I spent a week with each of these bad boys, and each one brought a surprise or two to the party. It’s a pretty slow, laid-back and basic party, mind you, but a party nevertheless. And they’re not really bad. They wish they were.

As I break them down, I’m going to try to stick to the same order – just to be clear, there’s no particular rhyme or reason behind the order, other than alphabetic. S, V, Y. Cool? Cool. Let’s git er dun.

Introductions/Under The Hood

The Sonic is Chevrolet’s almost-smallest offering, but the brand-new Spark is even smaller. Sonics start at CDN $14,495. I drove the LT model, and as tested it was CDN $22,235. Let’s peg the competitive price at $20,540, taking off the upgrade to the 17″ rims, sunroof, tire pressure monitoring system and metallic paint upgrade. Under the hood sits a 1.8 Litre inline-4. It’s the jock of the bunch here, putting out 138 HP @ 6300 RPM and 125 lb.ft of torque at 3800 RPM and it feeds that through a 6-speed automatic transmission. Unfortunately the Sonic is also the heavy-weight in the comparo, tipping the scales at 2745 pounds around.

GM rates the Sonic at 8.3 L/100 km (28 mpg) in the city and 5.5 L/100 km (42.8 mpg) on the highway. During mostly city driving with a slightly heavier foot, I averaged 8.2 L/100 km (28.7 mpg). The Sonic has a 46 Litre tank.

Nissan’s Versa came in the 1.6 SL sedan version. Versas start at CDN $16,298 – my review sample rang in at CDN $18,700 all-in, which includes the exceptionally well-priced $800 navigation system, USB input and satellite radio. Nissan’s 1.6-Litre inline-4 puts out 109 HP @ 6000 RPM and a meh 107 lb.ft of torque at 4400 RPM. All this raw power gets transferred to one of my least-favorite of automobile innovations, a CVT transmission. Thankfully, this mill doesn’t have to schlepp as much weight around – the Versa sedan is only 2407 pounds.

Nissan pegs its fuel economy at 6.7 L/100 km (35 mpg) in the city and a fantastic 5.2 L/100 km (45.2 mpg) on the highway. Again, during mostly city driving but more economically, I averaged 6.9 L/100 km (34 mpg). Quite impressive. The tank is 41 Litres.

And finally we have Toyota’s Yaris. I got the LE 5-door version. Yaris’ (or is it Yarii?) start at CDN $15,890, and this one totaled out at CDN $19,475 all-in, which included a shocking “Convenience Package” that gives you neat things like air conditioning, POWER windows, cruise control, etc. I’d recommend going with that. I didn’t even know you could buy crank-down windows in North America anymore. What are we? ANIMALS?! Where were we? Oh right. The Yaris. Toyota’s 1.5-Litre inline-4 makes 106 HP @ 6000 RPM and a paltry 103 lb.ft of torque at 4200 RPM. Here’s another kicker – at this price, you paid a grand to upgrade to the 4-SPEED AUTOMATIC transmission. When’s the last time you heard that? It seems like a bit of a kick in the shorts to have to pay $1000 for technology that has existed in Toyota’s parts bins for 20 years, especially when the competition is using 6 speeds (see the Sonic). The Yaris is the feather-weight here, at 2249 pounds.

Toyota puts the fuel economy numbers at 6.8 L/100 km (34.6 mpg) in the city and 5.5 L/100 km (42.8 mpg) on the highway. Driving most city again, and not trying to save fuel, I averaged 6.9 L/100 km (34 mpg) during my week with it. Which is the same as the Versa. Which is good. The Yaris’ tank is 41 Litres.

Advantage: Sonic, but not by as much as I thought it would be. The Yaris proved to be a bit of a surprise and with its fuel economy was a close second.

Exterior

Although the Sonic is here to replace the Aveo, I still see some Aveo in the lines, but overall, I really like the shape of this little hatch. It has fun lines, and they integrated the rear door’s handle into the black trim up high, so you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking it’s a little coupe at first. The front end has a hint of aggression and fun, with interesting light clusters that are surprisingly exposed instead of being covered by a nice smooth lens. I like it, but my friend Don Nault (who also reviews cars and may qualify as one of the nicest people in the world) pointed something out to me. He’s got experience in detailing cars, and he mentioned that cleaning those light clusters after a road trip would be an absolutely nightmare. Great point! Overall though, I think they did a good job of evolving the shape.

The Versa – where do I start? Erm, well let me put it this was: I almost invariably choose hatchbacks over their sedan brethren, and that would be my choice here too. Vehicle styling is obviously a very personal thing, but the Versa sedan’s styling is just not to my liking. I thought it was OK from close-up, but when I stood back, I couldn’t help but see a shmooshed jelly bean. The small wheels don’t do the side profile any favors either. I actually thought the front end was quite handsome, and brought a hint of its Infiniti genetics with the swept-back headlights and the grille. The rear end is not bad either, but I found the side view to be quite unflattering.

The Yaris’ styling struck me as a slightly shrunken Matrix. It’s not pretty, but it has character. Toyota certainly pushed the wheels out to the corners, with very little rear overhang. At the front, you’ll find a short, stubby hood. There is a single, huge windshield wiper. I was pretty much neutral on the Yaris’ exterior – it’s nothing much to look at, but it’s not offensive.

Advantage: Sonic

Interior

In this class, you tend to expect less, since you’re paying less.

The Sonic’s manually-adjustable fabric seats were very comfortable, and even had decent side bolstering. Which was balanced out by the basically non-existent thigh bolstering which lets your butt slide all over Creation during cornering. You’re surrounded by hard plastics, with some nice textures. I didn’t think the interior was pretty, but it’s functional and roomy enough. There is a decent steering wheel, with buttons for handsfree, phone, media and cruise control functions. Behind the wheel sits a “motorcycle-inspired” instrument pod that sort of perches on the dash. You get a large tach and to the right, a large driver information screen.

The centre stack has the media system on top and a manual climate control system below. The console houses the shift lever (with a thumb-controlled manual shift toggle – ugh!) and a parking brake. I didn’t like how narrow the armrests on the door panels were, and wasn’t impressed that they weren’t padded.

The Versa’s interior is very basic and simple. At first it came across as very rental-car, but its simplicity grew on me. Hard plastics abound, with a couple of splashes of brighter colors, and upholstered door panels. I was unable to get comfortable in the manually adjustable seats. When driving, they offered decent thigh bolstering but the side bolstering left much to be desired. The headroom in front is excellent! The steering wheel had a thin, spongy-feeling rim (read: not good), and has controls for media, phone and the cruise control. Behind it sit two very clear gauges, and a driver information screen.

The Versa’s centre stack starts with a small screen surrounded by hard buttons and a manual climate control system underneath. The console has a very simple shift lever and the parking brake.

The Yaris’ reasonably spacious interior had decent manually adjustable seats with contrasting inserts – bolstering was not great. The steering wheel is very nice and feels right with a fat rim – interestingly, there are no buttons on it. All controls are within an easy reach, so that’s not really an issue to me. You’re in a sea of mostly hard plastics, with a couple of soft-touch zones on the dash and doors. The gauge cluster is simple and easy to read.

The centre stack has a media system at the top, in an interesting swoosh of lighter colored material that stretches over from the right door panel, and then a manual climate control system underneath. The console has the shift lever at the front and a parking brake lever at the back.

Advantage: Sonic – although it’s not a beautiful interior, it struck me as less rental-car than the other two and would be the one I’d rather live with. With that said, the simplicity of the other two did grow on me, and they are all highly functional.

Tech/Convenience

In this class, this category is mercifully short, as the tech toys are few and far between.

The Sonic offers a basic stereo, feeding off AM, FM, CD and auxiliary sources. It sounds pretty good. There’s a 12V plug on the console. Headlights are automatic, and overhead, you’ll find a tilt/slide sunroof with a manual sliding shade. I found the Sonic’s voice recognition technology to be exemplary – as with other GM products of late – it was quick and never made a mistake.

The driver information screen always shows a digital speedometer, a compass and your gear selection. You can slip through average fuel economy, elapsed driving time, average speed, fuel range, your odometer and a trip meter. It’s a little too busy on that screen, but it works fine.

The Versa dropped its first trump card here. The media, phone and navigation(!!!) functionality is all handled by a small 5″ touchscreen. This was definitely the pinnacle of interacting with those technologies in this test. The screen was highly readable for its small size, and the user interface is quite intuitive after using it for a minute or two, combining touchscreen function with surrounding hard buttons and a scroll/push knob. The stereo offers AM, FM, satellite, auxiliary, USB and CD sources and has acceptable sound.

