2017 Acura RDX
This year drew an ordinary 74 complaints for a Acura RDX — the model's median is 33. What they were about is the unusual part: 37.8% of them mention accelerate, against 7.4% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Acura RDX, which began in 2013 and ran to 2018. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 74 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 33 |
| Involving a crash | 7 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 22.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- accelerate — 37.8% of this year's complaints, against 7.4% across the other years of this generation (5.1×). Owners wrote it as: accelerate, restarted, acceleration, accelerator.
- alarm — 41.9% of this year's complaints, against 14.8% across the other years of this generation (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: alarm, unit, goes, goes off.
- warning lights — 36.5% of this year's complaints, against 10% across the other years of this generation (3.6×). Owners wrote it as: warning lights, undisclosed, depressed, driving undisclosed.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
Locked Acura RDX alarm goes off randomly for no reason. When the alarm is turned off all the lights on the dash are flashing on and off and ticking. The most recent is 8/14/25. But has happened on several occasions especially if locked with the key fob or the…
Keyless Access Control Unit (a.k.a. Smart Power Control Unit) is defective. This is an electronic part and should not have failed. It causes random security alarm triggers, random flashing of exterior lights, clicking noises, and flashing of dash lights. There…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 17V256000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Acura RDX was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2017 Acura RDX? What happened to yours?
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