When I opened my email yesterday morning, I saw a message from Honda with embargoed information about the 2025 Acura RDX and got a little excited. See, every six years since 2007, we have gotten a new Acura RDX. Following this pattern, the 2025 Acura RDX should be an all-new model. But to my great disappointment, the 2025 RDX is not a new car—not even close.
Instead, Acura’s compact crossover is getting a very mild midcycle refresh that doesn’t even address one of its most glaring flaws: the lack of a touchscreen.
Per the press release, the 2025 RDX gains a new “frameless” grille with a different mesh, new wheels, three new paint colors, and more storage in the center console. The wireless phone charger is apparently easier to reach now, the cupholders are bigger, and—hold onto your hats, folks—the 10.2-inch center display now runs Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in widescreen.
Yep, unlike the refreshed MDX which finally got a touchscreen and is way better for it, the 2025 RDX is sticking with Acura’s nonsensical “True Touchpad Interface” and a display that doesn’t actually do anything when you touch it.
Some auto journalism inside baseball: car companies often send us deets and pictures of new cars under embargo, sometimes under the lock and key of a password-protected website with the agreement that we’ll remain hush about it until after a set date and time. In the seven years I’ve been doing this, the 2025 Acura RDX has gotta be one of the most anticlimactic things I’ve seen get password protected.
Give us the new RDX already, Acura. Or, at least one with a screen that feels like it belongs in a 2025 model-year car.
Got a tip or question for the author about the RDX? You can reach him here: chris.tsui@thedrive.com