2010 Acura MDX Test Drive

With a base price of just under $52,000, Acura’s MDX mid-sized crossover is the third-most expensive model in the brand’s line-up behind the RL sedan and rakish ZDX. Yet it is also the brand’s best-seller, by far: new-vehicle buyers snapped up nearly 6,000 MDXs in 2009, which works out to more than one-third of Acura’s total sales last year, and it’s already well on its way to the same result for 2010.

Mechanically, the most meaningful improvement is the replacement of last year’s five-speed automatic transmission with a six-speed, which the MDX shares with the flashier, new-for-2010 ZDX. That makes these models the only two in the Honda/Acura portfolio to move up to a six-speed auto; this, in a segment – nay, an entire industry – that began embracing six- (and seven-, and eight-) cog gearboxes years ago.

I’ve been of the opinion all along that five gears is enough, but the bigger-better-faster-more demands of the market dictate otherwise. In any event, suffice it to say that the new transmission works well enough that I didn’t notice the extra gear until I got the car home and looked at the specs.

The 3.7-litre engine is the same as the MDX has used since that 2007 redesign. Like Honda/Acura’s other V6s, it’s a gem, with good power and a great soundtrack when under the pressure of a heavy right foot. If the new transmission’s extra gear brings any direct benefit, it’s in lower rated fuel consumption. The 2010 MDX’s Natural Resources Canada numbers are 13.2/9.6 L/100 km (city/highway), compared to 13.8/10.0 in 2009. My tester returned an average of 15.3 in mostly city driving, just about matching a 2007 model I tested.