One of the most unsuccessful product duos of the past five years has undoubtedly been the Acura ZDX and Honda Crosstour (originally Accord Crosstour). The two models were Honda’s attempt to break into the mid-size crossover segment with a mainstream and luxury offering.
It hasn’t worked out so well – they’ve tried everything with the Crosstour, such as renaming it, decontenting and offering a base model four-cylinder.For 2013 they’re trying again by making it look more rugged. It is the biggest update, and they signaled that the ZDX would be getting one as well.
Naturally we assumed that there would be a renewed push with the ZDX as well. Turns out that isn’t the case. Despite getting an update for the 2013 model year, Acura has announced that the ZDX is being axed. That isn’t any surprise on the sales front: last year only 1,564 models were sold.
That makes it one of the rarer mainstream models out there on the market. As far as positioning, the ZDX was at the top of the Acura lineup. It was being pitched as a halo model of sorts, with sporty driving characteristics and a bit more capability thanks to the high ride-height.
The problem was that it never offered practicality of any sort – the rear seat was cramped in nearly every dimension and ingress/egress was terrible. We reviewed it for a week and found it to be the best example of Acura’s design philosophy. That wasn’t enough to save it though. At the $50,000 mark it was just too expensive to become mainstream. The 2013 model includes updates to the front end (a toned down “Power Plenum” grille) as well as the technology package.
Given that it has been cut though, we doubt sales will see any sort of increase. We still think the ZDX is very cool as far as design, but it truly is a very niche product that never caught fire like rivals such as the BMW X6 did.
