It's odd that I am here. I have said over and over that I would not 1) buy a Japanese vehicle; 2) would never buy a SUV type vehicle and 3) would never buy a car with all the electronic gizzies that infect almost everything being built.

So far I have been able to adhere to my stated positions. That was until I "discovered" something called the Acura ZDX this week.

Now, why I had NO idea why I didn't know what a ZDX was, since I am a reasonably inquisitive car guy, and have been for, oh, longer than most people on this list have been alive by a factor of two, beats me. But there I was staring at the screen at something called a ZDX and I'll admit I was curious. So I read and read, and for the past week have read everything I could find and so I am now here. Because I am contemplating actually trying to see one of these things in person.

The first and most important question I have is whether anyone on this list who has owned his/her ZDX for longer than a few months, have actually driven the car in bad weather. I would prefereably like to hear from someone who owns and drives their car somewhere that bad weather is a fact of life for more than ten minutes and I do NOT mean a sudden thunderstorm. You see, we live in Maine and that poses two major issues. First of all we have snow and ice and extreme cold for four months out of the year and secondly, the nearest Acura dealer is 250 miles from here, so even getting to look at one is problematic. Top Gear profiled the BMW X6 in ice and snow and it failed miserably. That's a deal killer if the Acura doesn't perform well on snow, ice and in really serious winter. Anyone know anything from real experience. Not all AWD systems are equal, and we are starting out here with a lot of experience with Audi Quattro, and most systems are a step down from that.

The other question I have is with regard to the wide sills. They won't bother me, but my wife might object and she has a back disc issue so climbing in and out is a consideration and one reason the lower slung cars and true sports cars are ruled out. I am thinking those cute little running boards that I have seen on a couple of cars listed for sale on line might fiill the bill for egress and entry for my wife.

I also wonder about how good the headlights are. We have severe, real dark here and there are miles and miles where there are few streetlights and no other lighting along the road, so headlights are extremely important. I have been looking closely at the nose of the ZDX trying to figure out how I might mount large driving lights on the front, and it isn't promising. I suspect the headlights are a compromise at best but anyone who has had experience driving in rural areas in the dark or REALLY dark nights might offer some comments here. It appears from what I have read so far that most owners of these cars are in warm climates and in primarily urban or suburban areas.

Any comments will be appreciated.

 

I supposed that like any other acura with shawd it will be great in snow. As far as rear accessibility, it is pretty bad. There is a special way of getting in and out but it needs effort. I think getting the running boards make it a bit more difficult to get in and out.

 

ZDX does really well in bad weather, SH-AWD system is great in safety (but not so great in performance). Headlights are also good among other HID lights. Getting in and out is quite unusual, its best to try it in person especially if someone has issues with spine

 

I have stock tires on the factory 19's and it does great in snow. I have the running boards and wish I didn't. It is much better to get in and out of a ZDX without them. I just deal with it but am considering taking them off. As stated, getting in and out of the back seat isn't the best.

 

Thanks to everyone for their responses. Yes, I get the back seat issues. That's not really a limiting factor for us as we use the back seats folded flat or not mostly as cargo area so the two rear doors are merely hatches to give access to the rear cargo compartment. The area through the rear hatch appears to be sufficient for most of our cargo needs. The reason this car is of interest is BECAUSE of it's style and BECAUSE it isn't an SUV. If it looked like anything else, or wasn't what it is, I would have passed on by a long time ago.

As far as getting into the rear seats is concerned, if you think the ZDX is tough you should try to get into the back seats of a Porsche 928! BTDT!

I appreciate the comments about the running boards especially. The high and wide sill may end up being a deal killer in the end. I doubt that my wife will drive this car often at all, but if it is a real struggle for her to enter or exit either front side, then that might well make the entire contemplation foolish fantasy.

I tend to have a rather blind faith in the general integrity of Honda products in general. I have never owned one, and in point of fact, the only Japanese car I have ever owned (in 50 years of owning cars!) was a new Mazda RX7. otherwise I have always owned German or US-made (and branded) vehicles. But my daughter bought a used Acura Integra as her first, "grown up" car when she moved to Florida out of college. She had good luck with that car and she and I drove it to Florida. A friend of mine had an Acura Legend (I think it was: BIG expensive sedan when they first came out). Oh, and yes, all my experience with ANY Jap car is very old, I know.

