MDX

Make
Acura
Segment
SUV

Last May we reported that Acura's two best-selling vehicles were suffering from a serious problem. A group of 2019-2020 Acura RDX and 2016-2020 Acura MDX owners filed a class-action lawsuit claiming their luxury crossovers suffer hesitation when accelerating, sudden rapid deceleration, and stalled engines. Some even experienced the transmission suddenly shifting into neutral while driving. Acura allegedly knew about these problems but did very little to resolve them.

And now a second group of RDX and MDX owners have filed a class-action lawsuit against the automaker, according to Car Complaints. It turns out they are experiencing the same issues and this time they specifically state the vehicles "pose a significant and immediate safety threat to all users." Having your vehicle suddenly stall at highway speeds isn't ideal.

This latest lawsuit specifically alleges the throttle is malfunctioning because it's receiving conflicting instructions from the accelerator pedal, engine control module, and transmission module. This results in the driver not having complete command of the throttle. Like the previous time, the new suit points out Acura has so far refused to issue a recall in order to properly and permanently repair the vehicles.

All the more troubling is that some MDX owner complaints date back to 2016 and Acura has yet to implement a fix. Acura only issued a technical service bulletin back in July 2015 regarding the MDX's problem. The bulletin instructed dealer technicians to update the engine software only.

It's unclear whether or not any of these owners had their vehicles serviced according to the bulletin, but it only addressed the MDX. Our previous report stated that after owners took their SUVs to dealers at least one of them denied there were any problems. Another dealer determined the transmission control module was bad.

Given the growing number of complaints, it's becoming pretty clear Acura needs to do something more than simply rely on a five-year-old service bulletin. A recall may or may not be necessary, but some sort of repair/recalibration almost certainly is.