Home » The Acura MDX Sport Hybrid Brought NSX Supercar Tech To The School Run

The Acura MDX Sport Hybrid Brought NSX Supercar Tech To The School Run

2020 Acura Mdx Beige Ts
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Sometimes the most interesting footnotes in automotive history are cool ideas that don’t go particularly far. Case in point: The 2017 to 2020 Acura MDX Sport Hybrid was nothing like today’s CR-V Hybrid, or any hybrid Honda you can currently buy. In fact, it borrowed its hybrid tech from the NSX supercar. Yeah, an anonymous-looking crossover with actual supercar-derived tech under its sheetmetal. Nothing boring about that, right?

Like a normal model, the MDX Sport Hybrid features a V6 engine, but that’s where mechanical similarities largely end. Instead of the 3.5-liter direct-injected V6 in the regular MDX, the Sport Hybrid featured a smaller three-liter port-injected V6, and instead of a conventional automatic transmission, the MDX Sport Hybrid featured a seven-speed DCT. Oh, and that’s before we get into electric motors, because this crossover had three.

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

Fed by a 1.3 kWh lithium-ion battery pack, a 47-horsepower electric motor sat inside the seven-speed DCT, while each rear wheel got its own electric motor for real torque vectoring. Acura rated the combined output of both rear motors at 72 horsepower, and the MDX Sport Hybrid could creep off the line using the rear motors alone, given sufficient charge in the battery pack and gentle enough pedal application. Total combined output of everything together? A reasonable 321 horsepower and 289 lb.-ft. of torque.

2020 Acura Mdx Sport Hybrid

Oh, but there’s more. Acura fitted every MDX Sport Hybrid with adaptive dampers and gave it a Sport+ mode to simply turn on everything for maximum thrust. When combined with the torque vectoring of the dual rear motors, it produced a rather intriguing result — Car And Driver instrumented testing saw 0.87 g on the skidpad, some 0.04 g more than a standard MDX despite nondefeatable stability control and all-season tires. Then there’s the handling, of which the magazine wrote:

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the Acura hybrid’s body roll and understeer characteristics approach those of a sports sedan. The electronically controlled variable dampers manage wheel and body motion without spoiling ride quality.

Add in the fact that the hybrid powertrain boosted fuel economy by seven MPG city to 26 mpg and one MPG on the highway to 27 mpg, and the electrified MDX was a tempting proposition. Oh, and despite all the complexity of the hybrid powertrain, critics found it all rather smooth. As per Car And Driver:

Complementing this MDX’s admirable performance stats is its total lack of hybrid antics. The gasoline engine and the electric motors join forces so willingly that the only clue something special is afoot is when the tachometer needle is resting on its zero-rpm peg and you’re moving. With a light touch on the accelerator, you can creep up to about 40 mph on pure electric propulsion. As high as 55 mph, the engine winks off during deceleration to save gas, restarting seamlessly. And during braking, where blending friction and regenerative deceleration challenges many hybrids, there’s no clue that this Acura is anything other than a conventional SUV.

There’s more convention to the way the MDX Sport Hybrid works too. Because all the batteries are up in the central tunnel, cargo space is identical to the combustion-powered model, and the fuel tank on the hybrid was only 12.8 fluid ounces smaller than the one on the regular model. Oh, and the turning radius on the hybrid is actually tighter than the one on the regular MDX. The only real downside? It’s not rated for towing. Still, if you don’t plan on towing, that’s not the worst compromise to make.

Acura Mdx 2017 Hd Ed993d8f1b87614538f767978d357441978215bd7

Plus, the MDX Sport Hybrid was very much equipped like a luxury car. Every single one of these things got LED headlights, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, heated leather seats, adaptive cruise control, tri-zone climate control, and a power-adjustable steering column. Oh, and that’s not where toys stopped. You could get options like a 12-speaker ELS audio system, a 16.2-inch ultrawide rear seat entertainment screen, ventilated front seats, and a heated steering wheel. However, you won’t be paying full-on luxury car prices for these things, especially now that they’ve hit the meat of the secondhand market.

Silver Mdx 1

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For example, this 2019 MDX Sport Hybrid is up for sale in North Carolina with 91,136 miles on the clock for a reasonable $24,370. It’s got a clean Carfax, it’s had one previous owner, that’s just the way these things depreciate.

Red Mdx 1

Alright, let’s say you want something with less mileage on the clock, and perhaps even specced in an actual color too. Well, this 2018 model has 65,309 miles on the clock, and it’s listed for $27,998 at an Acura dealer in Florida. Again, clean Carfax, nothing obviously off with it, just a sensible six-year-old family hauler. How about that?

