Road Test: 2004 Cadillac SRX Video
Learn all about the 2004 Cadillac SRX...
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00:00 Hi, I'm Jack Keibler, Detroit Bureau Chief for Motor Trend, and what you're looking at
00:07 here is the 2004 Cadillac SRX.
00:11 Cadillac's SRX is built on the Cadillac Sigma platform.
00:13 This is the same platform they're using under the CTS Sport Sedan, and they will use under
00:18 the new Cadillac Seville.
00:20 You can get it in rear drive or all-wheel drive.
00:23 The plan here is to be where the competitors aren't.
00:26 There are full-size sport utility vehicles that are bigger, and there are smaller crossover
00:30 vehicles built on cars.
00:32 This is somewhere in between.
00:39 Under hood, we've got Cadillac's Northstar V8, 4.6 liters, all aluminum, 32 valves.
00:46 If you're more interested in fuel economy, you can go with a smaller 3.6 liter V6, making
00:51 260 horsepower.
00:53 What we're talking about here with 320 horsepower is performance that rivals the best sport
00:57 sedans on the road today.
00:59 The Northstar's probably the best engine at General Motors right now.
01:03 Obviously, the SRX is definitively edgy.
01:07 In fact, it looks like you could cut yourself on these fender edges.
01:11 How about these tail lamps, vertical tail lamps, and up front, vertical headlights?
01:16 Wayne Cherry, the Vice President of Design at General Motors, has said that both vertical
01:20 headlamps and vertical tail lamps are going to be the cues of Cadillacs of the future.
01:27 This is a five-passenger version of the SRX.
01:30 When you get the seven-passenger version, there's a little switch on the side here,
01:34 and you push it, and it powers up the rear seat.
01:36 Now, the seats aren't real large, but they're a decent enough size for, say, teenage kids
01:41 or younger children, and that may be all you need.
01:45 The SRX seats are pretty neat.
01:47 If you've got small children and you don't need the leg room, you can move the seat forward.
01:52 If you've got bigger children in the back or adults, you can move the seat back into
01:55 position, and then if you have cargo, longer cargo you need to store, you can drop the
02:01 seat like that.
02:03 Pretty neat.
02:07 The interior of the SRX is kind of controversial.
02:10 It shares its interior with the CTS sedan.
02:13 What we've got working here are two different textures, one sort of cross texture on the
02:18 dash, and then sort of a pebble finish on the center stack.
02:22 Cadillacs convinced it's the style for Cadillacs of the future.
02:25 We've also got some nice warm wood touches on here, a really nice luxury cue, and of
02:30 course a navigation system in case we get lost.
02:37 One of the neat technological tricks in the SRX is something called magnetorheological
02:42 shock absorbers.
02:44 These have got a special fluid with a metal particulate in the shock oil, and using magnets,
02:51 they can change the flow of the fluid through the shock absorber and change the damping
02:56 characteristics of the shock on the run.
02:59 What that means is if you're on a smooth road, the system can let the vehicle move up and
03:03 down smoothly on its suspension system, but if you're in an area where you've got a lot
03:07 of rough surfaces, the system will cinch down the shock absorbers, close up the damping
03:12 rates, and give you a nice, taut ride.
03:15 It's exactly the kind of stuff that you look for in a sports sedan and don't normally find
03:19 in a sport utility vehicle.
03:21 So why did Cadillac go all the way to Germany to develop a vehicle like the SRX, what's
03:25 basically a sport utility vehicle?
03:27 Well, there are a lot of new vehicles out there that are called crossovers.
03:32 They're based on automobile platforms, and customers are asking for vehicles that are
03:36 more agile today, with better braking, better damping control, and more precise steering.
03:41 A place like the Nürburgring, which isn't like any other racetrack in the world, it
03:46 has rough surfaces, it has a lot of elevation changes, it's an extremely challenging race
03:51 course, and it's exactly the right place to take a vehicle if you're going to work on
03:54 the suspension system and steering and braking system.
03:57 [Music]
04:04 (whooshing)