QOTD: Found Yourself Surprisingly Disappointed?

Corey Lewis
by Corey Lewis

In last week’s QOTD, we asked you to share the vehicles that pleasantly surprised you after spending some time behind the wheel. Whether your expectations were high or low to start, it’s always nice to recall transportation that impressed.

Today we turn in the opposite direction, and talk about cars that left you feeling disappointed.

Most of the time, the knowledgeable consumer in all of us creates an expectation of a vehicle. Something you’d heard or read — perhaps a rave review or the rantings of a rabidly biased fanperson — can lift those expectations. In today’s example, I walked away from a rather expensive automobile thinking, “They couldn’t manage to make a car better than that?”

And here it is — the leather-lined pontoon boat featuring all-wheel drive, a hybrid powerplant producing 377 horsepower, and lots of technology. The premium logo on the grille should say something of the materials used in its construction, not to mention the integrity with which it was engineered and built.

Yet somehow it all falls down. The styling doesn’t really work. What used to be a Honda Legend made into an Acura for the U.S. became an Acura which wears Honda badges elsewhere. Updated for the 2018 model year with new styling language, the car underneath has remained largely the same since 2013. The interior is a mess of various angles, textures, and buttons. The one I drove featured bleached-effect faux wood trim, which really washed out the light parchment interior even further. Then I drove it.

Wallowy and soft, the RLX went down the road with zero enjoyment, asking for little input from the driver. Best to slow down a bit in corners, as the two-ton sedan lists to and fro while you saw at the wheel and hope for feedback. Braking is aggressive and regenerative, feeling excessively sensitive and overly boosted. A light touch to the brakes felt more like a stab — most difficult to modulate.

I expected Honda could build a nice, comfortable luxury sedan with its years of know-how. After all, the RLX is direct successor to the RL, a car which used to represent the pinnacle of Acura’s offerings (a place occupied by the MDX presently). And the ask for the top-trim RLX I drove? $61,900. I really don’t think so. The RLX let me down in a big way.

Let’s hear about your big disappointments.

[Images: VW, Acura]

Corey Lewis
Corey Lewis

Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.

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  • CincyDavid CincyDavid on Feb 28, 2019

    19 VW Jetta S...my 17 Jetta SE is in for service and I got a 3000-mile Jetta loaner...interior door trim is softer/nicer in the new one, that's about all I can say positive about it. Start-Stop function is obnoxious, but at least it can be killed with a button on the console (which is still the hard plastic that scratches too easily). ECO button on the console seems to just KILL throttle response. Toggle switch for the parking brake seems to work OK, but why doesn't it release when the car is taken out of PARK and I wonder how well it will work at the car ages. The interior feels smaller/narrower but that may be a function of the all-black interior...my 17 has the cornsilk beige. The back window is smaller so I see a LOT of rear parcel shelf and rear headrests through the rearview mirror. It has a pseudo-Ford-Fusion look to it on the outside but overall I'm not impressed. And when did Falken tires become OE?

  • Bloodnok Bloodnok on Feb 28, 2019

    test drove an abarth 124 spider. wanted to like it but it is kinda ugly. its gearbox was awkward, which was the first surprise. the killer was its dead steering wheel. how fiat could take the lively mx-5 chassis and deaden it was a surprising disappointment. have to hope that mooted boatload of mazda roadsters heading to los angeles is true cuz my lease is almost up ....

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