Friday, June 25, 2010

2010 Cadillac SRX Turbo Photo Gallery

2010 Cadillac SRX Turbo Wallpaper2010 HOT Cadillac SRX Turbo Photo Gallery
2010 Cadillac SRX Turbo Side View
2010 Cadillac SRX Turbo Side View
2010 Cadillac SRX Turbo Interior2010 Cadillac SRX Turbo Interior
2010 Cadillac SRX Turbo Picture2010 Cadillac SRX Turbo Picture

Cadillac's SRX Turbo Premium offers style, power in a crossover

Cadillac's SRX Turbo Premium

Cadillac's SRX is one of the few crossovers out there with some styling flair, and it mixes in a healthy dose of luxury ride and interior comfort.

I tested this new, downsized version of the SRX about six months ago and found it mostly to my liking. This model was the top-level Turbo Premium, which starts at $51,360. After adding a pricey rear entertainment system, it hit $53,480.

I was impressed with the SRX's ride, very luxurious and smooth over most of our crumbling Wisconsin roads and city streets. Railroad tracks and highway pavement seams are no more a bother than a cooked pea beneath your shoe. Helping here are 20-inch wheels and tires that suck up a fair amount of road imperfections, and independent sport suspension.

Handling is good with fairly precise feedback to the wheel coupled with a heavy steering feel. Push the SRX and it sticks well in a corner with no, or only minor, body roll. It's a luxury feel, but with a spot of sportiness, sort of like a Mercedes, yet not as racy as a BMW or Audi.

Power is decent. Under normal acceleration, the 2.8-liter V6 provides ample power, but this model tacks on a turbocharger to boost your horsepower to 300 and torque to 295 ft.-lbs. According to the dash gauge the turbo engages early on and helps add some oomph almost from the get-go, but pound the pedal when you need to pass - now - and the SRX really lights it up. Ripping down a highway entry ramp can be particularly spirited.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe - First Drive Review

2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe

While most Cadillac vehicles still have a way to go to satisfy as drivers’ machines, the second-generation CTS has appeared on our last three 10Best lists; in awarding its 2010 trophy, we called it “maybe the best American car ever made.” High praise, but its combination of unapologetically brash styling, modern luxury, and strong performance credentials—especially in high-po V spec—back it up. For 2011, the new CTS coupe joins the sedan and wagon, adding more style and a higher concentration of performance to the CTS’s winning formula.

Stunning Exterior Styling, Largely Familiar Cockpit

2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe

The CTS coupe is one of those cars that loves the camera, and it’s no less stunning in the flesh. Walking around the car, one notices several aspects of the design easily missed in photographs, such as the parallel “light-catcher” lines helping to break up the tall body sides, the tastefully glitzy twin center-mounted tailpipes, the remarkably seamless-looking joint between the body-side stamping and the roof, and the center spine that travels all the way back over the car’s huge rump. The windshield is two degrees “faster” up front than the sedan’s, and the razor-sharp taillamps and CHMSL/spoiler also have aerodynamic-enhancing properties. The only unfortunate bit is a credit-card-sized spacer panels above the recessed, solenoid-actuated door releases; they mar an otherwise perfect waistline. In any case, there is visual drama from every angle, and it works.

Inside, most CTS sedan components are imported without change, although the mood is intensified due to a lower mounting point for the seats, dropping occupants roughly an inch lower into the dash/console architecture. The window sills are high, making arm-out-the-window cruising a bit awkward, but surprisingly, the super-high rear end doesn’t gobble up every shred of rearward vision. It feels purposeful, and we found ourselves very comfortable during our drive.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Cadillac trumpets success of SRX crossover

Cadillac's SRX

There is no disputing the sales increase. SRX's sales rose 654% in May compared with the same month a year, Autodata figures show. In the first five months of the year, Cadillac says SRX outsold Mercedes-Benz M-Class, Audi Q7, BMW X5 and Acura MDX. The average transaction price for the new SRX is more than $2,300 higher than the previous model. Then there is resale value:

Cadillac says SRX's projected resale value has risen 17 percentage points in the past year, the largest gain in its segment. SRX's projected resale value after 36 months is 48% of the initial purchase price, compared with 31% for the previous model, according to the May/June forecast by industry tracker ALG.

"Cadillac has done all the right things to support higher residual values for the SRX," said Matt Traylen, ALG's chief economist.

2010 Cadillac CTS-V

2010 Cadillac CTS-V

Wuchtig. I’m sitting, panting, trying to catch my breath on the side of a tiny two-lane road running through the vineyards of California’s Napa Valley. I’m in an American car. I haven’t spoken German regularly since I was 18. Adrenalin has chased everything resembling a coherent thought from my mind. And yet, strangely, the only thing left banging around my speed-addled skull is a single German adjective for which the English language has no translation: wuchtig.

From the safety of my desk back in Oregon, a German-English dictionary offers a parade of possible English meanings for this word, that 556 horsepower has left ringing in my ears. Weight, pressure, force, impetus, vigor, power, and kinetic energy all make the list. But what about anger? Rage? Impatience? Wuchtig is how daddy shouts when he comes home drunk and angry; it’s the roar of a sweaty millionaire celebrating his dominance in an NFL endzone.

