So I've been out on my new RXT X. Overall I'm pretty impressed with it but there are a few things that could have been done better. First the good: The new hull provides a much better ride in light chop and the handling is much sharper than my 2004 GTX SC was. So much so that when I tried a tight turn at speed, the g force produced reminded me a bit of a ride at the amusement park. The power is pretty smooth - it burbles and feels a bit lumpy at idle, but accelerates smoothly and has allot of power. In fact the power is pretty deceiving. For my first ride I was trying to take it pretty easy, but found myself at 50 mph with very little effort. The braking system is cool - although I'm not sure how much I will use it in normal driving.
There are a few things that need adjusting on my X and a few things I just plain don't like (but can live with):
1. DESS - The system requires you to press the start/stop button to wake up the electronics and then quickly attach the key to the DESS post. If you don't get it on correctly you will not hear the double beep and you have to remove it and start the process again. In addition, if you shut the engine off without taking the key off and then try to restart, you can't. You have to remove the key and start all over. I think this is a poor system and my biggest complaint. If you shut down for some reason and are still drifting and decide you are drifting too quickly towards something, restarting takes longer than it used to on my 4TEC. I'm sure this will prove to be a hassle when towing skiers as well. And the problem is made worse by the unit's neutral system (below);
2. Neutral - I'm hoping this is an adjustment on my unit, but neutral produces a bit of reverse thrust. This makes it difficult to drift in a straight line towards my EZ Dock (floating dock) lining up for the drive on procedure as when I place the unit in neutral, if I don't hold the steering wheel perfectly straight, the course changes and I have to approach again;
3. Steering - The steering is really precise, but my dealer has mine set up such that it runs about 15 degrees to starboard when the steering handle is held in the straight ahead position. Perhaps this is what is making it difficult to to drift in neutral. I'll be talking to the dealer about this next week.
4. Throttle - As some others have posted, I find the touring mode a bit lazy. I thought I'd like sport mode better but t is so razor sharp I wonder if it won't be difficult to maintain an even throttle position in the bumps. I'm assuming that touring will get you to the same top speed? If so, I might find myself using touring more of the time. Perhaps this is something I just need to get used to? In my opinion, this is a case of fly by wire altering your input in a way that you don't like and have no control over;
5. Cruise Control - If you operate in and out of a marina like I do, you may want to consider cruise control as it has a feature which allows you to set maximum forward speed at idle. Without this feature, the only way to control speed in a no wake zone is to switch between forward and neutral (on and off) to make "way" and then drift alternately. I'll be checking with the dealer to see if the cruise feature just automates this process or actally adjusts the bucket position to reduce forward "way". This cruise feature was on last year's iS and is optional this year on both the iS and X.
Overall this is a great machine, but for the money it should be perfect and the cruise option should have been included.
Linear Mode
