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| 2005 Acura Mdx Review | |||
| Whether you're about to spend $40K on a brand new car, or half that on a used car, it is always important to learn as much as you can about the used car. Read these car reviews to learn about all aspects of the vehicle. Each of the usedcar reviews cover interior and exterior features, options, road tests, and more. | |||
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Introduction
| Road Test
| Inside & Out
| Other Thoughts
| Last Word
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| Inside & Out | |||
Having just concluded a week spent in Acura's own RSX, entering the MDX was like crossing over from Compton to Santa Monica. This is a shining artistic example of how to mix leather, warm wood, comfortable captain's chairs (with heaters, soft leather, and memory), second-nature controls, and an instrument cluster using the most eye-pleasing sight of red, white, and blue you've seen since, well, you know. Watching the MDX light up at night is an awesome sight. Clearly, some Acuras get more love than others.Also, the Touring Package's 8-speaker Bose stereo manages to fill the MDX's huge cabin better than the Bose in the smaller RSX. Sound quality is fulfilling (if it sounds spotty, it's probably in Rear Speakers Off mode) and the choice to make XM radio standard this year (3 months free) is fine by me. Acura has long been praised for having the best navigation system. Aside from Infiniti's latest, that's hard to dispute. Any computer-literate rookie can start scrolling and clicking around in no time. The system gained speed and the voice command center expanded its vocabulary for 2005. It guides you to your destination reliably, though the disorganized directory can make looking up a restaurant take forever, and the slow-then-fast map scrolling can be inconvenient. Also, the climate controls should be liberated from the navigation screen so that simple adjustments like fan speed wouldn't be buried so far down in the maze. Both the stereo and navigation wash out pretty badly in sunlight. Acura could try something besides black digits on a gray background for once, and how about moving that buried clock to the instrument cluster? Fact: drivers check the time more often than anything except the speedometer. The automatic shifter is one of those labyrinthine zig-zag types that was once used to test rats' IQs. It's annoying, it hinders shifting, and it was successful in incorporating Honda's perennial problem of making the lever land in D4 instead of D5. Seats, cupholders, storage space, all great. Space in the 70/30 split second row is quite good with well-shaped seats and a flat floor. Like in the Accord, two adults will be comfortable, three will manage. One big payoff of that Honda Odyssey heritage may be the MDX's most compelling advantage: seats for seven, even if the MDX's foot-long truncation reduces the third row to a kids-only zone. Four conventional doors mean entry/exit is done coupe-style (on the right-hand side, after sliding the middle seat forward). Everyone in back gets to control their own air, listen to their own music, and watch their own movies (if rear-seat DVD is ordered); the tyke in the right-rear corner even gets to have the subwoofer thump his arm to every beat of the music. Seven 3-point belts, seven head restraints, curtain airbags that span the length of the cabin, and 5-star crash ratings for the front and sides make the MDX a safe place to stash your family. Space behind the back bench is average, but fold all seats down and the MDX's 81.5 cubic feet make it a compelling cargo hauler. Again, that has it falling severely short of the Odyssey by a glaring 45%, and it's not so much a matter of length as it is about wasteful SUV packaging, space-eating all-wheel-drive parts, and a non-removable second row. Also, the third-row seats in the MDX aren't nearly as effortless to raise and lower. But there are handy features back here like a small under-floor tray (partly to store the head restraints) and a third 12V power outlet to go with the two in front. The interior of the MDX could be summed up as an Odyssey's that's been beautied up and dumbed down. Like you haven't heard of that trade-off before. |
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