Acura RLX

Acura RLX

Acura

MarqueAcura
ProductionDecember 2012 – June 2020
Engine3.5 L Earth Dreams J35Y4 V6
Fuel economy (EPA)20 mpg combined · $3,800/yr fuel

Among the 35 Acura entries in the MotorJury library, the Acura RLX holds its own page in a catalogue built to record every car ever made, from series production to one-off concepts. The record places its introduction in 2012. The photography on this page is hotlinked from Wikimedia Commons under an open licence, with the photographer credited on every frame.

The era it was born into

To read the Acura RLX properly it helps to place it in its decade. The 2010s were the decade electrification stopped being a science project — Tesla forced the incumbents' hand, downsized turbo engines replaced displacement, and the crossover conquered every market. Any car launched into that world was shaped by it — by what materials, engineering and regulation allowed, and by what buyers of the day demanded. Its direct contemporaries in this catalogue, introduced within three years of it, include the Peugeot Peugeot 208, the Mazda Mazda CX-5, the Tesla Tesla Model X — the cars a buyer of the period would actually have cross-shopped.

The numbers, read closely

On paper, the Acura RLX reads like this: the record lists its engine as 3.5 L Earth Dreams J35Y4 V6; kerb weight is recorded at 1800 - / 1956 - (AWD) / 1990 kg (Legend); drive goes through FWD: (RLX only) / 6-speed automatic (2014-17) / 10-speed automatic (2018–2020) / Hybrid AWD: / 7-Speed DCT Motor-Integrated; the layout is FF / F4 layout (SH-AWD). Every figure above is a manufacturer specification carried by the Wikipedia infobox or the open Wikidata record for this model — nothing on this page is estimated, and where a source is silent the row simply does not appear.

Its place in the Acura story

Within Acura's own catalogue the Acura RLX sits alongside the Acura ADX, the Acura ARX-06, the Acura CDX, the Acura CL-X. The record names the Acura RL as its predecessor, anchoring one end of its lineage. Design is credited to Hideaki Uchino (2009) / Michelle Christensen. Assembly is recorded at Japan: Sayama, Saitama (Sayama Plant).

On the record

For the years the United States federal record covers, EPA-rated economy comes in at 20 mpg combined, which works out near $3,800 a year in fuel at current prices.

How this catalogue works

This library is generated, verified and rebuilt from the open record on every deploy. The catalogue skeleton comes from Wikidata, specifications from Wikipedia's infoboxes under CC BY-SA, photography from Wikimedia Commons under each file's own licence, and the ownership data from United States federal safety records. Nothing is written by hand and nothing is invented: every fact on this page traces to a public source, and every page is rebuilt nightly as those sources improve. Errors in the source record will appear here too — and disappear the night the source is corrected.

Why concepts and prototypes are in the library

Most car databases stop at series production. This one deliberately does not, because concept cars, racing specials and cancelled prototypes are where the industry thinks out loud — the ideas tested in public years before they reach a showroom. Holding them beside the production cars they inspired makes the lineage legible: nearly every landmark road car in this library has a concept ancestor somewhere in the catalogue, and the connections run through the era links on every page.

From catalogue to ownership

A specification sheet is only half a car's story. The other half — what breaks, what it costs to keep, which years to avoid — lives in MotorJury's ownership database, computed nightly from federal complaint and recall records and EPA economy data. Where the Acura RLX was sold in the United States, its model years carry full ownership verdicts there.

Specifications

TransmissionFWD: (RLX only) / 6-speed automatic (2014-17) / 10-speed automatic (2018–2020) / Hybrid AWD: / 7-Speed DCT Motor-Integrated
LayoutFF / F4 layout (SH-AWD)
Body style4-door sedan
Kerb weight1800 - / 1956 - (AWD) / 1990 kg (Legend)
Wheelbase2850 mm
Length4,982 mm
AssemblyJapan: Sayama, Saitama (Sayama Plant)
DesignerHideaki Uchino (2009) / Michelle Christensen
PredecessorAcura RL
Catalogue IDQ2263998

Specifications come from the Wikipedia infobox for this model (CC BY-SA) and the open Wikidata record, and are shown only where a source actually carries them — nothing here is estimated. Figures are manufacturer specifications, not measured results.

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What it costs to run

Ownership verdicts are computed from NHTSA complaint and recall records plus EPA economy data, re-priced for your country. Verdicts are published per model year as the data is ingested — browse them live, or open the true-cost calculator to price any year yourself.

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Rivals of its era

Contemporaries from other marques, introduced within three years of this car.