2026 Acura MDX Review | The Most Reliable Luxury SUV!

Welcome to the channel. I'm GoldPony. I do car truck SUV reviews on YouTube. And today we're in the brand new 2026 Acura MDX, courtesy of Bobby Ray Hall Acura in Mechanicsburg, PA. For more information on their inventory, please feel free to check out the link in the description box below. So we're in this one today because this one comes with a reliable, naturally aspirated V6, which actually are rare these days. You also have a more powerful type S trim level available. It's not the one that we're in today, but it is there if you wanted it. And my mother's actually had, I think, an MDX for over 10 years now. So they definitely last a good bit. She just keeps on buying them. But if you are curious, this one will compete with the Genesis GV80, Mercedes-Benz GLE, and the Volvo XC90, just to name a few. But ultimately in this video, we will be testing out and going over everything about this one, from acceleration to braking, steering feel, ride quality, sound system, exhaust clip, all that fun stuff. So having said all of that, what do you guys say? Let's go ahead and jump right into it. And as always, let's start with pricing. And so as you can imagine, there are several different trim levels for the 2026 MDX. You got the base trim starting at $51,800, which is a $600 bump from the 2025 model year. That's not that bad, quite honestly. I've seen a lot worse this year. Technology for $57,200. You got the A-spec for $62,400. Advanced for $66,900. You got the A-spec Advanced. That goes for $68,900. And lastly, the Type S Advanced, going for $75,800. All of those trims but the first two come standard with all-wheel drive. Those first two come standard with front-wheel drive. However, you can add all-wheel drive. If you wanted to do that, simply add $2,200 to either of those first two trim levels. But as you can imagine, with all of those trim levels, there are a couple different power plants. Essentially, the first power plant belongs to all trim levels but the Type S, and that's the one that we have with us here today. Powering this particular beast is a 3.5 liter naturally aspirated V6, putting out 290 horsepower at 6,200 RPM, 267 pound-feet of torque that comes in at 4,700 RPM. Power going to be sent to the front wheels or all wheels through a 10-speed automatic with paddle shifters, which of course you guys know we will be testing out here in a little bit. Zero to 60 time is going to come in at approximately 7.5 seconds. MPG numbers coming in at 19 to the city, 26 on the highway for the front-wheel drive, 19 city, 25 then on the highway for the all-wheel drive taking premium unleaded fuel. But so then there is that other power plant, of course, belonging to the Type S trim level. That one is going to be powered by a 3 liter twin scroll turbocharged V6, putting out 355 horsepower at 5,500 RPM, 354 pound-feet of torque that comes in at 1,400 RPM. Power is going to be sent to all four wheels through a 10-speed automatic with paddle shifters yet again. Zero to 60 time for Type S though, 5.5 seconds. That's pretty darn quick. With MPG numbers coming in at 17 in the city, 21 on the highway taking premium unleaded fuel. So before we do any kind of paddle shifter acceleration test here in the MDX, I do want to mention to you guys the drive modes. So there's a little circular dial located just above the shift buttons here. It's labeled dynamic mode. Essentially that gives you a bunch of different drive modes like normal, comfort, sports, snow, and individual. Adjusting things like the shift points, the throttle response, and the steering sensitivity. So now having got all of that out of the way, what do you guys say? Let's go ahead and find it straight away. Let's put the paddle shifters here to the test first and let's see how quickly these paddle shifters are going to react for us here. All right. Got it in sport driving mode. Got it in full manual shift mode. We're in first gear. Three, two, one, go. Nice. It's wild. Oh, it's shifted. Don't you shift for me, Acura. Dang it. I want to shift. I thought I had it in manual shift mode. I pressed the drive button twice there. That should have put it in manual shift mode, but yet it shifted for me. I guess it got a little too high in the RPMs there. That stinks, man. I want a full manual shift mode. But having said that also, I wish the paddle shifters were maybe finished in a silver or even aluminum if you really wanted to go all out. They are finished in a black plastic. So honestly, it's something that I think 99.9% of the people driving an MDX are probably never going to touch the paddle shifters. And that's fine. They're there for you if you need them, but I probably wouldn't use them either. But anyways, let's now go ahead and find one more straightaway. Let's put the acceleration here to the test with the MDX having full control. And let's see how quickly we can get this one here up to speed. All right. Yet again, we are in sport driving mode from a standstill in three, two, one. Nice. Sweet. All right. I don't mind the acceleration. That's plenty of head up and go for merging onto any highway here in the US. Also, in the back of my mind, I love that it's a naturally aspirated engine. It's not turbocharged. It's not direct injected. It is naturally aspirated and it's going to be super reliable as has shown over time with my mom's MDXs. They last forever. It is quite loud though. Surprisingly, it's