rcawood
08-09-04, 04:14 AM
My wife Sherry (it’s her vehicle) picked up our new Black 05 V6 SRX with all options (except Ultraview Plus & Tow Package) on Wednesday night. We originally wanted the "Plus" but after seeing one we were not very impressed. The tow package (which we wanted) is not available with no known production date.
If anyone is interested I will do a separate post on my evaluation of the SRX versus the others we considered which were primarily Touareg, RX330, MDX, Trailblazer and Tahoe/Suburban.
We left Friday morning and returned Saturday night on a 1,000 mile round trip. Five people on board. Mileage was 20 to 22 for the trip (see my separate post in the mileage thread).
I have not had a chance to read the entire manual and the Nav manual was not even included (the dealer has ordered), so maybe some of my issues will be cured after going through the manuals. Please chime in where my ignorance means I have missed features that would fix the issues below.
The Bad & Things I Would Like to See
The information display (non-map) on the Nav screen is very poor. You must pull up the screen and push different individual buttons to see things like trip odometer and fuel economy. You can only see one of these info fields at a time. If you want to be able to see a clock in the car (with temp) you cannot display anything else without going into the info screen and pulling it up (it would then go away if you pull up the map or radio screens). A separate clock would help a lot. It would also be nice if the info screen actually showed the readouts of the various info fields without pushing an individual button. That way you could see 4 or 5 pieces of info at a time. As is, it is much “clunkier” to use than non nav trip computers.
The high window sills. I really hate this new automotive trend of decreasing glass area. This along with the difficult to use info screens are probably the only two aspects of the vehicle that really bug me on a "regular" basis.
Third seat worked passably for my 14 year old 5’5” daughter (she had the whole seat). However, it really is a four passenger vehicle which is disappointing given its size. The middle seat in the second row is not comfortable. This was no surprise to us as we were aware of the seating limitations before purchase. It is not all that different from most other vehicles including many other SUV’s and most large cars. We will mostly only be transporting 3 people. Still I can’t get over how many huge vehicles on the road can’t comfortabley carry 5 passengers.
I would rather have the third row seat split as opposed to being power operated. However, because the leg room is so limited, anyone other than very small children will need the whole seat anyway.
The dead pedal has carpeting below the vinyl section – sure to get very dirty. Why would they not have made the whole thing vinyl? Anybody have a solution for this?
Tow capacity is ridiculous compared to competition.
The well documented extra wide rocker panels.
The equally well documented NAV that has many features blocked when moving (the passenger should be able to operate these controls – I would be fine with a lockout if no passenger were in the front seat (the SRX already knows if the front passenger seat is occupied).
Auto climate control doesn’t seem to work all that great (too much user intervention on temp settings because outside temp has changed). Also to much air through upper vents when weather is cool.
Interior storage could be better but it is decent.
Options that would be nice
A power liftgate would be very nice for Sherry. It would also help keep hand prints off the hatch.
Keyless entry/start (it is such a cool feature)
Power tilt/telescope wheel with memory (not a big deal for us)
The Good & Things Done Right
Seat comfort both front and second row (for two) is very good. Lots of vehicles have good front seats but the SRX’s second row is the best I have been in.
Great ride and handling (we have the Mag ride). The SRX impressed me much more than during our test drives. We did not test drive a Magnetic ride control equipped vehicle so I think that had a lot to do with it. I drove the entire way (up and back) with no fatigue.
Power is very good. With performance at this level with the V6 I could not justify an additional $5,000 for the V8.
Quality/Luxury feel to the driving experience. Great door close sound/feel.
Quiet
Nav – Great feature. Led us directly to the address 500 miles away. Some issues with selecting bypasses around cities even though shortest distance is selected (anyone else have this)? The voice commands seem like they should be very cool once learned. I am reserving full judgment on this particular Nav system until I can learn more about its operation.
Ultraview – a huge selling point for us. Very nice whether open or closed.
Rear DVD – Nice but way to pricey (as with all such systems)
XM – This is much nicer than I thought it would be. We may end up keeping our subscription. We also like the RDS but not enough stations broadcast RDS info.
Some people don’t like the interior or think certain aspects seem cheap. I don’t agree and generally rate the interior as quite good.
All the personalization functions (Driver 1 and 2) are very nice and quite extensive.
