Topic: Test Drive: 2014 Acura MDX Elite

[mixmanmash]

I've been seeing more of these on the road, and I still prefer the 2nd gen's design over this softer one.
I agree, the Tech package is the one to get, the tested trim (Elite) has a high price tag.

Having said that, having the DVD (only comes in Elite) for my daughter in the back is awesome!

Meh, DVD has been available for so long, when are they going to start offering Blu-rays.  The cost has come down. Sure you may not see the resolution difference on the small screen, but I only buy blu-rays, pain to double up the collection.  I know some Blu-rays offer digital, dvd, and Blu-ray, but not always...

Chrysler does on the Town & Country and higher trims of the Grand Caravan.  +1 for minivans

[Noto]

I don't mean to move the discussion off the MDX and onto DVD vs Bluray, but the latter won't gain momentum until the cost of each disk comes down, and more importantly, until everyone already upgrades their TVs for the quality difference to matter.  It's not a matter of swapping your VHS for a $50-100 DVD player and $15 tapes to $20 DVDs.  Now you have to upgrade your HDTV to a 4KTV, plus a $200+ Bluray player (yes, they have now come down in price, but still...), plus $30+ cables, and then there's the fact that your entire DVD collection becomes completely and utterly moot.

Back to the MDX, I LOVE those jewel headlights.  Every time I see them on a passing vehicle, I stare.  A lot.  Big fan of the styling.  Pricing is not out of line at all.  Our RX400h, when it was new, pre-tax was over $70k - and that was for only 5 seats.

[Noto]

I would tend to think that blueray would be overkill in the backseat of a car for Daniel the Tiger on the way up to the cottage but hey.

Maybe for that Tiger I've never heard of, but for Disney movies, I can't be seeing pixels on the faces of those Princesses.  I want better quality than my eyes can detect!  And even then, I want to upgrade to something better!  TAKE MY MONEY, PLEASE!

[Snowman]

I would tend to think that blueray would be overkill in the backseat of a car for Daniel the Tiger on the way up to the cottage but hey.

  Overkill....At that size of a screen you would not be able to tell the difference between VHS or Bluray

[Fobroader]

I would tend to think that blueray would be overkill in the backseat of a car for Daniel the Tiger on the way up to the cottage but hey.

Maybe for that Tiger I've never heard of, but for Disney movies, I can't be seeing pixels on the faces of those Princesses.  I want better quality than my eyes can detect!  And even then, I want to upgrade to something better!  TAKE MY MONEY, PLEASE!

Unless your kids are watching Saving Private Ryan or something...do you think they care about the quality??

[mmret]

I thought kids just play on the iPad or something.

[Solstice2006]

I don't mean to move the discussion off the MDX and onto DVD vs Bluray, but the latter won't gain momentum until the cost of each disk comes down, and more importantly, until everyone already upgrades their TVs for the quality difference to matter.  It's not a matter of swapping your VHS for a $50-100 DVD player and $15 tapes to $20 DVDs.  Now you have to upgrade your HDTV to a 4KTV, plus a $200+ Bluray player (yes, they have now come down in price, but still...), plus $30+ cables, and then there's the fact that your entire DVD collection becomes completely and utterly moot.

Back to the MDX, I LOVE those jewel headlights.  Every time I see them on a passing vehicle, I stare.  A lot.  Big fan of the styling.  Pricing is not out of line at all.  Our RX400h, when it was new, pre-tax was over $70k - and that was for only 5 seats.

Most stores have more Blu-rays then DVDs on the shelf, you can get a decent Sony Blu-ray for $80, $10  for cables, and you don't need 4KTV to get the 1080p from Bluray

[Wildsau]

Our kids have their own iPads. They're way cheaper than any RSE system, far more current and versatile (since they can put their own apps, movies, music, etc. on) and allow each kid to do their own thing.

Also, RSE systems drive me insane because they block my rear-view mirror.

iPads all around, and you're still saving hundreds, if not thousands, and they can take them with when you arrive.

[CanuckS2K]

I would tend to think that blueray would be overkill in the backseat of a car for Daniel the Tiger on the way up to the cottage but hey.

Agreed!  Having said that, it sucks for those purchasing only BD's today.  I've got quite stock of BD's for the kids now and all of them would be useless if I had a DVD entertainment system.  For me, it wouldn't be about having 1080p capability on a 6" screen, it would be about compatibility. 

But regarding the MDX, it looks to be a pretty sweet package!   

[CanuckS2K]

Our kids have their own iPads. They're way cheaper than any RSE system, far more current and versatile (since they can put their own apps, movies, music, etc. on) and allow each kid to do their own thing.

Also, RSE systems drive me insane because they block my rear-view mirror.

iPads all around, and you're still saving hundreds, if not thousands, and they can take them with when you arrive.

Excellent point.

[Solstice2006]

There is some truth to that, and it probably depends on the age group.  But when you have two kids under 5, I am not getting them ipads, ipods, or cell phones.  They have enough toys in the car to keep them busy.  But I was saying for these luxury vehicles, something to standout, would be nice to have Blu-ray, more compatibility.  Gives it a cleaner look, like have built in navi, vs a GPS that you can carry around...

[evil_twin]

Maybe I'm not an A/V nut, but isn't the argument of DVDs vs Blu-rays moot at this point?  They've both lost, or soon will.

The days of physical media are nearing an end.

Makes way more sense for a luxury vehicle to simply have a big hard drive on board or some interface for streaming video from your device of choice.

People with Blu-Ray collections remind of my mom's (now dusty) collection of Disney VHS tapes.   