a little bit louder than I expected. But again, plenty of acceleration to merge you onto the highway. There's nothing wrong with that. But to go along with that acceleration, as always, braking is equally important. So the braking setup will differ between the type S and everything else essentially. So everything else is going to get a 13.8 inch ventilated front disc. For the type S, this bumped up the 14.3 inch ventilated front discs and the back 13 inch solid rear discs. And now the 60 to zero stopping distance, that of course is also going to differ. Comes in at 128 feet for non-type S and then 122 feet for the type S. So a little bit of a difference there. But overall, as far as braking feel goes, it's probably one of the first things I noticed when I got in this one actually. It's not a firm braking feel whatsoever. It's kind of a squishy braking feel like what I remember with the RDX back in the day. I don't know why they do that. Acura I'm referring to. I don't know why Acura does that. They need to firm up the braking feel a little bit in my opinion and make it a little more playful like that acceleration I just experienced. So I don't know why it's a little squishy, but it's something you would probably get used to. But I'm not a fan personally. I think they could do a little bit firmer of a braking feel on this thing. But then touching on suspension and handling up front, you're going to get a double wishbone type front suspension in the back, independent multi-link rear suspension. But you also get amplitude reactive dampers that come standard, which essentially means you get an adaptive damping suspension. So that's what Acura calls it. But it monitors each shock absorber individually, not only adjusting to the road imperfections, giving you a smoother ride, but it also tightens up that suspension during heavy cornering, giving you better handling as well. So that's what I typically like to recommend because that really does give you the best of both worlds and I always can notice it. And it's definitely a big difference. I'm a big fan of that. But also with the Type S, you get an adaptive air suspension with auto leveling. So the Type S is going to give you the best possible ride. But having said that, even in our non-Type S today, because of that adaptive damping suspension, you're going to get a pretty darn smooth ride in this thing as well. So overall, as far as ride quality goes, it's been 100% on point. Definitely not having any issues there. As far as steering feel goes, that's the second thing I noticed when I got in this one. Acura and Honda, they always crush it with their handling. So, and that's definitely the case in the MDX. If you want a nice handling SUV, this is where it's at, man. This is Mazda. So I love the steering feel. I love the handling capabilities in the MDX. It definitely is 100% on point. And if you want a heavier steering feel, again, put it in that sport driving mode that I literally just took it out of. So it does adjust that steering feel a little bit, but even in the comfort driving mode, it still feels absolutely wonderful when it comes to that steering feel. But then touching on cabin noise, we're going 36 miles per hour right now. I haven't had any issues with cabin noise. It's definitely spot on there as well. And you do get an acoustic laminated front windshield and acoustic laminated front door glass as well. So that's definitely going to make for quite a serene cabin. You don't always get that even on luxury automakers. Then touching on rear visibility, looking at my rear view mirror here, I do have the third row up right now. So the third row headrests are up and they do impede visibility a little bit, but I would imagine if you put those down, it would be 100% perfectly fine. But I do have them up right now. So they do impede visibility a little bit, but that's really any three row SUV, if I'm being fair. But then touching on forward visibility a little bit, if you wanted rain sensing windshield wipers, they do come standard on all trim levels, but the base, that base trim level is not going to give you rain sensing windshield wipers in case you wanted them. The other thing is with forward visibility right now, I am looking at a head up display and even with polarized sunglasses, I can still see it, which is pretty impressive. And it is massive. If I were to pull these up a little bit, this is so awkward. It is super bright. So I love that it's a massive head up display for the visually impaired. It's so cool. So I love that. It helps you better focus more of your attention on actually enjoying the drive. So you don't have to take your eyes off the road as much to look down at the gauges because it's protected onto your windshield. So big fan of that. And by the way, that comes with the advanced, the A-spec advanced and the type S if you wanted that head of display, but that pretty much rounds out the performance segment of this review, guys. Let's go ahead and take a look at the exterior of our brand new 2026 Acura MDX. All right. So here she is, you guys, the new 2026 Acura MDX finished in platinum white pearl in case you wanted the exact exterior color name on this one. But as always, let's go ahead and start with where the MDX is made. Taking a look at the van, first character is the number five, indicating that the MDX is built and assembled here in the U.S., specifically Ohio, in case you were curious. But starting up front, if