TORRANCE, Calif. — The shape that would eventually find expression in the design of the 2010 Acura ZDX was drawn by Michelle Christensen some four years ago, when she was still a student at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif.

Was it, back then, just a seductive form? Or did she see it as a vehicle?

“Yes, I saw it as a vehicle, a driver’s car,” said Christensen, 29, the first woman designer at Acura’s styling studio here. “I saw it — very much — as a road trip car.”

While Acura sells the ZDX as a “passionate getaway” for well-heeled couples, Christensen sees the car, which made its debut as a design study at the New York auto show last year, as more of an urban escape pod. She envisions it going from Los Angeles to Lake Tahoe — or farther, to the rugged mountains of Utah.

That’s the route I decided to take for a test drive.

The notion of panoramic views is an important attribute of the ZDX’s design. The designers tried to convey this with expansive windows, a glass-covered roof and a see-through rear hatch. Sitting inside, I was reminded of the City of Los Angeles Domeliner cars used a half-century ago by the Union Pacific Railroad.

The glass-swathed Domeliners once covered the route from Southern California to Salt Lake City and continued east, giving passengers picture-window views of landmarks that included the Hollywood sign in the hills above Los Angeles, the Mojave Desert, Las Vegas, Utah’s red-rock Dixie region and the Wasatch mountain range.

Unworthy compromises

The sleek Domeliners are only memories now, but Interstate 15 more or less retraces their route. The ZDX proved to be something of a modern-day Domeliner on my drive along this scenic Interstate, but, I found, the sloping roofline and coupelike profile of this 5-passenger crossover had created some unwanted design compromises.

Its high haunches partly block the view in the outside mirrors. There’s no wiper to clean the broad span of glass on the rear hatch; Acura says a rear wiper would have compromised visibility. (And rain, ice and snow wouldn’t?) A wiper also would have interfered with air flow over the roof to the rear spoiler.

The sunroof opens a mere 10 inches, because of the roof’s significant slope. The glass panel over the rear seats doesn’t open at all. “The curvature of the roof dictated how far the sunroof could slide,” an Acura spokeswoman, Jessica Fini, said. “We didn’t want to put the sunroof as an inner sliding sunroof because that would compromise headroom.”

Rear passenger headroom, like the rear legroom and the cargo capacity, is already cozy enough. That’s a result of the ZDX’s tapered tail, created by a roof that plunges toward the rear bumper in a fashion increasingly evident in models from makers like Audi, BMW, Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz. The design also inhibits entry and exit through the rear doors. But I liked the cleverly disguised rear door handles, which are positioned to the rear of the window glass.

Good on- and off-road

Still, the trade-off of rear-seat roominess for widescreen vistas seemed worth it as I drove through the pine forests and over towering mountain passes — worth it for those sitting in the front seat, at least.

On those mountains roads in Utah, I appreciated the ZDX’s well-sorted handling and standard all-wheel drive, especially when snow started to fall. The 19-inch Michelin all-season tires were not the optimum solution for snow or for maximum cornering performance on dry pavement, but their relatively low rolling resistance helped me to achieve the promised 23 mpg federal rating on the highway, even while averaging nearly 80 mph on a three-hour highway stint. (Speeding? No, some sections of Utah Interstates have 80 mph limits.) The rating in town is a mediocre 16 mpg.

There’s certainly too much sport-utility vehicle in this 4,462-pound crossover for it to be considered a sporty four-door coupe, as Acura would like shoppers to see it. But even with 58 percent of its weight over the front wheels the ZDX’s cornering seemed surprisingly neutral. The electronics of the all-wheel drive system can shift up to 70 percent of the engine’s torque to the rear wheels when needed; combined with nearly 8 inches of ground clearance, the ZDX can tackle some light off-roading.

In most important details, the ZDX is essentially a stylish version of the MDX, Acura’s seven-passenger crossover. The two share a unibody chassis, with a MacPherson strut front suspension and a multilink independent design at the rear.

They also share powertrains: a 300-horsepower, 3.7-liter V-6 hooked to a six-speed automatic transmission. The transmission can be shifted manually with steering wheel paddles; left in Drive, it shifts intuitively and is well matched to the engine.

The ZDX interior is as high-style as its exterior, although the number and complexity of its dashboard and steering wheel controls are sometimes daunting. The car comes in three trim levels, starting with the nicely equipped $46,805 base model. I drove both a ZDX with the technology package, which starts at $50,805, and one with the top-end advance option, which had a $56,855 window sticker.

Of the two, I preferred the less expensive car with the Technology package because I didn’t like or need the warning lights of the blind spot detection system. Nor did I want the electronic controls of the active-damper suspension, adaptive cruise control or the overly sensitive Collision Mitigation Braking System. More than once, the cruise control and braking systems startled me when they activated unexpectedly, apparently after sensing cars too close in adjacent lanes.

The technology package includes the must-have features like extra-cushy leather seats and interior trim, a 415-watt stereo and a voice-recognition navigation system.

As a value proposition, the sleek ZDX compares favorably with the large and unlovely BMW X6. The X6 starts at about $57,000, where a loaded ZDX tops out. Conversely, a loaded X6 can exceed $90,000.

The ZDX is a trickier sell against the similarly shaped Honda Accord Crosstour, which offers the same family values of quality and reliability while undercutting the price of its Acura cousin by at least $10,000.

2010 Acura ZDX

Base price: $46,805

As tested: $50,805

Type: Front-engine, all-wheel-drive 5-passenger crossover

Engine: 300-horsepower, 3.7-liter V-6 six-speed automatic transmission

Mileage: 16 mpg city, 23 mpg highway