with push-button start
And when you press that you will see the brand-new
Accurate touch system fire up this is a 10.2 inch display and we'll get into the software a little later in the video
Now as far as your gauges just like about everything else in this cabin they are a new design for Acura
So you've got your analog tachometer and speedometer and then a 7-inch multi-function display here in the middle
As far as the controls, that's the same as in other Acura models
You just have this little roller here on the steering wheel and you can just flip through all the different
types of information including for your super handling all-wheel drive system
Now we don't have it here on this technology model, but if you opt for the advance model then you have a 10-inch head-up display
Now coming back to the steering wheel
Of course, we do have electric power assisted steering and every single model does come with this nice leather steering wheel
Up here
we've got our controls for our traditional audio phone and voice commands and then on this side like the center of a
Multi-function display as well as our adaptive cruise control and some of our safety systems
If you go for the advance model, you will also find rain sensing wipers
As far as the steering wheel itself it is manually tilt and telescoping across the range
However, it will also be heated when you go for the advance model
But anyways moving on to interior storage just like pretty much any Honda product they absolutely kill it
So starting out with your center console here. This itself is not super large, but it is very deep
However, you slide back this aluminum tray here and you will find your two cupholders as well as another large bin
Good for sticking a cellphone or whatnot and then you do also have your port where you plug in for the apple carplay system
However, the big thing is that we actually have this huge pass-through
So you got all this open space where you can store just about anything
And you will also find a another 12-volt outlet an aux track and a second USB port
Now Acura is able to give us all this space because they have opted to use an electronic shifter
Now this operates the same way as it does in other Acura & Honda products
So all you gotta do is just press this D for Drive
And then you can press this one more time to activate the sport mode where you can shift via these standard power shifters
Of course to go into reverse all you gotta do is pull back on this trigger
When you do you will find a standard backup camera pull up on all models
as you can see we do have the active trajectory as well as the parking sensors and
Then we have a few different views that we can switch between as well
Now if you go for the top-end advanced model that's going to come with a 360-degree camera
And additionally the mirrors do tilt down when it reverse to help you see the parking lines better
Now since the redesign gave it a new founded athleticism
Acura has put our dynamic mode controller right here in a big central spot this do it
Basically just changes your drive modes
So as you can see
we do have quite a few we have a snow mode a
Comfort mode a sport mode and a Sport Plus mode each one both changes
the animations up here as well as changes what is appearing in our
multifunction display
And then also the side here this defeats your auto start/stop system
And moving on up a little bit higher on the dashboard
This is our standard dual zone automatic climate control as you can see it is very simple in operation
We just have two buttons here to adjust the temperature
We have our fan speeds here as well as our zones right here
So you don't have to dig around in the display or anything like that to make adjustments
additionally underneath of that we have
Automatic heated seats across all the models and then seat ventilation on the advanced trim only
Now one of the things I really appreciate about the RDX is that all but the very base model comes with the nice
Els sound system
We do have a couple less speakers here on the technology model we have 12 versus 16 on the advanced in a spec
But nevertheless let's go ahead and take a sample
Well, I have to say I am extremely impressed by this sound system
honestly, if I didn't have the spec sheet to know that this is missing some of the speakers I would have thought this was the
full-fledged
Top end sound system
But anyways now that brings us up to Acuras all-new infotainment system, so let's go ahead and take a quick look
So start out with if you're coming from a previous acura product, there's two big differences with this system
First of all is the fact that is only one screen instead of two screens
So we have one way up here and there's nothing down here
The second thing is that it is not a touchscreen
Instead you have the touchpad as you didn't anticipate from the name
It uses what is known as a one-to-one relationship with the screen
So instead of scrolling around like you do on a laptop
to move to the place you want to go you actually just click into these segments that
That you're operating in
So heading back to our home screen here
This is where you can see a customizable list of different features of the system
Like I already mentioned you just swipe
To switch between the pages and then if you go all the way over to the left hand side
This is where you can get to all of your applications
So it's worth mentioning that
Apple carplay is supported on this system right now here in the 2020 RDX
But currently Android auto is not supported. However Acura does say they're working on it and it will be available via a software update
Now moving on up you're going to find - really nice standard equipment features
One of them is the frameless auto dimming mirror with the home link universal remotes built in across the range
And then the second one that
We actually have a standard panoramic moonroof
