2026 Acura ADX Reviews, Pricing & Specs

The Acura ADX is built for shoppers moving up from a mainstream small crossover who want a smarter cabin, more power, and a luxury badge without paying full luxury prices. From the outside, it mostly delivers. The profile looks a lot like the Honda HR-V on which it's based, but the headlights and grille make it clear this is an Acura. The rear is a little quirkier, with a flat section across the tailgate. Overall, it's a clean, handsome small SUV.

Our test car wore Double Apex Blue, a new color for 2026. It's hard to miss and may be a bit much for a vehicle in this class. The ADX isn't a sports car, and the paint promises more excitement than the powertrain delivers. Most buyers will probably go home in black, gray, silver, or white. We'd pick Milano Red, which will certainly catch attention, but does so without the shiny pearl finish of our test car’s blue.

Our tester was an A-Spec with the Advance Package and all-wheel drive (AWD). The A-Spec adds 19-inch wheels with black lug nuts, LED fog lights, and a panoramic moonroof. The Advance Package adds black mirror caps and power-folding mirrors.

Inside, our car had light upholstery that Acura calls Orchid, and it goes a long way toward brightening the cabin. It's the same reason most people paint a kitchen white instead of black. We're less sold on the blue microsuede inserts, which match the paint and not much else. Acura's red A-Spec seats look great, and we'd happily recommend them, but they're available only with black, white, or gray paint.

Build quality is excellent. Panel gaps are tight to nearly nonexistent, and we didn't hear a single squeak or rattle. Most of what drivers and passengers touch is trimmed in soft, leather-like material. The exception is the center stack, which is mostly hard plastic. That's one spot where the ADX feels like a Honda in smarter clothes.

Every ADX uses a turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine with 190 horsepower and 179 pound-feet of torque, paired with a CVT. The engine is a variant of the same powerplant found in the Acura Integra and the Honda Civic Si and offers a healthy step up from the HR-V's 158-hp 2.0-liter. That said, its performance falls below the norm for the luxury segment. Although they cost more, the BMW X1 nonetheless makes 51 more hp, and the Audi Q3 makes 65 more. Those are big, noticeable gaps.

Around town, the ADX is fine. On the highway, it starts to fall behind the competition, and the CVT doesn't help at all. Long acceleration pulls come paired with equally long groans as the CVT strains to spool appropriate power from the little 1.5-liter engine. A conventional automatic would go a long way toward making this car feel premium, but Acura doesn't offer one. Those inside will also hear a good amount of wind and road noise at highway speeds, despite standard active noise cancellation. That's another spot where the ADX feels more Honda than Acura.

The good news is the steering. It's quick, precise, and the best part of driving this car. Both Honda and Acura have built a reputation on great driving dynamics, and the steering feel and chassis control show off that strength. There is very little body roll, and the brakes are also great. The ADX stays calm and composed as drivers brake into a corner, with very little drama and very few surprises.

Drive modes include Snow, Comfort, Normal, and Sport, and the Advance Package adds a fifth Individual mode that lets drivers mix and match settings. We spent most of our time in Normal mode, although we switched to Sport when we found some twisty New England country roads, and were disappointed to find very little perceptible difference between the two settings.

Front-wheel drive (FWD) is standard, and AWD is available. The AWD system is a conventional affair that sends power to the rear wheels only when it detects the front wheels slipping. It works fine and is a common approach in the industry. However, we'd rather see Acura give the ADX the torque-vectoring AWD it uses in its larger SUVs, which actively sends power to the outside rear wheel in a turn. That would further enhance the ADX's steering, and give shoppers a real reason to choose the ADX over an HR-V. In many respects, the Acura ADX is a very fine vehicle because the Honda HR-V is also a very fine vehicle. But without additional upgrades, the ADX too often feels like the Acura badge itself is doing the heavy lifting for the value proposition.

When it comes to usability, it's hard to beat a Honda, or an Acura for that matter. The climate controls are physical buttons and knobs, so drivers can change the temperature without taking their eyes off the road or digging through a menu. There's a volume knob, too, plus physical buttons on the steering wheel. These are small things, but they make the ADX easy to live with every day.

The driving position is good, and visibility is excellent. The A-pillars are slim and unobtrusive, which makes driving through busy neighborhoods and crowded parking lots easier than it is in a lot of small SUVs.