The navigation system, considering the class of car and the price of the system, was very good. I was impressed by the voice command system as well. The USB and a 12V plug are found on the console, and there’s a driver information screen which lets you display fuel range, instant and average fuel economy, 2 trip meters or your odometer.

The Yaris felt pretty low-tech. Oh right, that’s because it is. It has a basic stereo with AM, FM, CD and Bluetooth streaming audio – it does not sound good. At all. There’s a driver information screen letting you access your odometer, 2 trip meters, instant and average fuel economy, fuel range and your average speed.

There’s a 12V plug at the bottom of the centre stack, and an “Eco” drive indicator, which tells you when you’re driving economically.

All three contenders had cruise control, good (or great) Bluetooth phone integration, and they all had power windows, door locks and mirrors. Although the windows were a close one on the Yaris.

Advantage: Versa – the touchscreen (which includes navigation) is a game changer in this class when you’re looking at cabin tech

Rear Seats

Chevy’s Sonic surprised with a reasonably spacious rear seating area, considering how tiny this car is. There are 3 seats, 3 seat belts and 2 head rests. The room is acceptable for 2 adults, but it’s snug. Getting up to 3 kids back there, on the other hand, is just fine. Kids’ seats fit well, and there are 2 LATCH anchors. In terms of convenience, there’s a combined storage bin and cupholder at the back of the center console.

Here’s where the Versa came shiny-side up. It also has 3 seats and 3 seat belts, but the headroom and more importantly the leg room is excellent! I admit, I was shocked the first time I saw how much leg room it had in the back. There are cars that move up a class or two in terms of size that don’t offer this kind of room in the back. Entry level limo, anyone? It’s plenty comfortable for 2 adults, and no problem for 3 kids. There’s no storage but for the two cupholders at the back of the centre console.

All three cars offer 2 sets of LATCH anchors for kids’ seats.

Advantage: Versa – I was choked about the lack of storage, but the space offered makes up for it.

Storage

The Sonic did a great job providing places to put stuff. From a little tray on the dash, to the vertical slots flanking the centre stack, to the reasonably big glove compartment, to the cool cubbyhole storage with flip-up lid ABOVE the glove compartment, to the big open bin at the bottom of the centre stack with the rubberized bottom… see what I mean? Not to mention 2 inline cupholders, and stubby but big door pockets.

The trunk space was decent, especially considering the size of the car. It offers 19 cubic feet, which grows to 30.7 cubic feet with the seats folded down. I found the biggest limitation in the Sonic’s cargo area was it’s width.

The Versa had less to offer in the cabin. The door bins are skinny slots with integrated bottle holders, and there are 2 cupholders in the console. But the trunk felt cavernous. It’s only 14.8 cubic feet with the rear seats up, but the proportions are such that it is a highly usable space. I was unable to find specifications for the cargo space with the seats down, but suffice it to say it would be a lot, though the space isn’t consistent straight through from front to back like a hatchback would be.

The Yaris made its small-carness known in the storage department. Sure, there is some help in the cabin – small door pockets with bottle holders, a big glove compartment and a bin in the top left of the dash. The console provides 2 cupholders and another small bin. But the trunk space, covered with a hard tonneau lid, looked decent at first but turned out to be tiny, offering only 9.3 cubic feet with the rear seats up.

All three cars’ rear seats split 60/40 when folding them down.

Advantage: Sonic, with the Versa running a very close second place

The Drive

I’m a big fan of how small cars drive, and this comparo reaffirmed my love for these little urban warriors. Well, some of them. None of them are fast, but all are competent and have enough power for basic everyday driving.

The Sonic had enough punch that you’d never feel stranded if you need to pull into traffic. Of course the up-level turbo engine would be nice, but it’s more money. I like the snarl of the inline-4, but it got buzzy and rough over 4000 RPM. The transmission, while relatively intelligent and mostly being in the right gear, is a bit slushy and the manual shift mode is downright sluggish. I also found that, when stepping on it, the RPMs often floated for a second with the shifts.

The ride was very good, and well-damped, but noise insulation was lacking – I often found engine and road noise creeping in. The handling was excellent, and I found the car very confident around corners even though there is quite a bit of body roll. It was fun to drive and easy to shoot out of corners. I found the Sonic happily got up to highway speeds, but wandered a tiny bit at higher speeds and the road noise was a factor there too. That said, I thought the wind noise was low. Visibility is quite good, but there’s a bit of a tunnel out the back because of the rear headrests – I wish they folded down like the ones in the Ford Fiesta I reviewed.

Nissan’s Versa was the least impressive driving machine here. I’ve made it pretty clear how I feel about CVTs. I get that they do well for fuel economy. Otherwise, there’s nothing that entices a driver. Nissan actually does some of the best CVTs in the business, but it’s the ones mated to their 2.5- and 3.5-Litre engines. This one did OK around town, but under throttle, the whiny, irritating way it revs and holds the engine is there, and the rubber-band feeling is too. Ugh. It’s not a fast car, but when you need power, it’s a bit scary – passing on the freeway requires the 3 P’s – patience, planning and prayer. The CVT actually makes this car feel slower than it is.

Yet the CVT isn’t the worst part. The handling is. It’s spongy around corners, but worst of all is the body roll. It’s excessive. I mean 1970′s Cadillac Seville excessive. I mean Rover Police Car excessive.

Oh, there’s more. The brakes? Inspired by Sponge Bob. Wind noise? Very loud at highway speeds. OK, so it’s not all bad, and the Versa does redeem itself at times. Cruising around town, while mundane, is a very quiet affair, and the ride is fantastically damped and quiet. Visibility is quite good, and those thick, angular rear pillars don’t intrude as much as I feared they would. All in all, it’s not horrible, but it’s just no fun to drive.

The Yaris sits somewhere in between. It was relatively quiet at city speeds, but I heard a lot of road noise coming through the tires. The ride and handling were both OK, and you could chuck it into a corner, but there was quite a bit of body roll. Mind you, compared to the Versa, this thing is track ready in terms of handling.

It’s certainly not a quick car, but I was surprised at how satisfying it was to drive. I tried to be pissed off at the meager 4 speed automatic, yet it proved to be the most competent of all these varied transmissions. It’s irritating to have to pay $1000 for something that seems ancient, but somehow the argument seems moot when it works better than the rest of them here. Everything the Yaris did, it did smoothly – it drives smoothly, it shifts smoothly, it handles smoothly, it rides (pretty) smoothly. The visibility out of the Yaris is quite good, except those rear pillars are thick and they impact your shoulder checking ability.

Advantage: a Three-Way Tie for very different reasons – Yaris came across as a do-no-wrong, down-the-middle player; Sonic was the only one that I’d chalk up for a bit of fun, and the lamented Versa did have the best, most-refined ride of the bunch

Nitpicks

The rear armrests on the outboard sides of the Sonic were tiny narrow slivers of real estate, taunting you, daring you to try to put your elbow on them and get comfortable. That’s not cool if you’re stuck back there for a road trip.

I ding both Japanese, make that ALL Japanese, cars for not having the 3 blinks when you tap the signal light stalk. That’s as essential as a toilet to me, and that they continue to exclude that feature just baffles me. HEY! Imagine a toilet built into the driver’s seat of any of these? Now we’re talking! Tech AND convenience. SOLD!

The Versa had some weird omissions that puzzled me. There is no mirror on the driver’s side sun visor. Really? Even Ladas had those, man! There is no grab handle inside the trunk, so closing it requires you to  put your hand on top, and possibly getting dirty. Oh, and if you want to open it from the outside? You can’t. There’s no external trunk release button. Finally, the nav system, although cool and a great feature at this price, takes half an eternity to calculate a route. One time, while I was waiting, I just walked across the city to check my own route calculation and got back in time before it finished. OK, it’s not that bad, but it’s really slow.

Looking back, I see that I basically didn’t have any nitpicks that stood out for the Yaris. Hmmm.

The Verdict

This was a tough one. Each car has some great strengths and some significant weaknesses. No car at this price point could be considered near-perfect, so I’d be a fool to expect that. I rated them on my usual scale, in terms of this class, and in relation to each other.

I give the Chevy Sonic a 7 out of 10, the Nissan Versa a 6 out of 10, and the Toyota Yaris a 6.5 out of 10.

Each of these cars would be a fine to live with, as long as you’re aware of the limitations. None are going to win any drag races, none are going to move pianos, and none will boggle the mind with the wealth of tech and luxury within. But all are competent transportation, and all three will do well in terms of fuel economy and all three came across as very well-built.

WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) hovered between middling and low for the Yaris and the Versa (down a few points on styling, Toyota and LOTS of points lost for not having a driver’s vanity mirror, Nissan!), and was quite high for the Sonic. She liked the Sonic’s drive, and the color, which I thought was a bit too much and inspired by Chernobyl. She’s a funny woman, that one.

So that’s it. It’s not a category that gets our hearts pumping, but it’s a category born of reality, and many of us are looking at vehicles right smack dab in the middle of it for a variety of reasons.

It might not be much fun, but you get more for your money than ever before.

Disclosure:  Vehicles were provided by Chevrolet, Nissan and Toyota.

If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my other vehicle reviews under the car reviews tab at the top of my blog.

It seems as though everything we try, everything we pour our time and love into – it’s all for nothing. It truly seems hopeless once in a while.

I’ve seen that a collection of these days serves a dark purpose in my life – it has made me more cynical, less thankful and more hardened to the plight of others. I just seemed to care less after a while.

I might be the only one who experiences this, but I just seem to be less me, and more a person I don’t necessarily want to be when I look in the mirror. Thankfully, I have four people in my life that have the ability to rattle my cage, to give me a figurative slap in the face and to take that hardened heart and melt it in one instant.

Without my wife and my babies, I often wonder what it would take to soften my heart some days. I’m grateful I don’t have to wonder long, because on the darker days, they are invariably there for me – whether they realize it or not.

Some moments come to mind.

Abigail, my 8 year-old daughter, is growing up. Although she’s our oldest, she’s possibly our most emotionally dependent kid. She needs attention and she needs affirmation. And her confidence isn’t always where it needs to be. It is Abigail that most reminds me that these lives that have been entrusted to us as parents are truly fragile at times.

Dentist visits are truly horrific with her. I always want to bring an extra personal cheque for the dentist and tip her a couple of hundred bucks, because of the incredible patience and dedication she exhibits – EVERY SINGLE TIME. Abigail has this ability to draw people into her problems, and screaming and writhing on the dentist’s chair is one of those times. She’ll end up being surrounded by people, who out of a sense of duty to help the poor dentist, or simply morbid curiosity about the alien baby howling there, will gather around and get involved. It’s ridiculous. Yet, as painful as it is for the rest of us, I realize that deep down, a simple fact remains. Abigail is filled with a real, dark fear in these moments. And through this insanity, there is a moment that reaches out and grabs every heart string I ever knew I had. It starts when you, as a parent, speak to the child – reassuring her that you’re there, that everything will be fine, there will be a little poke of the needle, but it’s necessary to help protect her teeth in the future, and on and on. And you see her dark eyes, brimming over with tears, and filled with abject horror. And those eyes lock with yours. There are dental assistants sitting on her arms to keep her still, so the only way she can reach out to you is with her eyes, and they are screaming to you (because her mouth is full of dental appliances and she can’t speak) “Daddy! Daddy! Help me! Don’t let this happen to me! I am so scared, Daddy!” And then, as you look at your suffering baby with a love that can transcend all the screaming and protesting, and you realize that the only thing that is going to get her through this is because you’re there and she trusts only you in this maelstrom of emotion and pain, you see that her eyes change every so slightly. Her eyes say “Whatever happens here, Daddy, I trust you’ll protect me and I’ll do this. I know you wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me.” That, my friends, is a heart = melted moment.

Amalie is our middle child – a gorgeous 4 year-old girl, who is one of the most thoughtful people I’ve ever met. I’ve always known that I can learn a lifetime worth of goodness from this child, because she was born with the innate ability to give of herself to those around her. It might seem trivial, but whenever she’s at one of her grandma’s places and is offered a candy or a chocolate, she will simply not accept it unless she can also have one for her sister and her brother. I hope she stays that way for the rest of her days.

Amalie needs touch. She doesn’t need to be held constantly, but human touch means the world to her, even if it’s momentary. And that makes her a hugger. I won’t ever leave the house, even if it’s just a drive to the grocery store, without hugging and kissing my family. I’ve heard too many stories where a person leaves the house, intending to return in minutes, and never makes it home. If my time here ends earlier than I want it to, I want to be sure in that second that my family knows I loved them until my last breath.

To fulfill her part in our routine, Amalie always comes running into my arms and wants to be picked up and held. That alone is enough to melt my heart every single time. But there are anomalies that make it even more so. Amalie loves her sleep, and she’s not easily shaken out of it. Yet, on mornings when she isn’t up yet, and she hears me leaving the house and saying my good-byes (even though I’ve already been to her room and kissed her good-bye while she was sleeping), she will drowsily call to me. “Daddy? Please don’t go. I need to jump to you!” And she will groggily make her way down the hallway to the stairs. She will carefully stand on the second one from the top, she will wait for me to hold my arms out and count 1……2……3 and she will trust her Daddy and jump down the last 7 steps into my arms. And she will throw her arms around my neck, hold me as tight as she can, then pull away and plant a big kiss on me. And she will tell me, as she smiles sleepily, to have a good day and that she will miss me. And without being asked, she will assure me that she will be a good girl for her mommy. Heart = melted. Every time.

Andon is my fellow testosterone vessel, my only manly companion in this sea of estrogen I call my family. My son is 1 year and 5 months old. He’s taking his sweet time learning to speak, but lately we realize that he is trying so very hard. If you listen carefully, you’ll note that he is speaking, and he is making real words. They’re just in Dothraki, and need to be translated carefully.

I always have a little special time with Andon (as I did with the other two when they were smaller) in the morning. I think my wife deserves every moment of sleep she can get, and so I always wake up the baby, change their bum, and make them breakfast. I usually sit Andon down by the window in the kitchen – he loves sitting on his little rug with his bowl of food and his sippy-cup, looking out at the world while he happily munches away. I will wrap my arms around him there, kiss him and tell him good-bye and he waves and holds on, and then quickly returns to his all-important breakfast.

The other day I was leaving for work, had said my good-bye to him, and went to the back door to get my coat and shoes on. I heard the proverbial pitter-patter of tiny feet, turned around and saw my son toddling his way to me as fast as his unsteady little leg-stubs would carry him. He finally reached me after the marathon from the kitchen, threw his arms around my leg, pressed his face against my thigh, and said “Lubyou!” Hearing your child tell you they love you for the first time? Heart = melted.

There are few things in this world that can melt my heart – for me, it’s my faith, my family and dogs.

My friend, I hope you have a moment in the near future where your heart, as hardened and cynical as the world may have made it, melts into pure, bright rays of warm sunshine.

If you’ve enjoyed this, feel free to browse my archives tab for other posts.

I spent a week with each of them, and they’re all great trucks – there’s a reason the F-150 is a perennial best-seller.

It’s a great truck, and it makes for a great foundation to build special editions, such as these, on.

So let’s meet this square-jawed, chin-stubble-wearing family, shall we?

Introductions/Under the Hood

The Harley-Davidson F-150 is the most expensive one you can get. It starts at CDN $56,699. It’s powered by a monster 6.2-Litre V-8, churning out 411 HP @ 5500 RPM and 434 lb.ft of torque @ 4500 RPM. It’s rated to get 18.5 L/100 km (12.7 mpg) in the city and 12.7 L/100 km (18.5 mpg) on the highway.

The Raptor isn’t cheap either. It starts at CDN $55,999, and is powered by the same magnificent engine, but rated even higher on the “I’m going to kill this planet off on my own without any help” meter. They say it’ll get 19.1 L/100 km (12.3 mpg) in the city and 14.2 L/100 km (16.6 mpg) on the highway. I averaged exactly the same for both of the V-8 powered trucks – 21.9 L/100 km (10.7 mpg), during mostly city driving, with no real effort to save on fuel, but not driving aggressively either. Yowzers. Regardless of how you drive, you’ll find yourself at the gas pump a lot. And it won’t be cheap, because all three of these trucks sport 136 Litre tanks.

The King Ranch F-150 is the bargain of the bunch, but still starts at CDN $50,099. I guess they’re not giving trucks away anymore. It’s powered by Ford’s wonderful EcoBoost engine – in this case, the 3.5-Litre V-6. The twin-turbo wonder puts out 360 HP @ 5500 RPM. That’s all very nice, but what matters more is that it has 420 lb.ft of torque on tap at a low 2500 RPM. It’s fuel economy is rated at 15 L/100 km (15.7 mpg) in the city and a respectable 10.5 L/100 km (22 mpg) on the highway. My average was 15.7 L/100 km (15 mpg). Much more respectable, right? Well, not really. Because this included well over 300 kilometers of highway driving.

There’s no take-away lesson here. If you’re buying a half-ton truck and looking to save the planet with your fuel consumption, you’ve got other, more basic things to figure out. I’ll let you work on those. Come back and see us when you’re walking upright.

