Acura Loaner Car: Can You Drive It Out of State Legally?

Introduction

What’s going on my friends, it’s i’m back here again with another blog for you. In today’s blog, I’m here with the 2024 Acura RDX. The Acura RDX might look a little familiar, like a Honda CRV, but this is the compact entry-level SUV for Acura for now, until we get something else coming soon. For now, this is painted in one of my favorite colors from Acura, Performance Red Pearl, and this is provided by Fox Acura of Ann Arbor.

Right now, my Integra is in the shop for an oil leak, and I got this loaner while I get that taken care of. Shout out to Ann Arbor dealership Fox Acura for providing me with this loaner. Who would have thought I could have got a loaner from any dealership? But if you don’t know, I’m in the market for a vehicle, and I wanted to get my hands on the RDX because I think it’s the perfect size. Honda’s Acura does some good things with their ergonomics on the inside. It’s small on the outside but has big space on the inside, so we’re about to see what that’s like in just a moment here. But before we see what it’s all about, don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, and hit the bell to support the channel. Let’s jump into it!

Trim Level and Engine Overview

The model I have here is the A-Spec package. It’s not the Advanced package. The Advanced package is going to add certain things like 360-degree cameras, but I do have the A-Spec, as you can tell by the tires and the big A-Spec badge on the side of it. What engine do we have up in here? Let’s take a look.

Under the Hood

We have struts—why doesn’t the Integra get this? But the power plant, we have the familiar 2-liter inline-four turbocharged system. It’s got 272 horsepower, 280 pound-feet of torque, mated to a 10-speed automatic. We got SH all-wheel drive—that stands for Super Handling All-Wheel Drive. That’s Acura’s torque vectoring system, and it works phenomenally. I haven’t been able to test it out because the conditions are dry, but believe you me, this gets down to business when you need it to. The EPA estimates are 21 in the city, 29 on the highway. I’ve been averaging around 20, 21 miles per gallon. For this to be an entry-level—because I have the Integra, which is Acura’s entry-level sedan—this is more like a true Acura because you do see a lot more Acura DNA up in here than you do in the Integra. But let’s take a look at what makes this thing the RDX, what makes it so special.

Starting with the Rear: Exhaust and Cargo Space

We’re going to start from the back, work our way up to the front. See the dual exhaust we got here? Let’s come on up, pop the trunk. We have ample amount of space in here. Floor mats are back here, got a backpack. You can probably fit six backpacks back here if you stack them up, maybe even more—eight. Not a whole lot else back here. Power liftgate, let’s close it, go on to the back seat where I can appreciate this: we can lock and unlock the doors from the back seat. See, I have my keys in the car, but you see these ridges here? That means you can lock and unlock. So you just put your hand in here and pull the door open; you can lock it. That comes in handy when you have kids because you don’t want to have to fumble around, go to the front door, or jiggle around in your pocket for the keys. Having that passive entry on the back is a game changer.

And sitting up in the back seat, got ample room. Slide my head up in here, we are good. A whole bunch of legroom, get swallowed up back here. Shout out to TD Jakes. So I got about three inches of room for my knees in front of me. Got a couple of air vents in front of us, USB-Cs, because we are in the future. Panoramic sunroof, that’s something that’s not really familiar with the entry-level class, but we got a pano roof, huge glass up there. We have a boatload of headroom, got like four to five inches of space above my head. Cup holders are going to be in the middle seat here. Not a whole lot else going back here for the kids. It’s a spacious back seat, very practical vehicle.

Going on up to the front, I can talk about more of the design cues. Got the ELS audio system—we’ll hear that in the future. We got some microsuede finishes here with the black stitching, matches the Performance Red paint. We got the seats, got the black seats with the red stitching, microsuede inserts in the middle. Very comfortable seats, a nice place to be. We got a perforated steering wheel, great for those long hauls. It’s not that soft in the middle part; I wish it was a little bit softer.

Entering the Front Cabin: Technology and Controls

Let’s get on up in here. Like I mentioned earlier, this is Acura’s DNA. You notice this gear selector right here—you’ve seen that in the TLX, you’ve seen that in the MDX that I reviewed. We have this goofy trackpad; cannot stand it. What we have here—we’re in park. This is not touchscreen; you gotta use that trackpad. Takes some getting used to. It doesn’t have quick options, quick access to go to quick things like your navigation or audio. You just gotta slide around in these menus, and it’ll do it on there. It’s kind of like a trackpad on the keyboard. But looking across the dash, you got the nice metallic. Coming on up in the IPC, we do have heated and ventilated seats in their auto, so once you get to the desired temperature, it’ll dial it back or even turn it off. We do see this microsuede across the dash, nice metallic cues coming on around here. No pun intended.

