Overview & Reviews

The 2016 MDX gets a standard nine-speed automatic transmission with push-button gear selection, an optional suite of safety technologies called AcuraWatch Plus and a revised all-wheel-drive system that Acura says is lighter and more responsive. Other changes include a standard frameless rearview mirror, Siri Eyes Free voice controls for compatible Apple devices, an easy-entry driver seat and (via the Advance package) auto stop-start.

• Generous number of features for the money
• Adept handling
• Quiet cabin
• Excellent crash-test scores.
• Confident acceleration
• Good fuel economy

User Reviews:

Showing 21 through 30 of 82.00

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  The vehicle thats gone from great to a total dud - 2016 Acura MDX
  By Peter K. - December 6 - 1:48 am

  I hardly ever write any reviews but figured I just had to do one on this vehicle. I owned a 2010 MDX Tech, which was a great car, that unfortunately got flooded during Hurricane Sandy. Then, I got an ML350 and when the lease was up, we decided that we needed another 7-seat vehicle. So, as wed already had an MDX before, we figured we couldnt go wrong with that one, right? Wrong! The first thing I noticed on my drive home from the dealership is that the car becomes ridiculously jerky while in traffic. The new 9-speed transmission just doesnt work well for daily city driving or when youre stuck in traffic on a highway. If you live in a rural area, chances are youll never experience this. But if youre in traffic every day, well... youve been warned. Ive adjusted my driving style since then and learned that switching IDS to "Comfort" makes it a little better. The problem, however, never went away and the dealer refused to acknowledge its existence despite the fact that Acura message boards are filled with similar complaints (I should have read those before I got the car). Then, theres the touch screen. Its very slow with a non-intuitive interface. Ive had it lock up several times while selecting a route. Ive always played my music from a USB flash drive and this is another area where this car is a total disaster. Once music is on, you cant switch tracks until the cars MP3 system is done reading the whole drive. So, it takes about 2-3 minutes in my case before I can switch songs or select another album/artist. It could be my flash drive but its the same one I used on the 2010 and ML350 - worked flawlessly there. We have two car seats installed in the second row (one behind the drivers seat and another in the middle). Its impossible to pull down the remaining second row seat and access the third row when theres a car seat in the middle. I had no problem doing that in the ML (needed the remaining seat pulled down sometimes to transport my bicycle). Finally, theres the cargo net or lack thereof. I kept the cargo net from the 2010 and was able to easily install it on the ML. I figured it would also fit on the 2016 MDX. Wrong again! Acura has changed that as well.

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  After 2 months...Love this MDX! - 2016 Acura MDX
  By Ron - November 2 - 3:09 am

  I researched the the 2016 MDX for 9 months before buying. Im so glad I did. Ive owned two MDXs since purchasing my first MDX in year one of the MDX introduction in 2001. Im amazed at the transformation, Id been driving my MDX with 180K miles. Having also been an RL owner, I now feel I have the best of both vehicles in one. The slightly lowered height from the road is just perfect! The few lower reviews of the entertainment system has not been a problem for me. Theres a lot to digest with so many great features, I take each feature one at a time which for me has been an enjoyable easy process. I love the new touch gear shifting! I love the sportier drive for an SUV, it really does not feel like Im driving an SUV. The gas mileage increase is sweet, which is one reason I waited so long to buy a 2016. Love the seat air ventilation system that keeps me from back sweating during hot summer months. I can now seamlessly play music from my iPhone. The biggest surprise and enjoy is the warning system and lane keeping assist system. I feel like Im now protected from blind spots when changing lanes and drifting out of my lane. This is simply the best vehicle I have ever owned! A huge leap of comfort, safety and technology in the past 10 years! Ive never experienced this big of an upgrade in any vehicle I have ever purchased. Love this vehicle!!!

