These days Acura Canada is running around touting its 25th anniversary, but there is nothing much to celebrate. Sales are down 17 per cent on the year, market share is off 20 per cent and Audi has zoomed past Acura, outselling Honda’s premium brand by nearly 3,000 units through Sept 1.

To juice sales, Acura is offering a celebratory 25-month lease which might be a good idea if you qualify for the factory lease support that can slice the lease rate to 0.01 per cent. Or you could just go for the MDX with its $8,000 non-stackable factory incentive.

The MDX is a very solid vehicle, though it is getting a little long in the tooth. This SUV is reliable and safe and drives well.

Speaking of reliable, this week in Globe Drive I generated a list of top-quality models. Vehicles that don’t break are “deals” by definition so Deals of the Week thought it might be good to dig into three reliable deals.

If you want a top-quality and reliable roadster, look no further than the Mazda MX-5. It has a $3,750 Retail Cash incentive on cash purchases that can be combined with an additional $2,000 Dealer Signing Bonus. It seems dealers might only be in a position to negotiate half of that $2,000 bonus, however. Consult the dealer here.

The Nissan Maxima is an extremely well built large car, it looks good and Nissan Canada has a $5,000 factory incentive tucked into the truck for dealers to negotiate. Cash purchases, of course.

And Deals of the Week has been seeing a lot of Ford Flex crossover wagons zipping about. Made in Canada, this is one nicely built and amazingly functional family vehicle. And a deal with the $1,655 Employee Pricing discount on the base model which can be combined with a $500 Retail Appreciation Bonus.

I’ve heard more than my share of cracks about the Flex looking like a hearse. Trite and not very creative. I can tell you this: owners love them, absolutely love them.

As usual, Deals of the Week obtained pricing information from www.carcostcanada.com. Here are the numbers.

2011 Acura MDX

• MSRP: $52,800

• Freight, dealer prep, air conditioning tax: $1,995

• Dealer discount (estimated): $2,000

• Factory discount: $8,000 (Non-stackable trading dollars factory-to-dealer rebate)

• Taxable subtotal: $44,795

• Total price with 13% HST: $50,618.35

2011 Mazda MX-5 GX

• MSRP: $28,995

• Freight, air conditioning tax and dealer prep: $1,795

• Dealer discount: $1,300

• Factory discount: $3,750 (Retail Cash factory-to-dealer)

• Factory discount: $2,000 (Dealer Signing Bonus factory-to-dealer (Note: dealers may be in a position only to negotiate $1,000 of this))

• Taxable subtotal: $23,740

• Total price with 13% HST: $26,826.20

2011 Nissan Maxima

• MSRP: $38,800

• Freight, dealer prep and air conditioning tax: $1,720

• Dealer discount (estimated): $1,000

• Factory discount: $5,000 (Non-stackable trading dollars factory-to-dealer rebate)

• Taxable subtotal: $34,520

• Total price with 13% HST: $39,007.60

2011 Ford Flex SE

• MSRP: $29,999

• Freight, dealer prep and air conditioning tax and Green Levy: $1,550

• Employee Pricing discount: $1,655

• Factory discount: $500 (Ford Credit Retail Appreciation Bonus factory-to-dealer rebate)

• Taxable subtotal: $29,394

• Total price with 13% HST: $33,215.22

Pricing information source: www.carcostcanada.com. Calculations based on Ontario customers. Please note that while the information above is accurate at the time of publication, incentives are given at the discretion of individual dealers, and may be changed or discontinued at any time. Dealer discounts are negotiated with the customer on a case-by-case basis.