Car Throttle

In the marketplace, Acura has traditionally positioned itself below competitors like BMW and Mercedes-Benz, but is working to reach higher with new models. The ZDX is one of the vehicles the brand is reaching higher with. The ZDX hit the market in late 2009 as Acura's take on a crossover with coupe-like qualities, similar in approach to BMW's X6. With the ZDX, Acura dared to be different. Did the gamble pay off? To find out, we spent a week with the ZDX. We wouldn't say Acura's biggest problem recently has been daring to be different though - Honda's luxury division certainly has set itself apart from the pack with the styling language of its latest vehicles. That differentiation has achieved questionable sales results. The ZDX defies expectations and

Acura's latest product, the "four door sports coupe" ZDX, is set to go on sale December 15th of next month. With the on-sale date fast approaching, the company has released pricing information and fuel mileage estimates on the ZDX. This follows BMW's release of pricing information for the 5-Series Gran Turismo. Acura has chosen to price the ZDX right in the middle of the $40K-range, coming in at $45,495. At that price, standard features include "the world's longest panoramic glass roof" and a hand-stitched leather dash, center console and door panels. The ZDX comes available with one engine across the lineup - a 3.7-liter VTEC V-6 that provides 300 horsepower and 270 foot pounds of torque mated to Acura's Super-Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD). It also achieves class leading

Last month, the ZDX made its first appearance as a production model at the Orange County Auto Show. The release included some of the details that have been missing from past announcements.

A new "category" is emerging in the United States for vehicles that just refused to be categorized (if that makes sense).

BMW arguably was the starter of this "segment" when it introduced the X6 coupe-like crossover. The BMW 5-Series GT and BMW X1 are other vehicles that have followed after the X6.

Now Acura has entered the fray with its new ZDX crossover. Like many others,  I expected the ZDX to be a volume model for Acura. Speaking with Acura's PR department however revealed a sales projection of only 6,000 units per year. While  internal projections

I'll be the first to admit that I simply don't understand the direction "crossovers" are traveling in. It seems like they're becoming less and less useful, and more and more like rolling fashion statements - for fashion victims.  Or the fashionably ignorant.  Anyway, while it's fun to revel in shock at the fact that this segment of gas-guzzlers hasn't died out yet, that's not news.  That's an opinion.  What is news (apparently) is this new Acura ZDX. Let's start off on the right foot here: dumb name begats dumb car?  I know the theory might be a stretch - there have been some awesome cars with awful names (Acura's own Integra comes to mind) but let's take a vote: who's tired of meaningless alphanumeric model designations?  Why

The on sale date for the Acura ZDX crossover (find and put exact) is drawing near, and Acura has decided to unveil the production vehicle to us all. Since it's the initial announcement, it's without the full gamut of press shots, pricing information and the like. Acura will want to drag out that stuff until a bit closer to the launch. It's all about press coverage! When the ZDX Concept debuted, it was viewed to be very close to the production version inside and out. It was one of those thinly guised "concepts" that really aren't concepts at all. In addition, we had more than that to go on - spy photos have caught the car and shown it to be extremely similar to the concept that

Acura first showed it's ZDX Concept at the New York International Auto Show only about 2 months ago. I've always seen the vehicle as a step forward for the brand in styling and design. Much better then the recent designs we've seen coming out from the company. However, while Acura made it clear that it was just a thinly-veiled production preview, I commented that things could get ugly pretty fast in the transition between concept and production. From the spy shots at least, it seems like they are hewing as close as possible to the concept and that's a good thing. You can't see much in the way of details but it's looking pretty close to the concept. The ZDX is part of a new strategy for increasing Acura's volume. Acura hasn't been

Thanks, BMW! With the X6 (and 5-Series GT, for that matter) you've helped start a whole new generation of vehicles that are utterly confused as to what they are. It's not a crossover, or a wagon. It's a "provocative luxury four-door sports coupe - plus". Got that? Umm, OK. Acura says it's a "segment-bending"vehicle, and that it is. While a concept, it's a very good preview of the production vehicle that goes on sale this fall. Acura hasn't made any secret that it's thinly-veiled either. It's certainly unique, and at least with what I'm seeing in this concept, world's better (Acura TL, RL; I'm looking at you) then the styling language as applied to the current lineup. Except for the grille insert piece (which somehow manages to