you were to go with that type S, you will get a type S badging within that front grille. To the sides, dual eye LED headlights do come standard for all trim levels across the board. Get LED daytime running lights with those. You get the automatic feature. You also get automatic high beams. So if you have your high beams on at night, it senses the vehicle coming in the opposite direction. It's going to automatically dim them back to low beams. Then when that vehicle is gone, it's going to automatically bounce it back up to high beams for you there. So very convenient. LED fog lights come with the A-spec trim level and up. You guys can see them to the bottom corners there if you wanted those. And then you will get a more aggressive front fascia if you were to go with the A-spec trims or the type S. So did want to mention that as well. But I love the look of this. You got some massive front air curtains to the bottom corners there as well, helping direct air around the wheel and tire combination. Very high end look. Acura did a wonderful job with the design of the MDX. And perhaps that's why my mother keeps buying them, but it looks good. Let's go ahead now and make our way to the side. All right, so now since we are to the side of this one, roof rails will come on the advanced trim level and up if you wanted those. Rear privacy glass coming standard across the board. You got some chrome window surrounds, body colored or gloss black side mirrors dependent upon the configuration that you go with. It will be power adjustable. They will be heated. You're going to get LED integrated turn signals. You're going to get the reverse gear tilt down feature coming standard as well. And then if you wanted the power folding feature that does come on the side mirrors for all trim levels, but the base trim level. So again, that base is being left out, but got some chrome accenting found in the lower portion of those doors as well. That looks pretty good. It ties in together with the window surrounds. And then taking a look down at the wheel setup, 19 inch alloys for the base, 20 inch alloys for the tech, the A-spec, the advanced and the A-spec advanced, and then 21 inch alloys for the type S. I love the wheel design. I think they look so good on the MDX. The other thing is you got body colored side skirts and body colored fender surrounds. That's something that doesn't always come standard, even on luxury automakers. A lot of times it's going to be finished in a matte black. So for that reason, well done Acura. You made this look so dang good, but again, that pretty much rounds out the side. Let's go ahead and swing around to the back. All right. So now since we are around to the back of this one, all the way to the top, you do have a body colored shark fin antenna just below that rear spoiler with the integrated brake light. You've got the rear window wiper affixed to the rear glass, LED taillights, and they look so dang good. I love the design of these LED taillights. I'm going to get up a little bit closer. Yeah, they look good. I love that. But just below it all, you will find dual exhaust outlets with chrome tips. And yes, that comes standard for all trim levels across the board. They look good as well. And by the way, if you were to go with the type S that turns into quad chrome tips, and you also get an active valve exhaust system with that type S as well, which is pretty cool, meaning you can make it loud or quiet dependent upon what you're going for, I guess. But nonetheless, I do believe you guys know what we have to do next here. As always, here is that exhaust clip. All right. So now since we are around to the back of the MDX, when it comes to opening that rear lift gate, a power lift gate does come standard for all trims, including the base, but all other trim levels, but that base trim level will get a hands-free power lift gate. So if you have your hands full of groceries or whatever, it's going to automatically open up for you. So that's pretty cool. But there is a button on the key fob. There's a rubberized button on the lift gate itself then as well. But once opened up, cargo capacity comes in at 16.3 cubic feet behind that third row. Of course, the third row does fold down. There is a 50-50 split that's going to bump that up to 39.1 cubic feet. Then with all rows folded, 71.4 cubic feet in case you were curious. There's a lot going on in the cargo area though. There is a 12-volt power outlet back there. I saw that, found a grocery hook back there. That was pretty darn cool as well. If you were to lift up underneath that cargo floor, you will find a substantial bit of in-floor storage, very impressive amounts. You can put ice scraper back there, higher inflator kit. There's a good bit of space if you needed it. And then the cool thing is about that in-floor storage is there's a section where you can lower the spare tire, which is up underneath of the vehicle. So you actually do get a spare tire with the MDX as well, which is cool because a lot of vehicles these days are going to the fix-a-flat. I prefer the spare tire. So I think that's awesome that the MDX still gets it. But then make your way up to the third row legroom that comes in at 29.1 inches for reference. I'm an even six feet tall. This is how much space I had in the third row there. So not a ton of space. Honestly, that number is right around the exact same number really as my Ford Mustang GT back in the day. So it's not a