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Mom Wants 2010 Acura ZDX to be a Family-Mobile
Oct 30 2009 by Lori Hindman
I’m contrary by nature. If someone tells me I can’t do something I want to do it just to prove them wrong. When the good people at Acura told me their new crossover, the 2010 ZDX, wasn’t designed for families, my response was, “Oh, yeah?! Watch me put kids in there!” I mean, the ZDX is a pretty-looking, sporty crossover, and there’s no way I’m going to be excluded from the party. So there (I never said I was mature).
The ZDX sports a 3.7-liter V-6 engine and standard all-wheel drive. Add in the 7.9 inches of ground clearance and you have a vehicle that can deal with nearly any situation.
During my brief test drive, the ZDX was comfortable, quiet and oh-so fun on curvy roads. A dual-setting suspension package lets you to select a sportier or more relaxed ride.
The interior has a clean, somewhat spacey feeling. The center console actually looks like Cylon technology (nerd alert: “Battlestar Galactica” reference). The rich, leather seats were comfortable and supportive. A panoramic moonroof brings in all the light you could ever want, and a rolling sunshade blocks most of it out at the touch of a button. Thanks to all of the glass and a sleek, slanted hatchback in the rear, visibility is pretty good. There are all kinds of cool storage compartments in the cargo area, which is good sized.
Acura has integrated some cool new voice control technology into this crossover. They’re calling it the Voice-to-Song system, and it lets you make musical selections by voice commands. It worked for me, but only if I followed the “script” exactly.
Acura’s new crossover is designed to be a sports coupe on a crossover frame. While it technically seats five, all of the focus is on the front seats. It has what I’m calling, 2½ doors, which is two regular-looking front doors and two teeny, sneaky almost-doors in the rear. At first look, I thought it was a two-door vehicle. The rear-door handles are hidden and set high up at the very edge of the window. I’m sure it will be tough for little hands to manage.
The engineer I rode with on my test drive told me he fits three child-safety seats in the backseat of his ZDX. I need to see that to believe it. The backseat is roomy enough but the uber-narrow doors have to make loading and unloading kids and child-safety seats a challenge. The Latch connectors are easy to access, though.
Lucky for me, my kids are out of car seats, so hopefully I’ll get a ZDX for a longer test drive. Then I can really prove Acura’s marketing people wrong.
