This is the nicest thing I drive at work, and it sucks.

"Land_Yacht_225" (nadenator) 12/19/2015 at 11:40 • Filed to: None

2

17

So, I drove a 2016 SRX 3.6 yesterday.... No improvement.

If you know me, you know I love old Cadillac and am highly critical of new Cadillac. And this car is why that criticism comes with damn good reasoning. It isn’t a Cadillac.

The ride is bouncy, but not in a wafty boat kind of way, but in a stiff pickup truck kind of way. The steering is too light and has too much play at speed, and is liquid concrete boosted in the parking lot....seriously, I hurt my shoulder throwing this thing into a parking space.

The interior isn’t really a nice place to be either. The gear shift is solid enough to look at, but the switch on the back feels plasticy and hollow. And the movement isn’t thick and chunky like a Mercedes, it feels thin and it clicks and snaps as it moves between positions. If that’s how it is, it’s poor design. If that’s been done in just 10,000 miles of use by people who can afford to rent a Cadillac, that’s poor build quality. I’m going with the former because the stuff in there isnt really put together right. It doesn’t fall off, I’m just saying that seams don’t match up. The curvature of the outboard air vents doesn’t match up with the door for example, and that leaves a pretty big oddly sized gap.

And you can’t see more than half of the stuff on the CUE screen if you’re wearing sunglasses, the other half just gets that purpley blurry look that certain coatings get when you look through UV filtering glass. And that’s never been an issue in a Lincoln or a Chrysler product. So it’s not my sunglasses.

The low trim gauges look cheap and flimsy, and operating the lower screen is more complicated than it needs to be. And the cruse control controls are counter intuitive. You’d think they were touch capacitive like everything on the center stack, but they arent. Those switches move side to side as marked, and then up and down.

And the engine was probably the worst part. It just fights you. The pedal needs a lot less effort, but once you manage to get it to 50 or even 75%, the engine doesn’t want to rev. It will peg at 3000 RPM and schlep the car up to speed with an unpleasant noise. There’s no torque to use. That 3.6 is a dog. The Impala Limiteds, that’s the old body style they still produce for the rental car companies, more freely give their power than this “Cadillac” does.

Moral of the story, buy an ML. Or a GLE. Whatever Mercedes is calling it now. Or a Buick Enclave, had one of those yesterday too. Very very niiiiiizzzze.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Land_Yacht_225 12/19/2015 at 11:42

0

If I had to, I’d even buy a Lexus RX before one of those.

Nibby > Land_Yacht_225 12/19/2015 at 11:47

2

Persuaded my cousin to get a new XC90. She LOVES it. It’s really impressive inside and out.

jkm7680 > Land_Yacht_225 12/19/2015 at 11:48

0

Yeah, those are shit.

Your boy, BJR > Land_Yacht_225 12/19/2015 at 12:04

0

Get up get get get get down

SRX is a joke in yo town

Get up get get get get down

SRX wears the out of date crown

Sam > Land_Yacht_225 12/19/2015 at 12:06

0

Shame, when I was working I got to drive these all the time.

DrScientist > Land_Yacht_225 12/19/2015 at 12:31

1

Is it an SUV? Is it a minivan? Is it hideous?

At least we know the answer to that last one.

I hate these things clogging up city streets pretending to be limos or town cars, blocking line of sight.

Also, that vent/door mismatch is crazy horrible

Party-vi > Land_Yacht_225 12/19/2015 at 12:46

5

“I love old Cadillac and am highly critical of new Cadillac.”

You love badge-engineered FWD old-people mobiles vs new good cars with actual build quality and competitive features?

gin-san - shitpost specialist > Land_Yacht_225 12/19/2015 at 13:10

0

When I was at the Renaissance Center a couple of years back I sat in the ATS and was underwhelmed by the interior. I didn’t see the CTS (I must’ve missed it) but I wonder if that one has the same issues - they could potentially have changed it with the recent refreshes they’ve done.

I actually preferred the interiors of the Buicks I sat in; I couldn’t imagine buying one since they’re not my kind of cars but for interiors they seem to be better than the Cadillacs I sat in.

Unfortunately their C7 was on a stand and locked so I couldn't sit in it.

Land_Yacht_225 > Party-vi 12/19/2015 at 13:29

0

Yes, I like classic conservatively styled vehicles with excessive interior space which devote more attention to the expected attributes of american style luxury; like comfort, ride quality, and ease of use, rather than optimistically designed, generally poorly executed copycat BMW/AMG Mercedes products which don’t have a chance in hell of stealing customers away from the established brands.

The final generation of the DeVille was the first production automobile to offer night vision. It had an available HUD. It was one of the first cars to have full LED tail lights. It was one of the first cars to offer ventilated seats. The DTS trim had your beloved CTS-V’s magnetic ride control suspension as an option, albeit an early version. So did the Seville STS from 2002.

Boy, those don’t sound like competitive features at all.