Center Console and Storage Features

In the center console, we got two cup holders, a slot for your phone, USB-A charger. We do have a little bit of storage back here—kind of deep but not that wide. Also soft opening, so you can’t rip that thing open. It’s got some resistance. And we got a rolling door so you can hide your cup holders. Do have a wireless charger down below, which I find to be quite useless. Now, this is some great real estate down here. You can put other miscellaneous items. I would just turn the wireless charger off. I put my phone on there for like a whole 40 minutes that it took me to get to the dealership, or close to an hour, and it got my phone up 1% by the time I got to my destination. We do have another 12-volt outlet over here.

Steering Wheel and Driving Controls

Your steering wheel controls, the right side is going to be for the cruise control, which works pretty well. The left side is going to be for your infotainment, and we got the volume up and down, the skip tracks. You slide this to the right and to the left, which I don’t care for that much. And then we also can customize what’s in the middle of the screen up here by rotating the wheel on the right side. Two memory seat settings, trunk open—let’s spin the block in the 2024 Acura RDX.

Driving Experience and Comfort

You hear the ventilated seats—they get a little bit loud. Let me dial that back for the sake of this video. The seating position is kind of tall, so I don’t like how the steering wheel—this is the lowest that it goes. I do wish it would go a little bit lower. This is as far out as it comes, basically, as far out as it comes, and it feels like you’re sitting on top of the vehicle instead of in it. Maybe that’s an SUV thing, but I don’t like the seating position at all, the seating position or the steering wheel position. I feel like it can be better, but let’s hit the road. Press drive, off to the races.

Ambient Lighting and Road Performance

Let me close the sunroof. We do have ambient light up in here, something the Integra does not have. This is welcome; I enjoy ambient lighting. I got it set to green. Maybe it’ll turn on while we’re on this drive. But this bumpy road right here—man, it’s really well-dampened. Let’s see what the turning radius be like. About to run over a rabbit! Move!

Handling and Suspension

All right, turning radius—somehow we almost didn’t make it, and I think I’m about to scrape that wheel. Notice something: I don’t damage wheels when I drive because I know what I’m doing. But coming back to the very bumpy road, we got it set to Comfort right now—or normal. Let’s see what drive modes we got. Okay, Comfort. Maybe it was in normal, so this should soak it up. Very soft suspension—that was a very smooth ride over that horrible road. Good feel. It’s almost like no steering feel at all, so let me crank that up to normal. Got a little bit more heft; that feels a little bit better. Watch these craters in the road—man, so many gears in here. I’m honestly shocked that the MPG isn’t better. We got 10 gears in here. It is what it is, same displacement as the engine I got in my Integra Type S, 2-liter turbo. This thing can sound rowdy with an exhaust. My car sounds amazing—can’t say the same about this because it’s for a completely different audience. It’s the people hauler right here; you got to transport people around. This is the route that you take.

Safety Features and Final Thoughts

The car has a good amount of safety features—blind spot monitoring. You can’t get a surround camera in here if you get the Advanced package, but you don’t get that with the A-Spec—just get a rearview camera. Parking sensors, we do get those. It’s going to tell me if I’m about to smack something, which I almost did, but don’t worry about it. You see the ambient lighting on my door over here? Kind of nice, kind of sweet. Can’t change colors—Acura, we got to step that up, man. We gotta get more ambient lighting in here because I just came from driving a BMW 5 Series, and that thing was a whole vibe. Do like the panoramic sunroof.

Conclusion: A Practical Luxury SUV

Overall, the RDX, this is for the person who wants some more space, a little bit of luxury. It’s not completely redesigned. You got a bigger screen, got some new wheels. The tires are much bigger in the back. Got the taillights, which are smoked out—something you don’t see in that segment. So yeah, this is my review of the RDX. I hope you enjoyed it. If you’re new to the channel, don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, and hit the bell. If you’re interested in this one, you can check out Fox Acura of Ann Arbor. They got you covered. I’m Q. Peace out.