2020 Acura MDX

The 2020 MDX carries the third generation's 3.5-liter naturally aspirated V6 unchanged; the volume gas trim (SH-AWD with Technology Package) makes 290 hp, mid-pack for a mid-size luxury three-row.

Peak torque arrives high at 4,700 rpm — characteristic of the naturally aspirated V6 and a step behind turbocharged rivals that make more torque from ~1,600 rpm.

No 2020-specific magazine test surfaced, but the powertrain and 4,239 lb curb weight are unchanged from the 2017 refresh, whose instrumented times cluster tightly at 5.9–6.3 s; 6.2 s is the consensus for SH-AWD.

The naturally aspirated V6 is smooth and free of turbo lag, with immediate throttle response, but it needs revs to deliver and the Variable Cylinder Management system draws occasional comment for a droning note at light highway load.

The third generation's 9-speed automatic is the MDX's weakest link — reviewers consistently flag slow, indecisive low-speed shifts and gear hunting, and the push-button gear selector draws criticism; the 10-speed that replaced it for 2022 was a marked improvement.

5,000 lbs with SH-AWD is competitive for a mid-size luxury three-row, though the FWD model drops to 3,500 lbs and the hybrid is not rated for towing at all.

Super Handling All-Wheel Drive is offered across the entire trim range (standard on A-Spec, Sport Hybrid and PMC Edition) and is genuinely sophisticated — it sends up to 70% of torque rearward and can direct effectively all of that to a single rear wheel for torque vectoring. No low range or terrain modes keeps it out of the top band.

Squarely pavement-oriented: 7.3 in of unladen ground clearance, a shallow 14.9° approach angle, all-season high-performance tires on 18- or 20-inch wheels, no skid plates, no low range and no off-road drive mode.

Two genuinely distinct powertrains for 2020 — the 3.5L V6 with a 9-speed automatic, and the MDX Sport Hybrid SH-AWD's 3.0L V6 with a three-motor hybrid system, 7-speed DCT and 321 hp combined. The electrified option is real but confined to the upper trims, which keeps this out of the top band.

22 MPG combined for the volume SH-AWD gas trim is unremarkable among gas mid-size SUVs — the naturally aspirated V6 gives away several MPG to turbo-four and turbo-six rivals of the era.

19 MPG city is the weakest part of the MDX's economy picture; Variable Cylinder Management and idle stop help, but a 4,239 lb three-row on a naturally aspirated V6 pays for it in town.

26 MPG highway is the MDX's best showing, helped by tall 9-speed gearing (0.48 ninth gear) and cylinder deactivation at cruise.

A large 19.5-gallon tank offsets the modest combined figure, giving a respectable ~430-mile cruising range for road trips.

Near the top of the gas-SUV cost band: 22 MPG combined multiplied by premium-grade pricing makes the MDX expensive to fuel relative to segment rivals that run on regular.

Acura recommends 91-octane premium rather than requiring it, so the MDX will run on regular with some loss of output — but owners following the recommendation pay a premium surcharge on every fill of a 19.5-gallon tank.

NHTSA rates the 2020 MDX 5 stars overall on both FWD and AWD, built from a clean 5-star frontal (5 driver, 5 passenger), 5-star side (5 barrier, 5 pole) and 4-star rollover — a full-sweep result for the final years of the third-generation body.

Every IIHS crashworthiness test the MDX was put through comes back Good, but it carries no 2020 award: the passenger-side small overlap test was never run on this generation and the headlights are only Acceptable, so the car falls short of the tightened 2020 Top Safety Pick criteria that the RDX met the same year.

AcuraWatch is standard on every 2020 trim including the base car — collision mitigation braking with pedestrian detection, forward collision warning, adaptive cruise with Low-Speed Follow, lane keeping assist, road departure mitigation with lane departure warning, traffic sign recognition and auto high beams — which was ahead of most 2020 luxury rivals, but blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert are package-gated to Technology and above, so the base MDX ships without them.

The standard Collision Mitigation Braking System earns IIHS Superior for vehicle-to-vehicle, avoiding the target outright at both test speeds — a top-band result on the test that existed — but the pedestrian front crash prevention evaluation was never run on this generation, so the pedestrian-detection capability Acura advertises is unverified by IIHS.

