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Bad MDX years?

7K views 8 replies 9 participants last post by  datechboss101 
#1 ·
#2 ·
This story says to avoid the MDX from years 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2014, 2016, and 2017.
What's your experience? Agree? Disagree?

Which Year Models of Used Acura MDX to Avoid? - CoPilot (copilotsearch.com)
Scroll down to the section of the article where it lists Acura MDX Problem Counts By Year, and look at the published number. The highest is 58, with the majority of them below 20. Now ask yourself how many Acura MDXs are built each year. It's a clickbait article...

Every. Single. Car. Ever. Built. Has. Potential. Issues.
 
#3 ·
As far as the 1st gens go, those are 17-22 years old now with tons of miles on them. They are just as good as any other vehicle that old. My 2002 is still going great with 175,000 miles and very minimal issues over the years.

When buying any vehicle that old, it’s all about diligence and perspective. Even then, you might strike out. I wouldn’t avoid one at all that was priced correctly.
 
#4 ·
I find a lot of owners don't really distinguish minor issues with catastrophic failures. They would say my 16 MDX 9AT taking too long to downshift and doesn't operate as smooth is in the same category as a complete failure of the 5AT of the 2001 MDX.

Considering the age and the amount of MDXs sold since 2000, the problem list is pretty small and is fixable, easy to identify, or avoid that model if found. Imagine the laundry list of issue with BMW X5 if you stack it against the MDX year-by-year.
 
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#5 ·
Sites like these are increasingly being created by Artificial Intelligence BOTs. They take information around the net and spit out what looks like objective analysis, but it's really just a mish-mash of deep rooted search engine results.

One example of "take this information with a grain of salt" is to recommend only the 2006 MDX from the 1st generation. The 2004 - 2006 MDX's are basically the same vehicles. 2006 MDX had some interior trim tweaks, but that's about it. But a BOT sees that 2004 and 2005 had more "problems", so therefore only the 2006 model is recommended.

I know this first hand as I'm a Systems Project Manager who deals directly with Robotic Process Automation. A.I. is radically changing the web as we speak.
 
#7 ·
I bought my ‘16 MDX Advance new. I had it for seven years and 141K miles. In that time, I had a rear wheel bearing fail at 93 K miles. It went through several batteries, not sure why, as they just fail. Most trouble free car I’ve ever owned.

Thats not to say there weren’t occasional annoyances, like the head unit not always being responsive (use iPod almost exclusively) or the transmission not always being smooth. It’s a great long term car.
 
#9 ·
It sounds like it might be the latch - the part that does the final pull down and latching of the tailgate. Maybe you could determine it better if you remove the plastic trim piece that covers that latch area.

Is it all clean with nothing in the way? Debris likes to collect there.
I own a 2017 with 130k miles. My buddy has a 2016 with 12xk miles sitting at the service department parking lot waiting for parts approved by insurance. Out of these two vehicles, my 2017 has been dirt reliable, whereas home boy here, needs new parts frequently on his 2016. And right now it needs a whole dash harness.


People who use that site needs to take huge grains of salt just like if you are using data and recommendations from a joke site called Consumer Reports.
 
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