Cadillac SRX test drive since 2005 SUV

American gods

The American boss laid his legs in cowboy boots on the table and said: to build a car no worse than the BMW X5. Its deputy agreed: yes, only taking into account that we will trade it mainly in America. Yes, yes we will trade in our market a car similar to X5, ”the deputy confirmed. Zam, - but do not forget that the sales leaders here are the Japanese. You came up with everything correctly, ”the subordinates stood up and said,“ but we are Americans, so everything that makes up our automotive industry must be left. ” So, according to a very controversial version of Nikolai Fomenko, Cadillac SRX was born.
Tutty-Frutty. In the American automotive industry of the 50-60s-all pop art. And cars are like museum exhibits that reflect delight, rapture and everything else related to Elvis Presley and hairy groups. The main thing was the beauty of design, which was fundamentally different from European and others.
The technical result was then achieved by the simplest ways. If the machine should be fast, then the motor in it should be 8 liters. And it doesn’t matter that he eats 35 gallons per 100 miles. The constructive, which is usually checked in motorsport, was its original. And he is also peculiar: on indie, dytons and other events, drivers in general always go in a straight line. The local buyer wanted comfort. And he received it. If the American car is put in conditions of small slalom, we all know how it will end. You turn left - the car lies on the left side. After that you turned to the right, then again to the left, again once to the right ... And the car was still there where you sent it with the first movement. He continues to follow you two turns back. The body moves separately from the steering wheel with huge rolls.

The answer to Chamberlain. Since then, much has changed. Big swinging ships sailed away - you will not return. But the memory of them was preserved not only in our hearts, but also in the brains of employees of factory design bureaus. The ji-um design called Cadillac SRX turned out to be similar to the Bolshevik answer to Chamberlain. Ah, they have X5 there. Yes, we can weave these x5, like a gun. And crushed. Made SRX. I would formulate the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating SRX as follows: some the guys remained unknown, and for them we specially sing this song. As a result, the 58-year-old gentleman, who with great difficulty built an empire of eight stores, in which eight sellers and one accountant work, will finally be able to realize his dream of a luxurious car.
And so I take it marvelous for a test drive. I open the door. Absolutely American door. Not at all the same as, say, in the BMW X5. There the door is heavy in everything, including in a handle, poured by the weight of metal, European thoroughness and German pedantry. In the SRX, like the rest of the current American cars, the door itself is heavy, stuffed with all sorts of trash in large quantities, but the handle is made of some penny metal. Nothing has happened yet, the car is new, but there is already a sense of rubbish. Fear is real: if I am a hand by the handle, it will fly aside.
A glass hatch extends along the entire length of the car. Considerations about the functionality of the hatch (conveniently on safari to shoot animals from photoregies) are overlapped by fears for its safety in conditions of dense urban development.
When you find yourself inside the car, you understand that it was done under the slogan and we all know about this Europe. The difficultly given European asceticism is striking. SRX does not have the famous plastic equipment that is always abundant in American machines: pockets, hamburgers stands, cup holders for Coca-Cola, Monetnitsa, Keyroot, Oblasts ... Sometimes you wonder how much it should be in the salon of bespectacled, drinking and burning . Everything is different here.
The phenomenal impression makes a dry torpedo. When you see such a panel of devices, you understand that this car is at least a younger brother of God. He does not need anything. All information about its power, strength, operation of electronic systems, computer, etc. etc. - All this is hidden from the driver's eyes. He is not supposed to know anything about the car. He is divine. But in fact, this is more reminiscent of the development of tape recorders of electronics and spring with several control keys. A light turn of the console is another hint. A hint of sports. But in fact - a certificate of Cadillac's lag in design from the same Europeans. BMW had a period when they twisted the consoles in the top five and a three -piece. But it was an absurd undertaking. And she was thrown at BMW. And they picked up on GM.
At the wheel of SRX, you immediately recall the combat and combat training courses associated with the driving Hummer. Planting greatly resembles Hammer. You are drowned in a deep nest. If you do not guarantee the placement of your chair in space, your nose will touch the lower part of the steering wheel. This circumstance does not depend on the growth of a person. Maybe this is due to new security standards that allow you to feel like in a tank.
A magic button is found under the steering wheel of SRX. A very important detail for understanding the portrait of the SRX owner, as Ji Em sees him. American, in the view of General Motors, is a large person. Therefore, its entrance and exit from the car is a difficult occupation. First of all, he needs to raise his short edematous legs. Then, in some way, to shove his puzo-zade pushed by the McDonalds (this has a single whole for the target audience). In a word, it is difficult for some to get behind the wheel and fall out because of it. And then the fantastic mechanism of Ji Em, which controls the coordinated movements of the seats, the steering wheel and the pedal node, begins to act. It is worth turning off the ignition, as it immediately begins to move in different directions so that you can leave the car with maximum comfort. The system acts regardless of the current dimensions of the driver. Whether he is a man of a centner or a 40-sized man. But the system of computer change in the rigidity of the suspension allows you to travel on Russian roads without risk to get tired at the first hour before death.
Very even Possible. I really love American engines. They are long, elastic. And from the bottom to the top have uniform power characteristics. The Northstar 4.6 motor is really beautiful. It is smooth, but very powerful. To match him (in terms of enthusiasm) and a gearbox. In the Testronics mode, you can wrap the engine up to 8500 revolutions, and it will not switch to the second or third gear. And it's great. But there is another drawback. If you are not a centaur who has grown up with your car, it will be difficult for you to understand what kind of program you are moving on. We'll have to peer into the display to the rubber in the eyes and colic in the stomach to see the figure the size of an ant.
I found the button on the ceiling, above the rear view mirror. It is clear that no one seriously assumed, as if they would use a janitor. It is understandable. The machine is not designed for long trips in adverse weather conditions. Its maximum is a distance from the house in Beverly-Hils-2 to the nearest supermarket. Move only in sunny weather - should be written in the operating manual for this car. But you never know what.
If I converge paints, then it’s not very much. Life, as usual, is brighter. To get good illustrations, at the request of photographers, I tried to twist a car on a track snowing with pieces of ice. After 10 minutes of exercises, the electronic controller turned off the engine. The inscription on the display shocked me. Ice Possible, it was written there. Of course, I did not know that. And it was difficult to see anything. Snow fell from the sky so that not a single plane could come off from Vnukovo. After analyzing the dangers, the computer decided to warn the driver. But he did not talk about them directly. Perhaps ice, - the computer decided after a long thought. Although nothing 100 percent can be argued. In our Los Angeles, this happens infrequently.
I do not know how the algorithm for the operation of auxiliary electronic systems was assumed - for example, the Stabilitrak exchange rate stability system. But it turned out like this: you can send a car anywhere without resistance on her part. Traction Control plays 2 seconds in the life of a driver. That is, with the traction control, the machine is placed on the ears for 10, and with the included - in 8 seconds. Low bow to engineers. The ABS system works the same way as it worked on the Jeep Cherokee Pioner model of 1987. At the same speed, with the same sound and the same stubbornness.
 
