Crossovers reek of Saturday morning, and I crave the hot neon and shiny black of Saturday night — as long as you have Old Poppy in by 10. Sadly, I don’t party hearty anymore or scoot across sawdust floors for the shaky security of a good barstool. But, hey, I’m not back in parent prison either.

Most downsize, car-based, faux-SUV crossovers come standard with tennis-shoe scuffs on the seats and grass ground into the carpets. I see long Saturdays of Krogers and Targets and windy ballfields in most of them, of smiling weakly at really bad Black Eyed Peas and Beyonce songs. (“I’d absolutely love another tune from Midnight Red, kids.”)

Still, crossovers — SUV-like trucklets built on car platforms — are the hottest-selling vehicles in the auto industry. They can’t be ignored. And I have to admit the 2014 Acura MDX is a bunch better than its vanilla envelope suggests.

Like Audi and BMW, Acura regularly transplants car performance features to its crossovers. While still well short of what you get in a real sports sedan, the all-new MDX can sparkle, even on a Saturday night.

The MDX is Acura’s best-selling vehicle, attracting more than 50,000 sales last year, which for Acura is no small matter.

For 2014, Honda’s luxury division increased the length of the MDX by 2 inches but reduced its width by 1.3 inches and height by 1.5.

More important, I think, Acura’s engineers managed to excise 300 pounds from the MDX while also increasing the volume of the interior — up 7.4 cubic feet to a total of 90.9 with the back two seats down.

In all honesty, the dark metallic gray MDX All-Wheel-Drive Tech I had recently didn’t look much different than the 2013 model. It felt big at 4,300 pounds, as if it had traded its rowdy Antone’s T-shirt and faded jeans for a bulky blazer and slacks.

The vehicle’s Darth Vader grille — which once looked like it had been designed at a California beach bash — is more subdued now. In fact, the MDX’s enormous headlamps with five projectors each and little eyelashes scratched into the covers might be the vehicle’s oddest feature. Its broad, flat hood and relatively short front fenders seemed pretty conservative, as did a conventional character line cut above polished door handles and slightly flared fenders. Actually, with its large doors and slab sides, the MDX appeared to be the kind of vehicle you could easily lose in a Kohl’s parking lot.

But look a little closer. Its 24 5/55 tires on 19-inch wheels had some heft to them and the engine sings high and sweet.

Handling

Here’s the deal with Acuras: Despite their somewhat clumsy exteriors, most offer excellent overall street performance, including the MDX.

Although the 3.5-liter V-6 in the MDX is only rated at 290 horsepower — down 10 from last year — Acura has worked to reduce internal friction in the engine.

Coupled with the MDX’s loss of weight, the result is an estimated 0-to-60 time of 6.5 seconds, according to Motor Trend, and fuel economy of 18 miles per gallon in town and 27 on the highway. Both are some of the best in the midsize crossover class.

Just as important, Acura used more high-strength steel and lighter suspension components in the new MDX, making it livelier to drive. Would you have expected any of that in most lumpy crossovers?

Turn into corners briskly, and the MDX remains pretty composed for something with the dimensions of a tool shed. Although it leans some in curves and hard corners, the all-wheel-drive MDX stays well-planted. As you might expect from a two-ton, all-wheel-drive crossover, the steering felt thick — a bit like stirring a new can of good paint.

But it was quick and fairly linear in that the tires responded proportionately to movements of the steering wheel and didn’t feel dumbed down by electronics. The reasonably good handling was a bit of a surprise because the rock-solid MDX rides well, grooving along on smooth pavement or stepping over bumps with confidence. As well it should, some might say. At $49,460, the MDX had a high enough price that it can’t make excuses for falling short.

The sophisticated V-6 and six-speed automatic, for instance, felt especially polished. Quick to leap away from stops, the torquey engine pulled with such smooth thrust to its 6,000-rpm red line that it felt almost like a small V-8. Likewise, the light-gray interior looked pretty tony.

Interior

My MDX had three rows of seats, with a new one-touch folding second row. The second row, which also reclined, slides forward nearly six inches, Acura says. I fit OK into the third seat, but I had some real difficulty getting out. For just a minute, I thought I might be stuck permanently. At least my hair matched the seats.

Up front, a classy black instrument panel flowed gracefully into a big, bold center stack with a nifty recessed navigation screen at the top. Acura eliminated many of the buttons on the center stack, consigning them to a line on those irritating computer menus. Consequently, I never found a way to control the fan speed. The radio was also difficult to tune on the roll, so I just listened to NASCAR full-court wrestling or something like that.

But the interior had good-looking medium-brown wood trim and smooth, nicely stitched gray-leather seats. In addition, the lower dashboard and bottom portion of the door panels were cast in gray with matching black uppers. It all felt pretty rich.

Nonetheless, I would find it hard to pay 50 large for a crossover.

But here’s our situation, fellow campers: Where are we possibly going to find a zippy, decent-handling, near-luxury sports sedan with 90 cubic feet of space behind the front seats?