Blind Spot Information with Rear Cross Traffic Monitor is optional rather than standard — it arrives with the Technology Package and is carried by A-Spec and Advance, so three of the four 2020 configurations have it but the entry car does not — and coverage is warning-only, with no blind-spot steering intervention or safe-exit alert.

LKAS with lane departure warning and road departure mitigation is standard across the range and does provide true centering, but this is the pre-redesign calibration that reviewers of the following generation explicitly described as the weaker one, and the lane-departure alert uses an off-putting steering-wheel wobble rather than a seat or wheel vibration.

Adaptive cruise with Low-Speed Follow is standard on the base trim and works down to a full stop, which was better than several 2020 luxury rivals that charged for it, but there is no Traffic Jam Assist — the coordinated low-speed steering layer arrived only with the 2022 redesign — so the MDX has stop-and-go distance keeping without a genuine highway-assist mode.

No hands-free highway driving is offered on the 2020 MDX at any trim — there is no BlueCruise/Super Cruise equivalent in the Acura range for this year, and every AcuraWatch function requires hands on the wheel.

IIHS rates the MDX's LED projector headlights Acceptable — the same rating on every trim, so there is no upgrade to buy — held back by weak left-side reach: low beams were only fair on the straightaway left edge and inadequate on the gradual left curve, and the high beams were inadequate on both left curves. High-beam assist is standard and earns credit, but the lights are not curve-adaptive.

Forward and quarter sightlines are reasonable for a three-row luxury SUV thanks to a relatively upright greenhouse and slim A-pillars, but the thick D-pillars and raised beltline compromise the over-shoulder and rearward view, and camera compensation is thin on the volume trims — the multi-angle rear camera is standard while the surround-view system is reserved for the Advance package, and blind-spot monitoring is itself optional.

IIHS rates LATCH ease of use Acceptable: the position count is generous for a three-row — three second-row seats with complete hardware plus two tether-only positions — but the hardware itself takes work, with lower anchors buried too deep in the seat at two of the three positions, hard-to-find tether locations throughout, and confusable hardware near the third-row tethers.

The 2020 MDX carries a 60/40 second-row bench and 50/50 third-row bench as standard for seven-passenger capacity; packages that substitute second-row captain's chairs drop it to six.

Official first-row headroom is 969 mm (38.1 in); the MDX makes the power moonroof standard across the range, so there is no higher no-sunroof figure to quote.

First-row legroom is 1051 mm (41.4 in), identical across every 2020 trim including the Sport Hybrid.

Second-row headroom of 973 mm (38.3 in) is slightly better than the front row and generous for the mid-size luxury three-row class.

Second-row legroom is 929 mm (36.6 in) on the gas MDX — mid-pack for the segment, and it slides fore/aft to trade with the third row.

With 35.6 in of headroom and 28.1 in of legroom the third row is a genuine kids-and-teens space rather than an adult one, but access is unusually good thanks to the standard One-Touch Walk-In smart-slide second row that moves out of the way even with a child seat fitted.

Folding the 50/50 third row opens 1087 L (38.4 cu ft) by the standard SAE J1100 method; with all three rows in use only 447 L (15.8 cu ft) remains, which is tight for a full load of seven.

Both rows fold flat for 1937 L (68.4 cu ft) on the standard SAE measurement — respectable but well short of the boxier three-row SUVs that clear 80 cu ft.

A deep two-tier center console, seatback pockets, four cargo tie-downs and a useful underfloor well behind the third row cover everyday needs, but there is no standout innovation and the 115-volt outlet is reserved for Tech Entertainment and Advance trims.

Twelve-way power front seats with lumbar and standard heating draw consistent praise for long-haul cushioning, and the A-Spec's Alcantara chairs add bolstering; the third-row bench is flat and low-set by comparison.

Amplitude Reactive Dampers are standard and the MDX rides smoothly with good body control, but the 20-inch wheels on Technology and above let sharper bumps through; the Adaptive Damper System that fixes it is Advance-only.

Acoustic windshield and side glass plus Active Noise Control are standard on every trim, and reviewers single out the quiet cabin as one of the MDX's defining traits.

Tri-zone automatic climate control and heated front seats are standard on every trim and remote start arrives with Technology, but the heated steering wheel, ventilated front seats and heated second-row seats are all locked behind the Advance package.

Acura's final 2020-model-year pricing table lists the front-drive base MDX at $44,500 MSRP plus a $1,025 destination charge. The car went on sale in July 2019 at $44,400 plus a $995 destination charge, so early-build 2020 buyers paid $45,395; the figure here is the settled model-year price.

