Video: 2024 Acura ZDX Type S: Balancing Act

And much like the rest of its lineup, it is quicker, it's nicer, and it's more expensive than the Honda. But how much nicer is it? Well, that's what we're here to find out, out here on the rough and tough streets, just outside of Santa Barbara, California, where we have one of these ZDXs all to ourself for a little while. Let's check it out. (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) Let's talk power and powertrain. The ZDX is offered in two distinct flavors at launch with the base A-Spec, offering both a single and dual motor setup. The single motor ZDX sounds pretty pokey with 358 horsepower at the rear wheels and 313 miles of range. But we're gonna guess that most will spring for the dual motor A-Spec, which boosts power to 490 horsepower and 304 miles of range. But I would highly suggest going with what we have here, which is the spicy Type S. Ooh! At launch, it is the most performance-oriented ZDX you can buy with the dual motors boosting horsepower by just 9 horsepower to 499 horsepower, not 500. But keep in mind, torque does jump from the dual motor A-Spec's 437 pounds-feet of torque to the Type S's 544 pounds-feet of torque, which makes this the torqueous Acura ever put to production. But do keep in mind that range does drop to 278 miles. And it's not just power that makes the Type S. As you've probably noticed, we've got big old six piston yellow Brembo calipers at all four corners. There's the requisite Type S badging on the front wings here. The front fascia and the rear fascia are a little bit more aggressive, obviously. You can add some optional extras like Carbon Fiber Applique's rear spoiler. But the most important bit is that underneath all this extra badging and stuff, there is a Performance Air Suspension that when put in Sport mode, will drop the car by around 0.6 inches and of course, stiffen things up. But Acura's taken this kinda seriously. So there's even a performance wheel entire package that in addition to adding some gloss black wheels, you've got sticky continental performance tires at all four corners. Now we're gonna talk about the stuff that Acura really doesn't want us to. Just like the Honda Prologue is really a reworked Chevrolet Blazer EV, the ZDX is a ground up reskin of the Cadillac Lyriq, riding on the same chassis, battery pack, motors and general structure under the Acura metalwork. They've done a good job Acurafying both the exterior and interior. But if you know what to look for, there is still some very clear General Motors stuff to be found. This is a nice interior, but most of what you see is plugged straight from GM's catalog. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's something you just gotta keep in mind. I mean the infotainment display, the driver display, the signal stock, the shifter stock, the physical controls for the climate functions, all of this is straight from GM's catalog. I mean the start button, the virtual backup camera here, it's got OnStar. The good news is, it also has its own version of GM's trick hands-free Super Cruise cruise control system that works just as well in the ZDX as it does in the Chevy and the Cadillac. And it's all bolted together with the quality expected of both the price and the badge. So with all that in mind, let's talk about how it actually drives. Of course, I'm restricting my opinions of the ZDX on what we're driving today, which is the ZDX Type S. I think one of the trickiest things newcomers face is understanding what Acura's Type S badge is and isn't. It is more performance-oriented than a standard Acura and more performance-oriented than the A-Spec that also gets confusing. That's just an appearance package. So it is gonna have more power, it's gonna have better suspension, it's gonna have better tires, better driving assists. But what it's not gonna do is try to compete with BMW's M Division with Mercedes-AMG, or Audi's RS Division. This is running right down the middle, cutting the difference between performance and daily usability. I would say on average, Acura Type S products are more livable and comfortable than your average BMW M or AMG product. They're also all heck of a lot cheaper on average. So what does that mean for the ZDX Type S? It means for a heavy EV crossover, it's gonna be more fun to drive than you might expect. I will say temper your expectations. This is still a rather digital experience. I would say the majority of EV's performance or not are kind of artificial to drive. That's not saying it isn't fun 'cause it is fun, but there's a definite disconnect from the steering, the braking, the accelerator pedal, and that's just something that's insurmountable for the most part for modern performance EVs. With that being said, when this is in Sport mode, which affects the steering weight and affects the go pedal response, it's got some juice with 500, or sorry, 499 horsepower, not 500. Obviously this being an EV, the most impressive bit is the instant access to that 544 pound-speed of torque. And I know on the highway I was leaving our camera car for absolute dead when I would smash the go pedal. It's definitely gonna be one of those experiences that pushes you back in the seat under full acceleration. But it is not as painful as the super high performance EVs that are out there, which again is right in line with Acura's Type S brand. So makes total sense. Steering is on the lighter side but it weights up nicely in Sport mode. I will say that the brake pedals blending between the pure regenerative braking setup and the physical brakes is really well done. A lot of EVs will have you jerking forward because their brakes are so darn touchy, but not with the ZDX. The brake balance is quite nice, quite intuitive. I had no problems almost immediately acclimating to the pedal. And since those bright yellow six piston Brembos are not just jewelry for the wheels, this thing does stop quite confidently and aggressively if you need it to. And as I said before, it does handle better than you might expect a car of this weight and size, but that does not come at the expense of a smooth and composed ride. I left the suspension in Normal mode when I was driving primarily in the highway and no complaints. I mean very smooth, very composed, excellent body control, especially over some those expansion joints in the highway, impressively smooth. The same can be said for the suspension's Sport mode. We're in Sport mode right now and we're going over some, eh, a little bit of a rough pavement, not too bad, and went to no problem. Bump, vibration, and resonance from the road pretty well isolated. And since this does keep your drive mode locked in until you kind of manually select it, I can imagine more than a few owners are gonna forget that they left it in Sport mode because it is still very quite comfortable. Again, it feels quite confident but you can't even remotely begin to compare this dynamically to the new Integra Type S, that's ridiculous. And obviously that's the point. Acura's closest analog to this would be the MDX type S, except that is a three-row larger gas-powered crossover whereas the ZDX is, well, it's a two-row electric crossover. Can't really compare the two. So it's kind of in the league of its own in the Acura lineup. And while you are enjoying the refinement and the comfort, don't forget that you can always... Whoa, not bad. Yeah, very comfortable, pretty exciting. And any EV worth its salt in my opinion, has a one-pedal driving function or as close as you can get to one-pedal driving function. And the ZDX has three settings, just like the Prologue, Off, Normal, and High. I've been driving around between Off and Normal and I just manually had to go in and set it to High 'cause we're on an incline right now, and yeah, I mean that drops it basically from 60 to 50 really quite aggressively. Kind of gotta be careful, cars falling behind me, I don't wanna have 'em get too close. I would say for normal city driving, spoiler alert, Normal is probably the one you want to go with. High can be pretty aggressive. But if you'd like more regen quickly on demand without having to hit a button on the screen, there is an active regen paddle right on the left side of the steering wheel that you can hit to activate more regen. While that is very cool, it's really nothing new and not surprising since while the bones do come from a GM product, that regen paddle has been on a lot of EV-oriented GM products in the past. Speaking of pricing, this fully loaded Type S sits at just over $75,000. Is it worth it? It is a bit, but it really fully depends on your needs and expectations. But for my full thoughts and reviews, you gotta go to cars.com/news. (upbeat music)