Like I said, this comes across all the trends as you can see
The piece of glass comes seamlessly from the very front all the way to the very back
Definitely a nice feature to have included
But overall, I have to say I'm still very very impressed by the RDX's cabin like I was last year
not only is this a huge leap forward from what the previous RDX was like
This is also one of the nicest cabins in the class
Especially when you take into account that this is a lower level technology model that has frankly a very affordable price track
The seat and steering wheel do move back to help with easier entry and exit
Already now go ahead and hand it off to my brother to finish up the rest of the cabin
All righty, so checking out the rear seat of the 2020 Acura RDX
You are going to find a class competitive amount of space
You'll find 38 inches of both leg and Headroom, which does put it on par with most of its main rivals like the Audi q5
Now turning over here to the door trim. You do have a really nicely appointed one
So you do have a leather armrest with color contrast stitching going through that as well as leather above that and a soft touch plastic
Additionally your door handle is a nice silver design and your window is fully automatic
Now down below that you do have some bottle storage
And turning over to the seat itself
You do have the same beautiful color contrast stitching as you do in the front with a nice piping
Now here in the center acura does give you plenty of features
So you will find these rear vents entered across all models and down below that you will also find two smart charging USB ports
Which are standard on all but the very base model
Now turning over to the center armrest it does fold down with cupholders inside
And up top you do have this absolutely massive panoramic moonroof
I'm a really big fan of this man or if it's like I said
It is absolutely massive and it really helps to air out the cabin back here
and off to the side and do some lighting as
Was an assist grip and co hook
And
Coming down like I said in terms of space this is on par with most of the rivals
So behind your seating position
I probably have seven to eight inches of rear legroom and my feet definitely don't have any trouble sliding under the seat
and scooting over
Even with it all the way back I still have several inches of legroom to spare
But overall, this RDX's rear seat is an absolutely wonderful place to spend time
It really has a premium ambience back here and there's a lot of space and comfort for the whole family
Now, of course your seats do fold all you have to do is like this little lever and they will fold down 60/40 split
Now coming around to the tailgate it is power across all models and if you go for the advanced ram it is also hands-free
And once you get inside the RDX's trunk
You're gonna find thirty-one cubic feet of space behind the second row seats and that expands to 59 cubic feet if you fold them
Now once again that does put it on par with most of the rivals and actually a little bit ahead of the Mercedes GLC
now like I said
There is plenty of room back here to store all of your items and it is also finished very nicely as well
So up under the floor. One of my favorite features is that you actually have a large storage bin under here
it probably goes about a foot deep and it's actually quite wide so you could hide a lot of stuff back here and
Off to the side you have another little storage pit as well as handles to fold the seat backs
Now coming over to the passenger seat you do have power adjustment on all models
So at sixteen ways on the advanced model or twelve ways on all the other terms
As far as your features you do have a miss love box as
you can tell there is plenty of space it goes back quite a ways and
Up top, you have a Sun Visor with a mirror in light and it does also detach and extend
But anyway guys that covers all day practical stuff of the RDX
So now let's go ahead and get on the road and see how it drives out there
All right, so let's go and talk a bit about the power tree
So the first generation RDX it came with a turbo for switch to a v6 and now with this new generation
We're back to a turbo for like most of the rest of the class
This turbo 4 is actually more powerful than a lot in the class
At 272 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque
That power is going to be routed through 18 speed automatic transmission
And you can pair that with front-wheel drive or the super handling all-wheel drive system across all the different trims
Now the super Hanning all wheel drive is optional for two thousand dollars
And it's dynamic torque vectoring like it is in the other models so you can send up to 70% of the torque to the rear
wheels
And then finally for your fuel economy
You're looking at very class competitive numbers
So for your front wheel drive model
you can be rated at 22 city 28 highway 24 combined and
Then your super handling all-wheel drive is gonna give up one MPG for from each of those numbers so 23 combined
now it is worth noting if you choose the a spec the differences in the wheels and other aerodynamic bits is
Going to further make you lose 1 MPG from either that front wheel drive or the super handling all-wheel drive number
But anyways
this car
Gets good reception as far as what other people have said
So let's go ahead and take it on a drive and see if it lives up to the hype
All right, so first taking off here and the
2020 Acura RDX
I'm definitely very impressed by that power straight off the line
Really it comes on strong definitely has plenty of torque
And it delivers it in a smooth and refined way as well
Not entirely sure what the zero to 60 is to
Be able to compare that to some of the other rivals like the Germans
But I know one of the faster cars is the Audi q5
That's five point eight seconds 0-60. I believe it's under six seconds and this feels pretty much in line with that
