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SUVs Acura MDX Acura MDX vs Mazda CX-9
21 messages, Last post on Nov 07, 2009 at 9:57 PM
You are in the Acura MDX Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & tidester
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Replying to: magesh (Dec 19, 2007 11:24 am) |
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I started to search the second car for my family back in September. CX-9, MDX, and 08 Highlander were on my final list. The original first choice was 08 Highlander because my previous car (now is my wife's) was 07 Camry XLE V6, and I love its smart key, touch-screen Nav, powerful/smooth 3.5L V6, and comfort ride, but I dislike Camry's cheap interior design and plastic/leather seat. The Interior design in 08 highlander looks much better in pictures, but when I sat in, the same cheap feeling coming back to me. The cabin feels small and narrow, the cargo space after 3rd row seat is vert limited. Besides, the MSRP full-loaded Limited model is closed to 42K! Even after discount it still costs 38K. HID is not even an option (very important to me) so It is off my list. Then I saw CX-9 won Motor Trend SUV of the year, and GT model looks very sharp. It also comes with HID and bigger interior room. Fully loaded GT is probably cheapest (36K) and it also has 0% finance. But it didn't win out because: 1. Nav is poorly designed. 2. You can't have moonroof and rear DVD entertainment system at the same time. 3. 20" Alloy wheel looks nice but ride is bumpy. 4. Only one button for both the drive and passenger heated seats.. At last I choice MDX tech/ent for 42.3K (MSRP is 46K). At the first test drive I know it is going to be my car and I didn't even look back. The handling with SH-AWD is the best, and it's suprisingly very comfy and quiet. I feel like driving a sports car! The interior is totally luxury: the leather seats are soft and comfortable, my wife loves 2nd row heated seat and trio-zone climate control. My 10-months old baby falls asleep everytime she gets in it. The ELS 10-speaker surrend-sound system is amazing. Nav is easy to use and voice command system is accurately recognize what I said. However, my only complaints: 1. Gas mileage is not so great. I get 17 in city/20 hwy (coming from 22/31 V6 Camry) 2. Bluetooth is not easy to use. Only AT&T Sony Errison fully supports phonebook transfer..Toyota's bluetooth can allow you edit your own phone book and speed dial on touch screen is so much easier for me. Even though it's 4K-6K more than CX-9 and Highlander, it's totally worthy it!
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Replying to: wtliao321 (Dec 21, 2007 9:13 am)
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Replying to: upstatedoc (Dec 21, 2007 10:29 am) Drumroll please. We went with the Acura MDX . No additional packages this time. Up until 2 weeks ago, we had narrowed the choices down to the Highlander and the Mazda CX9 Grand Touring. Would have been happy with either but chose the Mazda because it had more rear cargo room than the Highlander and the rear seat of the highlander can not be split and folded down.LOved the smart key,( While I did like the heated washer fluid and the snow package on the highlander as this car is primarily for a second home in snow country, the Mazda was the best fit overall) Then, as I mentioned before, my husband wanted to revisit the Acura as we have, at home, the 2007 model with tech package and he likes it, feels it is a known quantity and has the stability, and solid feel he is looking for. I decided that going with his choice was the best decision. As this car will do very low mileage we will most likely keep it a long time. If the Mazda was found to be lacking in any way, I did not want to have to listen for the next 10 years to his plaintive voice saying, " I TOLD you we should have bought the Acura." So everyone is happy. We did not go with the Tech package on this one. Again, if we keep the car for 8 to 10 years, the GPS will be obsolete long before then. For the limited times that we need it,I would rather buy a hand held one which can be upgraded every couple of years. I will miss the back up camera. Hopefully, we won't run over any pedestrians. I won't miss the voice command system as it doesn't understand me most of the time and I end up swearing at the car. ( I am so pathetic!) The base model has a very good package and had everything we needed. Will post what the final price was. Not sure as I walked out and left DH to do the negotiating. Thanks to all for all the advice and input.
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Replying to: waverley (Dec 22, 2007 5:55 pm) My wife did that to me one year (she had to get back to work). An hour later I got to tell her I got mad at the dealer and walked out on them.  Please rate your dealer experience too: Dealer Ratings and Reviews Enjoy the new ride!
