2018 Acura MDX
This year drew an ordinary 163 complaints for a Acura MDX — the model's median is 80. What they were about is the unusual part: 20.9% of them mention fuel, against 4.6% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Acura MDX, which began in 2014 and ran to 2020. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 163 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 80 |
| Involving a crash | 3 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 10 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- fuel — 20.9% of this year's complaints, against 4.6% across the other years of this generation (4.6×).
- response — 9.8% of this year's complaints, against 3.8% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: response, sounds, merging, merge traffic.
- causes — 6.1% of this year's complaints, against 2.4% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: causes, wait.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
When the car accelerator pedal is pressed, from either a stop or slowly rolling from a stop, there is no response from the vehicle, no transmission downshift, no sounds - it just sits as if the car is off for 1-3 seconds and THEN accelerates/lunges. This happe…
Gas petal is very touchy. It accelerates to fast even when you try to barely push the petal. And causes to shift hard.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V060000 FUEL SYSTEM, OTHER Fixed free of charge.
- 19V256000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 19V298000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 18V777000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 18V221000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 23V751000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 23V858000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 25V259000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 10. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Acura MDX was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2018 Acura MDX? What happened to yours?
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