[KD]

I have a friend with a 2010 MDX and he loves it and zero issues to date according to him.....it's definitely the nicest SUV I have been in so far.  It's probably the best product in the Acura fleet at this time IMO.

[evil_twin]

Maybe I'm not an A/V nut, but isn't the argument of DVDs vs Blu-rays moot at this point?  They've both lost, or soon will.

The days of physical media are nearing an end.

Makes way more sense for a luxury vehicle to simply have a big hard drive on board or some interface for streaming video from your device of choice.

People with Blu-Ray collections remind of my mom's (now dusty) collection of Disney VHS tapes.   

Not to turn this into an audiophile discussion but isn't the quality of streaming poor? I sometimes rent movie though Rogers on Demand and sometimes go blueray. With my setup I notice a HUGE difference with the blueray (in both sound and picture) that I've pretty much stopped doing ROD for movies (other than docs where it doesn't matter). I guess the only problem is that I have to rent the bluerays from the last gig in town.

This is true, but that's a more a matter of Rogers' available quality being poor.   You can find better quality online, Apple TV, etc.

My main point was just that physical media really doesn't matter.  It's all just digital data so why store on flimsy, large plastic discs when you can fit 100 high-quality 1080p movies on a device as small as your  pen!s.   There's nothing special about Blu-Rays that give them higher quality, they just hold bigger digital files than DVDs and thus contain more granular quality of sound and picture.   No reason you can't store the same quality in a hard drive.

We needed CDs, then DVDs and now Blu-Rays b/c it wasn't practical to store all that data on existing hard drive formats and especially hard drives that were portal.  That's no longer much of an issue

[Solstice2006]

to those that are interested, I started a thread, in the General talk area for the Blu-ray/ DVD debate.  I don't want to bother the others and discuss non MDX related issues.  Who knows my karma might get worse! 

[Northernridge]

So…what's it like off road? 

Kidding. I like the MDX, seems to have all the ingredients in right measure for this segment. Acura should think about this a little and apply the thinking to other segments. They should be further ahead with more of their lineup.

[Solstice2006]

So…what's it like off road? 

Kidding. I like the MDX, seems to have all the ingredients in right measure for this segment. Acura should think about this a little and apply the thinking to other segments. They should be further ahead with more of their lineup.

Not sure what you mean, you don't think they did a good job of the RDX?  made it more mainstream, better looking, interior is pretty nice...

[Northernridge]

So…what's it like off road? 

Kidding. I like the MDX, seems to have all the ingredients in right measure for this segment. Acura should think about this a little and apply the thinking to other segments. They should be further ahead with more of their lineup.

Not sure what you mean, you don't think they did a good job of the RDX?  made it more mainstream, better looking, interior is pretty nice...

I don't think Acura has made enough wins across their product line like they have done with the MDX. It's not like the cars are bad, it's just that they seem more wide of the bullseye then the MDX is. RLX comes to mind…but have the they had another recent-era hit the the MDX?

I'm a big Honda fan but I think of Acura as the car brand that punches below it's weight. They should be more successful.

[mixmanmash]

I have a friend with a 2010 MDX and he loves it and zero issues to date according to him.....it's definitely the nicest SUV I have been in so far.  It's probably the best product in the Acura fleet at this time IMO.

I hope they fixed some of the issues that people had with 2007-2009 model years.  I've mentioned it before, but I have 2 coworkers with MDXs and here's the list of stuff per vehicle.

2008 MDX Elite (purchased brand new):

1. Bluetooth module went bad draining the battery.  Replaced under warranty.
2. Adaptive rear shock absorbers worn out by 80k kms.  Paid out of pocket for it.
3. Front wheel bearings worn out at 110k kms.  Covered by extended warranty.
4. Timing belt tensioner replaced 3 times under warranty.
5. Steering system gearbox replaced twice under warranty.
6. Front adaptive shock absorbers worn out at 130k kms.  Owner phoned up Acura Canada and complained about this.  Acura Canada covered the cost.
7. Fuel injectors had to be replaced around 60k kms because they were leaking a bit of pressure causing weird start up conditions.
8. Rear main seal replaced twice due to leaking.  Covered under warranty & extended warranty.
9. Acura dealer replaced the battery.  Replacement battery was faulty causing all kinds of weird issues (car dies as you are driving) that they couldn't diagnose.  I pretty quickly figured out it was the battery and they disagreed.  This one boils down to improper training of the techs.  Coming from the electrical background, I knew right away that a bad battery can cause these issues.  Basically, the battery acts like a low pass filter for the noisy/dirty power that the alternate puts out.  If the battery is faulty and goes open circuit, you have dirty power going to the sensitive electronics (ECU/PCM, etc).  These devices are designed to shutdown when this happens, to protect themselves essentially.  Coworker replaced the battery himself after I told him several times to.  Problem solved.  Dealer refunded him the cost of the battery.

2007 MDX Tech (purchased used):
1. Bluetooth module went bad draining the battery.  Acura techs couldn't diagnose the issue and kept blaming the aftermarket remote starter.  I went in and disconnected the bluetooth module and the battery stopped draining.
2. 120k kms, the Catalytic Converter went bad.
3. Timing Belt tensioner went bad at 110k kms.

While these are only 2 cases, I cruising the MDX forums shows how common the following problems are:

1. Wheel Bearings
2. Bluetooth Module
3. Timing Belt Tensioner
4. Catalytic Converter
5. Steering system gearbox
6. Rear Main seal

[Fobroader]

Wheel Bearings and bluetooth module are comparatively minor with timing belt tensioners, rear main seals and cats....those are huge money items.