CarBrandLogos archive · Acura · 2000

AcuraMDX

The three-row crossover that showed a luxury SUV need not be a truck.

Photo: Kevauto · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Acura history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Acura MDX, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Acura's first attempt at a sport-utility vehicle was the SLX, a rebadged Isuzu Trooper that fooled nobody. The MDX, launched for 2001, took the opposite approach: designed in-house by Honda's American operation, built on a car-derived unibody platform related to the Odyssey minivan, with three rows of seats and a V6 driving through an on-demand all-wheel-drive system.

2007 Acura MDX -- NHTSA · U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration · Public domain

Design and engineering

It suited the market almost perfectly. Buyers wanted the space and the raised seating position of an SUV without the ride, the thirst or the handling of a body-on-frame truck, and the MDX delivered that at a price that undercut the German alternatives. It took North American Truck of the Year for 2001 and became the volume backbone of the brand.

2010 Acura MDX -- NHTSA · U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration · Public domain

In production

Later generations added Super Handling All-Wheel Drive, air suspension and a Type S performance version, and in 2022 the MDX moved to a new platform with a return to double-wishbone front suspension. It has been in production continuously since 2000, which by Acura's standards makes it the franchise.

2004-2006 Acura MDX -- 04-11-2012 · IFCAR · Public domain

At a glance