SH-AWD with the Technology Package is the core-volume configuration on the third-generation MDX — the Technology Package is what adds blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, navigation, parking sensors, the 10-speaker ELS audio and perforated leather, all of which the base car goes without, and SH-AWD was the drivetrain most buyers took in this segment. A-Spec, Advance and the hand-built PMC Edition sit above it and account for a minority of the mix.

The 3.5L J35 V6 is long-serving, high-volume Honda hardware and RepairPal rates the MDX 4.0/5.0 for reliability with low repair severity, but the ZF-derived 9-speed automatic carried a harsh-shift TSB history that reached into 2020 builds, and the 2020 car has no complimentary maintenance to offset the first services. Dealer-rate luxury servicing pushes the real figure above CarEdge's scheduled-maintenance basis without approaching German-brand territory.

Model-level residual studies cluster at roughly 50% retention, and the actual 2020 cars corroborate it slightly below that: a Technology SH-AWD that stickered at $52,525 books at about $21,600 resale / $18,600 trade in mid-2026 at roughly six and a half years old, which back-extrapolates to the high-40s at the five-year mark. Being the run-out year of an outgoing generation costs it a point or two against the nameplate average.

Acura's new-vehicle limited warranty is 4 years or 50,000 miles, matching the luxury-brand convention set by BMW, Mercedes and Audi in 2020 but short of Genesis at 5 years/60,000 miles. 24-hour roadside assistance runs for the same term.

Six years or 70,000 miles on engine, transmission and drive components — longer than most German luxury coverage of the period, but well short of the 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain terms Genesis and the Hyundai/Kia group offered in 2020, which is what the top of this band is calibrated to.

A 2020 MDX owner pays for every scheduled service from the first oil change — Acura's complimentary Maintenance Package (2 years / 24,000 miles) and the three-year AcuraLink Security and Remote subscription were not introduced until the 2023 model year. What is included is 24-hour roadside assistance running with the 4-year/50,000-mile warranty plus a short AcuraLink trial, which is precisely the "basic roadside only" case at the floor of the middle band; the Maintenance Minder system reduces unnecessary visits but does not pay for them.

$52,525 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (49% retained, or about $25,737) leaves about $26,788 in depreciation. Add the projected $5,300 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $32,088 in total.

2020 is the seventh and final year of the third-generation MDX, so the hardware is fully settled — yet this is the generation's worst-rated model year, not its best. Consumer Reports' survey data gave the 2020 car a 1 of 5 for overall reliability against 3 for the 2019 and 5 for the 2017, flagging Drive System, Paint/Trim and Body Hardware; CR's current summary, with mature data, has since softened to "about average." J.D. Power lands at 80/100, the top of its Average band. Mixed signals between sources, pulled down by an unusually heavy early-life complaint pattern for a carry-over year.

Acura's standing is good but not top-tier, and the two authorities disagree in a way that resolves to upper-mid-pack. Consumer Reports has consistently placed the brand in its top five, just behind parent Honda, on the strength of shared Honda mechanicals. J.D. Power's Vehicle Dependability Study is less flattering, with Acura at or below the industry average and well behind the Lexus/Genesis premium leaders that this MDX competes against directly. Scored above the segment median but clearly short of the 80+ reserved for brands that top dependability studies outright.

Eight NHTSA recalls reach the 2020 MDX, and the mix is worse than the count — this is not eight cases of a mislabeled sticker. One is an engine-internal defect whose remedy can run to a complete engine replacement, one is structural corrosion of the rear subframe at the suspension mounting points, two separate campaigns cover in-tank fuel pump failure, two more cover the same passenger seat weight sensor airbag defect recalled twice rather than fixed once, and one is a 2020-only brake booster-to-master-cylinder assembly error. The generation also carries the ZF 9-speed's TSB history, including the 2016-2017 ATF warmer defect that Acura covered with a 10-year unlimited-mileage warranty extension.

The 3.5L J35 V6 is one of the better-proven engine families sold in the US — naturally aspirated, shared with the Pilot, Odyssey and Ridgeline, and routinely run past 200,000 miles — but two things keep this specific cohort out of the 80+ band. Recall 23V751000 covers improperly machined connecting rod journals on 2016-2020 crankshafts, a lubrication-starvation failure that can seize the engine, and the ZF 9HP nine-speed behind it is the MDX's single most-complained-about component across this generation. The 2020 is at the good end of that transmission's history — the shudder complaints cluster on 2015-2017 cars and the 9AT was materially improved by the 2017 refresh — but a proven engine family bolted to a transmission with this record is a mixed story, not a clean one.

