Review Car

2011 Cadillac SRX

The 2011 Cadillac SRX  sports futuristic styling that stands out in a sea of boxy sport-utilities and minivans that fill school parking lots. The 2011 2011 Cadillac SRX is as useful as your mother’s station wagon or sport-utility vehicle, but it sure doesn’t look or drive like your mother’s car.  And it drives more like a European sports sedan than it does a minivan or sport utility. The 2011 SRX’s closest competitors include the Chevrolet Trail Blazer, the Lexus RX 330, and the Volvo XC90. American sensibilities being what they are, The 2011 Cadillac SRX won’t, of course, be sold as a wagon but as a light-duty luxury SUV.

The V8 versions offer smooth, confident power, while the all-wheel-drive models are among the best-handling vehicles in the class on snow and ice. The edgy, angular styling is distinctive and the interior is stylish, comfortable and practical, though not warm and inviting.

2011 Cadillac SRX is aimed at buyers who want design cues and all-weather capability normally associated with an SUV, but sits on a car platform for better ride and handling. SRX is based on the sporty CTS sedan, lauded for its rigid chassis, sharp handling and quick acceleration performance.

Cadillac expects SRX buyers to be those who now drive a sedan and want SUV-like capability, or they own truck-based SUVs and want car-like ride and handling. Cadillac further predicts the SRX will be its biggest seller among women buyers with about 45 percent of the buyers expected to be women. 

2011 Cadillac SRX will compete with vehicles including the Acura MDX, BMW X5, Lexus RX 330, Mercedes-Benz M-Class and Volvo XC90.
The look takes some getting used to, but realizing that there are only so many ways to design a mass-produced car made out of stamped steel (exotic materials give stylists some more choices) which needs to be aerodynamic, 2011 Cadillac SRX has done a fine job. It’s an eye-catching, head-turning four-door package, and SRX makes the boldest statement of any Cadillac since the last-generation Seville, now well more than a decade old. There’s reasonable body lean, better-than-hoped-for shock damping on fast take-offs and hard braking (helping to keep the front and rear ends on the ground, where they belong) and good visibility for the driver, front, side and rear.

What really makes 2011 Cadillac SRX handle so nicely is the fact that it’s a rear-wheel drive car. While front-wheel drive is a fine system for the vast majority of drivers, it does have its drawbacks when it comes to high-performance handling.