Acura will reveal the 2022 Acura MDX on December 8. America’s best-selling three-row luxury SUV gets its most dramatic redesign in 20 years. Bolder inside and out, Acura’s new flagship model is claimed to be the most performance-focused, technologically advanced premium SUV in the company’s history.
The debut of Acura’s fourth-generation SUV can be seen at Acura.com/2022-MDX on Tuesday, December 8 at 11:30 a.m. PST, when viewers can tune-in for a first look at the 2022 MDX. The 2022 MDX sits atop a new light-truck platform incorporating an MDX-first double-wishbone front suspension, and a well-appointed interior loaded with new features and technologies.
The MDX joins Acura’s RDX, the best-selling model in its segment, and the TLX sports sedan as the latest models to be designed around what Acura calls Precision Crafted Performance DNA. The new MDX, featuring a 3.5-liter VTEC V6 engine, 10-speed automatic transmission, and available fourth-generation Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD) will arrive at dealers early next year. Acura’s first high-performance SUV variant, the MDX Type S, will follow in the summer of 2021.
The 2001 MDX was the industry’s first three-row SUV to be based on a unibody platform, eschewing the more rugged attributes of truck-based SUVs for comfort, space, and better mileage. Upon its debut, MDX earned critical praise, including the 2001 North American Truck of the Year and 2001 Motor Trend SUV of the Year awards. Over the past two decades, MDX has become America’s all-time best-selling three-row luxury SUV, with cumulative sales exceeding 1 million units, according to MotorIntelligence.
Tune in on December 8th to see if Acura can maintain that sort of success with the next MDX.
[Image: Acura]
Well, the MDX is just a tarted-up Honda Pilot with a few more horsepower from the same engine that’s in the Pilot and less “utility” because of its more swoopy body style.
Heck, the Pilot now even has “super-handling all-wheel drive” torque vectoring system that formerly was exclusive to the MDX.
I’m not holding my breath.
Badge engineering that would make GM blush? Check. Glass transmission/middling reliability? Check. Premium pricing well-above the already over-priced Pilot? Check. Aesthetics that are either supremely boring or awfully misguided? Check.
Sorry, but Honda has a lot of work to do to bring Acura back into the conversation.
Which specific models are badge-engineered? The largest Acura (Legend, RL, RLX) has always been sold as a Honda overseas. But those are different markets—unlike GM, who would traditionally sell copies of the exact same car in the same regions and has only in the last decade quit doing that so rampantly—and the RLX has also been discontinued, so it’s a moot point. The first-gen MDX was also sold as a Honda in other markets, there was the SLX that was a dressed-up Trooper, and at one point, Acura of Canada offered a CSX/CSX Type S that was very much a Civic/Civic Si with a badge swap. But, again, that pales in comparison to GM.
And at least GM’s badge-engineering was somewhat a result of the separate dealer networks that the company was (understandably) stuck with, from back when the Sloanian model actually worked. If you had a Chevy and a Pontiac that were the same thing, they weren’t going to be in the same showroom. Meanwhile, Chrysler would sell you various trims of minivan, sedan or SUV, under different brands, and at the same dealerships. So would Ford.
Back to Acura: there are pretty significant distinctions between Honda and Acura products, least of all completely different body shells and interiors—even if they do share platforms and engineering.
The MDX’s reliability ratings with CR are strong; they have the most data collected that I can see. Where are you seeing poor reliability? The MDX retained value level is quite high as well.
World debut?
Tarnished
Calipers
That’s one angry minivan.
Pffffft…Wake me when GM debuts the new ZO6.
Didn’t they already show us what they’ll look like and most of the specs about a month ago as an MDX “prototype”? Why bother with all the shadows and the secrecy?