These vehicles are the staples of the automotive industry that you will be seeing in the wild very soon. There are many other exotics, concepts, and show cars that are notable as well.

Toughening the MDX (Build Description)

A total of 10 MDXs were built for The Avengers, with most coming brand-new straight off the production line in Alliston, Ontario. And they weren't stripped-out MDXs either, as all were equipped with the Technology package and full leather-lined interiors. Just because you're fighting super-villains doesn't mean you shouldn't be super-comfortable.

Before S.H.I.E.L.D. duty each Acura MDX was first sent to the CVS paint shop. There the paint applied by Acura was sanded down and PPG flat black was applied. "The finish has a soft-touch feel to it," described Salerno. "It almost feels like rubber. And then we painted all the chrome parts a black tint to get a black chrome effect."

Most movie cars slam through the CVS shops so quickly there's no time to paint the door jambs. Not this time. All but one of the MDXs got a complete color change. The S.H.I.E.L.D. graphics weren't applied by CVS but were later painted on by the film company's art department.

Not finding any aftermarket fender flares readily available for The Avengers Acura MDX, Salerno and his crew took flares originally intended for a Ford truck and cut them up to fit the Acura. Once the prototypes were stitched together, molds were made from them and fiberglass flares were fabricated for all 10 of the vehicles.

The front push bar started life as standard pieces from the Go Rhino! catalog, with an upper bar added and LED foglamps bolted. The sidestep bars also came from Go Rhino! and were cut down to fit the MDX. A Whelen Engineering LFL Liberty LED light bar is mounted atop each MDX.

Wheels that looked right and had the correct offset for the Acura MDX also proved impossible to locate. So CVS had wheels custom-made by a company called Intro Wheels and painted them black except, of course, for the Acura logo on the center caps. The 18-inch wheels are inside 265/65R18 BFGoodrich All-Terrain radials.

Height-Challenged
The problem with those BFG tires is that they stand 31.7 inches tall. That's about 2.5 inches taller than the standard 255/50R18 all-season Bridgestones that are standard equipment on the MDX. So for clearance and appearance, the S.H.I.E.L.D. MDXs needed their suspensions raised.

"We disconnected the sway bars," explained Salerno, "and disconnected the ride control system. We built custom spacers for the front and rear and installed air shocks. The entire idea was to get the suspension down and, therefore, the body up."

CVS's handiwork gives the MDX a tough off-road stance that looks great on film.