My introduction to the assertive and sophisticated Acura MDX came from Nemer Korbani, proprietor of Korbani's Bakery in Methuen. I stopped at his small shop during my first run in a weeklong evaluation of MDX, a $40,000, premium sport utility vehicle from the luxury-car division of Honda. Approaching Korbani's, my thoughts rested happily on pita, hummus, tabbouleh and some of the other Middle-Eastern foods Korbani's makes on Swan Street near the Lawrence line. But Nemer interrupted my Epicurean reverie when he stepped outside for a break just as I bumped MDX onto his little corner lot.

"Hey, that's the new one, right?" he asked me. "The 2007 model, with navigation and everything? It's got the 300-horsepower engine, right?" He knew more about the passenger wagon than I did.Read this article in full with a
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