By 2020 the third-generation cabin was six years past its 2014 debut and three past its refresh, and reviewers were consistent that it read a class below its price. Leather, available open-pore wood on Advance trim and Milano leather on A-Spec give it genuine premium content, but the surfaces and switchgear were repeatedly judged short of the German and Swedish rivals shopped alongside it. Competitive rather than class-leading — the material jump the MDX needed did not arrive until the 2022 redesign.

Assembly is solid in the ordinary Honda way — the MDX is built at East Liberty, Ohio on a line with a long record, and owner ratings stay respectable — but the 2020 specifically drew Consumer Reports trouble flags for Paint/Trim and Body Hardware, which is exactly the fit-and-finish column rather than a mechanical one. The tailgate light recall, caused by moisture entering the lid assembly through inadequate body sealing, is the same weakness showing up as a federal campaign. Generally sound with a scattered but real pattern of body-side complaints.

Roughly 270 franchised US Acura dealers is thin against Honda's thousand-odd and below Lexus, so rural owners travel further for warranty work — but that is normal density for a luxury nameplate and wider than most European rivals, and Honda's parts and technician infrastructure stands behind every one of them. Service satisfaction is a genuine Acura strength, with the brand topping Pied Piper's service-effectiveness study, though it does not appear among J.D. Power's premium CSI leaders. A six-year-old MDX also falls back on independent Honda specialists in a way a European rival does not.

This is the MDX's strongest reliability-adjacent trait and the reason it is cheap to keep past warranty. So much of the car is Honda — the J35 V6, much of the chassis and most of the consumable hardware are shared with the Pilot, Odyssey, Passport and Ridgeline — that parts are abundant, aftermarket support is deep, and independent shops will take the work rather than sending it to a dealer. RepairPal puts average annual repair and maintenance well below the luxury midsize SUV average with low repair severity. Six model years on, the used-parts supply is mature too; the main exception is the ZF 9-speed, which is expensive if it needs replacement rather than service.

The MDX's dual-screen stack pairs a fixed 8.0-inch upper display — controlled by a rotary knob, not touch — with a 7.0-inch lower touchscreen, so the actual touch-capable center screen measures 7.0 inches.

The split-screen interface is the most commonly criticized part of the 2020 MDX — reviewers report it is hard to remember which screen holds which function and that the lower screen's menu structure is confusing — though response times are acceptable and physical climate controls remain.

Wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard on every 2020 trim (Android Auto having been added for 2019), but no wireless projection is offered at any price.

Native navigation with 3D view, HD Traffic and rerouting is competent but requires the Technology package — the base MDX has none — and the command-driven voice recognition is a generation behind natural-language assistants, so most owners default to phone projection.

The ELS Studio premium systems — 10 speakers on Technology, 11 with Tech Entertainment, 12 on Advance Entertainment — are among the best-regarded factory audio setups in the class, and the standard 8-speaker system with subwoofer is respectable.

The MDX keeps analog gauges with a color TFT multi-information display between them; no full-digital configurable cluster is offered on any 2020 trim.

This generation of MDX has no whole-vehicle over-the-air update path; navigation map updates are handled by dealer visit or USB media, and AcuraLink delivers traffic and services rather than software.

AcuraLink covers the core remote functions — remote lock/unlock, vehicle locate, remote start on equipped trims, security and concierge — but the app requires the Technology package to be present, is subscription-gated after the complimentary trial, and offers no digital key.

Four 2.5-amp USB-A charge ports are standard, but there are no USB-C outlets anywhere in the vehicle, no factory wireless phone charging on any trim, and the 115-volt household outlet is limited to Tech Entertainment and Advance.

Keyless access with push-button start and a power tailgate are standard, and Technology adds bi-directional remote start plus rear-door smart entry — but the liftgate is not hands-free and there is no phone-as-key.

A multi-angle rear camera with guidelines is standard and Technology adds front and rear parking sensors plus blind-spot and cross-traffic monitoring, but the surround-view camera is an Advance-only item and there is no automated parking system.

