2002 Acura RSX Base Automatic from North America

Summary:

Fun

Faults:

Nothing yet.

General Comments:

I love my new (used) car.

Its not "fast" but it is very zippy. From the line, you won't beat many cars, but when you get to 2nd gear in the 6000 rpm area, the car speeds up like crazy. Another performance mark I would like to make on this car is that its handling is very crisp with no body roll. Lane changes are made very easily.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 12th June, 2008

2002 Acura RSX Type - S 2.0L from North America

Summary:

Awesome car! Love it!

Faults:

Nothing!

General Comments:

I Love my RSX Type-S. I spent about 2 years deciding on what car to get, and I couldn't be happier with my decision!

Performance: This car performs amazingly well. I've gone ripping around the mountains in this thing and scared my passengers. It always amazes people at what it can do. The acceleration, handling, and braking are all fantastic. By the way, I've gone 220 kmph and didn't even hit V-tech in 6th gear.

Reliability: No problems, even when driving in -40C on the coldest of Calgary winter days.

Comfort: It's a sports car, so if you want a boat get a crap domestic. Everyone says its so smooth, from power delivery to handling. That's the refinement.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 13th February, 2008

2002 Acura RSX Premium 2.0L from North America

Summary:

Fun to drive, relatively inexpensive, TCO is low

Faults:

Driver side power door locks died at approximately 100k.

Excessive wear on leather bolstering.

Transmission died after the oil was changed by a 3d party dealer.

General Comments:

Handling with the proper tires is outstanding.

Gas efficient.

Relatively fast.

Beautiful exterior, unique rear end.

Interior is well designed.

Seats are not so comfortable for really long drives.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 30th January, 2008

2002 Acura RSX Base 2.0L from North America

Summary:

Love it

Faults:

The clutch master cylinder needed to be replaced at aprox 60000 miles. The dealer asked USD 180 for the part and USD 260 for labor. I considered that a joke, bought the part myself from another dealer ($87) and paid 70 bucks for an independent mechanic to replace it. Nothing else has gone bad so far.

General Comments:

I love how the car handles. The stock Michelin tires are expensive garbage. I replaced my four tires with Fuzion ZRI and now the car is like glued to the road even on wet road. The audio system is a joke so I replaced mine with a pioneer head unit, polk speakers and a bazooka sub.

I think the car is the best value for the money, I wouldn't recommend it for people looking for a comfortable ride. It's a sports car, not a "boat".

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 14th May, 2007

17th Jul 2007, 14:36

Just wanted to add that my AC compressor went bad at only 66000 miles. The dealer charges around 1000 for that kind of job. I bought a used compressor from on 06 RSX for 150 and paid another 150 to install it.

2002 Acura RSX Premium from North America

Summary:

Phenomenal value

Faults:

The fuel cap had to be replaced as it was not tight enough and caused the check engine light to illuminate.

General Comments:

This car has been a a great buy - the best combination of features, handling, efficiency and reliability in any car I've yet owned.

I haven't had to replace a single light-bulb. The Michelin tires are original at 80,000 km - and still have plenty of tread.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 12th September, 2006

2002 Acura RSX Base 2.0 i-VTec from North America

Summary:

Reliable, good gas mileage, good, but not great performance

Faults:

This car eat headlight bulbs at an insane rate. So far, I have had a headlight bulb blow every month and a half. The replacement bulbs are expensive, they are hard to replace, and the headlight performance is mediocre to boot.

The only other thing is the plastic flap that covers the mirror on my sun visor broke.

General Comments:

Gets very good mileage for a sporty car - I average 28 MPG, and I live in Los Angeles. On the freeway, I get about 31.5 MPG.

Engine is very smooth, loves to rev, and burns almost no oil. Not much torque, especially at lower rpms, though.

Turning radius sucks for a small car. It is no better than my huge '72 Ford Torino - I'm not kidding!

Ride is rough on anything, but perfectly smooth roads. But, body doesn't roll at all during hard cornering, either.

Rear seats are best left for small children. Even short people practically touch the hatchback glass with their heads.

Interior is nice - fit and finish and materials get high marks.

Leather wrapped steering wheel feels great.

Excellent short throw 5 speed manual transmission.

Instrumentation very logically layed out and has a nice appearance, especially at night with its "night vision red" glow.

Everything works on this car as it should - window defrosters are excellent, climate control excellent, cruise control, interval wipers, etc.

With rear seats folded down the car is a pretty decent cargo hauler.

Some minor, but annoying gripes:

Whenever you recline one of the front seats forward to gain access to the rear seats, you have to readjust the front seats to their former position. Annoying as hell.

Front seats are OK, but could be better - I find my head being jackhammered against the headrest during bumpy roads.

No granny bars to assist people to enter the car.

Drivers side seat missing foot switch for rear passenger to use to move seat forward and out of the way.

No place to put your gas cap while you are refilling. My sisters old 1990 Integra lets you place the gas cap on the refueling door so you don't drip gas all over your car.

Engine compartment is insanely tight.

No optional limited slip differential, which the car could definitely use.

No option for electronic stability control.

Most of the speedometer range is a waste - how often are you really going to be going 140 mph? It's hard to tell if you are going 60 or 70 mph because the 0-85 mph part of the instrument panel takes up so little real estate.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 28th November, 2005

5th Jan 2006, 04:18

Another small, but potentially important design feature I forgot to mention is total lack of protection for the lower part of the radiator. The RSX sits quite low to the ground, and right near the bottom of the RSX is the front air dam. The bottom of the dam has a large slot shaped opening for air to pass thru to the radiator. This opening has no grille or any kind of protection at all, yet it sits at the very front of the car inches off the ground. A rock or other road debris kicked up from a car in from of you could easily smash into your radiator at highway velocity, putting your RSX out of action and resulting in a costly repair that could easily have been avoided. Why Acura choose not to have a grille for the RSX there is beyond me - maybe they just want to sell us $500 replacement radiators.