It was a bittersweet December day when Acura announced that
2013 would be the final year of production for its ZDX, midsize luxury/sport
crossover. Personally, the ZDX represents the type of guy you’d never
catch behind the wheel of a station wagon or even an SUV for that matter. He’s more
of a coupe type of man. He appreciates performance and (from time to time) the
convenience of five doors and a little extra trunk space. But never too much!

Conceived at the brand’s design studio on the outskirts of
Los Angeles, the ZDX made its debut at the 2009 New York International Auto
Show. It rolled out and the crowd went wild over the sexy, sleek coupe-esque
design. With hidden back doors and sitting on a set of 19’s in a pit-bull
stance that immediately suggested the ability to grip the road like a glove in
hand, ZDX had grown men in the crowd smiling like fat kids about to receive a
second slice of cake!

Visually, Acura’s $51K (starting) ZDX is obviously a direct
comparison to BMW’s $60K (starting) midsize luxury/sport crossover—X6, which
debuted a year before ZDX at the 2008 North American (Detroit) Auto Show. Both
are about 78 inches wide, with a height of 62.8 inches in the ZDX and 66.5 for
the X6. BMW offers 3.0 liter gas and diesel I6 engines, with a 4.0 liter V8
option, moved by a six or eight-speed tranny. ZDX holds it down with a 3.7
liter V6 gasoline engine and a six-speed tranny. Funny thing is, ZDX’s  more powerful Drive by Wire, 3.7L engine is
government rated for fuel economy the same as the X6’s 3.0L. Both have all
wheel drive: Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD) in the ZDX, with “x-Drive”
all wheel drive in the X6. I’m just saying…

Aside from the fact that everywhere I drove in the ZDX, they
were sweatin’ a brotha—“they,” as in the young, the old, him, her—they all had
something to say about the hot looking whip I was mackin’ that day! And almost
every time, my response would be: “Seeing is nice, but driving is amazing!”

Not to sound sexist at all, but the feel of ZDX is quite
masculine. Straight up, it handles on point and on purpose. Never flimsy, never
wishy-washy and with much solitude it handles! A steady tap of the accelerator
and 270 lb. ft of torque coming from the 300 horses under the hood will synchronize
to soar. In the process, ZDX’s agility provides the ability to zip and zoom
through traffic when necessary, or superfluously on the open road when it’s
just you, the sun, the moon (shining through the panoramic glass roof) and the
music streaming via Bluetooth—be it from Pandora, iTunes or XM satellite (does
anyone even drag around/play CD’s any more?).

In case you’re not in the mood to
scroll through the selection of songs stored to get to your theme song for the
day, just call it out and leave it up to Song By Voice to do the searching. And
when it all feels so good that you find yourself caught up in a moment of
euphoria, it’s good to know that Blind Spot Monitoring, Forward Collision
Warning and Land Departure Warning will never take breaks when your behind the
wheel.

As for interior aesthetics, let’s just say that it’s obvious
to you (and the lucky passenger) that you’re far from the bottom of the barrel.
Best of all, it feels personal in terms of the cockpit fit: There’s your side
and the passenger’s side, with a center stack separating the two. In past years
some have found Acura’s center stack controls to be a bit overwhelming, in
comparison to German manufacturers, where one control performs multiple functions.
Acura’s opts for the “wysiwyg” effect. In other words, the controls are very
straight forth, so that the one button you see, is what you get. And of course
you can never go wrong when the leather seats are also cooled.

Yeah, this is one whip I will definitely miss the privilege
to test. But stay tuned for several new debuts from Acura this year, including
the visually stunning replacement to the RL—the 2013 RLX.