No true head-up display is offered on the 2020 MDX; the Advance package's 'Head-Up Warning' is only a windshield-projected collision alert tied to CMBS, not a driving-information display.

Three LATCH positions across the second row, five child-seat tethers in total, wide rear door openings and the One-Touch Walk-In smart-slide second row — which slides forward at a button press even with a child seat installed — make the MDX one of the easier three-row SUVs for daily family logistics.

Top crash credentials pair with the full AcuraWatch suite — collision mitigation braking, adaptive cruise with low-speed follow, lane keeping and road departure mitigation — standard on the base trim, but blind-spot monitoring still costs the Technology package and there is no rear-seat occupant reminder.

Tri-zone climate, a quiet cabin, comfortable second-row seats and available rear DVD entertainment with two wireless headphones make long hauls easy for four or five, but only 15.8 cu ft remains behind the third row when all seven seats are occupied.

The 290-hp V6 is smooth and unstressed and adaptive cruise with low-speed follow is standard on every trim, which takes the sting out of traffic; the 9-speed automatic's hesitant low-speed shifts and the push-button gear selector are the recurring annoyances.

22 mpg combined for the SH-AWD gas model is only average for a large three-row SUV, and the premium-fuel requirement pushes the real cost per commuting mile well above mainstream rivals that run on regular.

At 196.2 inches long it is a genuinely large vehicle to thread through a city, though a 38.7-ft curb-to-curb circle is tidy for the size and the standard multi-angle rear camera helps; front/rear sensors need the Technology package and the surround view camera is Advance-only.

A 5,000-lb tow rating when properly equipped with SH-AWD is respectable for a unibody crossover and enough for a small trailer or boat, but there is no bed, no meaningful payload headroom and this is a luxury family SUV rather than a work tool.

The naturally aspirated J35 V6 and Honda's unibody platform have a long-run reputation for holding together, but leather trim, 20-inch low-profile tires on most trims and no fleet or commercial presence make this a poor candidate for abuse.

Provisions amount to four cargo tie-down anchors and a 115-volt outlet on upper trims; roof rails are an Advance-package item, surfaces are carpet and leather rather than washable, and there is no upfit ecosystem behind it.

Quiet acoustic-glass cabin with Active Noise Control, cushy 12-way front seats, adaptive cruise with low-speed follow and lane keeping standard, and roughly 500 highway miles from the 19.5-gallon tank make it a strong mile-eater.

SH-AWD with torque vectoring is genuinely capable in snow and on gravel and the 5,000-lb rating covers most toys, but 7.3 inches of ground clearance, road-biased tires and no low range or terrain modes keep it on graded surfaces.

Both rear rows fold flat for 68.4 cu ft and there is a deep underfloor well behind the third row, but roof rails are an Advance-package item rather than standard, so the bike-and-box crowd has to add accessories on most trims.

SH-AWD's rear torque vectoring makes the MDX one of the more genuinely agile three-row SUVs of its era — reviewers describe it cornering like a smaller crossover — helped by Agile Handling Assist and standard Amplitude Reactive Dampers.

The electric rack is accurate and firms up usefully in the Integrated Dynamics System's Sport mode, but it is light and short on feedback in Comfort and Normal — precise rather than communicative.

Stops are secure and pedal feel is consistent with brake assist and automatic hold standard, but the rear drum-in-disc setup is an unusual cost-saving for a $50,000 luxury SUV and stopping distances are mid-pack rather than notable.

The naturally aspirated 3.5-liter V6 is smooth and linear with a roughly 6.5–6.8 second run to 60 mph, but the ZF-sourced 9-speed automatic is the weak link — hesitant and occasionally clunky at low speeds — and Variable Cylinder Management plus idle stop add their own transitions.

The V6 is muted at cruise and pleasantly smooth when extended, with Active Noise Control and Active Sound Control standard to manage what reaches the cabin; there is no coarse turbo-four thrash to contend with.

A curb-to-curb turning diameter of 11.79 m (38.7 ft) is tidy for a 196-inch three-row SUV, widening marginally to 11.84 m on the wider-tracked A-Spec and Advance trims.

A commanding seating position with 12-way power seats, a power tilt-and-telescoping column and two-position memory suits a wide range of drivers, but the split-screen stack and push-button gear selector scatter functions that ought to be simple, and thick rear pillars limit over-shoulder vision.