There's a decent amount of space for a subcompact. With the driver's seat set for our tester, an adult of the same height fit in the back seat without complaint. We also installed a rear-facing Britax Poplar car seat without any trouble, which is good news for young families who don't want to step up to a bigger, pricier SUV.

Cargo space measures 24.4 cubic feet behind the rear seat and 55.1 cubic feet with it folded. That's a bit less than in the Audi Q3 or the BMW X1, but more than the Volvo XC40, and a good bit more than the Mercedes-Benz GLA and the Lexus UX. For a vehicle this size, it's a useful amount of room.

The ADX's tech setup is basic, and we like it that way. Every model gets a 9-inch touchscreen and a 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster, backed up by a good mix of physical buttons. On the screen itself, drivers will find a button for “Home,” a “Back” button, two seek buttons, and the volume knob. In this car, simple wins.

The touchscreen is straightforward, and the main icons stay anchored in place, so drivers always know where to reach. The graphics are mostly black and white, with only a little color. It looks a bit plain for a luxury car, but it's easy to read at a glance.

Every ADX gets a wireless phone charger and USB-C ports up front. The A-Spec adds two more USB-C ports for rear passengers. The Advance Package adds Google built-in with three years of data included, which means Google Maps and Google Assistant run natively in the car, no phone required.

In practice, we kept connecting our phones anyway. The native Google Maps isn't a strong enough reason to skip phone projection, and those who use Spotify or Apple Music will want wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto regardless (both are standard). Buyers will probably want a streaming app, too, because the ADX doesn't offer satellite radio. That's a miss at this price.

Our test car's 15-speaker Bang & Olufsen stereo is great, and one of the few places where the ADX's equipment feels properly upscale.

The 2026 Acura ADX carries a Top Safety Pick award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gave it a five-star overall safety rating.

In IIHS crash testing, the ADX earned top Good ratings in the small overlap front and updated side tests. It scored Acceptable, the second-best rating, in the tougher updated moderate overlap front test, where rear passenger restraints rated Marginal. That's worth noting for families who regularly carry adults or older kids in the back seat. The IIHS also rates the headlights Good on every trim, and pedestrian front crash prevention Good.

There's plenty of standard driver-assistance tech, including automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, adaptive cruise control with low-speed follow and traffic-jam assist, lane-keep assist, blind-spot monitors, rear cross-traffic alert, and traffic sign recognition. That's a thorough list for a vehicle at this price.

The Advance Package adds low-speed automatic braking, front and rear parking sensors, and a surround-view camera system. We'd like to see the parking sensors available lower in the lineup, since they're useful in a vehicle that will spend much of its life in tight city spaces.

The ADX starts at $36,550 with FWD, including a $1,550 destination charge. AWD adds $2,000 to any trim. The A-Spec starts at $39,750 ($41,750 with AWD), and the A-Spec with the Advance Package tops the lineup at $43,950 ($45,950 with AWD). Our test car cost a bit more because of its paint, a $600 upcharge (Platinum White Pearl and Urban Gray Pearl carry the same premium).

The EPA rates the AWD ADX at 25 mpg city, 30 mpg highway, and 27 mpg combined, and we beat that with 29 mpg over a week of testing and roughly 200 miles. FWD adds one mpg across the board, so a base front-drive ADX is the pick for shoppers who want to maximize fuel economy. Hybrids haven’t proliferated in this segment; the only option today is the Lexus UX Hybrid, which itself feels significantly less modern than the rest of the competitive set.

Next to a Honda HR-V, those prices are hard to justify. Despite the shared hardware, though, the ADX isn't an HR-V, and against the luxury segment it looks like a bargain. It starts below every rival we'd cross-shop, including the Lexus UX, the Volvo XC40, the Mercedes-Benz GLA, the BMW X1, and the Audi Q3, and we like it more than several of them. Those rivals may offer more out of the box, but buyers can get one of them in base trim or an ADX that's nearly fully loaded for the same money.

The bottom line is that the 2026 Acura ADX is well built, steers beautifully, and undercuts the competition on price. It can feel a little too much like the Honda underneath it, but for anyone shopping for value in this class, this is where they'll find it.