The SRX’s variable-assist power steering provided decent feel at the wheel, though it felt a little overboosted. The steering is also touchy on-centre, which made maintaining a straight line a bit of a task in windy conditions, but handling is good for what this vehicle is. The brake pedal is unnaturally hard, a common thing in many recent GM designs that takes away from the driving experience, in my opinion.

More impressive was GM’s real-time active damping suspension, part of the Performance and Premium feature groups. The system adjusts the shock absorbers’ damping rates in response to road conditions, a fancy way of saying it firms the ride up and does a better job of controlling body motions on rough roads, as well as reducing body roll in turns.

2010 Cadillac SRX 3.0 AWD. Click image to enlarge

It’s a very good system and noticeably improves the SRX’s ride, which is otherwise a bit too floaty and soft for a crossover that wants to be sporty. The real-time suspension is a good choice if you value handling, but it also worked well to keep my tester’s big, heavy 20-inch wheels in touch with the road; in normal mode, the wheels overpowered the suspension and tended to clomp-clomp over rough roads.

It’s easy to switch between the normal and real-time suspension modes, which is done by moving the shifter into its manual shift gate, which puts the transmission and suspension into “sport” mode. Here, the transmission stays in automatic mode until the driver pushes or pulls the shifter; as well as turn on the active suspension system, sport mode also firms up the transmission’s shift points and makes it more responsive to the throttle. This is a good thing, because, like the normal suspension setting, the transmission is lazy to downshift in normal mode.

Power-wise, the 3.0-litre engine is adequate in the SRX, but falls short of making the car anything like fast. This motor’s official fuel consumption ratings are 12.2/8.8 L/100 km (city/highway) with all-wheel drive; in city driving, my tester averaged 14.2 L/100 km in cool – but not cold – early October weather. Fuel consumption specs for the 2.8-litre turbo engine aren’t available yet, but I’d be surprised if its numbers were much higher than the 3.0-litre’s; in any event, the 3.0-litre runs on regular fuel, while the turbo engine requires premium. I question the need for the base engine, other than that it allows GM to say it offers a premium crossover that doesn’t require premium fuel. I’d venture to guess that anyone who can afford more than $40,000 for a car won’t be bothered by the extra cost of premium gas over regular. Also, the SRX would feel like a better value if the stronger, turbocharged engine was standard across the line.

All-wheel drive SRXs run in front-drive mode in normal driving, and will send power to the rear wheels automatically when the going gets slippery. As well, the system uses GM’s rear eLSD (electronic limited slip differential), which can split torque sent rearward between the left- and right-side wheels.

The SRX is a well-sorted luxury crossover. As with most Cadillacs, the look is polarizing; an Audi Q5 will find more fans in the middle-of-the-road looks camp, but this Caddy is definitely one of the most distinctive-looking vehicles in this class.

Such subjectivities aside, this second-generation SRX is, overall, a far better fit in the entry-luxury crossover segment than its odd-duck precedessor. Some of its competitors are prettier, and others sportier, but what’s most impressive is that Cadillac has created a very good crossover that manages to feel just a little bit different than anything else in the class, and it deserves a look for that reason alone.

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