2020 Acura Mdx Sport Hybrid

What we have here is a very compelling daily driver that slides entirely under the radar. It’s an upscale hybrid crossover with supercar tech at a bargain price, and it seems to be reliable. Aside from the slightly dated interior, it really does seem to offer a whole lot for the money, and it’s properly interesting from an engineering perspective. So, before you go out and buy a used Lexus RX450h, you might want to give the MDX Sport Hybrid a look. It’s an interesting, underrated family hauler that won’t leave you high and dry.

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(Photo credits: Acura, Autotrader Sellers)

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Shinynugget
Shinynugget
22 days ago

My wife found a 2018 MDX SH-AWD with 10k miles at a near-enough Alabama Carmax. It was a fantastic deal and we plan on keeping it for as long as we can. I don’t know about the interior being “slightly dated” but it’s dead quiet at 80mph on the interstate. Rides smooth on the potholed, rutted roads of our hometown. The seats are comfortable, the sound system is good to excellent, the engine is powerful enough without draining our wallets for gas. I’ve even managed 29-30mpg on back road trips to Georgia. Not bad for a 290 horsepower V6 hauling a 4,000lb vehicle. She’s definitely a keeper.

BoneStock
BoneStock
23 days ago

These are perfectly acceptable family cars, but that interior is about a decade behind “slightly dated”. It has buttons, which is great! Yet they also control the transmission, which is not great.

A whopping 72hp powering the rear wheels, is the supercar tech in the room with us right now?

OrigamiSensei
OrigamiSensei
23 days ago

I bought one of these for my wife this past spring and she absolutely adores it. Ours is a 2019 and was $35,700 out the door (California taxes and registration significantly contributing to that number) but in pristine condition with only 40,000 miles and one previous owner when we bought it. The hybrid system is absolutely seamless and drives well, and the car has a number of little luxury touches my wife likes. We cross-shopped with the Lexus RX and this was the clear choice. Plus, it gets significantly better mileage than the 2005 MDX we replaced.

M Wilkins
M Wilkins
23 days ago

I test drove one when it was new and was impressed. Nothing at all like the Lexus RX450h, that 4-cylinder engine sounds awful under load. The MDX Sport Hybrid was quick for its size and the drivetrain was very smooth. It basically shared its drivetrain with the RLX Sport Hybrid sedan from the era, and was related to the one in the NSX. Totally agree that the dashboard/controls suck. Honda has made a huge mistake in not offering any current Acura hybrids.

Kyree
Kyree
23 days ago
Reply to  M Wilkins

What 4-cylinder? The RX 450h had a version of the same V6 as the RX 350.

The new RX 350 and RX 350h, of course, have four-cylinder engines.

M Wilkins
M Wilkins
21 days ago
Reply to  Kyree

All variants of the current generation RX hybrids have 4 cylinder ICE engines, just with or without a turbo. I drove a “slightly used” 2023. But you’re right, sorry, the older ones did have a V6.

Asdf1223
Asdf1223
24 days ago

The MDX is fine but the RLX sport hybrid is the real sleeper here with a similar NSX derived powertrain.

Brockstar
Brockstar
24 days ago

I really like the MDX and when I saw these used without a real price premium over non hybrid versions I was genuinely interested. Unfortunately/fortunately I specifically need towing capability. So the hunt continues.

Drive By Commenter
Drive By Commenter
24 days ago

I had no clue this existed. Neat!

Tbird
Tbird
24 days ago

Ditto – looks appealing for my use cases.

Saul Goodman
Saul Goodman
24 days ago

The transmission in the regular MDX sucks. It just does, we had problems with it (resulting in a few dealership visits, on a car with less than 50,000 miles at the time) and now it seems ok but it’s still not great. Not to mention the accelerator pedal is either full throttle or 5%- no in between. I know it’s not a sports car at heart, but still. Seems like this version isn’t afflicted with the same unfortunate throttle mapping.

Sai
Sai
22 days ago
Reply to  Saul Goodman

I know the ZF9 is a fairly known weak point among every single vehicle that has it but I’m genuinely thankfully mine in my 19 MDX Advance has had 0 issues so far even with all the shenanigans I’ve done in it (rallycross, autocross, roadtrips, and future track days for the memes)

Cars? I've owned a few
Cars? I've owned a few
18 days ago
Reply to  Saul Goodman

My wife and I replaced her 2015 BMW X5 Sdrive35i with a 2018 non-hybrid AWD MDX. The transmission’s 1-2 shifts were awful until they came out with new flash for the controller about a year after we bought it. It was much smoother after re-flashing. And you’re right about the accelerator.

Two years ago, she traded me in for a newer model and shortly thereafter the Acura for a Lincoln Aviator. We’ll see how that all works out.

Saul Goodman
Saul Goodman
18 days ago

Traded *you* in? Well I’m sorry to hear about that, but I did get a good chuckle lol.

George Danvers
George Danvers
24 days ago

still a revolting dash though. : (

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