Have been lurking about this fine site for few weeks trying to decide my next car buy. This is my first post. Based largely on information from this site, I broke down and test drove the MDX this afternoon. This is my general reaction given the pre-conditioning from reading many posts here.
Generally, the car is FAR better than I thought it would be. Granted, I did not drive it for more than about 45 minutes, but I was more than impressed.
I was looking for excessive wind noise (at 70 or above), no place to put my left foot, a very weak, tinny sound system, a Nav screen that might be hard to see in the sun, leather that looked cheap, and an unattractive interior generally.
In addition to all of the consensus positive aspects of this SUV (engine, trans, handling, performance, space, seating arrangement, etc) which I agree wholeheartedly with, I found that there are a lot of very picky folks in this forum. I guess for $40K, one has the right to be picky. However, I didn't think the Bose sound system was all that bad. In fact, to me it sounded just fine. No quite up to a Nakamichi in the Lexus, but certainly not tinny. The wind noise was there, but not excessive. I had a hard time hearing the cross wind when the CD was playing at normal volume. And I was going 75. Also, the interior is very attractive IMHO. The leather looks as expensive as in other cars I've owned including German, Japanese and American. I was able to read the Nav screen perfectly and in the sun to boot. OK, OK I must now agree with all of you picky folks out there. I did not have a comfortable place to put my left foot. This will force me to take more breaks on a long trip. Enough said. I now can't wait to drive the car full time.

Generally, the car is FAR better than I thought it would be. Granted, I did not drive it for more than about 45 minutes, but I was more than impressed.
In addition to all of the consensus positive aspects of this SUV (engine, trans, handling, performance, space, seating arrangement, etc) which I agree wholeheartedly with, I found that there are a lot of very picky folks in this forum. I guess for $40K, one has the right to be picky. However, I didn't think the Bose sound system was all that bad. In fact, to me it sounded just fine. No quite up to a Nakamichi in the Lexus, but certainly not tinny. The wind noise was there, but not excessive. I had a hard time hearing the cross wind when the CD was playing at normal volume. And I was going 75. Also, the interior is very attractive IMHO. The leather looks as expensive as in other cars I've owned including German, Japanese and American. I was able to read the Nav screen perfectly and in the sun to boot. OK, OK I must now agree with all of you picky folks out there. I did not have a comfortable place to put my left foot. This will force me to take more breaks on a long trip. Enough said. I now can't wait to drive the car full time.