Also high in the MDX's credit column are contoured leather seats that offer just the right amount of lateral support for all-day-driving comfort and support for the twisty sections. Leather seating surfaces are of high quality. The MDX's dual front airbags are the crash-severity-sensing variety and the front passenger seat has sensors to detect the height of the rider and if he/she is leaning toward the door. Other safety highlights include seatbelt pretensioners, side-impact bags, and high-strength beams in the doors for extra crash protection.
Value
With a base price of $34,370 and a loaded price of roughly $39,000, the MDX is an outstanding value, given the high level of features: leather seats (except third row), leather door inserts, power mirrors/windows/doors, foglamps, power tilt wheel, sliding moonroof, cruise control, seven-speaker AM/FM/cassette stereo with in-dash CD player, power adjustable heated front seats, alloy wheels, and a handy trip computer. While some competitors might start at a lower price, they'd quickly equal, and in most cases exceed, MDX price levels when optioned accordingly.
There are only two options: one, a $2600 "Touring" package that adds a two-position driver seat and mirror memory system, an eight-way power adjustable passenger seat, a roof rack, a reverse-mode tilting sideview mirror, differently styled light-alloy wheels, and a symphonically powerful 200-watt eight-speaker Bose system with an in-dash six-disc CD changer. The second, Acura's navigation system, is an approximately $2000 stand-alone option. Not cheap, but the MT staff judged it to be one of the more informative and easy-to-use units out there.
Inside, the MDX looks and feels like luxury sedan, offering even heated leather seats as standard.
On the Road
Acura's engineers have done an amazing job of blending the best interior attributes of a minivan with a slick luxury car and a load-lugging, weather-capable sport/utility vehicle. And there appear to be very few dynamic compromises.
Drop the hammer, and the MDX is off with the potent intake howl and muscular verve of a gutsy sport sedan. Cut the wheel, and it swaps lanes or traces a curve's radius with confidence-inspiring precision. Another non-trucklike strength is its smooth, carlike ride quality-on- or off-road body motions are well damped and never threaten to upset beverages or passenger stomachs. Indeed, the only area where we'd like to see a minor tweak is braking. Like its sister, the Honda Odyssey minivan, the MDX's stops are well controlled and stable, even under full-on emergency conditions. But these stopping distances (60-0 in 139 ft) are a bit longish versus anything but full-size, truck-based sport/utility vehicles.
The Winner
Our judgement is that no other new or substantially revised sport/utility vehicle offers the Acura's mix of seven-passenger convenience, large-load capacity, crisp on-road dynamics, impressive off- and all-road capability, excellent build quality, a strong and efficient powertrain, high feature content, and exceptional value.
Acura's all-new MDX truly stands apart-as the Motor Trend 2001 Sport/Utility of the Year.