This is one of your one of the faster options
And getting it up to highway speed this is really where a car like this shines
You know
Crossovers especially in this class the luxury crossover segment. They're meant to be extremely comfortable
in this car definitely rides extremely smooth
This is a super rough road
I don't know if you could tell or not but it is horribly rough and really loud and this car handled it extremely
Well, I mean, I mean it's almost silent in here in that road is, you know, absolutely
Beat to pieces and you know, you can just tell how comfortable and how accurate has been a lot of time
Making it, you know an ultimate of family and luxurious experience
Right off the bat here starting to kind of go around some corners
I can already tell that this is one of the fastest staring setups I've experienced in this class
Definitely responds very quickly off-center and has a very agile feel to it
Like as you can see as soon as I turn it there's nothing there's no a dead space or anything like that
Definitely, is it really fast and responsive feel
That I appreciate in this class
Yeah, like Mason is saying kind of cruising through this residential area
On a rougher Road, it really is extremely hushed in here. I
mean
When you're just kind of relaxed and cruising the engine, I can't hear it at all
Road noise and especially wind noise
I really just non-existent
I don't you really like the note of the engine
It's kind of got like a raspy sound to the turbo for it definitely
You know has a little bit more of an enthusiastic sound than some of the other right wheels
Which kind of sound pay and or or strained when they're pushed
like says kind of a
raspy pleasant note
Go ahead and give the dynamic mode knob a twist here and we'll try out the Sport Plus mode
See what differences that makes in the behavior of the car
Yeah, this really gets after it
Definitely very aggressive on the transmission. I mean, I was barely
Actually was not pushing onto the throttle that much to get that much reaction out of it
So it definitely it goes for it when you put it in the Sport Plus mode
I can also feel the steering definitely tighten up here
Even more sensitive that it's a lot heavier
And also the gearing is a lot see resting on the way up here three thousand to really give me keeping the turbo schooled up
basically so that I can
Just go at it immediately without waiting for any type of turbo spool or anything like that
Very interesting I had honestly wasn't expecting
Kind of that
And you don't you don't really think that out of a cross the blipping kind of a throttle blip
Yeah
Definitely has some so sporty pretensions. I know I know I'm very impressed, you know a lot
I mean this has even done about doing some of the Germans and types of it from what I can tell it seems like
This is sporty earthen like the Audi q5
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. That's
You know, right I was gonna come in and say that it
Feels kind of German but really you're right
The Audi q5 is a little bit more sedate than this actually, especially when we ramp it up here in the Sport Plus mode
The steering for instance is a lot heavier than in the q5
You can also do some manual shifting as well
And then one last like little thing I want to point out is that we actually
you know, this is not the a speck or anything, but
Acura is kind of flattened off the side of this steering wheel and thickened it up. So it really feels good to grip
It has a good solid feel kind of a you know, like a sports car a thicker rimmed steering wheel. That's really uncommon
For just a luxury crossover
Go ahead and dial that back a little bit. I imagine Sport+ is not going to be the mode that most people would
Use on a day-to-day basis, but it's definitely fun. That's there
But overall that say I am certainly impressed by the RDX I mean
The previous generation was
Rather bland yeah, just
to be honest
You know, and I really it just impresses me
How big of a change that this generation of the RDX represents for the Acura brand
You know, like I said, they went kind of from the boring sedate side of things now, this is one of the more athletic
Offerings in the class. So it's definitely an A+ from me for the driving dynamics
Now as far as the pricing is concerned for the 2020 Acura RDX you're going to find very competitive pricing for its class
Now that said it does have a $300 price increase over the 2019 model across all the trims
so that me now means for the base model that's going to start at thirty seven thousand six hundred dollars and
If you want the technology
which is what we have here that's going to start at forty thousand eight hundred the a spec at forty three thousand eight hundred and
The advanced model which is a top-end trim starts at forty five thousand seven hundred dollars
Now it is worth noting that that is for the front wheel drive model on all of those
So if you want SH all-wheel drive that's going to be an additional two grand on top of all of those numbers
So all told accurate doesn't really do options or anything like that
So for this particular model, this is the technology with SH all-wheel drive
It's going to come in at forty three thousand seven hundred and ninety five dollars
Which is definitely a huge value for this segment
drew and I were discussing this earlier, you know a lot in this class, especially the German rivals will be
Honestly about ten thousand dollars more expensive if you equipment similarly
So this definitely has a huge value in its segment and you're really not sacrificing much over those models
Well guys we've enjoyed watching this in-depth look at the 2020 Acura RDX
Technology, please let those like and subscribe buttons if you haven't already and we'll catch you next time as you sample more of the latest
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