Purchased: 2016 MDX Advance. This is my second MDX (my wife's car), and while I am big fan of the vehicle, Acura made some horrible tweaks to the car. If I were to buy this car again, I would try to find a 2015 model. The interior is beautiful with great materials. The ride quality is excellent and always gives confidence. There are three main issues with this car. The transmission is truly horrible. I am car guy who has owned many cars and have never experienced such a bad transmission. Please release a software update to fix this. The auto-idle is poorly executed, and there is no way to permanently turn it off. Infotainment system is dated, and the GPS in mediocre. Interior is great. Remote start feature is worth the money. The safety features are good (the reason I bought this car) even though they are a bit intrusive.

The Yaris drives well so long as you don’t demand too much out of the powertrain. The engine is a 1.5-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder featuring Mazda’s SkyActiv-G engine design and a higher-than-usual compression ratio of 12 to 1. It makes only 106 horsepower and 103 pounds-feet of torque, and it’s mated to either a standard six-speed manual transmission or an optional six-speed automatic, which my car featured. Despite the modest power output, the Yaris is reasonably peppy at lower speeds, but you’re going to need to plan your highway on-ramp accelerations in advance, and passing on a two-lane road is not advisable. Where the Mazda DNA really shines through is in how the Yaris handles. It has tight, responsive steering that makes the car feel lively and tossable, with excellent feedback and progressive understeer that makes it predictable and fun. The ride is surprisingly well controlled, though there is some pronounced body roll when you start seriously chucking it through turns. The skinny tires also don’t do much for grip, but you can feel that the bones of the thing are solid. Strong winds tend to toss it around on the highway, yet it’s reasonably stable and stress-free at highway speeds.