2016 Acura MDX SH-AWD with 9-Speed Automatic
The 2016 variation of Acura's best selling product might appear exactly the same as last year's, but there is a lot going on behind that chiseled visage. For starters, the MDX crossover gets a new ZF nine-speed automatic transmission. Adding three more cogs produces a broader ratio spread than in the preceding version's six-pace, apparently helping keep the MDX”s 290-hp 3.5-liter V-6 in the more effective areas of its own power and torque groups. Not that last year's 290-hp/six-speed combo was a laggard, but Acura, like all car companies, is seeking to boost the EPA estimates of its own vehicles nevertheless it can. And seemingly, Honda's luxurious arm is much more comfortable comfy offering a nine-velocity than a continuously-variable automated.
First is a superlow creeper equipment. The MDX storms out from the hole from remainder using a 20.4:1 total ratio (first gear ratio instances final drive ratio, not counting aid from the torque-converter) and sprints to 60-mph in 5.9 seconds, half a second faster than the 2014 version we examined with the six-velocity automated. It then proceeds on to a 9-5-mph quarter mile trap speed in 14.6 seconds, three tenths faster than the 2014. You are in to second-gear before you'll be able to finish saying "Acura." Wideopen-throttle shifts are torsion-clipped and fast. Needless to say, having more equipment does not always mean the transmission immediately locates the correct gear--as occasionally when tipping in with component accelerator at 20 to 35 miles per hour it'll lug in a also-tall equipment for a while. But mainly, there is a pile of shiftin' heading on.
Buttons and Lumps
Around that transferring: driver input signals are via buttons rather than a lever, as-is the situation on nine-velocity variations of the new TLX sedan. Although offputting in the beginning, like learning how to play the clarinet, we ultimately got the hang of it. There are a few cases, maybe when attempting to do an instant three-point u turn before an approaching semi, where you could yearn for the Neanderthal acquaintance of a PRNDL shift lever. Using the pushbutton set up, you should take your eyes off the trail, look down, get the required button and shove it (or pull a swap in case of reverse). Removing the games console shifter does release accessibility to the underparts of the the center stack, but the button farm occupies about exactly the same number of realty on the games console as did the old shifter.
Another new-for-2016 attribute is "idle stop." As with other automated stop-start techniques, Acura's shuts down the engine at stoplights to save fuel. That is partly responsible to get a 1-mpg lump in the EPA city fuel economy score. Addititionally there is a lump felt as the motor unexpectedly restarts after an idle-stop; it is much less rigorous as we have experienced in some BMWs and Porsches, but it is maybe not the glossy awakening of a similarly equipped Mercedes Benz, both. Overall, we observed a mean of 21 mpg with the 2016 MDX during our direct-footed attention, A2-mpg progress on the six-pace MDX we examined in 2014.
Semiautonomously Yours
As with other high-end-manufacturer crossovers, Acura lards the MDX with engineering characteristics. For 2016, we find the growth of AcuraWatch to all variants of the MDX. Our $58,000 evaluation vehicle, equipped with the Improvement and Amusement bundles, additionally featured back cross-traffic tracking (a fine feature for all big crossovers and automobiles with broad C- or D-columns), Street Departure Decrease, and Collision Mitigation Braking. A monocular camera wants in order to "see" the route or a different automobile or item for the latter two methods to operate. As a result of poor highway maintenance, we could not rely on the "active steering power" of the route-departure program. Occasionally it worked and other occasions we could have gone sailing off in the weeds. But when we examined the crash-mitigation program on a comparable Honda/Acura merchandise in a test monitor, it never neglected to do a total-ABS stop lacking the parked "balloon auto" standin automobile at 20, 30, and 40 miles per hour with no driver intervention. Really cathartic. That said, our evaluation MDX endured brake fade after only several ABS stops were performed to document its 185-foot, 70-miles per hour-to-zero stopping length.
But at its heart, the Acura MDX stays one of our favourite seven-passenger cross-overs. The 2016 transmission and engineering upgrades help keep it competitive in its category and simply take nothing away from its lively treatment and enjoyable-to-generate character.
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