Acura’s 2025 MDX Finally Loses Its Fickle Touchpad Infotainment For 2025
Acura’s touchpad infotainment interface has been previously described by Jalopnik writers using words like “loathe” and “distractingly sensitive,” but Acura has finally liberated the MDX from the oppressive iron shackles of its touchpad controller and replaced it with an intuitive touchscreen setup. That’s the biggest news in this 2025 Acura MDX refresh, along with a few new styling tweaks, grille designs, paint colors, and a new 31 speaker Bang and Olufsen stereo that’s only available on the MDX Type S, though it is standard there.
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The MDX’s new touchscreen infotainment system has migrated slightly closer to the front seat occupants, and though it remains the same size at 12.3-inches, the entire screen is now available, so users can minimize the tiles on the right side of the screen and have full widescreen Apple CarPlay or Acura’s native infotainment. This new Google-based system is very intuitive to use and it functions seamlessly. Thankfully, the MDX retains its physical climate control buttons, seat heat, cooling, and massage buttons, though the volume knob is still mounted down low next to the push button shifter. In place of the 2024 Acura MDX’s console-mounted wrist pedestal and touchpad infotainment controller, the 2025 MDX has an unobscured wireless phone charging pad, and a slightly enlarged but still small storage void that looks like the perfect place for a pile of pretty pens.
Photo: Logan Carter
Aside from the infotainment upgrade, the MDX doesn’t get many big changes for 2025. Acura reworked its active safety features, now called Enhanced AcuraWatch, which comes standard across all MDX models. In the interior, fancy new quilted 16-way power adjustable Milano leather seats are now optional on more trims, and they feature a 9-way massage function. Stereos have been upgraded across the lineup, too, with the base system receiving two more speakers at a total of 11, the upgraded system offering three additional speakers at a total of 19, and Type S gets the 31-speaker Band & Olufsen system with 12 speakers in the headliner. Acura didn’t let me test the sound system when I previewed the car, citing a necessary software update.
Photo: Logan Carter
The MDX lineup receives no changes to its powertrains, so all MDX models come standard with Acura’s 3.5-liter naturally aspirated V6 that produces 290 horsepower and 267 lb-ft of torque, and the only Type S trim, the Acura MDX Type S with Advance Package, carries over the same turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 producing 355 horsepower and 354 lb-ft of torque. Both engines route their power through a 10-speed automatic transmission, but Type S transmissions are “sport tuned.”
The 2024 Acura MDX was a great entry-level luxury SUV that was hampered by a clunky infotainment interface. Acura finally fixed the infotainment for 2025, and now we have even less to complain about. Even though updates are minimal, the new Acura MDX is a great option for families who want style, safety, space, good value and entertaining driving dynamics made greater by its newly user-friendly infotainment system.
Photo: Logan Carter
Photo: Logan Carter
Photo: Logan Carter
Photo: Logan Carter
Photo: Logan Carter
