A second generation Acura RDX, seen in Beijing in the winter of 2017. The big Japanese SUV looked great in white with gray alloy wheels and darkened windows. Acura’s of any kind are rare in China, so I was quite happy to see the RDX.
The sec-gen Acura RDX was a luxury SUV made from 2012 until 2018. It was sold in China as an import.
Acura always had an uncertain relationship with China. They arrived late to begin with. They decided to sell exports only, saying they wanted to preserve the perceived Made-in-Japan high quality image.
Sure enough, that meant Acura cars were too expensive compared to the competition. So in a move totally predicable Acura changed tack and went for local production anyway. Their cars were made by GAC-Acura, a subsidiary under the larger GAC-Honda joint venture. But they kept selling imports too, including the Acura NSX supercar.
Acura quickly launched 3 locally-made cars: the the China-only Acura CDX in 2016, the China-only Acura TLX-L in 2018, and the third-generation Acura RDX in 2019. And that was it! The TLX-L went out of production just one year later and GAC-Acura only sells the aging CDX and the RDX now. Nothing else and nothing new. They stopped selling imports in 2020, so the future of the Acura brand in China seems very much in doubt.
The Acura RDX was marketed as a luxury car in China, but it wasn’t that luxury compared to similar priced cars. Still, it looked nice inside, with a large screen on dash top, a center stack with a shipload of buttons and a CD-player with a CD-changer.
The China-spec version of the imported second generation Acura RDX was available with two V6 engines: the 3.5 that was also sold in the rest of the world and a China-exclusive 3.0 liter V6 with 267 hp and 298 Nm. The engine was mated to a 6-speed automatic, FWD or 4WD. Prices started at 399.800 yuan, which was steep for the amount of car you got, hence the rarity of the RDX.