Exterior

The basic shape of the F-150 doesn’t change much and remains instantly recognizable throughout the three trucks.

The Harley-Davidson is a pretty ostentatious fella. There’s the badging, of course – it shows up on the cowl and the upper part of the truck box. There’s the stylized flame down the side of the truck that contrasts with the paint color. And there are the gargantuan 22″ rims – which look awesome – shod with massive rubber.

If the Harley is ostentatious, the Raptor is too, but in a different way. It seems as though it has very little to prove, and makes itself known by its presence. Which it has in spades. The Raptor doesn’t come across as needing attention, because it exudes confidence. But it certainly gathers crowds. People gawk at this thing. The hugely-flared fenders, the massive skid plates, the raised stance and the huge 315mm wide rubber don’t do anything to calm the natives. The Raptor-specific hood with heat extractors and the cool orange driving lights glowering at you from that grille the size of Mongolia complete the look, along with the optional Raptor graphics package down the side. I had a person tell me that they thought the truck wanted to eat them when I was behind them at a red light. Maybe not eat you, sir, but perhaps just roll over you considering how long it took you to get a move on…  Did I mention that the Raptor is wide? Yeah – 7″ wider than an F-150. HELLO! A final note here – I loved the Raptor’s new wheel design, where I hated last year’s.

The King Ranch felt like the grown-up older brother of the other two. It’s a much less visible truck on the road. It came in a nice metallic brown, which looked fantastic, and it was offset by handsome wheels, and discrete King Ranch badging. Other than that, you might not give this truck another look – unless you were into looking at F-150s more than once when they drive by.

Getting from the outside into the interior is the best with the Harley. It has the motorized drop-down side rails – open the door and they just swing down. And back up again when you close it. It doesn’t get any better. The Raptor’s side rails are rugged-looking slatted affairs that have a tough finish on them. The King Ranch’s side steps are stationary like the Raptors, and are shiny chrome.

Interior

Once you’re in, the interiors are not easily distinguishable until you look at the details. Let’s talk about the common ground first.

Head room is great, and leg room/knee room is exemplary. The materials, whilst being hard plastics, are nice to look at, and work well for a truck and the fit and finish is top-notch.

Seats are power-adjustable, heated, cooled and extremely comfortable in all three. There’s driver’s side memory, and a distinct lack of bolstering – all three could do with more of it, but they’re all exceedingly nice places to be during every-day driving.

The steering wheel is comfortable and has controls for the media system, cruise, hands-free operations and the phone. Behind the wheel, you’ll find a highly readable set of simple gauges, flanking Ford’s fantastic driver information screen, which is also controlled by buttons on the steering wheel.

The center stack starts with the touch screen. Below that are a well thought-out series of hard buttons supporting the screen and its systems, and further down the dual-zone, automatic climate control. At the bottom of the stack are the auxiliary and USB plugs,  as well as a true-blue cigarette lighter. To the right of the stack is another 12V plug, and to the left you’ll find the 4×4 control, via a rotary knob, and below that the trailer brake controller.

The wide console houses the shift lever on the left, and 2 inline cupholders on the right. Behind them sits a wide and comfortable armrest.

The Harley brings more branding to the inside. There is badging on the seats (front and back), and groovy(?) snakeskin inserts on the seats, the steering wheel and on the armrest lid. Speaking of the armrest lid, it also has a serialized plate, with a big Harley-Davidson badge. The screen displays the Harley-Davidson logo when you fire up the truck, and they’ve used the Harley-Davidson font on the gauges. The trim plates inside are a metallic sparkly black.

The Raptor has body-colored inserts on the dash and door panels, and it has Raptor seats with branded stitching (front and back).

The King Ranch brings beautiful grained leather to the table, with contrasting piping and stitching. It looks (and feels) like a high-end leather accessory. It has a classy faux wood trim on the center stack and the door panels, with a nice contrasting color scheme throughout. There is a big King Ranch logo on the armrest lid.

Regardless of which of these three contenders you choose, you’re going to be sitting in the lap of luxury. What I’m saying is these aren’t interiors that are luxurious for a truck. These are simply luxurious by any standards, and other manufacturers could learn a thing or two about doing a high-end, luxurious interior without getting too complicated or pretentious. Well, the Harley is pretty pretentious. I’ll give it that.

Tech/Convenience

You’ll find practically everything under the sun in these trucks, and I never found myself wanting something they didn’t offer. Of course, there are power locks, windows and mirrors – the Harley and the Raptor’s mirrors were power-folding.

The MyFord Touch system has been improved, and although it can still irritate and still packs a lot of functions into a touch-screen system, it reacts more quickly and is easy to learn. I find myself significantly less annoyed by it than in the past, where I’ve complained about it bitterly. I think Ford has done a good job updating it, and I’m certain they’ll continue to refine it based on consumer feedback.

The screen also doubles as the back-up camera monitor – and that is complemented by the audible parking distance sensors when backing up.

The Sony stereo feeds off of AM, FM, satellite, CD, auxiliary and USB sources. It includes a center channel and a subwoofer and sounds absolutely fantastic.

Overhead, you’ll find a tilt/slide sunroof and controls for a power-sliding rear window and the HomeLink garage door openers.

There is a total of four 12V plugs in the cabin – very travel and work friendly.

Finally, I just want to give another nod to Ford’s driver information screen. It’s one of the few that I’d consider near-perfect in the industry. It’s consistent throughout their product line, and it offers a wealth of information, ease of use and navigation, and just makes sense to me.

The Raptor has a control box on the console, which houses hill descent control and off-road mode buttons, as well as 4 flip switches to power on wired accessories such as light bars or a winch. The driver information screen includes truck apps, which allow you to see what angle you’re motoring along at – front to back and/or side to side. And perhaps the coolest tech gadget in a vehicle yet? A front camera, residing in the grille including a sprayer to clean the lens. Its feed shows up in the driver information screen right in front of you, and it allows you to see what’s directly in front of you if you’re climbing up and down some goodies you’re not familiar with. Brilliant!

Rear Seat

The amount of room in the rear seat of a Ford F-150 SuperCrew cab never fails to astound me. Simply put, you’ll never need more. Leg-, knee- and foot room border on the ridiculous, and I had a 6-1/2′ tall friend sitting back there, able to stretch his legs out. Headroom is also good. And because it’s so wide, you’ve got room for three bona fide adults. There are three full-size seats, three headrests and three seat belts and a flat floor makes the middle seat a usable reality. Which is rare these days.

The seats are very comfortable, and the two outboard ones are heated. All three models took their themes to the back seats as well, putting badging, stitching or embossed logos on the seatbacks.

In terms of space, you can increase it almost exponentially by flipping the seat bottoms up and out of the way, leaving you with a space that could easily transport a loveseat. And because the seat bottoms split 60/40, you can transform that space with great flexibility, leaving substantial seating for one or two adults or kids, and making space for a very large item beside them.

The back of the center console has two large cupholders, adjustable air vents, a 12V plug AND A 110V REGULAR HOUSEHOLD OUTLET. Hello! Every car should have one of these!

For storage, you’ve got two seatback map pockets (the Harley’s are zippered with a branded zipper pull!) and large door pockets which include a bottle holder. If you even have to ask, transporting children is an absolute breeze – you’re provided with 2 LATCH connectors and room to spare!

Truck Box

All three models had additional goodies to help access the box. Although some snicker at these as limp-wristed, city-slicker ways of doing things, you’d be lying if you said you didn’t love the tail-gate step and the flip-up grab bar. Both are integrated into the tail-gate itself, and make getting up into and down from the truck box a breeze – something you’ll be very grateful for if you’re loading or unloading a ton of stuff. We went to the lake with one of these trucks and it made the loading process a snap. There’s nothing goofy about these innovations – they simply make sense.

There’s also a stowable bed extender, which allows you to increase the real estate back there and keeps things in place, even if the tail-gate is folded down.

The King Ranch had side steps as well, which are right behind the cab. They can be opened and stowed with a quick kick of the foot, and make it easy to access what’s in the front of the truck box. Nice touch.

Storage

Inside, you’ll find a smallish glove compartment, a tray on top of the dash and a small cubbyhole in the dash. There are long, skinny door bins in the front and they have integrated bottle holders. There’s a neat long bin on the right side of the center console. I liked the large open bin at the front of the center console – it’s deep and has a rubberized bottom. The Raptor’s off-road control buttons delete this bin.

There is a massive carpeted bin under the armrest lid. It contains another 12V outlet, as well as numerous clips for pens, etc on the lid, and a removable, sliding organizer tray.