It’s also the sound that 6.2 liters of supercharged V8 make when they get just out of earshot of their rightful owner.

This particular “V” belongs to one of Cadillac’s PR guys, who, having heard that I’d never set ass in the infamous sedan, handed me a key fob. No “be careful” preceded this unexpected gift, no waivers were signed, no next-of-kin informed. Just a friendly “why are you not driving yet?” as I collected my thoughts before approaching the large, dark presence lurking in the parking lot.

But whatever confidence I’d gained by psyching myself up, soon melted in the evil presence of this brute. Walk up, and the smell of vaporized rubber tickles the nose and jangles the nerves, like the smell of blood on the breath of a large predator. And after two days of riding and driving in Cadillac’s standard seats, the V grabs your body in the crushing embrace of something living and powerful. Only after the engine comes to life, and I begin to dawdle out of the parking lot does the V become just another Cadillac, softly woofling towards the open road. But that impression only lasts until I reach the first stop sign, wait for the briefest interruption in traffic, and leap out onto the highway.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

GM to recall about 1.5 million vehicles because of fire hazard

The automaker will disable the heating mechanism on a system that squirts cleaning fluid on the windshield and pay $100 to the vehicles' owners.

GM  recall

General Motors Co. will pay out as much as $150 million to owners of vehicles that are being recalled because it can't fix a flaw in the system that squirts heated cleaning fluid on the windshield.

In one of the largest recalls this year, GM said Tuesday that it was recalling about 1.5 million vehicles, including certain Cadillac and Buick sedans as well as several sport utility vehicles, because the problem could cause the vehicles to catch on fire. The recall of many 2006 to 2009 model-year vehicles will involve disabling the heating mechanism and paying $100 to the owner.

Analysts said the move by GM represented both the speed and willingness of large automakers to make amends with customers after the recent public relations debacle experienced by Toyota Motor Corp. over a series of large recalls and quality issues.

"This should be more common," said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety.

GM recalls 1.5M cars for wiper fire hazard Owners to get $100 for loss of feature

General Motors said Tuesday it was recalling 1.5 million vehicles to disable a heated windshield washer fluid system linked to fires, saying owners would get $100 in compensation.
GM said the system was linked to five fires with no injuries or crashes. The system also had been recalled in August 2008 for fires. GM told dealers to install new wiring.

The automaker said it had kept monitoring the HotShot system made by supplier Micro-Heat since the first recall, and received a report in June 2009 of smoke from the units. GM withheld payments from Micro-Heat after the first recall. The company filed for bankruptcy.

GM said because Micro-Heat no longer existed, it could not provide an improved design again. For the new recall, dealers will remove the fluid heater and reroute hoses.

The $100 "is for the loss of the feature, not the recall," said Jeff Boyer, executive director of safety for GM.

The recall affects the 2006-09 model-year Buick Lucerne, Cadillac DTS, Hummer H2; the 2008-09 model-year Buick Enclave and Cadillac CTS; the 2007-09 model-year Cadillac Escalade, Escalade ESV, Escalade EXT, Chevrolet Avalanche, Silverado, Suburban, Tahoe, GMC Acadia, Sierra, Yukon, Yukon XL, Saturn Outlook and the 2009 Chevrolet Traverse.

Of the 1.5 million vehicles covered, GM said 1,365,070 are in the U.S., with 98,794 in Canada, 26,228 in Mexico and 38,093 exports.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Cadillac goes high performance in the CTS-V

Cadillac CTS-V
The first-generation Cadillac SRX was essentially a tall CTS with a wagon body, and we loved it as such, awarding it three consecutive 5Best Trucks honors and voting it into second place in a comparison test four years into its life, ahead of such newer competitors as a Land Rover LR3 and a BMW X5. Now that there actually is a CTS wagon—a delightful one, we might add—the 2010 Cadillac SRX shares much of its bones with the decidedly less exciting Chevrolet Equinox.

More important, it shares engineering philosophies and showroom goals with the snoozetastic Lexus RX350. Now a more upright front-driver with a powertrain portfolio comprised exclusively of V-6s, the SRX lost its spunk and our interest. We found the base V-6 just barely adequate for propelling the 4500-pound luxe-UV, and looked forward to our first test session with the turbocharged 2.8-liter.

Regular gas ruins some 2010 Cadillac SRX engines, recalled for fix

2010 Cadillac SRX
Can regular gas ruin a turbocharged engine? Many motorists blow off automakers' "premium recommended" or premium required" warnings, but some 2010 Cadillac SRX owners are wishing they'd pumped the more expensive grade.

Cadillac has recalled 2010 Cadillac SRXs with the optional turbocharged V-6 after some customers ruined their engines using regular. So far, 547 vehicles are affected by the recall.

Both the manual and a warning on the fuel-filler door told drivers that "premium fuel is required" for the 300-horsepower, 2.8-liter V-6, according to Cadillac. Typically with engines needing premium, automakers program the electronic control module to adjust -- with a loss of full power output -- to protect the engine if a driver is unaware or attempts to cut costs and fills up with regular.

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