Gadgetory

May 2005 and CNET Begins covering cars the Acura RL was the first time we gave an editor's choice to a product that didn't fit through the front door it had futuristic tech like Bluetooth voice command and GPS navigation we wrote Acura has staked out technology as its territory and the 2005 RL is the company's deed of ownership well that house got foreclosed on today you get that technology when you rent a Kia that's why we've got this guy the all-new descended to the RLX let's drive this 2014 it's loaded to the gills see if they've caught up and check the main styling tubes are the standard LED headlights you don't see those very often and this kind of kicked down belt line and this body line that gets you there that's unusual one creates a little taller greenhouse you'd normally expect but other than that it tends to make the front end look kind of bulky and the rest of the car just looks like 2013 car from Acura okay first thing you notice in the RLX is something that no other car has not to this degree to LCDs both roughly in the mid-size class navigation is what you see right now on the top this is what's new where you would normally have this forest of Acura button they've cleaned it up and given you a constantly morphing contextually sensitive control panel on the second one but that's where things start to get a little wandering and weird the relationship between this screen and the one above it will change in ways that aren't consistent to my mind right now I've got audio controls and some audio information here we've climate at the bottom an awful lot like the same physical climate buttons just below it that seems a little redundant but if I go to the audio mode now I've got audio taking up the upper screen as well as the lower screen and again quite a bit of redundant information going on between here and here where this does succeed is a couple places first of all only having contextually sensitive buttons means that you can have larger ones because you only have the ones you need at a time instead of these little fiddly ones that acura is known for I also like this this is a shortcuts menu here that is sort of a clipboard you can shortcut any number of vehicle settings or menus into this area I will say that these two screens are beautiful looking now Acura has completely redesigned what they do on LCDs except when you go here that's the same map basically we've been seeing for seven or eight years in Acura Honda product which brings us to entering an address now here's where things get goofy I go to nav I go to menu I hit address and you can see I still have to enter things by bucket tell it the city then tell it the street then tell it the house number and this is madness - alphabetic displays - enter the address once QWERTY ones Roley scrolling this is absurd which brings us to our audio settings now just about all the major hits of current audio technology are in here AM and FM with really clear indication of HD radio XM satellite radio bluetooth audio streaming Pandora support is built-in works real slickly AHA is built-in as well I could never get it to invoke well off my motorola droid phone now you've got three audio output systems to choose from the base is Els audio which used to be a premium rig then you can go up to Els studio audio which takes you to 588 watts and 14 speakers up from 10 but the really interesting thing is to go all the way to Crowell Audio which we have here and is a brand new offering you still have 14 speakers around the cabin but they're made of exotic material some kind of fiber that's stronger than Kevlar you've got these metal grills on the actual speakers they say they buzz less than plastic and what may be the hottest looking triple driver cabinet I've ever seen in a production car living back there on the back shelf never mind what it looks like it sounds tremendous now tell me we have a three and a half liter v6 and Acuras hardly news but this one is all-new three and a half liter v6 sitting sidesaddle driving front wheels only for now we'll talk about all-wheel drive in a minute direct injection technology but normally aspirated the numbers are 310 horse 272 foot-pounds of torque gets this roughly thirty nine hundred pound car up to sixty in a pretty sprightly six and a half seconds while delivering 2031 MPG not bad the transmission is hardly a star though it's a 6-speed automatic that's garden-variety stuff these days what's interesting about this engine as well is that it's got active cylinder management so it can through electronic and mechanical means go from six to four to even three cylinders and in between those configurations on the fly depending on how much power it needs so when you're cruising on the highway you're not driving a v6 you could be driving a what a v3 now what this car does have it all four wheels that you may have noticed on that badge on the rear is four wheels steering Honda's been into that for a long time but this is different they can point the same direction as the front wheels for lane changes or opposite direction of the front wheels for cornering when you jam on the brakes the rear wheels go pigeon-toed so you're basically dragging the rear end instead of rolling it to help scrub off speed and finally there's also agile handling assist which uses braking not steering on an inside wheel to help vector you in around a turn so the first thing I notice about the RLX is while it's not overwhelming in any way on paper I love this power train this engine comes on with power when you step on the gas I can't tell you how many cars instead choosing to set up a committee of sensors and servos and semiconductors to think about it for a moment I also think Pardo makes this car nice to drive is the effortless nature of it I attribute a lot of that to this all-wheel steering technology no matter what you do whether it's a short turn like this or whether you're parking you're doing a lane change it's pretty effortless but it gets there without being over assisted it gets there by being fleet of foot handlings a little tubby I mean here in this corner I got too much lean and as I come back around a little bit of slop going this way you hit the sport button and you do not sport highs the suspension all you do is recurve the the powertrain responds it doesn't do anything for body role and such now let's go on the freeway and get a little taste of one of the most self-driving cars you can buy today this guy I've got adaptive cruise enabled here and that brings on Lane keep assist I'm going to set my adaptive cruise speed and now the car is handling the throttle maintaining speed maintaining distance operating the brakes and it's also steering it just read the curve in the road left now right it is maintaining the lane that is not straight not me now by the way you keep your hands off the wheel even though I was just an inch away for too long if lasts a big old warning up there on the dash it knows you're not driving by the lack of input on the wheel so it's not encouraging you to do that now splicing - 2014 RLX starts off at around forty nine three but don't get too excited you don't hit seen that Stiles - you pack another $12,000 on top of that 2500 four nav which is obviously navigation acura length 3,500 for the tech package that brings you studio audio line spot technology 19-inch low noise wheels and fancier leather 2500 bucks for the Krell package that's that great crab audio system and oddly rear sunshades finally add 3500 on top of all of that to the advance package and that's gonna bring you the adaptive cruise Lane keep assist and collision mitigating braking system basically all the self-driving stuff that's also the way that you get into heated and cooled seats and parking sensors there's a lot of bundling going on here too bristle at in the end you're gonna get a car that has a lot of technology it's very ambitious but it's not cutting edge across the stack you also have a very interesting drivetrain on this vehicle but unfortunately I can't say the same about the styling you