It is difficult to be a cadillac. In the place of GM bosses, I would completely focus on the release of huge monsters a la Escalade. Cars in which at a speed of 100 km/h there would be a feeling that we will die exactly in a minute. But at a speed of 60 km/h it would be soft, like an inexpensive vibrator model for a novice user. So that in this car, the cup holders crawled everywhere so that the computer would always write different nonsense, so that inside there is a disco with a dozen columns and DVD screens.
And I will build cars like SRX, I would give to some Asian manufacturers.
 
Text Nikolay Fomenko, photo Andrey Danilov

Cadillac SRX
 
V8 gasoline engine, with variable phases of gas distribution.
Working volume (cubic cub) 4572
Power (L.S. at rpm) 325 at 6400
Moment (nm at rpm) 427 at 4400
The permanent drive is complete
Gearbox 5-speed automatic, with the possibility of manually selection of gears
Length/width/height (mm) 4950/1844/1722
Wheel base (mm) 2957
Equipped mass (kg) 2015
Minimum road clearance (mm) 208
Maximum speed (km/h) 240
Acceleration to 100 km/h (c) 7.2
Fuel consumption (city/highway, l/100 km) 14.7/11.8
Cost $ 71,000

Forbes: Although I did not shake the SRX navigation system too hard during a test drive, it was already clear that the card was not as detailed as in other cars. For example, in my Lincoln Aviator, the name is highlighted on the map and my street in Jersey and the adjacent streets too. And in the SRX, only the outlines of the streets appear on the screen, but not their name.

