If you removed badges off every luxury crossover’s interior, could you really distinguish one from another? Or, better yet, if you ran your finger over the car’s cabin, could you tell it’s from a luxury automaker? With 15,000 miles on the MotorTrend long-term RDX, I’ve got lots of impressions on the Acura; here are a few ways the 2019 and virtually unchanged 2020 Acura RDX get the details right and wrong.
Futuristic NSX-Inspired Design
The NSX hybrid supercar inspired the RDX’s interior design. Love it or hate it, the center stack design looks like absolutely nothing else thanks in large part to the big silver disc at its center. It’s such a bold design choice that you can change drive modes even without taking your eyes off the wheel—not something many competitors can boast.
Acura also attempts to drive home the techy-sportiness theme in the instrument cluster screen. Every RDX—not just A-Specs like our long-termer—can add a G-meter and turbocharged boost indicator to the top corners of the display. It’s a cool party trick that delighted me during the first 1,000 or so miles. After that I realized that when I’m driving fast enough to really make that data shift, I can’t be looking down at small displays on a 7.0-inch screen. What would be awesome, though, is if such info displays could be moved to the 10.2-inch infotainment display for that rare data-loving passenger to appreciate.
The Price You Pay
Every RDX (including base models) features a 10.2-inch infotainment screen with a wonderful split-display feature I’ve come to love—you can show navigation and audio info simultaneously. But because the display is set back so far at the top of the dash for optimal visibility, it requires use of a small touchpad to operate.
Unfortunately, my feelings on the infotainment’s usability have soured over the many months I’ve used the RDX as a daily driver. The touchpad has a one-to-one ratio, meaning that if you touch the top right of the pad, the icon on the top right of the screen is selected. Except that the system’s logic doesn’t work that way in Apple CarPlay, forcing a mental adjustment and extra swipes—too bad considering I’m in CarPlay most of the time. When I’m not, more than one driver has commented on how slow the system reacts, and it has crashed 5-6 times so far (our system is always fully updated; the crashes have happened to two drivers).
Your Right Knee Will Thank You
The lining of the RDX’s center console is covered in a material that feels like leather. Our more expensive long-term Volvo XC60 misses this important detail, which used to be one way luxury-branded cars elevated themselves above mainstream cars. Lately, however, we’ve now started to see this premium detail on cars including the Mazda6 Signature.
Room to Get Comfortable
Rear-seat passengers shouldn’t have many complaints as the RDX’s rear seat is at the very top of its class. Sure, it lacks a backrest recline feature, but rear-seat legroom is plentiful for this class, and the barely discernible drivetrain hump allows outboard passengers to spread out.
A-Spec vs. Advance
Because our long-termer is an A-Spec model, the seats and a portion of the dash on the passenger side feature Ultrasuede trim. It feels great and I like how it looks, but I admit I also have a soft spot for the top Advance trim. That luxury-focused trim doesn’t get any Ultrasuede, but does replace the sportier trim’s dark brushed aluminum trim with attractive non-glossy wood trim.
Then again, I appreciate how the A-Spec model adds silver trim to the otherwise plain gauges that surround the instrument cluster info screen.
Stop That
Speaking of silver trim, the RDX features shiny silver trim around the base of the steering wheel and parts of the center console—but I wish it didn’t. If I get on the freeway at just the right time, the sun reflects off those trim pieces into my eyes.
While we’re nit-picking, I’d like future RDXs to replace the temperature buttons with an up-down rotating dial (like the ones on the steering wheel) or buttons with a nicer material. The quality of the existing buttons is just fine, but they don’t feel special and take the tiniest bit of extra time to operate than a dial could.
Don’t Be Afraid
As with some higher-trim Hondas, the 2019 and 2020 RDX use a push-button gear system. After thousands of miles behind the wheel, I’ve become used to it and can actually operate it without looking. For example, I pull back one button for reverse, and then when I’m ready to get into drive, I press the circular button.
So What Do You Think?
Based on my time in our 2019 RDX A-Spec long-termer as well as what I’ve seen in other RDXs, I like the Acura’s interior. Even if the cargo area’s spaciousness and three underfloor storage compartments don’t impress, some luxury buyers may like that this crossover’s center stack cannot be easily confused for anything else in its class. If you can deal with a less-than-perfect infotainment solution, the RDX definitely justifies its sub-$50,000 price tag.
Read more about our long-term 2019 Acura RDX A-Spec:
- Arrival
- Update 1: Sporty?
- Update 2: Intuitive or Distracting?
- Update 3: Soup Success
- Update 4: Safety and Infotainment (Again)
- 2019 RDX vs. 2019 CR-V: 4 Reasons to Get the Acura and 4 More to Go Honda
- Update 5: 7 Design Details to Notice
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