2007 Acura MDX

Extra-strength crossover. This new ute crosses more lines than a Sunday-afternoon quarterback on a run to the Super Bowl.

Tall-box SUVs have been done to death. What if, for a change, you wrapped one in a jelly-bean shape? Would anyone buy it?

More what-ifs: Let's say you then pulled the trucky SUV soul out of the jelly bean and replaced it with the DNA of an all-weather grand tourer. Would anyone step up to that counter?

We'll soon find out. Acura's new MDX has broken out of the pseudo-truck box and into fresh territory. It combines the control-tower outlook of an SUV with the interior space of a three-row wagon and the chassis muscles of a sporting sedan. The larger V-8 Audi Q7 offers this blend of virtues, too, at a significantly higher price.

2007 Acura MDX

Unlike the traditional SUV, which has no sport and too little utility, the MDX is a roadgoing athlete clad in extreme-sports attire. The cockpit is completely divided, sports-car style, into separate spaces for the driver and passenger. The plush leather front buckets — and the second row as well — have enveloping shapes with plenty of side support. The large, round instruments have legible and unfussy numbers in the manner of classic sportsters. And the panoramic windshield showcases an exhilarating view of the world around. The curve of its pillars and the sweeping arcs of the dash strike up such a sporting mood as you drive that, when you're done, you expect to step up when you step out.

But no, this is a much taller machine than it drives, so much so that our feet hit the pavement like dropped potatoes on the first few exits. The roofline, at 68.2, is about 10 inches taller than the typical full-size sedan

2007 Acura MDX

Forget the ponderous moves you associate with tall vehicles. The MDX is quick on its Michelins (18-inch wheels are standard), accelerating to 60 mph in 7.3 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 15.7 seconds at 90 mph. Braking from 70 mph takes 177 feet, a performance in the top half of its class. Grip, as measured on the skidpad, is 0.84 g, exceptional for a tall car on four-season tires.

2007 Acura MDX

Acura credits several miracle ingredients for the superb handling. All MDXs have what's called Super Handling All-Wheel Drive, a clever system of varying the driving inputs to each wheel according to computer sensibilities. A dashboard icon lets you watch it in action. For handling on dry pavement, the system drives the outside rear wheel 1.7 percent faster than the front wheels. The effect here should be rather like the "stagger" used in circle-track racing, where a larger-diameter tire is fitted to the outside rear as a way of counteracting understeer.

We'd suggest one improvement in the torque-allocation software. When driving straight and using more than half-throttle on worn blacktops, the steering gets weavy, a symptom of torque steer that would surely disappear if more of the driving force were distributed to the rear.

2007 Acura MDX (Interior)

The test car was equipped with the optional Sport and Entertainment package, which includes Acura's take on "smart shocks," another miracle ingredient, this one to control two things: suspension motions and also the dynamic forces into the tire contact patches. A console-mounted switch lets you choose comfort (read "just right") or sport (masochists only). Maybe at Germany's Nürburgring — final suspension tuning was done there — the firmer setting would be helpful, but we'd never select it for road driving.