ton of space in the third row, but rear ventilation does come standard. You have third row USB charging ports for the advanced trim levels. So that was pretty cool to see back there as well. But then making our way up to the second row legroom that comes in at 38.5 inches for reference. I'm an even six feet tall. Still, this is how much space I had in the second row there. USB charging ports will come standard for all trim levels. Heated second row for the advanced trim levels. Second row sunshades for all trim levels, but the base, I love the rear window sunshades. I'm always a big fan of those, but overall second row was plenty fine for me. I did not have any issues with rear legroom back there, but now let's go ahead and make our way up to the front seats. Leatherette seats coming with the base. Milano premium leather for all trim levels, but that base trim level. So that's pretty cool. 12 way power adjustable front seats coming standard. Massaging seats for the advanced trim levels. You got to appreciate that. Memory settings coming standard. Heated and ventilated front seats for the A-spec trim level and up. Heated front seats for all trim levels then as well. We actually have power side bolsters as well. I just noticed that. That's pretty intense. I love the power side bolsters. It's like hugging me in place right now. So big fan of that. But anyways, overall, as far as seat comfort goes, extremely comfortable. And part of the reason is because there's no awkward horizontal seams. Everything is vertical. So it's all vertical seams and it's like a ton of different adjustments you could be had here. So 100% crushing it with the seats. I got the ventilated seats on right now too, because it's kind of hot out today. It's just really good. But now let's go ahead and take a look at the steering wheel. It is tilt and telescoping. It is leather wrapped. It is a flat bottom steering wheel for the A-spec trims and the type S. By the way, I don't think I mentioned it yet, but we got the advanced trim level with us here today. Heated steering wheel coming with the advanced trim levels, by the way, and then power adjustable for all trim levels across the board. Definitely nothing wrong with the steering wheel. I definitely like that as well. But now let's go ahead and make our way to the startup. Let me start by showing you guys the key here. You got your Acura logo on the one side. Then when you flip it over, you got lock, unlock, the button to pop the rear lift gate there, the engine hold button, that remote start that is going to come on all trim levels but the base, but it is all keyless entry with a push button start. So all I'm going to do here is simply put my foot on the brake and press that silver, like stainless steel engine start button. That's so cool. Located just to the left of the center air vents there. But so then once started up, when it comes to the gauges, what you were looking at is a 12.3 inch digital gauge cluster for all trim levels across the board. Cool thing about the gauges is when you change the drive mode, it does adjust the color and the look substantially dependent upon the drive mode that you put it in. So that is pretty cool as well. So like, for example, if you put it in sport driving mode, it's a bunch of red hues. If you put it in normal, it's basically black and white. But overall, the gauges do look good. You got all your basics like digital speedometer, outside temperature, trip A, trip B, how many miles do you have left until you hit empty there in the bottom right hand corner. So plenty you can check out up there. And there are steering wheel mounted controls on the right side of the steering wheel to give you even more things you can check out like G-force statistics, tire pressure of each individual tire. There's your oil life meter. So that lets you know exactly when you need your next oil change. Can even display a little navigation screen up there if you wanted to. So quite a bit you could check out up there. I thought that was pretty cool, but let's now go ahead and make our way to overall interior quality. Let me start with the power moonroof coming standard for all trim levels across the board. LED interior lighting also coming standard. And actually with the technology trim level and up, you get 27 colors of ambient lighting as well. As far as these ambient lighting colors, they gave them all cool names like Chapman's Peak and Baja Highway 1 and Pacific Coast and Alta Velocita. Like really cool names. So I don't know. I like that. I thought that was kind of cool. You also get an auto dimming frameless rear view mirror that does come standard. You got home leg controls for up to three different garage doors just below that. Also coming standard. You got either aluminum or wood trim depending upon the trim level that you go with. We got a little bit of this matte wood trim found just above the passenger side glove box, just above the gloss black finishes there. There is a wireless phone charger located kind of just to the left of the cup holders up here. The only thing that I would probably definitely change though is everything surrounding the cup holders and this wireless phone charger. It's all finished in a matte black, which is kind of surprising. Like Acura, here's what I would do. You either finish that in like a matte wood trim if you want to be super fancy, but you at least finish it in some kind of plastic finish that has a design to it. Or