The Drive

These trucks are all excellent drivers, yet each has its own personality.

The Harley-Davidson and Raptor share a familial rumble – the hairy-chested BRAAPPP of the 6.2-Litre V-8 is something to behold, and for me, it’s music to my ears. It’s a deliciously-tuned exhaust note, and one of the best I’ve heard.

The V-8 provides ample power off the line, and does so in a smooth, linear fashion. There is nothing bad I can say about this V-8, other than the fact that it wilts our planet every time you step on the gas. With great power comes great fuel expense.

The Harley-Davidson is a truck that seems to want to shout at all onlookers and let them know how bad it is. And how much trouble it can cause. But for all that, it seems to come across as a bit of a poser. Underneath all the badging and the name, it’s a slick operator and just goes about its business without making a fuss.

The Raptor, on the other hand, does the same, but it CAN cause a lot of trouble. The off-road capabilities of this beast are simply breath-taking, considering it’s a factory truck. This truck will go places where others can’t. It’s not merely a badged-up “Off Road” edition truck. Everybody has one of those in their line-up, and they’re little more than a different suspension and a skid-plate at times. The Raptor offers FOX Racing Shox, which soak up hits off road like nobody’s business – I took it off the beaten path, and nothing threw the suspension for a loop. There’s a significant amount of travel (11.2″ in the front and 12.1″ in the rear). In plowing through 12″ of muddy slough water, and taking it through some steep hills of loose dirt, I found there was nothing that slowed the Raptor down. I’m certain I didn’t even approach the limit of what this truck can do. But the real surprise came ON the road. Typically off-road prowess calls for on-road compromise. Not here. If you haven’t driven a Raptor on the road yet, you may well be shocked at how easy and road-friendly it is. The steering is precise, the handling is fantastic, and the brakes are powerful. It’s quite a feat to have managed both facets of this truck’s personality so well.

The King Ranch is cut of similar cloth to the Harley’s. It’s a very comfortable truck around town and on the highway. The difference here is the engine. The EcoBoost, though not providing nearly the soundtrack of the 6.2 V-8 in the other two, packs a punch. It summons plenty of jam effortlessly from the line, and remains surprisingly quiet – even under full throttle.

All three trucks were very easy to drive and handled well, all three are big vehicles and provide challenges getting into garages or parkades, and all three are thirsty. All three had some wind noise creep in at highway speeds, but nothing that was intrusive nor surprising, since you’re basically driving a vertical brick.

Nitpicks

I’ve got but a few. I didn’t appreciate that the huge towing mirrors on the King Ranch (significantly bigger than the mirrors on the Raptor or the Harley) don’t offer a power-folding feature. They add about a foot of width to each side of the truck and made getting into parkades a nightmare.

The subwoofer takes up all the space under the passenger-side rear seat. It’s not a big deal.

The Harley-Davidson font on the gauges makes them harder to read. Is it really that critical to have the gauges sync with the all-important Harley font? Seems goofy.

And this might seem trivial to some folks, but at this price point, I’ve come to expect nice bright HID headlights. Frankly, they’re available on cars costing about half as much, and they are nowhere to be found here.

The Verdict

I’m not a truck guy, but man, I liked these trucks.

The Harley is a nice spiced-up truck. I guess it depends on how spicy you like things. For me, the badging and the flames and everything was a bit much. Especially considering it’s so much more money. A number of people who checked it out chuckled at just how ostentatious it is. Much like a Harley-Davidson bike, it’s not for everyone, but it’s exactly what some people want. I give the Harley-Davidson a 7.5 out of 10.

The Raptor is simply the most fun I’ve ever had in a truck. I love the looks and the presence, I love the sound, I love what it’s capable of off-road, and that it can be a well-behaved city dweller all the same. I give the Raptor an 8.5 out of 10.

The King Ranch was the least of the bunch when it comes to sticking out in a crowd. Yet it struck me as the most handsome, the least polarizing, and in the end, the most livable of the three. I absolutely fell in love with the interior, and I’ve always been an EcoBoost fan. Sure, I miss the glorious V-8 symphony, but when it comes down to everyday driving, I love the instant torque, and the marginally better fuel economy, thank you very much. And you’ll do much better with it if you’re towing, if you don’t want to step up to a 3/4-ton diesel. I give the King Ranch an 8 out of 10, and the Wildsau stamp of approval – the stamp that says “This is the truck I’d actually buy with my own money if I was going to live with it”. It’s a pretty big stamp.

WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) was middling for the Harley-Davidson. She felt it was just “too much” with the graphics and the badging and the snake-skin. She basically rolled her eyes at it constantly – so now the truck knows how I feel all the time. It got more interesting with the Raptor. She also rolled her eyes at it, and said it’s just ridiculous with how big it is and how loud it is. Yet guess what she wanted to drive a number of times? Mmmm-hmmmmm. And WAF soared when it came to the King Ranch. My wife likes more conservative vehicles as it is, and somehow the down-to-earth classy styling of the King Ranch appealed to her. When it came to practicality and features, my wife loved every one of the trucks – since they are all basically identical in that department.

All three of the triplets provide the exact same amount of luxury inside and utility outside – they’re all great rides. So you have to determine which features mean the most to you. Care about looks and making an impression on people? The Harley might be your thing. This might be the middle brother, bearing his hairy chest and watching The Sopranos a lot, and wearing heavy gold chains.If you like off-roading but need to use the same ride for getting to and from your real life during the week, and you can handle driving something that will feature in people’s nightmares, the Raptor could be the answer. This might be the little brother, younger, meaner, and confident because of all the time he spends in the gym. Looking for a handsome, well-appointed truck that does it all, including comfortable cruising in the city and on the highway and towing when called upon? Look no further than the King Ranch. This will be the older brother – kinda done with the showiness, happy to be exactly who he’s always been, and confident in his own right.

All in all, it’s a lovely family, the Ford F-150 one. You can look at any of the triplets and say “There’s one in every family.” You just have to pick the one that suits you best.

I mentioned earlier that there is no take-away lesson here, but in retrospect, I believe there is one. You see, you can get into a Ford F-150 for CDN $17,999. Sure, it’s a V-6 powered, single cab 2×4, but the point is, it’s the same family. It is interesting to see a truck with the same lineage triple its price. Hey, I guess as long as people keep buying the ones with all the good stuff in and on them, Ford will happily keep building them for us. And it looks like they’ll happily do a bang-up job of it.

Disclosure:  Vehicles were provided by Ford.

If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my other vehicle reviews under the car reviews tab at the top of my blog.

Read to the end, and you’ll see that it might even be a competitor in another category.

The dreaded M-word category, that word that no self-respecting man would utter.

Except me. I love our minivan.

The CX-9 is Mazda’s biggest vehicle. They start at CDN $36,395, but my review sample was a loaded-up GT, and rang in at CDN $48,270. That may seem high at first, but it’s still reasonable, and competitive in this class.

Exterior

The sheet metal was striking when the CX-9 came out, but it’s aged a bit and isn’t as fresh as it used to be. That said, the lines remain clean and it’s a handsome vehicle. The smooth curves are nicely offset by the monster 20″ rims. It does have a bit of Mazda’s front-end grin, but it’s not nearly as irritating as it has been on the 3. I like the shape – it won’t get many double-takes anymore, but it works very well.

Chromed and elongated trapezoidal exhaust tips look good and the lines around the rear end seem taut and although it kind of blends in these days, it’s a smart-looking ride.

What impressed me was how well the styling hides the size of this thing. The CX-9 is a big vehicle, inside and out. When you see one drive by, it doesn’t seem nearly as big as it is, and I appreciate that.

Under the Hood

There’s only one engine choice here – a 3.7-Litre V-6. It puts out 273 HP @ 6250 RPM, and 270 lb.ft of torque at 4250 RPM. The power is routed through a 6-speed automatic to all four corners through an active torque split full-time all-wheel drive system.

Fuel economy isn’t bad – it’s rated at 12.8L/100 km (18.3 mpg) in the city and 9.0 L/100 km (26 mpg) on the highway. I averaged around 13 L/100 km (18 mpg) during exclusively city driving, with one quick sprint down the freeway. Not bad, considering it’s a behemoth. It’s got a 76 Litre tank, and can actually tow 3500 pounds. Not bad, not bad.

There’s nothing special going on under the hood, or in the drivetrain. The numbers won’t catch anyone’s attention anymore, and that goes for the number of gears in the transmission too. On paper, it seems as though the CX-9 is ready for a refresh.