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  Great Vehicle with Terrible Infotainment - 2016 Acura MDX
  By Mike - October 5 - 2:05 am

  We recently leased a 2016 MDX AWD with Tech Package. If we were to do it again the smart money would be the base awd model with the AcuraWatch safety feature package. Let me explain why....First off the car rides, accelerates, stops, turns, and everything else regarding moving extremely well. Even the headlights are exceptional. The interior seating design and the way they slide is also great. The safety features shake the steering wheel if you depart your lane and warn you when other cars are too close. Whats left is the way you interact with the controls in the dash and on the steering wheel. Every single thing about the interaction with the controls is unnecessarily complicated. In many cases it takes an extra click or 2 in a menu than in other cars. For example to turn seat heater on you need to click a button on the screen, select the heat level, then close the sub-menu. In every other car on the planed you click the button once to turn on the seat heat then another click to change the heating level. I consider this annoying, but not a deal breaker. Then you get into the gps. The gps takes longer than most to figure out how to do the basics. Its cumbersome to enter an address. The guidance is also poor. Sometimes there is no audible instruction on when to turn and a strange map of your turn with a flag that isnt always oriented the way you are travelling. To sum it up you are better off placing your phone with google maps over the nav screen. I can only hope there is some kind of update to enable android auto or the apple car os. Last but not lease the Bluetooth connectivity doesnt play nice with my samsung galaxy s6. Every 30 seconds or so it pops up an error it cant import the phonebook. A quick google search indicates this is a common issue for many. Then you quickly find out the text interaction is terrible. When you get a text a notification takes over the entire screen asking what you want to do (imagine you were getting ready to make a turn following gps). So then when you act on the notification you have to pick from a very small list of predefined reply messages. Every other car I have used including cheap rentals allow you to speak a text reply. My other vehicle is 2015 ram 3500 with uconnect and it does all of this with no issues. In a day and age where so much of your interaction with a vehicle is the electronics acura needs to do a much better job. The kicker is you pay thousands extra for this tech package and get terrible tech bundled with some really good safety features. After having the MDX a few months I can say I would buy it again, but would not get anything above a base model awd with acurawatch.

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  Transmission bad!! - 2016 Acura MDX
  By Debbie - September 13 - 7:35 am

  I purchased a 2016 Acura MDX from Jay Wolfe Honda in Kansas City, MO and so far my total overall experience is a "0" I have had my car in the shop for about 20% of the time I have owned it and my last repair was to replace the transmission with 10,000 miles on the vehicle! It still shifts jerky at low speed but I havent taken the car back because I am going to pursue the lemon law and/or Acura arbitration. I had a loud noise in the rear end, after they replaced the struts (after 3 repair attempts) and it is better. There are 3 Service Bulletins out there for those of you who want to try them TSB No 16-035 replace rear suspension dampers and rear upper mount bushings. TSB No 15-039 Replace transmission end cover gaskets TSB No 15-054 Software update in powertrain and transmission control modules. I called Acura and none of these were linked to my specific vehicle VIN #. Had they replaced the gaskets, I may not have had a fluid leak which supposedly caused the transmission replacement. The module update is supposed to correct the shifting - that is questionable. The rear end work did help the noise in the rear end. I could continue with minor detail issued but suffice to say I WOULD NOT purchase nor would I recommend anyone to purchase an Acura MDX!!

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  strong smell from leather seat - 2016 Acura MDX
  By Wei Li - August 2 - 9:41 am

  I bought a 2016 MDX at Apr 2015. The car has unusual new car smell. At the beginning, I thought it will disappear soon .I am wrong. I cant stay in the car without the window open for more than one year. But unfortunately after two summers, the smell of new car just reduced a little bit and the leather seat still gives off strong chemical odor. I can confirm because if I smell closely to the leather its just too strong chemical odor. I have owned multiple cars with leather seats before. This is the first time I hit the issue. I very understand that leather products usually has "leather smell" and I actually like that. But this smell from ACURA 2016 MDX seats is not typical genuine leather smell. Its just unpleasant chemical smell. At the time I bought the 2016 MDX, I noticed it smells more strong than 2015 MDX. And it seems to be issue with all 2016 MDX at least the first batches. I was told by many people that baking the car in summer could reduced the new car smell. Now I have done it twice in the summer. Almost every sunny day I leave the car outside and open the window just a little. I have verified it doesnt work for this car. Because this time, issue is from seat. I am pretty issue besides the seat, the smell is OK. Just the leather chemical smell is too bad. One detail I noticed is there is no smell from back piece of seat. I am guessing that the back piece of the seat has different leather.

