Re: Land Rover LR2 vs the Acura Rdx. Which should I buy? Why? Should I just save $10K
Hey Kevin J,
These are just my two bits but somewhat informed bits as I was in the just in the market for the same type of vehicle that you are. My wife and I were definitely committed to wanting a "premium" compact SUV so we considered both the Land Rover LR2 and the Acura RDX as well as the BMW X3 but thus not the Honda CRV.
One of my biggest complaints about this segment is that most of the automakers seemed to automatically associate "compact" with "not as high quality". I felt that both BMW and Acura suffered from this in that the RDX was not as luxurious or feature rich as the MDX. Ditto for the X3 compared to the X5. When I mentioned this to the sales folks they would simply say, well, look at the bigger model - which I didn't want to do. The LR2 was the only vehicle that didn't seem to suffer this problem - lots of features and lots of luxury - and thus a few more dollars than either the X3 or the RDX.
My other complaint about the RDX was that you had to have faith when driving it. As it Acura's specialty, it has a small but high horsepower engine. The result of this is that when you want to go, it's kind of like the lift off of the space shuttle - when you punch the accelerator, you twiddle your thumbs for a few seconds, then you get rocket like lift off. If you are fine with this then no problem but it really bugged me.
As you have probably figured by now we went with the LR2. We've had it for a month now and I have absolutely no complaints - I absolutely love driving it and it is super solid in the snow and ice. It is a bit of an indulgence though in that it is a lot more money than a CRV which as far as getting from point A to point B is going to do the job marvellously. Drawbacks on the LR2 though - because of the feature richness of the car, repair is going to be complex and expensive - as one example consider that I've take out a separate auto-glass policy on it given that I've been quoted $1300 to replace the front windshield because of the built in defrost. Also, I hate to say it, but it is an absolute fuel zombie - highway seems okay in the 10 - 12 L/100k range but city driving with cold starts I seem to be running in the 18-20 L/100k range (ie you only get about 400km on a tank of gas).
Summary: If you want to indulge yourself get the LR2 - it is a real treat and a really nice ride - just know that you'll be paying more for it on an ongoing basis as well as up front. If you want reliable, point A to point B transportation that is cost effective go with the CRV. Personally, I just don't think the RDX is worth the extra up front money.
\|/ Jeff \|/