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Replying to: steve_ (Dec 22, 2007 9:09 pm) Will do. I have to go back on Friday as I have to get the roof racks installed and give them the regular wheels on my trade-in. ( we have snow tires on now). I want to see how the whole transaction goes down before I make my final judgment. So far, there were things that irked me but I want to give the benefit of the doubt and see if things improve. Once we had agreed to the transaction, our salesman dropped us like week old rotten fish and left us waiting around while he went off to pursue another potential sale. Obviously, we had to wait for the financing and all the other details to be finalised but even after everything was ready to go, we still had to wait around for him because he had other bait on the hook. He was knowledgeable about the car when he finally got around to us, so as I said, I will wait until everything is finalised before I comment. |
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Replying to: magesh (Dec 03, 2007 12:42 pm) A few notable corrections to some of the earlier posts: (1) As mentioned, the 2nd row seatbelt in the CX-9 *can* be retracted and hidden. (2) The CX-9 does share the same platform as the Ford Edge but is substantially longer. There are some other big differences. It uses an Aisin transmission, which is also used by Toyota I believe. The engine is also Japanese-made. (3) Like the MDX, Mazda does have Roadside assistance (for the 3-year warranty period). (4) There are two buttons for the heated seats, not just one for both seats (?) as wtliao32 suggested. Maybe I misunderstood him? It is true there is only one heat setting (no high/low). Our past three vehicles were 2004 Acura TL, 2003 4Runner and 2008 Acura TSX. We were looking mainly at the Highlander and MDX (and Explorer, Acadia and Expedition) before "stumbling" across the CX-9, which we eventually went with. On a 3-year lease, a loaded CX-9 is still about $70 cheaper per month than a base MDX (without Nav/backup camera, etc). This was one factor, among many, in our decision. |
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| I found this thread while researching the CX-9, which we just bought. I looked at the MDX as well, and while I think there are some things I liked about the MDX a little better, the fact that the CX-9 is compared to the much more expensive MDX and not a loaded Honda Pilot, which is priced similarly to the CX-9, is a win for the CX-9. We traded in an Infiniti FX45 for the Mazda, very very powerful and sporty, and have no regrets. If you can afford the MDX, want the status of an Acura, need a sunroof and a DVD player, or want the sportiest handling, go for it the MDX. But the CX-9 is truly a beautifully designed and executed vehicle. They are much rarer than the MDX's. If you want the best 3rd row access and comfort, get the CX-9. If you want the most bang for your buck, its the Mazda again. Good Luck. | |
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Replying to: waverley (Dec 19, 2007 1:19 pm) CX-9: 33K + TTL (with Navigation package, bose/moonroof) Grand Touring. No special financing ... cash or 6 to 7% 60 months Acura: 38.7 + TTL (Tech package) + some freebies. As you can see the difference was about 5.5 grand. I test drove both vehicles on the day of purchase twice each. It basically came to driving and handling --> The MDX was more confident on the road even though it wasn't as smooth as the CX-9. CX-9 had some good points- blind spot monitoring, 20 inch wheels. However I guess it was the driving of MDX, Extra Warranty, Reliability and Label / Brand status that drove me to that conclusion. Also I had been at three Mazda dealers before hitting the lowest price ... all 3 were bad experiences in terms of customer service. The same at Acura was more pleasant, even though there were a few unpleasant moments. But overall very courteous at Acura. Also the Bose sound system in CX-9 sucked whereas the Acura one is excellent. I do some surround encoding and CX-9 couldn't even recognize the files, but Acura played them! Whereas I had initially thought that MDX had 3rd row seats for namesake, I actually found out that they were more comfortable than those of CX-9. My wife is only 5 ft 1" and the CX-9 seat didn't go up that much as did the Acura. I wish I had money to buy both! It was truly a difficult one. I think you can't go wrong with either. If you don't have that 40K (but have 30K) don't think of MDX, but if you have it, don't think about CX-9. Hope this helps someone if in the same quandary!!!
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Replying to: suharsh (Nov 07, 2009 6:12 pm) |
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