Official release from acuranews.com:

2013 Acura MDX Named Best Luxury 3-Row Midsize SUV

02/21/2013 – TORRANCE, Calif

The dynamically styled, seven-passenger 2013 Acura MDX has been named the “Best Luxury 3-Row Midsize SUV for the Money” by U.S. News & World Report in its 2013 Best Cars for the Money awards.    The Acura MDX has long been recognized as a benchmark vehicle in its class, combining outstanding performance and fuel efficiency with a spacious and versatile cabin, refined luxury appointments, and advanced Acura-exclusive technologies such as Super Handling All-Wheel Drive™ (SH-AWD®), Acura/ELS Surround Premium audio, Acura Collision Mitigation Braking System™ (CMBS™), Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), and blind spot information system (BSI).

“The Acura MDX continues to serve as the benchmark vehicle in its class and this award is evidence of that,” said Mike Accavitti, vice president of national marketing operations. “We can’t wait to launch the next-generation 2014 Acura MDX later this year. The all-new luxury performance SUV will advance on the current MDX’s already great dynamic performance, while improving fuel economy and luxury comfort.”

The “Best Cars for the Money” methodology combines quality and value data into a composite score. Within each of 21 award categories, the vehicle with the highest score is named the “Best Car for the Money” in that category. Quality is measured by the overall score a vehicle achieved in the U.S. News car rankings at the time the awards are published. The rankings, updated monthly at www.usnews.com/cars, compare cars on the basis of safety, reliability and a consensus of industry experts’ opinions. Value is measured by a combination of a vehicle’s five-year total cost of ownership and the average price paid for the vehicle at the time the awards are published.

The 2013 MDX is powered by a 300-horsepower, all-aluminum, 3.7-liter VTEC® V-6 engine mated to a Sequential SportShift 6-speed automatic transmission and Acura’s torque vectoring Super Handling All-Wheel Drive system. The MDX, featuring Acura’s Advanced Compatibility Engineering™ (ACE™) body structure, achieves a top 5-star U.S. government safety rating, and a TOP SAFEY PICK rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

[Source: Acura]