SH-AWD, paddle shifters and a willing V6 make the MDX more engaging than most seven-seat luxury SUVs, and the A-Spec sharpens the impression — but the transmission calibration and the vehicle's size and mission cap how playful it ever gets.

The $45,525 base MDX arrives with the full AcuraWatch suite standard — collision mitigation braking with forward collision warning, adaptive cruise with low-speed follow, lane keeping assist and road departure mitigation — plus three rows of leather-trimmed seating, a moonroof, tri-zone climate, power liftgate, LED headlights, keyless entry and start, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. In 2020 a BMW X5 or Mercedes GLE still charged separately for most of that driver-assist content and arrived with two rows. It stops well short of the top band because blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert — table stakes by 2020 and standard on a $33,000 Kia Telluride — are locked behind the $5,000 Technology Package, along with navigation and parking sensors.

Three usable rows, a 290-hp V6, torque-vectoring SH-AWD and the full ADAS suite for $45,525–$52,525 undercut a 2020 BMW X5 or Mercedes GLE by $15,000-plus and the Audi Q7 by several thousand, and the run-out discounting made the gap wider still — CarBuzz ran the headline "The 2020 Acura MDX Is Now Cheaper Than A New Honda Pilot." It is held out of the top band from the other direction: the Kia Telluride and Hyundai Palisade arrived in 2020 with more content, more third-row space and a newer cabin for roughly $10,000 less, and the MDX's dual-screen infotainment, 9-speed automatic and dated interior were exactly what buyers gave up for the badge.

Twelve published configurations spanning $45,525 to $63,745 across two drivetrains (FWD and SH-AWD), two powertrains (290-hp 3.5L V6 with the 9AT; 321-hp Sport Hybrid with a three-motor SH-AWD and 7-speed DCT) and well-spaced Technology, Technology & Entertainment, A-Spec and Advance steps, topped by the hand-assembled PMC Edition. Broader than the fourth-generation lineup that replaced it, and notably the only MDX generation to offer electrification at all. The gap is at the bottom: there is no genuinely inexpensive entry point, since even the base car is a $45,000 luxury SUV.

47,816 US deliveries in calendar 2020 kept the MDX Acura's best-selling model and the strongest seller in luxury three-row, far ahead of the Audi Q7, Lincoln Aviator and Infiniti QX60. The 8.1% decline from 2019 is a pandemic-year figure for a seventh-year design in run-out, not a demand problem — the redesigned car promptly hit 60,057 in 2021, its best year since 2014. Strong absolute standing, soft trajectory.

Acura sat in the second tier of US luxury in 2020 — respected for engineering, reliability and value with a loyal repeat-buyer base, but without the status halo of BMW, Mercedes, Audi or Porsche, and this was the low ebb: Type S had not yet returned to the lineup, the NSX was a slow-selling halo, and the brand's own performance revival did not begin until the 2021 TLX Type S. Roughly level with Lincoln and Infiniti, a clear step behind Lexus, and slightly weaker than the same judgment on the fourth-generation car.

2020 was about the best year in the nameplate's history to buy an MDX. A seventh-year design with a known redesign coming, no 2021 model year to bridge the gap, and a pandemic-year sales collapse combined into aggressive factory support — special APR from 0.9%, heavy lease cash, and dealer clearance advertising five figures off — while transaction prices for the outgoing generation ran thousands under sticker. Held short of the ceiling only because this is discounting driven by a model in run-out rather than a healthy incentive program.

2020 is the seventh and final model year of the third-generation MDX launched for 2014, four years past its 2017 facelift, with the all-new fourth generation already known to be coming and no 2021 model year in between. The dual-screen infotainment with its 7-inch touchscreen, the 9-speed automatic and the cabin architecture were all a generation behind the Telluride, Palisade, Aviator and X5 it was sold against. Squarely the aging-generation-with-imminent-replacement case.

Consistently well regarded without being the class pick. U.S. News ranked the 2020 MDX #1 among 2020 Luxury Midsize SUVs at 8.2/10, and it carried IIHS Top Safety Pick with Good ratings in all five crashworthiness tests, a Superior front crash prevention rating and NHTSA's five-star overall score — but it missed Top Safety Pick+ because its headlights rated only Acceptable, and it lost head-to-head comparisons to the newer Telluride, Palisade and X5. Reviewers' recurring complaints — the dual-screen infotainment, the 9-speed's manners, a tight third row, a firm ride on 20-inch wheels — placed it as the sensible choice rather than the winner.