Interior

I quite liked the styling inside the Mazda. Lines were relatively clean and simple, and worked well. Textures are nice to look at, but I was surprised to find hard plastics everywhere! Time to catch up with the competition, Mazda.

The interior is exceptionally spacious. Headroom in the front is incredible, and the seats are very comfortable. The leather upholstery is beautiful, including the stitching – which carries over to the door panels – front and back. The front seats are heated and power adjustable, and the driver’s side has 3 memory positions. The bolstering leaves something to be desired, and they definitely leaned toward comfort over sportiness. You’ll see why that’s unfortunate in the Driving section of my review.

I loved the manually adjustable steering wheel – it had a surprisingly small diameter, and felt sporty. It has controls for handsfree and phone operations, as well as media and cruise controls on it. Behind it sits a bin with simple, highly readable gauges. The instrumentation is red accents on black, and it looks great! Even better are the blue backlit haloes in the gauges at night.

At the top of the enormous and long dash you’ll find an information…. banner. For lack of a better word. It’s a strip of information, and although it seems busy at first, it works quite well. It shows you the climate control temperature setting, the outside temperature, whatever the media system or the phone is doing and a simple trip computer, which lets your cycle through the fuel range, average fuel consumption or average speed. It’s simple, basic and useful.

Below that is a touchscreen, and below that a dual-zone automatic climate control system. The center console is shockingly wide AND high. It’s like a barricade to keep fighting couples apart. It takes up a crazy amount of real estate in this vehicle, and it seems a bit oversized in my opinion. The shift lever is a traditional gated affair.

I liked the styling on the door panels a lot. There is an almost vertical arc of wood trim for a nice change-up.

Tech/Convenience

The CX-9, in GT form at least, is pretty loaded and I couldn’t find much missing.

The touchscreen handles the media and the navigation systems, as well as the back-up camera. Graphics and text are pretty blocky and crunchy – they feel like they’re about 5-10 years old and are definitely a ways behind the competition. The system works well, and it’s easy to use – it’s just a shame it’s a horror to look at.

The Bose stereo system, which includes a subwoofer and center channel, sounds pretty awesome. It feeds off AM, FM, satellite, CD, auxiliary or Bluetooth streaming inputs. The one exception was Bluetooth streaming – I couldn’t get it to sound good. Ever. It always had a staticky, feedbacky thing going on and sounded crappy. The touchscreen tilts out of the way to expose the CD loading slot, which felt a bit gimmicky and unnecessary and is probably just something that could go wrong over time.

12V plugs can be found at the bottom of the center stack, in the armrest bin (along with the auxiliary plug) and in the trunk.

Of course, door locks, mirrors and windows are powered, as is the overhead tilt and slide sunroof. The HID headlights are nice and bright, and very effective.

Other than that, you’ll find a blind-spot monitoring system with warning lights in the side-view mirrors, a HomeLink garage door opener and a keyless FOB system. Interesting twist – it’s not a push-start ignition – there’s a false key in the steering column that you twist like a normal one, it’s just not removable. Unique approach, but it works well.

Storage

I have to start with the cargo capacity because it is astounding. Pop open the powered trunklid, which can be done from the dash, and prepare to be surprised. Like I said, this thing is bigger than you might think. With the two back rows up, you have a solid 487 Litres (17 cubic feet). Keep in mind, that’s with the third row in use. But fold the second and third rows flat (the second row splits 60/40 and the back row 50/50), and you’ve got a gargantuan 2851 Litre (100 cubic feet) space. Feel free to move in. Or have your kids live there. There’s additional underfloor storage too.

Oh, and that powered trunklid can be closed with a button on the hatch at the back.

Outside of the room-for-rent trunk, you’ve got a big glove compartment, small-ish door bins and a nice big open bin at the bottom of the center stack. There are two massive cupholders in the console, with a lid to hide them, and a handy little flip-out change bin on the left underside of the dash.

Another unique Mazda take on things is the clamshell lid for the armrest – it’s split down the middle, and the 2 sides swing out of the way to expose a decent storage bin underneath. The armrest is very comfortable too, and sits quite high due to the enormous center console.

Rear Seats – Second Row

Getting into this row is easy – the doors open very wide and the step-in height is very nice. The seats are beautiful, and very comfortable and even the armrests in the doors are upholstered and stitched with great attention to detail. There are 3 seats, 3 seatbelts and 3 headrests. The area feels very spacious and head and legroom are amazing. You can actually stretch out, and that’s helped by the reclining seats. You could actually fit 3 adults in there, but 2 would most likely be most comfortable. Fitting 3 kids is no problem at all, and there are 2 sets of LATCH connectors.

There are small door bins, 2 seatback map pockets, overhead reading lights and the middle seatback folds down to create an armrest with 2 cupholders and a lidded storage bin.

At the back of the center console sits an automatic climate control system for the rear seats’ separate zone – nice touch!

The seats also slide forward and back. As practical as that is, there’s also a problem with it. The way Mazda solved the sliding seats issue is to provide tracks for them on the floor. Well, those tracks extend forward through virtually the whole area you’d be putting your feet when sitting in the second row. It’s not nearly as nice as smooth, uninterrupted area with carpet, but worse yet, those tracks are open and exposed, meaning any sand, dirt, grit, spilled milk and food bits from your kids and other passengers will head straight for those open rails and will be difficult to clean out afterwards. I’m not sure I like the thinking behind that.

Rear Seats – Third Row

Here you’ll find 2 seats, 2 headrests and 2 seatbelts. Obviously it’s not as spacious as the second row. Headroom is OK, but perfectly fine for kids. The seats themselves are surprisingly comfortable, especially compared to the afterthought that most third row seating areas are.

Legroom back there is tight for anyone but kids – also, if you need enough room for adults to sit back there, you’ll need to slide the second row so far forward, that it becomes tight in the second row. It’s best reserved for kids, doubly so because you need to be a contortionist to get back there – ingress and egress is not a joyful activity for big people.

There are 2 cupholders on either side for third row occupants.

The Drive

I don’t know why, but I was very pleasantly surprised by the driving experience in the CX-9. Mazda tends to sell themselves as a company that places value on the driving experience – the ZOOM-ZOOM. It’s a bit weird to carry that over to a behemoth like the CX-9, but it does!

First and foremost, this thing is smooooooth. I found everything it did was done very smoothly. The engine, the transmission and the ride were all exemplary – smooth and quiet.

Although it rides very well, it also handles surprisingly well. If you can ignore the body roll, you’ll be happy to find quite a canyon carver in the CX-9. It would be a great road-trip vehicle that wouldn’t complain at all when you throw it around some sweepers in the mountains. It feels as though it’s happy to play, which is unusual for a vehicle this big. Road manners are very well controlled, grip is impressive and I loved the dead pedal – thank you Mazda! Too bad the seats aren’t bolstered enough – throw it around a corner, and you’ll slide around on that lovely leather.

Around town, the CX-9 felt torquey, responsive and very satisfying to drive. It’s a luxo-barge though, and it gets a little grumpy when you poke it. It’s happier taking its time to get to speed, and if you’re in a rush, or if you need to pass someone in a hurry, you’ll be frustrated. Put the hammer down, and you’ll get more noise and breathless wheezing than results, and it’s just not a particularly fast vehicle. But as I said, although it seems soft and underpowered when passing at higher speeds, it’s perfectly competent for city driving and highway cruising.

The smooth automatic transmission does offer a manual shifting mode, which is slow and seems a bit pointless on a vehicle like this. I thought the gearbox was well programmed and suited to this vehicle, and I was happy to let it do the shifting itself.

Nitpicks

Most of my complaints come from things that are missing in the Tech/Convenience department.

A beast this big should come with audible distance parking sensors. The CX-9 does not. I’m not sure if it’s an option, but it should be standard equipment. On top of that, there are no distance markings on the back-up camera screen, which is just ludicrous. Sure I can see what’s behind me, but I have no guides to help me gauge how far away stuff is? The distance markings HAVE to be part of a back-up camera package!

I was surprised by the lack of USB/iPod input to the sound system, and that there wasn’t a 12V or 110 plug for the rear passengers. It drives me crazy when car manufacturers leave that out, especially if they’ve made a significant effort already by putting an automatic climate control system back there. A rear plug should be standard for every vehicle on the market, never mind a big SUV with three rows of seating.

The volume and tuning knobs on the stereo are quite small, and worse, they don’t stick out far enough. Mr. Sausage-Fingers Wildsau had a tough time using them, and that’s just annoying. Yes, I know there are controls on the steering wheel, but that doesn’t negate the requirement to make the primary controls functional. Does it?

