Acura Mdx

The engine is the strongest part. The 3.5 J35 Earth Dreams is naturally aspirated, runs a timing belt and shuts down cylinders at a steady cruise. There is no turbo to fail, it lasts, and an LPG conversion fits without trouble -- which on a car this size is the difference between affordable and not.

There is a hybrid, but it is a different car. The Sport Hybrid pairs a 3.0 V6 with three electric motors and a seven-speed dual-clutch, technology handed down from the NSX. It is far quicker, but there is no service habit for it here and the numbers are small.

Check the drivetrain on the lot, not the model. SH-AWD gives a real four-wheel-drive car with torque split between the rear wheels. But front-drive-only cars arrive regularly from Florida, Texas and California -- not the rule, but not rare either, and a big seven-seat SUV on front drive is a hard sell here. The photographs do not show the difference.

The gearbox depends on the year and that is the dividing line. 2014-2015 is a conventional six-speed with a lever -- simple and durable. 2016-2020 is the ZF nine-speed operated by buttons: coarse shifting, software temper, expensive specific fluid every 60,000 km. It is also the commonest period in what we hold. From 2022 Honda fits its own ten-speed, quick and with no recorded factory weakness.

Two expensive details. Top trims with the Advance package run adaptive dampers; the ride is excellent, but replacing them runs into the thousands because there is no cheap alternative. And the bodywork is model-specific throughout -- the aluminium bonnet, the wings, the bumpers and the Jewel Eye headlamps are ordered from the States or from Poland, not found in the yards here.