2005 Cadillac SRX Preview

2005 Cadillac SRX

GM's luxury division launches a station wagon that's built for hauling in the fast lane.

During my misspent youth, back in the 1950s and 1960s, I used to joke with my friends that someday Cadillac would build a station wagon. Of course, back then all that Cadillac built was big hardtops, sedans and convertibles -- with lots of fins, lots of chrome and lots of wheelbase. "Station wagon" wasn't part of the Cadillac lexicon, unless you were talking about a custom-built hearse.

Four decades later, and while I'm now misspending my middle-age years, it has finally got around to building a station wagon, the 2004 Cadillac SRX. Yes, the big Cadillac Escalade might technically qualify as a wagon, but let's face it, the Escalade is a truck. And while guys and gals who work for Detroit's marketing departments call transporters like the new SRX a sport utility vehicle, a sport wagon, a crossover -- or almost anything but a station wagon -- the SRX is basically a state-of-the-art mommymobile.

But unlike those ancient barges, the SRX is a head-turner that is wickedly fast, comfortable and fun to drive. It also does a good job of hauling people and cargo. Yet this is a vehicle that might sell best on emotional appeal rather than impassionate logic.

The SRX is another example of Cadillac's "Art and Science" design, with chiseled edges and hard surfaces. It bears a close resemblance to the Cadillac CTS sport sedan, which is not too surprising, because both are built off the same Sigma platform. Unlike the current CTS, which has rear-wheel drive, the SRX is available in all-wheel-drive as well as rear-wheel-drive configurations.

SRX buyers also have two engine choices: a brand-new, 3.6-liter V-6 and a new version of Cadillac's DOHC Northstar V-8. Both motors have four valves per cylinder and variable valve timing, and are mounted longitudinally. The Northstar V-8, the engine in the tester for this article, pumps out 320 horsepower and 315 foot-pounds of torque. That is enough to give the 4,442-pound AWD version an estimated 0-60 time of 6.7 seconds.

According to General Motors' preliminary figures on the EPA mileage test, an SRX configured like the tester gets 16 miles per gallon in city driving and 20 in highway driving. Want better mileage? The V-6, which has 260 horsepower and is 278 pounds lighter when in RWD format, is expected to deliver city and highway mileage of 18 and 23 miles per gallon, respectively.

The tester with the 4.6-liter V-8 was a preproduction model, but the bottom-line sticker of an identically equipped production SRX is $54,140. The math: a $46,300 base price for the V-8 SRX, plus $7,145 for Cadillac's luxury performance package (all-wheel drive, magnetic ride control, DVD navigation with an in-dash six-CD and eight-speaker Bose audio system, and high-intensity discharge lamps) and a $695 destination charge. Only a few significant options were missing from the tester: A third-row seat adds $1,000, and the sunroof option is either $1,800 or $2,400, in which the pricier version includes a sunroof over the third-row seat.