Acura for the Common Crash: 2022 MDX earns high marks for safety

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Fresh out of the gate, Acura has earned a Top Safety Pick+ award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) for its new 2022 MDX midsize luxury machine. In particular, the agency praised its standard front crash prevention system that earns superior ratings in vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations.

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Alert shoppers will note the ‘+’ notation appended to this award. This means the entire line of 2022 Acura MDX trims has earned the safety accolade. To qualify for Top Safety Pick+, which is the higher of two awards given out by the IIHS, vehicles must ace a series of crash tests, be equipped with highly functioning front crash prevention systems, plus earn a Good or Acceptable rating for headlight performance on all models.

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It’s the last criteria that trips up a lot of automakers, since many of them reserve their best performing (and most expensive) headlight systems for the top trims of a particular model. The new MDX comes equipped with projector front peepers earning a Good rating across its line. Also standard is Acura’s Collision Mitigation Braking System on all trims, permitting the car to reach these difficult benchmarks.

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As for the crash tests themselves, vehicles must earn Good ratings – in a fit of engineering understatement, that’s the highest rating – in all six IIHS crashworthiness evaluations. These include the driver- and passenger-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength, and head restraint tests.

Notably for families, the 2022 MDX also earns the highest rating of Good+ for its child-restraint attachment system, commonly known as LATCH. The car includes a trio of rear seating positions with complete LATCH hardware, plus two more chairs with upper tether hooks.

Acura’s new three-row flagship is a total redesign and sits on an all-new platform. It’s bigger than the old model, with better road presence and a more accommodating interior. With this new award, it’s pretty safe as well.