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2014 Acura MDX ad campaign the most expensive in brand's history

Realizing that it must spend more marketing dollars to compete with the more established luxury automakers, Acura is preparing to launch its most expensive ad campaign ever for its redesigned 2014 MDX. At $78 million, according to Advertising Age, the new "Made for Mankind" campaign that kicks off next month is exactly double what Acura spent on the 2013 RDX launch last year. It's also the brand's first cooperation with its new agency, Boston- and Los-Angeles-based Mullen Advertising. Thanks to its bigger budget, we'll be seeing ads for the MDX pop up just about everywhere from television commercials, cinemas and billboards to videos focused on computers and mobile devices.
The first such video is entitled "Human Race," and it enunciates Acura's recent tagline highlight, the synergy between man and machine. More interestingly, the 2014 MDX, which went on sale this month, doesn't make an appearance in the 60-second spot until close to the end. This video is posted below as well as a press release from Acura along with images of various ads we should start soon.

Motorweek goes retro with '80s hot hatch shootout

Motorweek's decades of history on television make it the perfect medium to look back into the automotive past and see how things are different now. It recently added old road test videos to its YouTube channel of the Acura NSX and Toyota Supra, as well as the Ferrari F40. For one of its newest flashback clips, Motorweek has exhumed an affordable five-car challenge of 1986's premiere hot hatches.
By today's standards, this is an eclectic field that features fondly remembered classics like the Volkswagen GTI 16-valve and Acura Integra. However, it also throws in some nearly forgotten contenders like the Dodge Colt Turbo and Ford Escort GT. The angular Toyota Corolla FX16 GT-S rounds out the group.
It's fascinating to watch Motorweek run the quintet through the slalom, down the drag strip and on various roads. What's most striking in this clip is the difference in the definition of a performance car between then and now. With its 16-valve, 1.8-liter four-cylinder, the GTI is the burliest of the contenders with 123 horsepower, but it still takes 8.8 seconds to reach 60 miles per hour. By today's standards, that would make it a plain-jane economy car, and not even a particularly quick one.

2014 Acura MDX shows up exactly as expected

Acura (and parent company Honda, for that matter) doesn't always leave a lot to be left to the imagination when they unveil prototypes at auto shows. Case in point: Take a gander at the Acura MDX Prototype that debuted at the Detroit Auto Show this past January, and then look at the production-spec 2014 MDX pictured above. See what we mean?
Design-wise, there frankly isn't a whole lot to get excited about with this MDX. Sure, a lot of the chiseled, sharp lines from the previous-generation model have been smoothed out in favor of something that will likely have more mass-market appeal, but to our eyes, the MDX has simply lost a lot of its visual flair in the process. To quote Autoblog senior editor Seyth Miersma, this new one just looks like the old one after melting by 10 percent. The end result is something that more closely resembles the company's smaller RDX crossover than anything else, with other subtle design elements mimicking what we've seen on the ILX and RLX sedans. It's all fine, but again, not exciting. The good news, however, is that thanks to the use of new lightweight materials, the 2014 MDX is 275 pounds lighter than the outgoing model.
Updates to what's underneath the MDX's new skin are hardly surprising, but still welcome. Power comes from a direct-injected 3.5-liter V6 making 290 horsepower and 267 pound-feet of torque, mated to a six-speed automatic transmission with both front-wheel drive and Acura's Super-Handling All-Wheel Drive on offer. Acura estimates that front-drive models will achieve 20/28/23 miles per gallon (city/highway/combined), and says that adding the SH-AWD drops those numbers to 18/27/21. Acura will offer a new Integrated Dynamic System that allows the driver to choose between normal, sport and comfort settings, and the new MDX will ride on a choice of either 18- or 19-inch alloy wheels.