16 complaints reported

2020 Acura MDX UNKNOWN OR OTHER

Owner-reported problems and safety issues filed with NHTSA. Review common failures, severity levels, and complaint trends over time.

Reports
16
Crashes
0
Fires
0
Injuries
0

Complaint Timeline

Chronological view of owner reports

Nov 2025

The Auto Start-Stop Technology is malfunctioning. I bought my 2020 Acura MDX in 2022 and with the first 2 weeks of having it, it turned completely off while in a drive through line. It only does this when the Auto start- stop is on. I took it back to the dealership and of course they found nothing wrong. This happens frequently and sometimes the car doesn’t want to start back up. Sounds like I am not the only one with the same issue.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2020 ACURA MDX, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jan 2022
Sep 2025

The auto start feature on the vehicle has been failing. When you come to a stop the engine’s start feature enables but when proceeding to start moving again the vehicle stalls out and will not restart right away. The vehicle must sit for about 30secs or after two tries in order to restart up. It has stalled out on me while in traffic on the highway, at traffic lights, stop signs. My most recent experience was me being stuck at an intersection unable to move for an ambulance and firetruck in route to an emergency. This issue has put my safety as well as others at risk many times. I have voiced my concerns many times with the dealership but they state there is nothing wrong with my auto start feature nor any other issues that can contribute to this. Any help with this issues is appreciated.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2020 ACURA MDX, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Sep 2025
Jul 2025

I been having deceleration problem and shut down unexpectedly problem with my Acura MDX 2020 truck. I can be driving my truck normally and out of no where my truck would lose power slow down and eventually shut off completely. I avoided like 5 car accidents with this incident happened to me. I have bring the truck to Acura and they are not fixing my problem.i am scared to dead to drive my own truck. I always drive with my kids in my truck. Please help I don’t know what else to do. This truck is going to get me in a nasty car accident and I can even lost my life. Back in 2024 in September I was driving on 78 on my way to Jersey City, I was driving like 65 miles, my truck slow down lose power and eventually turned off. Someone almost hit me from behind. On Wednesday July 02/2025 I was driving like 20 miles approaching a red light to stop once I press the break pedal my truck completely shuts off. I needed to wait like 1 minute or 2 to turn on. Also on Thursday July 3/2025. I was on my way to the hospital with my kids and my truck turn off completely on a Burger King drive through. That day I took my truck again to Acura to check on it. They told me nothing was wrong with my truck.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2020 ACURA MDX, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Mar 2025
Apr 2025

On multiple occasions, after coming to a complete stop, the engine shut off as designed but then failed to automatically restart when I released the brake pedal or pressed the accelerator. This left the vehicle completely disabled in traffic until I manually restarted it by shifting into Park and pressing the ignition button. This failure is unpredictable, occurs without warning, and poses a significant risk of collision, particularly when stopped at busy intersections or in heavy traffic. I contacted my Acura dealer, who confirmed that this issue is a known concern on 2016–2020 MDX models and that Acura has issued Technical Service Bulletins (such as 23-001 and 23-002) and a warranty extension. However, even after updates, the problem continues to occur, and there is no permanent remedy at this time.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2020 ACURA MDX, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Oct 2025
Mar 2025

March 21, 2025. I made an appointment to the closest Acura Dealership (Sterling McCall Acura Sugar Land, TX) for the two recalls I have on my 2020 Acura MDX. They were not able to accommodate with my timing request. Since I reside more than one hour away, I am not able and willing to drive so many times for this issue. I've asked them to fix the recalls today, as I have 3-4 hours free. They were not able to and offered me a rental car to keep until the problems are fixed. Due to my location and timing consuming to drive to their location (the closest to me), I refused. When I bought my brand new MDX I trusted the brand, and now they are not able to provide a covenant solution to me. I am very disappointed.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2020 ACURA MDX, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Mar 2025
Feb 2025

I was in traffic on a major highway during rush hour, and my car went into neutral on its own in the middle of the highway. I was unable to put it in drive, restart it, turn it off or do anything else. The car truck behind me almost hit me and other cars were honking their horns as they changed lanes and drove past me. It was extremely frightening and unsafe as my car sat there without moving, on a major highway, in the middle of rush hour, at 5:35 pm. This happened before and I reported it to the dealership in 2024, and took my car in on three different occasions. In November 2024, less than a year after I purchased the certified pre owned car, it shifted into neutral twice within 20 minutes while I was driving intown, and again later than day as I exited a highway. The third time, I was able to get a video of it on my phone. The dealer said they could not reproduce the problem but fortunately, I sent them the video that shows the oil, battery, ABS, ACC, brake, road departure system, tire pressure, LKAS, brake system and other lights were all on. They said they addressed the issue then. This time around, in April 2025, they told me that they were unable to reproduce the issue but that it was because my battery tested low. Nothing was mentioned about a battery in November when the battery was still under warranty. Now they are saying it is the battery. There were no warnings before the car stalled. This is concerning and very unsafe. I cannot upload videos to this report so I have uploaded a few screenshots from it.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2020 ACURA MDX, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Feb 2025
Oct 2024

