Light adjustment
What are “adaptive headlights” that so many new cars are now offering?
The beams of the headlight shift when you approach and go around corners, improving nighttime visibility.
You’ll be more apt to see a herd of deer crossing the highway at a curve, and other such nighttime potential hazards when you have them.
It’s too early to know how much this technology impacts safety and accident avoidance. One study found that adaptive headlights resulted in a 10 percent reduction in overall insurance claims.
My 10-year-old Acura RDX is getting a little sluggish. It just doesn’t have the punch it used to. I know you have one because you’ve written about it. I’m wondering if you’ve had the same experience. Do I have to have sluggish for the two more years I have to keep it? I’ve kept up with maintenance.
Significantly less peppy isn’t necessarily an absolute at that age, depending, of course, on how many miles you’ve loaded on in those years and how diligent you’ve been with maintenance.
Any number of things could be causing this, including, but not limited to bad fuel filter, an unhappy fuel injector, malfunctioning airflow sensors or issues with the catalytic converter. This is the time in your car’s life you need to be certain to have a trusted mechanic, and if it’s someone who works often on Hondas and Acuras, even better.
My recent experience was this: Much reduced performance in my 11-year-old RDX. Rather abruptly. I wondered about the air filter but when I checked records, that didn’t seem likely to be the problem since it was changed about 8,000 miles ago. Still, because I’d been driving on dirt roads a lot in the last three months, I popped for an air filter change, hoping the cheap fix might be the right fix. Long shot? Maybe. But once the work was done (in concert with oil change) I had a peppy car again.
The same might not work for you. But check the last change especially if you’ve been driving in dusty conditions or more miles than usual.
The glories of a clean air filter are under-sung and you can experience better performance and mileage after you ditch a bad one.