For the past few weeks it has been unseasonably cold here in Michigan. Children have been in danger of freezing in place as they wait for the school bus. Dog owners are wary of letting their charges out for fear of losing them in a snow drift, or finding them frozen while standing on three legs. High temperatures in the mid-20s are as fleeting and sweet as dreams of summer. In the midst of all of this has come snow and freezing rain, sleet and slush. Unfortunately, none of it has come during my time with the MDX.

When you have what arguably has been the style leader in the unit-body luxury SUV class at your disposal, you want some snow. How better to test the VTM four-wheel-drive system, vehicle stability system, ABS, and rain-sensing wipers than a run through the powder? But the weather hasn’t cooperated. There’s been some slush and such (Verdict: the rain-sensing wipers work just fine), but precious little else. So it has been back-and-forth to work and elsewhere in a tall, leather-lined cocoon, disappointed in the inability to test the mettle of the technology behind its supposed raison d’etre. Life is tough.

Oh, the pain of heated seats on a cold day! Of the DVD entertainment center and AM/FM/Cassette audio unit with 6-disc in-dash CD player! Or the navigation system with integral voice recognition, and 8-way power front seats! Can one soul stand the pain of wallowing in relative luxury while the cold winds blow outside with nary a flake in the sky or on the ground? Well…yeah.

It hasn’t always been easy, mind you. I had to stretch in order to scrape the frozen morning dew off the windshield, soiling my jacket with salt spray deposited on the beefy front fender. And it was necessary to manually clean off the rear video lens – located above the license plate – to get the best view on the navigation screen while backing out of a parking spot. The humanity! Just because the sticker is “only” $43,245, must I clean my own windows, and suffer the indignity of brushed-on dirt? Oh to be John Kerry and have a wife who could buy top line Land Rovers, and the servants to go with them, like they were the week’s groceries!

Notes:

The 3.5-liter V6 in the Acura MDX produces 285 hp, is mated to a five-speed automatic transmission, certified LEV2/ULEV by the California Air Resources Board, and rated at 17 mpg city/23 mph highway by the EPA. Formerly the most stylish member of the Acura stable, the introduction of the striking 2004 TSX and TL, and constantly changing competitive landscape, mean a redesign best be just around the corner.