The Verdict

I was very happy with the Mazda CX-9. It’s a smooth operator (cue Sade song here). You’ll find a soft, comfortable SUV with plenty of room, a usable 3rd row for kids, acceptable fuel economy and fantastic handling.

I give the CX-9 an 8 out of 10, and I would definitely recommend it if you’re shopping in this class.

I appreciate that Mazda does things somewhat differently, and I like that they put their own touch on styling, performance and even the little touches like electronics. The tech needs to catch up with the times, as does the touch screen, but otherwise this big boy is aging gracefully and remains competitive.

WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) was very high. She loved how easy it was to a) get in, b) load up kids, and c) drive. This next statement meant a lot to people I talked to, and might be more important than I had first considered: my wife thought it was a valid competitor to her beloved Honda Odyssey minivan. Something to think about.

Disclosure:  Vehicle was provided by Mazda.

If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my other vehicle reviews under the car reviews tab at the top of my blog.

Mach Schnell!

Recently I was given the opportunity to spend a weekend with a 911 Turbo with only 18,000 kms on it, told to drive it like I hate it, and not to hold back on the kilometers I put on it. I immediately turned the offer down.

Haha. I keed, I keed. I took this extraordinarily generous offer and I ran with it. Hard and fast.

Where do I start? How do you review a car that I could be rating by the skidmarks in my underwear?

How about a quick introduction to this beast, and then we’ll hit the road, where every Porsche belongs.

The 911 Turbo is the pinnacle of Porsche’s venerable sports car line. The 997 is the generation of the 911 preceding the brand-new one that debuted a few months ago in North America.

In this iteration, the shape continues to evolve but remains unmistakeable for a 911. Helen Keller could tell this is a 911. It’s slightly wider than before, and some surfaces seem more taut and openings to capture air flow seem as though they are stretched and as though they mean more business. The familiar shape has lovely 19″ rims, shod with 235/35s in front and gargantuan 305/30s in the rear. The engine, which hangs out behind the rear axle (a configuration that defies common sense), is a twin-turbo 3.6-Litre flat-6.

It puts out 480 HP @ 6000 RPM. As lovely as that is, it absolutely pales in awesomeness versus the torque that this monster generates. 460 lb. ft. of it. Sure, that’s impressive. But allow me to continue this one-upmanship. The peak torque is available to you from 1950 RPM all the way up to 5000 RPM. The effect is astounding.

This car was equipped with the optional Sport-Chrono package – it includes a goofy stopwatch on the dash, which looks cool but isn’t really useful. What’s more useful is that, under full throttle, this option increases the turbo boost for up to 10 seconds, and swells the peak torque figure to 502 lb.ft. Yummy!

All that jam is connected to a sophisticated, and perfectly balanced, all-wheel drive system through, in this case, a 6-speed manual transmission. How much weight is that lump pushing around, you ask? A mere 3400 pounds. Sub-4 second runs from 0-100 km/h are as easy as pie, and it doesn’t take long to approach its top speed of 310 km/h (193 mph). Don’t ask me how I know that. OK, go ahead and ask. I can’t stop grinning.

Perhaps not as grin-inducing of a fact, yet a very important one, is that this car is rated at 18 mpg (13 L/100 km) in the city and 25 mpg (9.4 L/100 km) on the highway. Astounding. Seriously. Think about that for a second. Those are decent numbers, but this thing could be used by NASA to test astronauts’ tolerance of space travel G-forces.

The Drive

Firing up the car, using the left-mounted key as Porsche’s nod to racing tradition dictates, awakens the delicious mechanical clatter of the flat-6. Though they haven’t been air-cooled for a long time, there are still similarities in the sound at idle, and it’s just fantastic. There’s a Teutonic seriousness to the engine note, as if it’s telling you it doesn’t have to resort to the shrieking of the Italians to get your attention. It’s louder at idle (and under load) than you might expect, but to me, that’s just gravy. I love it!

The first thing I noticed, before I had the cajones to step on it a bit, was that this car is freakishly easy to drive. It’s almost irritating in how docile it is around town. Stay off the go-pedal, and therefore off boost, and this thing drives like a stiffly-sprung VW. In a good way. No surprises, and frankly it’s more comfortable and competent as a daily driver than any supercar has the right to be.

Push in the light clutch, with its perfectly linear travel and feel, and slide the manual into first gear. First, you’ll marvel at its hot-knife-through-butter smoothness and next, you’ll be shocked at how simple the clutch take-up is to manage. Honestly, you could learn to drive a manual with this car – it’s that good and that user-friendly and it brings no attitude to the table. I found pedal placement to be the most ideal I’ve ever driven with, and that includes the dead pedal. The shift lever’s throws are quite long and occasionally it got grumpy between 2nd and 3rd gear under hard acceleration.

The suspension is firm but remains surprisingly comfortable and smooth – especially in light of this car’s handling abilities. When you drive this car fast, which it happily does all day long, it almost feels like you’re cheating. You can do very little wrong, and it mates this handling with perfectly precise steering that gives you all the feedback you need to make the best decisions. That shockingly supple suspension can be spanked to track-readiness by pushing the Sport suspension button. The almost imperceptible body roll diminishes to none, and there is nothing a mortal can do to upset this car around corners. The price for this is that the ride becomes overly firm and also crashy over road imperfections. There’s no need for the Sport setting – it’s unreal in the normal setting.

Seek out any corner, and approach it at any speed you want. The Turbo will make it happen. Make it tight, and if you’re on the throttle, it’ll kick out the arse end. Turn off the traction control, and it will kick it out a whole lot more, but long before you start heading for the ditch, the front tires retain their tenacious grip and pull you forward whilst the rear tires spin, your tail end tucks back in neatly, and you continue to head in exactly the direction you pointed yourself in. No fishtailing, just the one kick through oversteer, the simple correction, and you’re slingshotting ahead. Just as rad as drifting this thing through tight arcs is taking a wider line through the turn. There’s no appreciable understeer, and if you’re wide enough, no oversteer. Just perfection.

Oh right, the going straight part. Push the hammer down, and the effort this machine puts forth is nothing short of herculean. There is no end to the tsunami of torque, and it’s seamless once you’re on boost. 100 km/h arrives exactly at the end of 2nd gear, and in less than 4 seconds. I timed a 0-200 km/h run to take 11.9 seconds. Keep in mind that there are cars that take that long to get to 100 km/h. Acceleration is something this car loves to do – push down the throttle in any gear, at any RPM, and this car is all over it like Kirstie Alley on a meat pie.

What’s bringing everything back down to earth? Enormous 6-piston monobloc brakes in the front, and 4-piston ones in the rear. After repeated braking from high speeds, there was no fade to speak of.

Interior, Tech/Convenience, Rear Seats, Storage

Do you really care about these aspects when it comes to a 911 Turbo? Nein.

Do you really care that Porsche’s traditional instrument cluster doesn’t allow you to see the two outside gauges without moving your head or that the center stack ergonomics are horribly busy and impossible to use without taking your eyes off the road?  Überhaupt nicht. 

Sure, it’s got all the amenities, including a nav system, a BOSE stereo, blah blah blah. Here’s the truth. I never listened to the stereo once. Why would you?!

Materials are first-rate, and fit and finish is flawless. The seats are simply the best I’ve ever sat in in a vehicle -period. They’re heated, power-adjustable, and the side and thigh bolsters are adjustable to your body – for a perfect fit.

Yes, there’s a sunroof, and a sweet Alcantara-upholstered ceiling panel. Storage – pffft. There’s a small front trunk, and if you fold the rear seatbacks down, you can easily throw a couple of small cases or bags back there. Other than that, you’ll have to make do with a couple of tiny compartments in the center console. Automatic climate control? Check.

That’s right. I said rear seats. They’re actually usable for kids, but there are no LATCH connectors for child seats. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, PORSCHE?  Tsk tsk. Luckily, you can keep this car on boost and just keep the kids pushed back into their seats with the torque.

The things that matter are done right. Steering wheel? Flawless, manually adjustable with nary a button to be found on it. Tach? Huge, easy to read and front and center – where it belongs.

The Verdict

How a supercar (that can reliably post ridiculous performance numbers over and over) has the gall to be this comfortable, and dare I say it practical, is beyond me. It’s a car that will lay most anything to waste, yet be perfectly competent as a daily driver or on an extended road trip.

I drove this car hard – I slid around corners, I did 4000 RPM launches, I drove it at speeds that were triple the speed limit. Yet I never felt I was approaching the limits of this marvel of engineering, and I never felt as though it might bite me back.

