2025 Acura ADX A-Spec Review: Filling the Gap

The 2025 Acura ADX is a Snackmaster.

If you were a child of the ‘90s, chances are you witnessed this infomercial or—for better or worse—the bizarro snackables that it produced firsthand. In between after-school cartoons probably, served to you on a colored-plastic plate by a mom with a feathered mullet. Pizza in triangles, pies in triangles, sealed grill cheese in triangles—the Snackmaster never spat out something truly new, it repackaged known recipes in a new shape.

Acura’s latest (and smallest) SUV takes familiar ingredients and bakes them into a new wrapper. The result is an easy-going and useful daily driver, but one that, like a Snackmaster ‘za, lacks the depth of the real thing.

Everything, including the name—which won’t be the case for the other Acura SUV arriving later this year. The ADX is essentially an amalgamation of the Integra and the Honda HR-V. It arrives with a single engine choice: the trusty 1.5-liter turbo four-cylinder, producing the same peaks of 190 horsepower and 179 pound-feet of torque as in related Hondas, but slightly down on the Integra’s figures. Front-wheel drive is standard in America, with (non-Super Handling) all-wheel drive optional. In Canada, it’s only the latter. A continuously variable transmission (CVT) is the only transmission.

Well it’s certainly better than my terrible “ rendering” from last year. Apologies to your eyes, there. The ADX pulls off the feat of being new without looking new. That’s not a jab, but a comment on the consistency of Acura’s current design language. How far we’ve come from the beak of 2010…

All the important brand touchstones are here. Squinty headlights sit on either side of a now-frameless, diamond-shaped grille. The LED signature extends right to the grille’s edges, but Acura thankfully resisted the urge to stick a light bar here. Its middle section is standard small-SUV, with a tweaked quarter-window shape to distance the ADX from the humble HR-V. Gloss black detailing abounds on this top trim tester, and the 19-inch alloys share the look.

The tail is where the designers got to explore most. While the taillights are standard Acura shapes, they’re placed above the character line, sitting atop the angled upper portion of the liftgate. The rear window is noticeably recessed, and the sizeable wing above it has an angular shape. Okay, it’s not exactly daring, but this is more adventurous than is typical for conservative Acura.

Am I, or should you be, concerned about the ADX’s sub-200 pony count? Nah. Sure, everything else in this segment is packing more power, but the ADX is relatively light, and never struggles on short on-ramps.

Heading into this, I was more worried about a CVT-equipped luxury model. I’m of the opinion that the pulleys-and-belts approach is unbecoming of a premium product. Honda’s setup is generally good since it can at least rely on the low-rpm torque of the turbo engine. That makes around town movement painless and hushed.

Yet whenever the ADX needs to call on the entire corral, there’s the tell-tale CVT groan as the system pins the engine at 5,000 rpm. There are paddle shifters to simulate seven gears, but the soft boundaries between them and the sluggish responses are no replacement for the real thing. At least the whole show isn’t as droney as the Lexus UX or NX.

The flip side to that is fuel economy that can’t come close to Lexus’ hybrids. Officially the ADX AWD will post 27 mpg combined, split between 25 mpg city and 30 mpg highway. Canada’s NRCAN says 8.5 L/100 km combined (9.1 and 7.7 L/100 km for city and highway, respectively). I gave the ADX plenty of highway miles during a cottage weekend and it still only matched the city figure—and needs premium fuel to boot.

With a long wheelbase and more rubber (235/45 19s) than necessary, the ADX is an adept but uninteresting handler. It turns in with that traditional Honda/Acura lightness and precision, maintaining consistent weighting from lock to lock. Larger anti-roll bars (18 millimeter front, 13.5 millimeter rear) ensure that body roll is kept in check. This is an easy car to get comfortable with, and that’s always a good thing.

The all-wheel drive system will send power to the rear axle when necessary, but it lacks the ability to adjust side-to-side torque distribution like Acura’s other SUVs. The result is a cute-ute that usually drives like what it is: a taller, heftier front-drive hatchback.

Acura has made use of plenty of sound-deadening material with the ADX, including foam insulation as well as thick fender liners. The result is a hush-hush cabin—when not pushing that little turbo four-pot, anyway. The ADX may lack the verve we enjoy in the Integra, not to mention its adaptive dampers, but the fixed-rate setup here is particularly well-suited to long highway cruises. The ADX is a comfort-first sub-compact SUV, and that’s fine by me.

Front seat comfort is generally good: the Ultrasuede- and faux leather-trimmed surfaces feel appropriately spendy and there’s solid bolstering, though lower back support is thin. Like every other vehicle on this platform, the mounting point is pleasantly low, so ingress and egress are easy-peasy. Legroom is 41.9 inches (1,065 millimeters) while headroom hits 38.5 in (979 mm); both identical figures to the HR-V.

It’s a familiar story out back: the ADX’s 37.7 in (958 mm) of legroom is plenty in this class, and barely less than that found in the larger RDX. Headroom drops to 36.8 in (935 mm), but even adults should be comfortable for medium-length trips.

With its aggressive liftgate angle, the ADX barely offers more outright cargo space than the Integra: 24.4 cubic (690 liters) over 24.3 cubes (688 L). This model actually offers a bit less: the 15-speaker Bang & Olufsen sound system’s subwoofer trims a full cube off the total.

In news that shouldn’t surprise you, the ADX’s cabin is a mix of Integra and HR-V cues. There are a few of the latter’s obvious bits, like the ribbed lower door panels seemingly yoinked from an old Pontiac. The dashboard design is a smart and attractive blend of shapes and materials, looking modern without gimmickry. The knurled metal dials found in every other model on this platform work just as well here. I’m happy Acura hasn’t rethought the shifter, either. I just wish this tester had either of the other interior color schemes. Acura does a good red, and Orchid, with its blue highlights, looks fantastic.

The back seat does see a dip in door material quality, though that’s hardly unique in this end of the market.

Honda/Acura’s 9.0-inch touchscreen is… fine. It does everything that is required, with quick response times and painless wireless phone pairing. The latest addition of Google Built-In, enabling native access to the most popular bits of the G ecosystem, should only help. It’s been years since the company learned from the volume knob deletion fiasco, but it’s worth pointing out the dial, plus hard buttons for home and back, remain. It’s not a sure thing these days. The digital instrument cluster looks a bit basic, but has solid customization and a very useful adaptive cruise screen.

I was a big fan of the ELS audio system in the Integra, so I’m sad to report the B&O setup here is only okay, lacking serious bass or nuance.

The driver assist suite all works as expected, and the ADX features a useful 360-degree camera—something still missing on the larger CR-V.

At $36,350 ($47,575 CAD) including destination, the basic front-drive ADX might seem like a steep ask against its humble HR-V sibling, but it undercuts its German competition, as well as the likes of the Volvo XC40, by thousands. 

This tester stretches much higher. Fully loaded, this A-Spec Advance (Platinum Elite A-Spec in Canada) rings up at $45,950 ($54,075 CAD), the only added cost coming from the premium white pearl paint. A well-trimmed X1 will still list for more, but the gap shrinks. The Bimmer also offers a more impressive tech suite and a better drive.

There is nothing to truly dislike about the 2025 Acura ADX. It looks good, rides well, and offers up good space—all in the shape the market demands. Okay, a bit more power wouldn’t hurt, but only if Acura could also improve the disappointing fuel economy.

There’s also little to recommend it over the established players in the segment, other than price. The ADX still feels more like a zhuzhed-up Honda than a truly unique premium offering: a quick-bake pizza alternative for those not wanting to wait the three days’ fermentation.

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