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2025 Acura MDX ditches touchpad, embraces touchscreens, Google, Bang & Olufsen

The 2025 Acura MDX sees a number of updates and upgrades, especially inside, where a new infotainment system is a potential game-changer for Acura's flagship SUV as well as, potentially, the entire brand. Now, at first glance, adding a 12.3-inch touchscreen to a new luxury car shouldn't be that big of a deal, even if it features over-the-air updates and Google built-in tech. It could even evoke an eyeroll if you found out that both the screen and interface are basically the same as you'd find in a range-topping Honda Accord. The reason it's significant is because of what it replaces. Acura's True Touchpad interface has been unloved since it debuted on the current-generation RDX and subsequently spread throughout the Acura lineup to everything not named Integra. This interface that paired a dash-top screen with a unique touchpad on the center console (pressing on the touchpad would select an icon on the corresponding spot on the screen) was not exactly a critical darling. The entire system felt like Acura was being contrarian, as if a touchscreen or even knob-and-display setup, were too basic. Well, they basic now. Even if the new touchscreen is shared with an Accord, so what? It's sensibly laid out, looks good enough and Google built-in means an enhanced version of Google Maps is on board along with various Apps from the Google Play store. And yes, Apple CarPlay is still present.  With the True Touchpad truly gone, real estate opened up on the center console. There's a new, wide, kinda shallow bin that might be useful for something but seems a bit vestigial. It's located where the volume knob used to be — that's migrated west to where the touchpad was and therefore closer to your hand. The Touchpad's wrist rest that used to hover over the wireless phone charger is obviously no longer there, either, making it easier to place and remove your phone.  2025 Acura MDX with Advance Package View 7 Photos Another big-time change for 2025 is the addition of Bang & Olufsen sound systems instead of the Panasonic/ELS upgrades that have been an Acura staple for two decades. Although the ZDX is technically the first Acura to get a Bang & Olufsen system (the 2025 MDX will arrive at dealers after Acura's electric love baby with GM), the MDX gets the most powerful version. Not just in terms of an Acura Bang & Olufsen offering, but most powerful Acura sound system ever.

1997 Acura Integra Type R auctioned for $63,800

The Acura Integra, also known as the Honda Integra, was a front-wheel-drive sport compact car that neatly slotted between the Honda Civic and the Honda Accord. The Integra's sportiness wasn't just in its design, as there were a number of quite powerful engine choices for it, and some handling improvements. The mid-to-late-1990s second-generation car was available as the nearly-200-horsepower Type R version, which made a lasting impression no matter if you were an Acura customer, a Honda customer, a British motoring journalist putting the car through its paces in Wales or a PlayStation Gran Turismo gamer driving a virtual Integra at a fictional race track. The bug-eyed, sharply detailed Integra Type R, complete with a strengthened chassis, lightened spec, white wheels and a sizable rear wing, was an instant classic, and two decades later their values are definitely on the rise. No wonder, as they've been called the best-handling front-wheel-drive cars made, and there's some strong competition for that title. However, while the Integra Type R was sold new in limited numbers (just 320 units for the U.S. market in 1997), it wasn't envisioned just how much they could be worth in 2018. The past weekend, a certain high point was reached, as a 1,200-mile, Championship White, Acura-badged example was sold at a Barrett-Jackson auction for an eye-watering $63,800 with fees included. That is roughly double what the car cost new, no matter how new-condition it is. Perhaps the $60K+ sale price for the Type R was foreboded by a particular Florida-based car selling for $40,750 in late June, on Bring a Trailer. That car wasn't even in as-new condition, as it had already accumulated almost 60,000 miles. While these prices might reflect in the values of other used Integra Type R cars and even the more regular-issue, 170-horsepower Integra GS-R models, it might turn out be a blessing for the existing examples not ravaged by road salt or modding in usual Honda fashion, or stolen and parted out: As the values for Type R's keep climbing, it provides even more of an incentive for Type R owners to keep their cars in good or excellent shape. We're just hoping for a sweet spot there, so that the Integras won't all be mollycoddled and cocooned for fear of depreciation — these cars need to be used, out on the road with the VTEC singing, nearing 8,500 rpm. That's what they were designed for.

Acura puts on display of mechanical horsepower in new ad

Originally forged with a brand identity based on luxury, sportiness and practicality, Acura has spent the last decade or so struggling with its image. The sporting credibility suffered a mighty blow with the loss of cars like the Integra, RSX and NSX, and recent years have seen the Japanese company attempting to recast itself as a technology leader.
All of that makes this latest Acura commercial, Let The Race Begin, even more difficult to understand, metaphorically speaking. The horsepower-horse race 'theme' certainly isn't difficult to fathom, with mecca-equine versions of popular luxury brands filling the screen. But the choice to make Acura's filly a flesh-and-blood creation seems odd, for the high-tech theme. Acura as "thoroughbred apart from the rest of the field" seems to be the rough message here, though we're not sure we're buying it. We're also not sure we're comfortable with how much these ponies reminded us of a certain off-putting robotic dog...
Looks expensive, at any rate. Watch the robot ponies run for yourself, below.