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  Racura - 2016 Acura MDX
  By Rajesh Marath - July 11 - 4:32 am

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  Transmission Problem - 2016 Acura MDX
  By Nagaraja Kini - May 9 - 7:30 am

  2016 Model, only 8200 miles has transmission problem. Dealer told me transmission to needs to be replaced. For a brand new vehicle we had small minor issues from the beginning. This one is big. Dealer has been very courteous.

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  Rattle Rattle Bang Bang - 2016 Acura MDX
  By Jerold - February 21 - 11:56 am

  The tech package was better in our 2004 MDX, Impossible for a six foot man to get in and out of drivers seat, and lastly the car has dash rattles and not only that the rear of the suv it sounds like it is bottoming out when it crosses tar stips.

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  2016 MDX Vibration Part II - 2016 Acura MDX
  By Very Disappointed - November 19 - 12:46 pm

  Very disappointed, follow up to my previous post, ok my car has been at the dealers 6 times now for a vibration between 55 to 75 MPH 4,900 miles they keep saying they have to confirm the vibration which I have a service order from October stating they confirmed the vibration, they replaced the brake rotors, needless to say vibration still there, they replaced the tires, vibration still there, took it back to the dealer today for 6th time, another test drive with the service manager he said he could feel something but wasnt sure what it was, back seat was vibrating extensively, service manager acknowledged it, said he would take a new MDX off the lot drive it same route we drove mine to see if the road made it vibrate. They called and said they test drove a new MDX off the lot and it vibrates worse than mine so its a characteristic of the vehicle. They actually put this in writing on the service order. I asked if they were informing consumers of this vibration characteristic when they were looking at the vehicles and they said no, I told them just because the other car vibrates does not make it right, it sounds like a design defect to me, this directive came from the District Service Manager I cannot believe they would actually think that is acceptable, they all vibrate so that makes it acceptable???? Buyer beware I would not buy the 2016 Acura MDX.

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  My first SUV purchase - 2016 Acura MDX
  By Suzanne Thorpe - November 3 - 5:55 am

  I typically drive a vehicle for as long as possible. So when my 2003 Toyota Camry was starting to show some signs of wear and tear after 13 years, I decided to check out the new SUVs. For me I wanted comfort, quiet, smooth handling, navigation package, something easy enough to get my aging parents into, and most importantly something with a solid reputation of being a reliable and quality vehicle. My pros: I found that I liked sitting a bit higher on the road. The drive is very comfy, quiet and the vehicle is very responsive. When I test drove the car I got the speed up to 90 entering the interstate before the salesman in the backseat coughed uncomfortably, but the car never hesitated and was very responsive. The headlights provide an amazing view of the road at night. The bluetooth for phone calls is crystal clear. I am using midgrade octane gasoline and I am averaging 24.5 mpg. My cons: I wish the cup holder was a smidge larger so it could hold my bubba cup of water. The navigation system is a little confusing but now that I am used to it things are fine but it took some patience on my part. The driver seat is self adjusting to driver 1 or 2 but I wish that I could get the seat to automatically move further back than it does upon going into park. I understand that Acura has accessories for sale but I think that for the amount of $$$ you spend they could have included a net in the cargo area to keep the groceries from sliding around, I think it should have been standard not optional. Overall I really have been impressed so far and have not once regretted my purchase. I dont have any maintenance issues to report after 4 months of ownership.