Acura 101 West

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Walk Around

The Acura RDX is about one inch longer in wheelbase than the Honda CR-V, the company's non-luxury small sport-utility vehicle, and two inches longer overall. The appearance of the two cars is similar enough that you'd never look at them and say that one should cost $10,000 more than the other; in fact, some might think the Honda is better looking. The sculpting on the sides of the RDX appears gratuitous, not dynamic, and less traditional than that on the CR-V, which seems to have some reason, at least.

The nose of the RDX is its most distinctive feature. The grille is a wide shallow vee, the Acura theme, but under that is a black air intake with opposing angles, riding on top of the bumper. It's the highest undisguised air intake we can think of. And under the bumper is another air opening. The intercooled turbo under the hood needs a lot of air.

Behind the C pillar there's a small window that you can't really discern because the C pillar is black and the window is tinted so darkly. From the inside, it affords good visibility, no blind spots when looking over your shoulder.

The rear end of the RDX resembles a Subaru Tribeca, an observation which, based on most opinions of the Tribeca's Edsel-like tail, is something shy of a compliment. Between the taillights, the sheetmetal on the liftgate is molded into the shape of the vector, again suggesting the Acura symbol or theme. This sculpting surrounds the large license plate indent, so the suggestion is quite subtle. You might have to look a long time, like we did, to see it.

Interior

2008 Acura RDX

The Acura RDX dashboard cascades with colors, textures and levels. The top is wide and flat, black vinyl; there's a three-inch tall strip of dark titanium plastic in the center, broken by the display screen; and at the bottom it turns to smooth vinyl in light gray. The top and plastic strip are grained with minutely raised crossed diagonal lines, a sort of diamond-like golf ball effect. So there are three textures and three colors.

On the top center of the dashboard, tucked under the windshield, is a narrow digital display that indicates time of day, radio station, the interior temperature setting on each side of the car, and where the vents are pointed. It's hard to see in sunlight.

The navigation system is controlled by a big ugly knob in the center of the center stack. It pushes in, up, down, left and right. Acura has an excellent reputation for its navigation systems. We've found them among the best and easiest to operate.

We found the rearview monitor a bit fuzzy, dim at night (which might be from dim backup lights), and often too dark to be useful, at dusk or on overcast days.

The perforated leather seats are comfortable, and the driver can perch up high to see over the short nose of the car. The 10-way power driver's seat has a two-position memory feature for 2008; the passenger's seat is manual. Both front seats have high and low heat settings. There's lumbar support, although a sore back still ensued after a four-hour drive with a lot of stressful freeway stop-and-go.

The gauges are nicely lit at night, in blue and white. The tachometer is at left, redline 6800, with an insert that shows turbocharger boost.

A big speedometer is in the center with an information display inside it, and on the right is a gauge of similar size but which only contains an indicator of what gear the transmission is in, plus fuel level. It would be nice if a temperature gauge was in that space, because, as it is, you can only find out if the car is overheating by suspecting it, and then checking on the information display inside the speedometer, scrolling through other information to find it.

The info display can also show which wheels are getting the power with the SH-AWD, or Super Handling All-Wheel Drive. This system sends more power to the outside rear wheel when the car cornering aggressively, which keeps it on line; of course, that's exactly the time you'd not want to look down to check the display. There's also an instantaneous fuel mileage display, a bar from 0 to 50, but we did not find it to be practically readable.

The EPA-rated mileage is 17/22 mpg City/Highway, and we got 17.6 miles per gallon (on premium fuel) at an average of 34 mph running stop-and-go on the freeway and 80 mph when we broke out. The fuel mileage didn't change much after that, with mostly around-town driving.

The leather-wrapped steering wheel feels nice in your hands, if busy, with controls for a half-dozen or more things, including paddles for upshifting and downshifting the sequential transmission. It's kind of ugly, though. It has three spokes, at 3, 9 and 6 o'clock, and they're trimmed in aluminum-look plastic, with a design that makes the wheel look like a scale model of a space station.

There are terrific grab handles for closing the front and rear doors, something we wish all cars were smart enough to have, especially for the driver.

There are nice little storage compartments, and a humongously deep center console compartment, with trays at the bottom that lift out to reveal a secret spot that's another couple inches deep. It's 16.9 inches from front to back, 12.2 inches deep and 5.5 inches wide, big enough for a laptop or briefcase, and it's lockable.

The parking brake pedal is too low for effective left-foot braking. It catches your toe when you move your foot to the brake pedal from its resting position on the floorboard when braking with the left foot

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