Dealership is unable to repair recalls

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2020 ACURA MDX, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Oct 2024
Jul 2024

Sunroof Explosion. On [XXX], I was driving southbound on [XXX] north of the [XXX] exit (about 15 miles north of Chicago, Illinois). It was mid to late morning, sunny, 75 degrees. I drove over some pavement that was under repair but was not marked as being under repair. Within 60 seconds I heard a loud bang or explosion. My sunroof cover was closed and heard glass falling onto the cover. I exited the highway and saw that the glass was broken in the center of the sunroof. There were no rocks or objects in the sunroof and no evidence that anything had impacted the sunroof. The vehicle is available for inspection however, I am in the process of clearing the glass so that I can operate the vehicle during the month that it will take for a replacement glass to arrive. The problem has not been confirmed by a dealer, the component has not been inspected by anyone other than myself. There were no warnings prior to the incident. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2020 ACURA MDX, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jul 2024
Jul 2024

This vehicle engine has shut down in traffic on 6 separate occasions over the course of a year. Each time, the car locked up and would not restart until 1-3 minutes passed. This happened in stop and go traffic on the interstate. The other instances were at stoplights. I believe this is an issue with the auto idle stop feature. The dealership is unable to recreate the issue, thus no resolution was offering during the warranty period.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2020 ACURA MDX, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: May 2023
Apr 2024

This vehicle is being sold by Corwin Honda in Fargo, North Dakota. As I understand it, this car should not have been taken in on a trade and should not be sold until repairs are made. I do understand that parts have been hard to get and it is a huge inconvenience for the car owner. We looked at this car and were quite prepared to purchase it, but I fear for our safety and anyone else on the road.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2020 ACURA MDX, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Apr 2024
Jan 2024

The Auto-Idle on this car has disabled the car at a light or stop sign and you need to turn the car off and restart it. It may take 10-20 seconds for the car to restart. The car has been brought in to the dealer and the first time they updated software. the second and third time said the battery needed to charged. Being disabled at a light or stop sign in a heavy traffic area is very dangerous in high traffic area which I reside in.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2020 ACURA MDX, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jan 2023
Aug 2023

This is happening for the second time. Exactly same thing happened for the first time as well. I stopped a light. The car went to auto idle and shut the engine off. I kept my foot on the break pedal until the green. When I release the pedal, the car didn't restart and it went to neutral. I pushed the drive button but it didn't change. I had to shut off everything by pressing the stop button and I started the car again. I think this also happened to other people based on the posts online: [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2020 ACURA MDX, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Aug 2023
Aug 2023

My vehicles rear back up camara, and others i checked at dealership is quite blurry not clear at all and much more so at night, causing me not to see my neighbors son and almost running him over as i backed out of driveway , dealership stated thats how resoltion is, changing camara wont help, and no known fixes and said they all are like that

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2020 ACURA MDX, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jun 2023
Jul 2023

Was at stoplight with idle stop on and when light turned green car wouldn’t engage. Saw it had shifted to neutral and needed to turn the car off, restart before I could drive away. Could have been hit from behind especially since it was dark out

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2020 ACURA MDX, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jun 2023
Dec 2022

When the brake is suppressed at a Stop sign or stop light, the vehicle has an Auto Idle stop feature which shuts off the engine completely to preserve fuel. The vehicle is supposed to restart once the brake is released. In my case, there have been multiple times when the brake is released but fails to restart and go. I have encountered the issue in the following scenarios: 1. Getting off the freeway, if there is a line getting off the freeway, then the vehicle will potentially shut off and fail to restart. This is a safety hazard as the driver behind me or others behind at a distance can potentially hit the vehicle. 2. At a Stoplight, especially when making a left turn, the vehicle will shut off and fail to restart. It takes more than 8 secs to restart/reengage by restarting manually. If there are any vehicles attempting to go behind me or at a distance, then they can potentially hit my vehicle. This is a huge risk to my family and I, to assist in our safety, we end up having to turn on our hazard lights. This is unacceptable especially since this is a 2020 vehicle with under 45k miles. I have attempted to reach out to the Acura service team, Customer relations team and even called the Warranty department. However, they were not taking ownership on the issue and responded as it has not been reported before. Based on forums, the issue is being encountered by other owners as well. Hopefully, this can be sorted in the near future for safety of my family.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2020 ACURA MDX, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Dec 2022
Oct 2021

My fiancé is 8 months pregnant and her sunroof literally exploded on her while she was on the freeway yesterday. She was almost in an accident and could have been killed. She has a 2020 MDX and I’m reading online that she isn’t the only person this has happened to. The dealership told her that she’s on her own and this defect isn’t covered under warranty when she called. It has not been inspected, but I have taken many pictures. There were no warnings or indications anything was wrong.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2020 ACURA MDX, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Sep 2021

Trend Over Time

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Quick Summary

The 2020 Acura MDX has 16 UNKNOWN OR OTHER complaints on file. Review the timeline above for detailed owner experiences.