2003 Acura RSX Base from North America - Comments

No problems OR build quality issues whatsoever.

Completely flawless.

Handling is amazing for a front wheel drive. It's the closest feel to rear wheel drive as I have ever seen, but still retains all the benefits of front wheel drive.

Mileage is terrific and reliability is impeccable.

The back seat fits a car seat so small families are not even an issue.

Absolute recommend this car for 2 door coupes.

Hi, I found your review helpful, though I thought it was a bit vague. Could you comment on why you gave the car a 8/10 for the performance? did you find it to be slow or somthing?

Thank you.

Since I doubt the original reviewer will come back to find this anytime soon, I'll give my 2 cents. I don't own this car, but I test drove both the base and Type-S versions of the RSX. The base model feels like it has a flat powerband. There isn't any one point where the power comes on and it pulls pretty well from around 2500 rpms (despite many reviews claiming otherwise, probably muscleheads...). The K20 in the base RSX isn't peaky like the older B, H or even D series engines. I found it to be very practical since I didn't have to shift gears every 2 seconds (i wouldn't get the slushbox anyway, even though the base engine will work well attached even to an automatic), but much of the fun factor of the peakier engined Hondas and Acuras is lost. The Type-S I found to be peaky, but it takes forever and a day to reach the upper reaches of the powerband. The car is barely moving below 4k rpms, and I had a hard time finding enough road to keep it in the powerband without downshifting all the time (not that that's necessarily a bad trait). Hope this helps. Contact me at robbyhenion@yahoo.com if you have more questions.