Summary
Absolutely fantastic vehicle. Very, very pleased with our purchase. GM really hit a home run by producing a world class product. I think its major problem will continue to be pricing. GM priced this vehicle to high compared to its competition, particularly considering Cadillac’s current status (recovering) in the luxury vehicle pecking order.
If anyone is interested I will do a separate post on my evaluation of the SRX versus the others we considered which were primarily Touareg, RX330, MDX, Trailblazer and Tahoe/Suburban.
We left Friday morning and returned Saturday night on a 1,000 mile round trip. Five people on board. Mileage was 20 to 22 for the trip (see my separate post in the mileage thread).
I have not had a chance to read the entire manual and the Nav manual was not even included (the dealer has ordered), so maybe some of my issues will be cured after going through the manuals. Please chime in where my ignorance means I have missed features that would fix the issues below.
The Bad & Things I Would Like to See
The information display (non-map) on the Nav screen is very poor. You must pull up the screen and push different individual buttons to see things like trip odometer and fuel economy. You can only see one of these info fields at a time. If you want to be able to see a clock in the car (with temp) you cannot display anything else without going into the info screen and pulling it up (it would then go away if you pull up the map or radio screens). A separate clock would help a lot. It would also be nice if the info screen actually showed the readouts of the various info fields without pushing an individual button. That way you could see 4 or 5 pieces of info at a time. As is, it is much “clunkier” to use than non nav trip computers.
The high window sills. I really hate this new automotive trend of decreasing glass area. This along with the difficult to use info screens are probably the only two aspects of the vehicle that really bug me on a "regular" basis.
Third seat worked passably for my 14 year old 5’5” daughter (she had the whole seat). However, it really is a four passenger vehicle which is disappointing given its size. The middle seat in the second row is not comfortable. This was no surprise to us as we were aware of the seating limitations before purchase. It is not all that different from most other vehicles including many other SUV’s and most large cars. We will mostly only be transporting 3 people. Still I can’t get over how many huge vehicles on the road can’t comfortabley carry 5 passengers.
I would rather have the third row seat split as opposed to being power operated. However, because the leg room is so limited, anyone other than very small children will need the whole seat anyway.
The dead pedal has carpeting below the vinyl section – sure to get very dirty. Why would they not have made the whole thing vinyl? Anybody have a solution for this?
Tow capacity is ridiculous compared to competition.
The well documented extra wide rocker panels.
The equally well documented NAV that has many features blocked when moving (the passenger should be able to operate these controls – I would be fine with a lockout if no passenger were in the front seat (the SRX already knows if the front passenger seat is occupied).
Auto climate control doesn’t seem to work all that great (too much user intervention on temp settings because outside temp has changed). Also to much air through upper vents when weather is cool.
Interior storage could be better but it is decent.
Options that would be nice
A power liftgate would be very nice for Sherry. It would also help keep hand prints off the hatch.
Keyless entry/start (it is such a cool feature)
Power tilt/telescope wheel with memory (not a big deal for us)
The Good & Things Done Right
Seat comfort both front and second row (for two) is very good. Lots of vehicles have good front seats but the SRX’s second row is the best I have been in.
Great ride and handling (we have the Mag ride). The SRX impressed me much more than during our test drives. We did not test drive a Magnetic ride control equipped vehicle so I think that had a lot to do with it. I drove the entire way (up and back) with no fatigue.
Power is very good. With performance at this level with the V6 I could not justify an additional $5,000 for the V8.
Quality/Luxury feel to the driving experience. Great door close sound/feel.
Quiet
Nav – Great feature. Led us directly to the address 500 miles away. Some issues with selecting bypasses around cities even though shortest distance is selected (anyone else have this)? The voice commands seem like they should be very cool once learned. I am reserving full judgment on this particular Nav system until I can learn more about its operation.
Ultraview – a huge selling point for us. Very nice whether open or closed.
Rear DVD – Nice but way to pricey (as with all such systems)
XM – This is much nicer than I thought it would be. We may end up keeping our subscription. We also like the RDS but not enough stations broadcast RDS info.
Some people don’t like the interior or think certain aspects seem cheap. I don’t agree and generally rate the interior as quite good.
All the personalization functions (Driver 1 and 2) are very nice and quite extensive.
Summary
Absolutely fantastic vehicle. Very, very pleased with our purchase. GM really hit a home run by producing a world class product. I think its major problem will continue to be pricing. GM priced this vehicle to high compared to its competition, particularly considering Cadillac’s current status (recovering) in the luxury vehicle pecking order.