Today was the first of two days of driving with the Rocky Mountain Automotive Press (RMAP) as part of the Rocky Mountain Driving Experience (RMDE).

As part of this event, we did get some drive time in the CTS-V Coupe packing the 6-speed manual transmission.

Tomorrow will be driving around the mountain roads in the areas around Mt Evans. Assuming we get some more quality time with the baddest coupe of them all – expect a short-take review in the coming days.

Driving tomorrow should also include some competitive products and will result in more competitive reviews as well.

Categories: CTS, News, Reviews, V-Series
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Having a vehicle for a week is often long enough to form meaningful impressions. But, sometimes, you get value from having a second go-round some time later. In some cases, opinions are reinforced. Other times, you might form a new opinion having the advantage of time.

For context, take a look back at our previous review of the 2010 SRX Turbo for our original thoughts on the SRX in it’s 2.8l turbo form.

Unusually, Cadillac put out another example of this, now discontinued powertrain, in the media fleet. We now know that the normally aspirated 3.6 will replace this and the base 3.0 next year. Turbo SRXes are rare birds, available just the inaugural year and some change, and then only making up around 10% of sales prior to its cancellation, with worse economy than buyers expected and not enough extra oomph to make up for it.

However, especially in the mountains, where elevation robs non-turbo engines of their power to the tune of 3% per 1000 feet, the SRX with the 2.8 should actually far outperform the coming 3.6. For example, if the new engine puts out a rated 300hp, just driving in Denver (5000+ feet above sea level) will see a 15% power loss or about 45hp (leaving it with 255hp). The 2.8 also sees some loss, but maybe more like 5% total or 15hp lost from it’s 300hp baseline (leaving it with 285). Additionally, the turbo engine has a much beefier torque curve that further exaggerates the power advantage at altitude.

So, what did we notice in our second week with the lame duck SRX turbo?

1. StabiliTrak in the snow is fun. Our first time behind the wheel saw Colorado in rare snow-free form for early in the year. So, it was not common to invoke the stability control. This time around, we had some of the white stuff. StabiliTrak allowed us to lay into the power and feel the computers doing their magic to keep things under control. Once we trusted it to do the right things – tromping on the power and marveling at it doing its thing was kind of fun.

2. Sport mode – still way too subtle. In our 2011 model, the experience from before where we noticed the transmission aggressively kicking down when slowing to a light was smoothed away vs. our 2010 model last year. Now there is almost no sign that you are in the sportier driving mode.

3. Brakes – unlike our previous model, it seems that the brakes are dialed in a bit better this year. This could have been a quirk in our 2010 test car or a running change – but the prior experience with brakes being non-linear just didn’t appear to be hold with our latest tester.

4. Infotainment – still a lot clunkier to use than we’d like. ‘Nuff said. However, in testing out the audio quality, we found the stereo to easily go much louder than we would normally go without anything we’d identify as distortion. I certainly wouldn’t go more than 80% volume before chickening out. It’s loud.

So, ultimately, the rough edges of the first year SRX seem to have been polished away in year 2. This is pretty impressive given how many manufacturers would leave things like this alone until a mid-cycle refresh 3+ years into the run. This suggests that Cadillac is serious about making the SRX a real contender in this space.

We will lament that a turbo powertrain is no longer available in the SRX. We will also eagerly await an interior/electronics refresh with Cadillac’s version of the MyLink system debuting in the rest of GM’s brands. However, the fact that the list of niggles is getting shorter year by year is a promising sign and we look forward to how good the SRX will be when it finally does see its mid-cycle changes for 2013 or so.

Categories: News, Reviews, SRX
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WTF, GM?!

In a quote from GM CEO Dan Akerson, we see a GM management that still doesn’t quite ‘get it’.

Referencing the upcoming XTS and ATS products, he admits they will simply be ‘competitive’ with the rest of the luxury class but won’t ‘blow the doors off’ the competition.

Given the XTS is a variant of the Epsilon II chassis underpinning the Buick Lacrosse – that one comes as no surprise.

However, the vaunted ATS that was supposed to take the battle squarely to the BMW 3-series (but which recently has been rumored to be hundreds of pounds overweight) – is shaping up to be a disappointment on some levels.

The real response here from Akerson should be to delay the products until they can be done correctly – not to set sights simply on increasing volumes and beating Lincoln (a ‘competitor’ in historical terms only).

Come on, GM. Let’s get heads out of backsides and get the new product right.

Source: Automobile Magazine

Categories: ATS, News
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