2003 Acura Mdx Base Sport Utility 4-door 3.5l on 2040-cars

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Consumer Reports no longer recommends Honda Civic

Consumer Reports annual Car Reliability Survey is out, and yes, there are some big surprises. First and foremost? The venerable publication no longer recommends the Honda Civic. In fact, aside from the walking-dead CR-Z and limited-release Clarity fuel-cell car, the Civic is the only Honda to miss out on CR's prestigious nod. At the opposite end there's a surprise as well – Toyota and Lexus remain the most reliable brands on the market, but Buick cracked the top three. That's up from seventh last year, and the first time for an American brand to stand on the Consumer Reports podium. Mazda's entire lineup earned Recommended checks as well. Consumer Reports dinged the Civic for its "infuriating" touch-screen radio, lack of driver lumbar adjustability, the limited selection of cars on dealer lots fitted with Honda's popular Sensing system, and the company's decision to offer LaneWatch instead of a full-tilt blind-spot monitoring system. Its score? A lowly 58. The Civic isn't the only surprise drop from CR's Recommended ranks. The Audi A3, Ford F-150, Subaru WRX/STI, and Volkswagen Jetta, GTI, and Passat all lost the Consumer Reports' checkmark. On the flipside, a number of popular vehicles graduated to the Recommended ranks, including the BMW X5, Chevrolet Camaro, Corvette, and Cruze, Hyundai Santa Fe, Porsche Macan, and Tesla Model S. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the hilariously recall-prone Ford Escape getting a Recommended check – considering the popularity of Ford's small crossover, this is likely a coup for the brand, as it puts the Escape on a level playing field with the Recommended Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, and Nissan Rogue. While Ford is probably happy to see CR promote the Escape, the list wasn't as kind for every brand. For example, of the entire Fiat Chrysler Automobiles catalog, the ancient Chrysler 300 was the only car to score a check – there wasn't a single Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, or Ram on the list. That hurts. FCA isn't alone at the low end, either. GMC, Jaguar Land Rover, Mini, and Mitsubishi don't have a vehicle on CR's list between them, while brands like Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Nissan, Lincoln, Infiniti, and Cadillac only have a few models each. You can check out Consumer Reports entire reliability roundup, even without a subscription, here.

Acura Integra Type S briefly teased with wild anime-style video

A year ago, Acura introduced the world to a new anime car-racing protagonist named Chiaki who featured in a series of shorts called Chiaki's Journey. The mini films were a celebration of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Japanese anime, the automaker's fuller Type-S lineup, and the new Acura Integra. A year on, Acura is presenting sponsor and official vehicle at Sundance for the 13th year in a row, so Chiaki's back with new friends and a new ride. As part of a multi-platform ad campaign called "New World. Same Energy," the Japanese luxury brand takes viewers on a tour of "the Acura multiverse" of Type S models set to the soundtrack of Motley Crue's "Live Wire" from 1982.  As with anything set to a Motley Crue song, the video is wall-to-wall fever. Here's Acura's quick map of the kaleidoscopic cosmic terrain traversing six worlds:  Future-verse: The 2023 TLX Type S and the all-new, next-gen 2023 Integra compact sport sedan challenge a hyper-futuristic tech world. Joneses-verse: The 2023 MDX Type S accelerates through a world of similarity – it is so much more than keeping up with the Joneses. Lunar-verse: The 2023 RDX prepares for launch. Anime-verse: AcuraÂ’s favorite anime racing hero, Chiaki, and the 2024 Integra Type S charge up a snowy Pikes Peak Hill Climb.  Racer-verse: Powering through the live-action racing universe is AcuraÂ’s new ARX-06 electrified race car that debuts in competition later this month at the 24 Hours of Daytona. EV-verse: The campaignÂ’s multiverses converge and their Acura energy culminates in a spark that unlocks the futuristic world of the Acura Precision EV Concept. Because the Integra Type S in the ad (at 0:38) is a Pikes Peak hill climber, it's bolted up with some equipment we definitely will not see on the options list when the production version arrives this summer. The Acura Precision EV Concept is treated more like something from this universe, previewing the styling of the 2024 Acura ZDX and ZDX Type S we're going to meet later this year. Acura says the "New World. Same Energy" campaign will run through March Madness.  Related video:

Acura teases new performance EV for Monterey

Acura is headed to Monterey Car Week with what it's calling a "next generation" performance concept. While Honda's premium subsidiary offered up no details about the car itself, we were offered the above teaser photo. Acura says it will be a "segment defying" sport utility vehicle, but what we're seeing here looks awfully trunk-like. From this perspective, it's really anybody's guess, but one thing is obvious: Whatever this thing is, it's no mere ZDX offshoot. Here's Acura's announcement in its entirety, should you be interested in parsing it yourself: "Acura will once again take center stage during Monterey Car Week for the world debut of an exciting new concept vehicle. A segment defying sport utility vehicle, the dynamically styled concept previews the performance brand's next generation all-electric model – the first to be built in Ohio on the company's new dedicated EV platform." The most significant takeaway here is that last bit. Being on a new dedicated platform means that this car has nothing to do with the current Honda-Acura EV offerings, both of which are based on architecture shared with General Motors. Honda has already announced that it will migrate its mainstream EVs to a new, in-house "0 Series" platform in the coming years, with an initial focus on passenger vehicles followed by expansion into people-mover territory. We've yet to hear anything concrete about a parallel program at Acura, so this could very well be the first breadcrumbs to that effect.  For now, that's all Acura has to offer. Keep your ears to the ground during Car Week for more.