Acura MDX rolling off assembly line

It’s most technologically advanced SUV built only in Ohio.

Much anticipated in auto circles, the 2022 Acura MDX is now rolling off the assembly line at Honda’s East Liberty, Ohio, plant.

Honda says the fourth-generation MDX has been “completely redesigned from the ground up to serve as the new flagship of the Acura brand.”

It’s being touted, in fact, as the “most premium, performance-focused and technologically advanced SUV in Acura history.”

“It’s all in an effort to make the MDX both a more capable handler without sacrificing comfort,” Motor Trend recently said of what it calls a “family hauler” that’s also a “sprinter.”

You’ll see it at Acura dealerships starting Feb. 2.

“It has been created specifically with the purpose of placing a performance SUV at the heart of the Acura range as the brand looks to regain market share and solidify its reputation as a performance brand,” a contributor to Forbes wrote last month.

Designed in Ohio and California, the 2022 MDX is built on the foundation of a light truck platform engineered to offer “more athletic handling performance, refined ride comfort, exceptional cabin quietness and improved collision protection,” Acura said.

It is built only in Ohio. Honda’s engine plant in Anna — about an hour’s drive north of Dayton along Interstate 75 — will build the 3.5-liter V6 engine for the new MDX as well as the 3.0-liter turbocharged V6 that will power the Type S variant, set to arrive this summer.

“Our associates at the East Liberty auto plant are incredibly excited to showcase their expertise in craftsmanship and quality as they begin mass production of Acura’s new flagship model, the 2022 MDX,” East Liberty Auto Plant General Manager Jun Jayaraman said in an announcement from Acura.

The new model is the first launched on the East Liberty plant’s new 5,000-ton servo (stamping) press, which Honda said allows for sharper sculpting of the hood and body panels while forming steel and increased amounts of aluminum.

Honda says the MDX has sales of over one million units.

ACURA IMAGE The Acura logo is carefully installed on a completed 2022 Acura MDX at the East Liberty Auto Plant. Honda says the 4th-generation MDX has been “completely redesigned from the ground up.”