2002 Acura RSX Base review from North America

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.

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.