you could go gloss black if you wanted to. You don't have to go gloss black. You could do, like I said, just a nice silverish kind of finish with a texturized design built into it. Anything that would not be a matte black because it's just not luxury, which is what Acura should be. These are finishes that the competition are doing that definitely needs to be done in this as well, especially for the price point. That's all I'm saying. But now within the center armrest here, you do have a couple USB charging ports and there's a decent amount of space in there. So overall interior quality is okay, but it could be better. But now let's go ahead and make our way to the infotainment screen here. What you guys are looking at is a 12.3 inch color touchscreen display, and that comes standard for all trim levels across the board. It looks pretty darn good. You got Bluetooth and audio streaming, wireless Android Auto, Apple CarPlay. There's a cabin talk system where you can project your voice into the back seats. That's kind of cool. There's also your typical Honda slash Acura clock settings. So I always love that. That is an Acura thing. There's a compass up there if you wanted to display a compass. Super fancy there. Ambient lighting settings like I was saying. And of course you got your radio information up there as well. So when it comes to the sound systems, there's two of them. You get 11 speakers, which honestly is pretty impressive for the size of this vehicle. That comes for the base, but for all other trim levels, technology trim level and up, you're going to get a 19 speaker Bang & Olufsen sound system. So I'm pretty excited. That's the one that we got with us here today. So let's go ahead and turn on the radio. Let's see what we got playing this morning and let's test out the clarity of this one. All right. I can tell the sound system is absolutely amazing, but unfortunately that was FM radio because according to the vehicle, Sirius XM isn't available on your device. So I don't know why. Somebody put in the comments section, help me out here. Where's Sirius XM on the MDX? I know they used to have it. Did they do away with that? Weird. But anyways, last thing I wanted to mention to you guys on the infotainment screen is when you do put the MDX in reverse, you will find a rear view camera coming standard across the board. Then if you were to go with the advanced trim levels, you're also going to get that surround view monitor there to the right, giving you that bird's eye view, which as always is going to lead us into safety. And so IIHS Top Safety Pick, I'm going to start by mentioning that get front, side, side curtain airbags. They come standard driver and passenger knee airbags up front as well. In the back, you got latch, AKA lower anchors and tethers to children for the rear car seats, rear child door locks, top pressure monitoring system, but also coming standard, a blind spot monitoring system with rear cross traffic alert, road departure mitigation system, traffic jam assist, traffic sign recognition for collision warning, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control, and a collision mitigation braking system as well. And if you were to go with any of the trim levels, but the base, you're going to also get front and rear parking sensors. I always love those, but overall, when it comes to my final thoughts here of the MDX, I would probably get the technology trim. I'll tell you that right off the bat, because that seems like it might be the best bang for your buck. Plenty of power in this thing. I love personally the naturally aspirated V6 because I know that's going to be reliable as well, and it's powerful. Nice sound systems. I can tell the Bang & Olufsen was definitely very nice on this thing. As far as room for improvement goes, I can give you a few things, probably. The brake pedal is a little bit squishy. It's a little spongy braking feel, which I'm not a huge fan of. If I were Acura and Honda, I'd probably make that a little bit firmer of a braking feel, just because this is more of a performance luxury SUV, and I would expect it, quite honestly. But the other thing is the interior of the MDX is not quite up to par with the competition. When you look at this compared to really anything, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, or whatever, especially this matte trim around the cupholders here, I would 100% change that. But there's that, and then the other thing is the ambient lighting. I can't even tell that it's on, and I did turn it on, so I don't know where the ambient lighting is. But it would be cool if they had super bright ambient lighting. The benchmark for ambient lighting is Mercedes-Benz, so Acura, look at Mercedes-Benz and what they're doing, and do that in here, because I want Acura to succeed so much. My first car was an Acura RSX. Yeah, there's just a little bit of room for improvement there. But anyways, let me know what you guys think of the MDX in the comment section below. That's about it for this one, you guys. Thank you so much for watching. Feel free to follow me on social media stuff if you want to see what's coming next on the channel before it gets to YouTube. Be sure to hit the subscribe and the bell notification button if you're into new car reviews, because that is what I've been doing here for 11 years now. I do appreciate you guys watching more than you know, and I will see you guys all in the next video. Stay gold.