As a new style of car, most people won't take to the 2010 Acura ZDX at first glance. Its sleek body styling says sports car, but hefty dimensions and big wheels suggest an SUV. But we grew to like the looks after successive viewings, if not the practicality of the design.
As we showed the car to friends and relatives, they inevitably harrumphed with approval about the luxurious cabin from the front seat, but then noted the low door sill, sometimes with a head butt, on getting into the back seats. We merely mumbled that, as the ZDX is something like a sports car, nobody is really supposed to sit in the back.
Weird styling aside, there is very little difference between the underpinnings of the ZDX and the 2010 Acura MDX. And there was a lot we liked about the latest MDX.
Notably, the ZDX gets a feature called Song By Voice as part of its iPod integration. Similar to Ford's Sync technology, you can tether an iPod to the ZDX's USB port, and then say the name of an artist or album to start playback.
We hooked up an iPhone to the car, and after it took a minute to index the music library, we were able to say "Play The Clash" to get songs by this band playing. The system worked well, even with more-difficult band or album names.
Other audio sources in the ZDX include satellite radio, Bluetooth streaming audio, a single-disc player that can read DVD-audio discs and MP3 CDs, along with 15GB of music storage space on the car's own hard drive, the disc player serving as a ripper to save music to the drive.
