Boston.com's view

Sensibility.

It is a word we ought to be demanding be applied to SUVS – both from those who drive them and those who oppose them.

A couple of recent news events bring me to this.

First, this week’s battering snowstorm.

Here is what State Police Sergeant David Pane told the news wire services about accidents as the storm grew from birth to full wail, and as a disproportionate number of accidents involved 4-wheel-drive vehicles driven by cocky drivers: ”For some reason they feel, because they have that 4-wheel-drive they can drive at an increased speed level without losing control,” Pane said. ”That’s a myth.”

Second, the government came way late to the SUV controversy by saying that SUVS must be made safer – Ronald Reagan having been shown to have thwarted that notion as far back as the early 1980s. Manufacturers are already doing this and those that don’t will be losers. BMW’s X5, Ford’s new Explorer, Volvo’s XC90 are only a handful of those already far safer than SUVs of old – for both their occupants and those in other vehicles.

Today, I offer here the 2003 Acura MDX, as sensible an SUV as you will find, in answer to each of the two news events.

First, no sensible car can completely make up for drivers with no sense. Drive too fast under bad conditions, think that the 4-wheel-drive that allows you to progress at high speed will also allow you to stop, to swerve, to avoid, and you may as well be driving a death sled.

Second, car makers across the board are already changing the notion of the SUV – lowering centers of gravity, matching points of impact with smaller vehicles, adding electronic antiroll systems, and installing side curtain air bags from front to rear. Lawmakers who demand all these are only jumping onto, belatedly, a train that has already left the station just so they can show their constituents their punched tickets once the train arrives.

Which brings me back to the MDX, a vehicle that will do all of what most SUV-ophiles long for, which is haul seven people and sporting gear, offer reasonable ability to tow, and carry them competently off road.

I say competently because that is all Acura engineers looked for when they set out to design the MDX for the 2001 model year. They determined, correctly, that very few people use SUVs for heavy off-roading. Honda, for whom Acura is the grande marquee, was developing its small SUV, the CR-V, and its great minivan, the Odyssey, when it came to one reality: People were straying from brand to purchase SUVs. It was not alone: Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Cadillac, Lincoln, and even Porsche came to the same conclusion and responded in kind.

So Honda gave us the Acura MDX, a truly fine car. Yet its newest version is superior.

It has a better tuned suspension, more power for slogging and towing, and more safety features.

The 3.5-liter V-6 engine that used to produce 240 horsepower is now a 3.5 that delivers not only 260 horsepower, but also 255 lb.-ft. of torque. And for SUV-haters, keep in mind that this is the first SUV to meet Ultra Low Emissions-2 standards. All this while delivering, in my test, better than 20 miles per gallon. And while the last may not seem great mileage, there would be far more to be gained by raising our total SUV fleet mileage from 15 and 16 miles per gallon than by all that could be gained by selling 300,000 small cars per year in this country.

That new engine is mated to an all-new 5-speed automatic transmission that shifts smoothly and with far less reach than its predecessor. Drive-by-wire throttle from the NSX sports car adds instantaneous response, and a retuned all-wheel-drive system makes the MDX as strong, yet subtle, an SUV as you will find.

By that I mean it drives very much like a performance car, yet can hold its own on tough roads and will tow a boat at 4,500 pounds and regular trailer at 3,500 pounds. A lesson in aerodynamics here: the boat’s V-shaped hull cuts drag so more weight can be hauled, as opposed to the flat, snowplow front of a trailer.)

I’ve just returned from an expedition in the early hours of this week’s snowstorm and, in a few inches of unplowed, slick snow, the MDX was sure-footed and stable. It shifted torque front to rear (it rolls in front-wheel-drive on dry pavement and alters torque rearward as needed) and, most remarkably, its Vehicle Stability Assist and ABS kept it straight and sure climbing a slippery hill and even when I stomped the brakes on the reverse slippery downhill ascent.

On the highway, its engine was smooth, powerful, and quiet. Overtaking to pass, even at commuter speeds, was accomplished quickly. Little body roll was exhibited in lane changes on the highway, and its stiffer body construction over the earlier model was evident in its seating through sharp backroad corners. Yet, what might be expected to be a lift at corners with that stiff body was made up for by the tuning of a suspension meant to handle this stiffness. It sat solid and stiff – a feat of engineering.

The base model MDX is so packed with luxury that base is not really the proper term. Standard features include front and rear air conditioning, front and rear automatic climate control, an eight-way power driver’s seat, three rows of leather seating (middle and rear rows split and fold flat for great combos of cargo possibility), leather-wrapped steering wheel with audio controls, cruise control, heated front bucket seats, heated power mirrors, power windows and door locks, power sunroof, trip computer, and radio/cassette/6-CD player.

You can add a Touring Package ($2,600) that adds the eight-way power adjustment to the passenger seat, seat memory, rain-sensing wipers, an upgrade to a Bose sound system, and roof rack. Add navigation with voice recognition and a rearview camera that monitors on the navigation screen while in reverse ($2,200), and a DVD system with 7-inch screen ($1,500), and you’re into more serious money above base price.

You’ll ride in luxury whatever you choice, given standard wood and leather appointments throughout. And you will ride in safety with front passenger dual stage air bags, driver and front passenger side air bags, side impact door beams, and a crash-compatible front bumper.

This is one sensible, competent SUV – a model for where we should be going in a world where not everyone likes the SUV, but one in which they are a reality.

Nice touch: The way the feel and appearance of this vehicle hide its impressive passenger capacity. Proves you need be neither enormous nor imposing to get the job done.

Annoyance: I love the specificity of the navigation system. Just wish the toggle/button with which much of it is controlled were bigger.