Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Acura MDX

What it says about you

Opinion

A luxury car for someone who would be embarrassed to be seen buying a luxury car. You wanted the Lexus and could not quite say why not, so you found the one nobody comments on. Three rows, good stereo, no explaining.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

21 model years on record, 2,417 complaints filed.

The years to look at closely: 2020 (restart), 2017 (rod), 2016 (transmission). Everything else drew a normal number of complaints for this model.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • stop 2008, 2025 peak 62.5% of that year's complaints
  • transmission 2005, 2006, 2016, 2022 peak 31.9% of that year's complaints
  • inside 2005, 2006, 2015 peak 25.7% of that year's complaints
  • fuel 2018, 2019 peak 20.9% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2026 1 recall 6 complaints
  2. 2025 3 recalls 80 complaints
  3. 2024 2 recalls 37 complaints
  4. 2023 2 recalls 36 complaints
  5. 2022 2 recalls 141 complaints
  6. 2020 restart 216 complaints
  7. 2019 9 recalls 191 complaints
  8. 2018 10 recalls 163 complaints
  9. 2017 rod 257 complaints
  10. 2016 transmission 364 complaints
  11. 2015 8 recalls 70 complaints
  12. 2014 9 recalls 169 complaints
  13. 2013 1 recall 29 complaints
  14. 2012 1 recall 76 complaints
  15. 2011 0 recalls 70 complaints
  16. 2010 1 recall 45 complaints
  17. 2009 0 recalls 52 complaints
  18. 2008 1 recall 49 complaints
  19. 2007 1 recall 99 complaints
  20. 2006 11 recalls 87 complaints
  21. 2005 13 recalls 180 complaints

What does a Acura MDX say about you?

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Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.