Starting today, the 2016 Acura MDX will hit U.S. showrooms with an assortment of power and technological upgrades.
Power for the new premium crossover comes from its 3.5-liter, 24-valve, direct-injection i-VTEC V6, which now paired with a nine-speed automatic with Acura’s Sequential SportShift. The new transmission not only replaces the former six-speed auto, but weighs 66 pounds less than said unit. Colin Chapman’s philosophy is also applied to the MDX’s Super Handling All-Wheel Drive system, where its rear differential is now 19 pounds lighter than the previous part.
The other major upgrade for the MDX is the AcuraWatch package, which comes by itself on all MDX, and is standard when part of the Advance Package. The suite includes adaptive cruise control, collision mitigation, lane departure/lane keeping/road departure, blind-spot information with rear cross-traffic monitor, and multi-view rear camera.
Other features include: Siri Eyes Free voice recognition; easy-entry/exit driver’s seat that moves 35 mm back when the door is opened; bi-directional remote engine starter; start-stop; and a tire-pressure monitor that alerts when tires are inflated to the correct pressure.
Price of admission begins at $42,865 for the base MDX, $57,080 for the top-end MDX SH-AWD with Advance, Entertainment and AcuraWatch Plus packages on-board. Fuel economy for most AWD models amounts to 18 city/26 highway/21 combined, with start-stop adding 1 mpg to the city and combined figures. FWD models do slightly better at 19/27/22, 20/27/23 with start-stop.
Suburban wives can’t wait.
The ultimate mommy car with top of the line nanny features. Who wouldn’t want one?
Why so hard on it. IMO its very good at what it does and for the price it does it at. It also ride and handles fairly well too. In 2008 when I bought my CX9 the MDX was in my top five alternatives with the Flex,Q7 and R500 being in there as well. The Q7 and R500 were going to be one year old CPO as that was the only way I could afford them at the time.
I actually like the MDX/RDX I just wish every housewife in north suburban Chicago didn’t
I understand that.Why is it that some vehicles that are really nice drivers cars are driven by mommies that dont want vans. Just go get your RX350 already and call it a day and let me drive this without seeing myself coming and going.
Well, I guess there are a lot of mommies that fall into the “dare to be different” category
+1 On this point. A ‘male’ co-worker recently traded in his CRV for an SH-AWD and, IMHO, these photographs do not do it justice. Very handsome ummm CUV.
TPM alert, driver’s seat that moves when door opens, auto windshield wipers. Can’t someone give me something useful like a sunroof that closes if I leave it open and it starts to rain?
Well, I have a friend with a VW that would conveniently open the sunroof unasked in snowstrom so the owner could enjoy some fresh, clean, dry mountain powder. I found that to be a rather thoughtful feature of which my friend was rudely unappreciative.
Alas, VW/Audi gremlins, I knew them well.
Sorry sir, 2 of 4 door locks will work today. Take me out on the highway, and we might get that up to 3 of 4!
But then the climate control will give out.
Ha, that’s funny, because having had a 1998 VW Golf, I was pretty puzzled when our brand new 2011 TSX would not close its windows when I turned and held the key in the driver’s door. It would open all windows when you hold the remote Open button. But you have to start the engine to close either a window or the sunroof.
And calling this MDX a premium or a new model is a real stretch. But mommies in leather boots all over the country are going down tonight in anticipation of this new purchase.
Funny, my 2011 TSXdoes exactly that. Did you turn the key the wrong way?
Exactly that – what, you can close all windows and sunroof with your key? I will try again, maybe it’s broken just like those TPMS sensors that randomly give me error messages, or those brakes that keep on shaking the steering wheel starting at 20K miles and no dealer’s fix in sight.
Gotta twist it twice. Pardon my salt-covered car:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vBR94zI_2k
On the brakes, the OEM discs suck. I bought better, cheaper ones from Tire Rack (Centric Premium or something) and have had no problems with warping since.
For my ’03 Chev Express, I went to my local Webasco store, and installed a sunroof with a rain sensor – it worked well for me!
Don’t see as many of these around here as I’d expect. And of the ones I do see, i think more are driven by guys.
“[…] a tire-pressure monitor that alerts when tires are inflated to the correct pressure.”
Shouldn’t the alert occur when they’re NOT inflated to the correct pressure?
Or maybe the MDX has a whole series of these alerts: the doors are all closed, the engine isn’t overheating, you didn’t forget to release the handbrake, you have plenty of gas, etc.?
That’s what the press release says the TPMS does:
“The 2016 MDX adds numerous other luxury upgrades including a frameless rearview mirror, Siri™ Eyes Free voice recognition, an easy-entry/exit driver’s seat that moves 35 mm rearward when the driver’s door is opened and TPMS fill assist that sounds an audible alert when the driver inflates the tire to the correct pressure.”
I like my second gen MDX, and bought it over an X5, as the MDX had more power and more space in the back. OK, I didn’t get Honda (or even BMW) reliability in this car, but let me join the chorus of “don’t ever, ever buy the first year of a new model”…they fixed the tranny issues and a few other things in the next year, but at least Honda paid for a new torque converter.
At least in the second generation version, the SH-AWD really adds to the package, and it lugs around kids, Home Despot runs, and tows the boat. You can also toss it around for a big water buffalo, it stomps on ricers with fart can mufflers, and overall, is a really good “big car” to have in the driveway. Sway bar bushings and end links are under-designed so need replacement every 30-50k, but beyond that….