The GM K Platform was exclusive to Cadillac from it’s conception. And though at the end they were all G platform derivatives, the DeVille’s 115 inch wheelbase version of the platform was Cadillac exclusive. The DeVille, Seville, and Eldorado also shared no sheet metal with any other vehicle GM produced. Nor did they share any large interior components like steering wheels or seats. Any vehicle with an optional Northstar was borrowing the engine from Cadillac, not the other way around.

That sounds exactly like badge engineering.

Know your history.

*mic drop*

Party-vi > Land_Yacht_225 12/19/2015 at 13:41

0

If BMW and Mercedes were copycat cars they’d make shitty products just like Cadillac did, but they don’t. Cadillac used to be the standard of the world, but the ‘70s and beyond showed they were resting on their laurels. You’re delusional if you think Cadillac has some untarnished reputation.

Hey look, a Cadillac.

And another Cadillac.

JR1 > Party-vi 12/19/2015 at 14:43

0

I am so happy I did not live through the malaise

MachineReplica > Land_Yacht_225 12/19/2015 at 15:00

0

This is the most biased, useless review I’ve ever read of anything. How do you hurt your fucking shoulder parking a car? My Miata has no power steering and during race season it has 9” wide wheels with 225 BFG Rival S (one step below a slick). That requires some effort while parking. You sound like an old lady with frail bones. The SRX can’t be kept on dealer lots. They sell themselves. That’s not always an indication of how good a car is, but it is an indication as to how much it appeals to the mainstream buyer. A car that is bouncy, difficult to drive, etc. will not appeal to the mainstream buyer and that means it won’t sell. I’ve not driven an SRX, but I have driven the Chevy version with the 3.6 and it is not how you describe it at all. I even drove the “Sport” version, and it wasn’t even bouncy or bumpy or whatever the fuck you said.

This is some grade A bias confirmation bullshit right here. You wanted to hate the car, so you did.

Battery Tender Unnecessary > Land_Yacht_225 12/19/2015 at 15:01

0

OOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH. Holy shit. I couldn’t for the life of me get the cruise control on a 2016 Escalade to work because I thought the “+res” and “-set” were capacitive. The way the switch is shaped I didn’t even consider that it moved up and down as well.

MachineReplica > Land_Yacht_225 12/19/2015 at 15:04

1

The Northstar, while a very interesting motor, was crap. The platforms these cars ran on were crap. Features do not make a car great, ask Hyundai or Kia.

To say these cars were competitive is an insult to the competition, which was better in every way.

Cadillac is on a roll right now and every new model they come out with is better than the last. The kind of car that you like is still around, Mercedes makes them. They did such a good job, nobody bought Cadillacs when they tried to do the same thing.

Land_Yacht_225 > Party-vi 12/19/2015 at 18:25

0

Wow, you managed to come up with the Cimarron. Bravo.

And you know what CTS stands for? Catera Touring Sedan, so Cadillac clearly thought they were moving in the right direction with that one.

If you think Cadillac is living up to being the standard of the world recycling every cliche that sells the 3-series, you’re delusional, blinded by how cool the CTS-V is you can’t see how awful everthing else they make is. And they do make shitty cars, I believe that’s what my original point was. That SRX is shitty. The CTS is shitty. I’ve been in them. And they don’t have shit on my 11 year old S-Class.

Land_Yacht_225 > MachineReplica 12/19/2015 at 18:33

0

In what universe is the Northstar crap?! It was on Ward’s 10 best list from 1995-1997. It’s one of the smoothest engines I’ve ever driven, it makes a lovely noise. What? Is it the crap factory head gaskets? Because the aftermarket replacements have about a 0% failure rate under normal conditons.

And what competition are you talking about? There was no competiton for Cadillac in the old days. To say a DeVille competed with an S-Class or 7-Series isn’t right, not with a $30,000 price gap. There was a class of cars that were American luxury, big, soft, and V8 powered for cheap. Only Lincoln and Cadillac competed for that business. If anything, Cadillac started competing with everybody else when they started seriously persuing small cars and handling.

MachineReplica > Land_Yacht_225 12/22/2015 at 06:30

0

The universe where they all broke and didn’t work anymore. The universe where the cylinder heads were structural to the crank case. It doesn’t matter if the aftermarket head gaskets don’t fail when the block warps when you remove the heads. The motors also don’t make much power, especially compared to an LS or competitors motors. The LS is more compact, just as smooth (because just about any V8 engine barring a flat plane V8 will feel the same), and cheaper. The Northstar V8 was such a failure, GM pulled the plug after staying with it for way longer than they should have.

As far as competition, yeah, a luxury car competes with other luxury cars regardless of what the price difference is. Same reason the Corvette has been and always will be compared to the 911. Come on dude. These cars were so bad, they stopped making them. Just because you like them doesn’t mean they were good cars. I like plenty of terrible cars, but that doesn’t make them good. Land Yachts went out of style for a reason. You didn’t need a giant car with a bouncy suspension to be comfortable. Ever driven a five or seven series? Just as comfortable and roomy as any STS or DTS (or whatever Cadillac called them at the time), but they didn't wallow through a turn or put you to sleep behind the wheel.