Right now our "fleet" is composed of two Audi's. My wife's car and the car we use the most for errands, shopping and so forth, is a 1994 Audi 100 Avant Quattro. The car is closing in on 200,000 miles and we have over the years we have owned it, spent the money to keep it mechanically as new. Wonderful car that performs today much as it did when new. But the body will need refurbishiing and some of the smaller pieces will need to be replaced as they are just getting old. Eventually it will be time for it to go away, but not for a while yet. The nice thing about this car is that it can carry an awful lot. There is room with the seats down and the front passenger seat reclined to carry quite a lot of lumber or stuff that is a bit more than ten feet long. It's the vehicle that we use to go to Sam's Club for major shopping once per month, a chore that the Acura would be expected to perform, and which from the videos I have seen, will be well within it's capacity capability. There are only two of us. I expect when we buy the Acura, we will no longer be hauling stuff from Home Depot that requires the length.

My car, which is seldom driven at all, is a 1990 Audi V8 Quattro. 88000 miles only, and a wonderful, over the road in any weather car. The Audi V8 Quattro is getting quite rare. Mine is arguably one of the best in existence, and I may keep it a while. Too soon to tell right now.

I am also interested in knowing what "real world" fuel mileage is like for you with ZDX's. The EPA estimates mean nothing, so anyone who has done some distance traveling on a regular basis, I'd like to know. We live ten miles from the regular grocery store, so neither of our cars gets started unless it is going to be driven at least ten miles one way and with no traffic lights. The Avant gets a regular 22 miles per gallon and has done so for the twelve years we have owned it (it had 39,000 miles on it when I bought it in Kansas City. It was seven years old and had a perfect, unbroken service history from its one owner at that time). The V8 gets a bit better gas mileage, and I suspect it is because the 3.6 litre V8 has an easier time moving the relatively heavy car as opposed to the 2.8 litre V6 in the Avant. I use regular gas in both of them, although the manuals all state 91 octane and I have found the difference to be negligible. It really looks to me as though the Acura will really require premium fuel, though from what I read in the owners manual and saw written elsewhere. Any comments?

 

You must put premium fuel in the zdx yes. No lower than 92 octane. 93 is best. I get about 24 highway with ACC set. And 17 city.

 

This is a decent resource to get a feel for the kind of gas mileage folks are getting with various cars.

http://www.fuelly.com/car/acura/zdx

It won't tell you what kind of mpg you can expect on the open road, but it's decent for a look at the overall picture. Of course the sample size is pretty small for the ZDX, but that's to be expected.

 

Well, ah, no. The ZDX owners manual (P. 17) says the following: Unleaded gasoline with a pump octane number of 91 or higher
is recommended.
Use of lower octane gasoline can cause occasional metallic
knocking noise in the engine and will result in decreased engine
performance.
Use of gasoline with a pump octane less than 87 can lead to
engine damage.

Thus the message here is that less than 91 octane might develop pinging in the engine, and really low octane gasoline is really not good the for the engine.

In point of fact there are very few gas stations that sell higher octane than 91 in the entire northern New England area, at least outside of the major cities, which here would be Portland. 91 octane fuel is often not available outside of towns of some size, but so-called "premium" fuel (which is 91 octane) is not hard to find. It often is considerably more expensive than mere "regular" which is 87 octane, but for me it isn't really a deal breaker at around 7000 miles per year.

 

Actually, 91 octane is the manufacturer recommended fuel across the entire Acura line, so the ZDX is no different from their smallest four cylinder equipped sedan...whatever that might be.

 

That's weird you all don't have 93 octane up there? Most of our premium on ohio wv and Kentucky is 92 or 93 and all I've ever used. I would LOVE to use 89 haha and pay less but don't want to risk anything less than 92 or 93.

 

Drive the ZDX year round in Wisconsin. I drive pretty aggressively and get 17mpg avg for my commute (often with Windows down and sunroof open). It's mostly on the highway but its 8 miles cruising up to 65 and then back down pretty quickly... when I drive long distance on the highway I get in the low 20's for mpg. It's very poor gas mileage. It's the only reason I don't like the thing.

Beyond that - it dominates the snow. It dominates weather. It's a flat out tank in any situation. It's definitely a sporty SUV. Has high enough ground clearance to drive fresh after a huge snow storm and doesn't look like a soccer mom SUV.

Those are the reasons why I bought it. I'm satisfied with that many pro's to have the one con of gas mileage.

 

Thanks very much. This is precisely the information I was looking for. For our purposes the fuel mileage you are getting is about normal, although I'd imagine our overall average would be in the low twenties which is the same that we get with the cars now. Fuel mileage is only a part of the equation and with less than ten thousand miles a year, not a very important consideration. We're going to have to make a trip to see one of these in the flesh sometime, although that will mean traveling to Boston. I wish I could rent one for a week or two as that would either cinch the deal or kill it. Failing that, I'd like to see one and stand next to it, but that's probably unlikely without a road trip!