New York 2009: Acura ZDX Crossover

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 look slightly better in this instance; we'll see about production) the frontal view is actually good looking. For Acura of late, that is truly an accomplishment.

As Honda puts it, it does blur the distinctions between the three categories of coupe, sedan and crossover sport-utility vehicle.

There is an bit of awkwardness in the rear view that's hard to pinpoint. It's handsome though, with an aggressive stance and rakish roof line. I like the rear taillights a lot. The ZDX takes the mix and match theme even further then it's inspiration, the X6.

Check out the lack of rear door handles! They did that to try to offer a "coupe" look. Interesting to see if they'll somehow find a way to carry that over to production, like with hidden handles or something.

The interior is basically 100% percent production, and it looks nice. Nice color scheme, and a cleaner, more flowing design. An improvement over the more messy recent interior designs. Acura definitely isn't my school of interior design thought but I can appreciate where they are moving to improve.

With the ZDX, the BMW X6 gets it's first challenger. I don't see any that are really on the horizon either so it looks like the two will be having this "segment" - if you can call it that - to themselves. Apparently Acura expects this car to be a very big model for them when it's released.

I admit it looks pretty good right now but Acura better be careful the ZDX makes a good transition from concept to production. I could see production realities not being kind to this one.