Automobile: In the Cadillac advertising video, the driver moves on SRX in complete silence until he stops and the sound is catching up with the car. Although this is a small stretch, the SRX really demonstrates a fair for cars of the Sport Utility Vehicle category. He can stand up for himself in almost any company. Compared to the excellent exterior and amazing dynamic qualities, the design and quality of materials inside the cabin disappointing.

Car & Driver: Despite the almost perfect ride and management, SRX is not a sports car. Especially while traveling around the city you feel how hefty, dense and fleshy. This is the first car of the SUV category that Cadillac did for himself. And despite a certain dampness, SRX attracts its elegance and numerous virtues. More importantly, the feeling that it is really an expensive car.

Business magazine: Cadillac SRX resembles a piece of granite, which instead of construction fell into the hands of an avant-garde sculptor. And from the heavy block that was supposed to lie in the foundation of some monumental designs, a sculpture in the Haytek style arose. Or, rather, an architectural work that would be supposed to decorate the entrance to the Museum of Modern Art. For ... deliberately rude and sharp, but for some reason not very serious new Cadillakovo style, genuine American power enclosed in the bowels of the Northstar eight-cylinder engine is felt. All this style is only a wrapper of a beautiful and kind heart-motor heart. Everything can be forgiven for this candy: and cheaply like plastic, and a strange architecture of the central console, and not the quietest salon in its class.

Gazeta.ru: Cadillac SRX ... is very good for the driving manner inherent in the nervous city manager. That is, on the one hand, it is completely logical to go without rushing on it, gradually-not one of the surrounding vehicles will pester with blinking headlights and buns, it is clear: a person while driving solves some important issues, pester not to pester costs. On the other hand, it is logical and rushing dashingly, snooping from a row to a row and depicting a driver's dare. People understand: just a good mood reigns on Cadillac SRX or the driver was filled with the goal of getting somewhere on time-and again, you should not intervene.

At the wheel: Cadillac SRX and he himself, as it were, strives to splash through the sharp outer edges of the body. The impression that these frames barely restrain the internal mass of comfort and power. The lifetime monument of the Avtor with the player of the fanfare in honor of its own existence. What else to expect from Cadillac? A traditional predisposition to 92 gasoline (with despair in the voice)!

Cadillac SRX owes his new style to the designer with Russian roots Kipa Vasenko. It was he who created and first shown the Cadillac Evoq concept car in 1999 at the Detroit in 1999. Vasenko had a hand to SRX. There was no question of any average design. SRX had to turn out bold, impudent, to immediately stand out in its rather crowded segment.
For the first time, CADILLAC SRX uses Magnetic Ride Control (MRC). This system allows you to automatically change the characteristics of the suspension depending on the load and condition of the road.
According to Car & Driver, the Cadillac SRX car became the best in the Sport Utility Vehicle category in 2004. In Russia, Cadillac SRX was officially introduced at a car dealership in St. Petersburg in 2003.
CADILLAC SRX is available in two versions: C V-shaped six with 260 hp. and rear -wheel drive, as well as an all -wheel drive SRX with the V8 motor (325 hp). Only the second option is delivered to Europe and Russia, and mainly in a rich configuration. Among the amenities available to the driver: the system for maintaining the stability stability Stabilitrak, a two-zone climate control, a cruise control, 6 pillows, leather+erysipelas, an audio system of Bose with a CD changer and eight columns, a parking radar electric drive adjustment of the seat and pedal unit, alloy-deposited wheel discs .
Cadillac SRX managed to blacklist the consumer. Last year, the General Motors concern recalled about 12 thousand cars to eliminate the defect in the brake system.
According to the North American Road Safety Administration (NHTSA), several cases were recorded when the anti -lock brake system (ABC) was triggered with a delay of 1.25 seconds. The defect was caused by an error in the software and was manifested only in the first few seconds of the trip. Nevertheless, the defect managed to cause one accident - the American SRX owner crashed into the wall of his own garage.
In standard equipment, SRX has a regular hatch. As an option - a roof with an Ultra View electric drive, the area of \u200b\u200bwhich is almost 0.5 m2. The roof is also equipped with retractable sunscreen curtains. Another addition to Ultra View is the ventilation hatch over the third number of seats.

The SRX designer did not have internal freedom. I have seen enough and now draw myself - this is the creative principle of its creator

If you are not a centaur who has grown up with your car, it is difficult for you to understand what kind of program you are moving

We thank the company General Motors of the CIS, (095) 785-1100, for help in organizing the filming.
 

A source: "Autopilot"