It’s simply the most perfect vehicle I’ve ever had the opportunity to drive. On boost, this car is an absolute monster, pushing you back in the seat like an airplane taking off and seemingly never running out of breath – off boost, it’s as docile as any $20,000 car can be. And yet, it manages to balance this strange dichotomy without a hitch, pulling off both personalities flawlessly.

WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) was very high. She’s a mini-van lover, but she really enjoyed the drive, and commented on the lumbar support and the lit vanity mirrors. Don’t look at me. She did complain bitterly that I was making it too loud and driving too fast. That’s when I let her walk the rest of the way home.

If you have a chance to drive one, or better yet, to pick one up on the previously-loved market, don’t hesitate to do it. I can’t recommend a car more than this one and I’ve never driven anything as good as this.

I give it a 9.5 out of 10, and I’m going to have a difficult time explaining in words how it’s less than a 10 out of 10. To say I loved it seems like the understatement of the year.

When you think of cars that will perform well and be comfortable at high speeds, you’d do well to consider any German automobile. But when it comes to superlatives, Porsche is the only one that remains and its reputation is well-deserved.

Disclosure: I was entrusted with this car by one of my readers.

I can’t thank this person enough for that trust or for the generosity of the offer, including the instructions to drive it hard. Thank you so very much!

 For fun, I put together a short video of a minute or two with the Porsche, including a nice, solid acceleration run, as well as taking a corner – two times, neither time very fast, but showing how flat it handles and how controlled it is. Although the cornering doesn’t appear fast, if you look at how quickly the tractor or the camera guy disappears, you get an idea of how effortlessly this thing hustles. Also, check out the tractor-driving country bumpkin at 1:08 and 1:21 who throws up his arms in disgust when I cut in front of him. Good times, good times.

Each one of our kids has a way of their own, and each one comes with a barrel full of quirks and personality. I’ve often recounted a story or two when hanging out with friends and family, but I thought I’d list a few more of them as a public service and as a warning.

Dressing Up

This isn’t that uncommon. Kids like to dress up. They like to dress their dolls and teddies up. It’s part of the imagination process. Abigail even dressed up Tango, our Staffordshire Bull Terrier, years ago. Even with boots on, he never complained. It’s not so much the wanting to dress up that throws me off, it’s more the incredible capacity to make a mess of it. Amalie is particularly gifted in this department. She will, without exaggerating, dress up 15 times in a day, and each time the full complement of clothing remains where she took it off. We will find a dozen outfits strewn about the house. When asked to clean, she dutifully does so. After a couple of days, we’d always notice that Amalie’s closet has become a barren wasteland, devoid of any clothing. We realized that, instead of putting clothes back on the hangers, she would pick them up when asked to and stuff them in the toy bins. Nice.

An alternative to dressing up is the not dressing at all. Both our girls were very happy nudists. Abigail has grown out of it, but Amalie would very gladly walk around without anything on – every single day of the year. Even when we would finally convince them to PLEASE PUT SOMETHING ON, we’d be treated to some of the most bizarre combinations. On top of that, they can’t be convinced that what they’re wearing isn’t a good idea. And this isn’t just around the house. Nope. Sometimes, it’s best to just let it go. It’s not a hill worth dying on. Want some evidence? How about this gem – Abigail, dressed for success, in 6 degree weather at the tree nursery. Thanks for coming out.

Steep Learning Curves

As an adult, I pride myself in doing something harmful once and hopefully never doing it again. I also pride myself in evaluating circumstances and situations, and perhaps realizing that, even though I’m curious, I firmly believe I will get hurt and therefore I will choose not to do it.

My kid: “I like this fan, Daddy. It’s blowing cold air.”

Me: “Mmm. Yes. I like it too.”

Kid: “I want to stick my finger in the fan.”

Me: “No, no. You don’t want to do that. That could really hurt you, honey!”

Kid: “Oh. OK.”

14 seconds later… a quick staccato of BL-BL-BL-BL-A-A-A-A-A-P-P-P-P-P-P-P.  “Waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh – oh Daddy, my finger. Ohhhhh, my finger. I hurt myself.”

It seems that kids don’t have enough of whatever it is that lets them make better decisions, even after we advise them appropriately. Perhaps placing an antique fan without safety grilles within reach was partially my fault, but still. I told her!

I also find it weird that they could basically break every bone in their body, and just get up and keep running. UNLESS they see that someone observed the injury. THEN it’s cryin’ time.

Fighting

The incredible, mind-boggling ability to pick a fight over the dumbest stuff never ceases to amaze me. Honestly, I listen to my kids fight over stuff and I often think they must be knitting with one needle.

Abigail: “Let’s play school. I’m the teacher.”

Amalie: “No, I’M the teacher. And I’m a pretty teacher.”

Abigail: “No, you’re not. You’re not the teacher. And you’re not pretty. I said it first.”

Amalie, welling up with tears: “NO, YOU’RE NOT! Well, then I’m not playing anymore. And you’re awkward.”

Abigail: “Haha. You don’t even know what awkward means. OK, sit down. I’m teaching.”

Amalie, crying and screaming: “I’M A MERMAID!!!  DO YOU HEAR ME?  A BEAUTIFUL MERMAID.  AND MERMAIDS DON’T NEED TEACHERS.”

Abigail, now crying too: “NO, YOU’RE NOT. I’m the teacher, and you’re not a mermaid. And I’m never playing with you again. And you smell like hot dogs.”

Both: “Waaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!”

Andon, the 1-year-old with more sense than both of them: “Cookie! Coooookkiiiiiiieeeeeee!!!”

They just make no sense, and find the strangest stuff to fight over. Also, the sneakiness is disturbing. The hitting in the car has come to a relatively abrupt end, because our minivan has a “conversation mirror” which is just a fancy way of saying “mirror that shows us the whole van and will allow us to dole out accurate beatings based on what we’ve observed first-hand.” But in the house, we will often hear some arguing, followed by the sounds of a scuffle, and then one or both are bawling. Yet we have no idea what caused it and neither will admit to anything. They have a solid sense of when they’re not being watched and commit terrible crimes during those moments.

Temporary and Selective Deafness

Another thing I just can’t understand is my kids’ ability to sit, literally, two feet away from me, look me in the eyes with an unwavering stare, while I tell them something that’s critical to their survival. And they don’t hear a single word of what I said.

Try opening a bag of chips though. They could be two blocks away, in a tornado, and they’d hear it and come running.

Interesting Methods of Play

Our kids soak things up, and that includes roles and personalities they have seen or observed doing things they feel are important.

Abigail, our oldest, has a care-giver personality. She loves looking after things, especially if she is helping where there is a need. Therefore she often plays nurse. Her auntie and one of her cousins are nurses, and there is no doubt that she wants to be one. But occasionally it does get depressing. Because when you come in her room, the entire joint has been converted to a critical-care unit. Every single doll, teddy bear and anything else that mimics a living thing is being treated. And every single one of the worst maladies known to child have befallen each and every one of these victims.

Me: “Oh, nice room. What’s up with Cheese?” (Cheese is one of her teddy bears.)

Abigail: “Oh, he broke his leg.”

Me: “Oh my! That sounds serious. Are you helping him?”

Abigail: “I am. He also has cancer. And his eye fell out.”

Me: “Goodness! That’s a lot of suffering for one bear. I see there are others in this hospital room too. You must be busy.”

Abigail, shaking her head impatiently as she nods me toward the door: “Um, yes! They all have infections in their mouths. And this one’s head was cut off in an accident. We’re very busy here.”

Me: “Head cut off?! Well, it’s a good thing he’s got a well-trained medical professional here.”

Amalie also sees behaviours and mimics them, often taking the transformation to new heights. For the longest time, her personal hero was Ariel, The Little Mermaid. Aside from knowing every single word (and song) in the movie, she would only wear her panties around the house, and a long, red blanket on her head. Because she needed to have long, red hair. It would drag on the floor, but she would perfectly balance it and it never fell off. She’d wear it to the table, and took herself very seriously. Company’s here! Oh look, there’s our child in underwear and a red blanket wig. We just stopped explaining it and told people she’s mentally ill.

Lately, she has taken a real shining to Bethany Hamilton, the teenaged surfing sensation that lost an arm to a shark attack. Amalie is happy in that she can continue to wear little or nothing to dress appropriately for the role, but she is also surfing on absolutely every single surface. She takes a pillow with her wherever she is, and it’s her surfboard. She has all the moves – arms out, balancing, crouching, jumping up. It’s priceless. Until she figured out she can surf down the stairs. On her pillow. On hardwood. With no head protection.

Melt-downs

The way a child can take a perfectly good moment and turn it into a horrible one is amazing. I mean, it’s a special gift. One second, you’re having a successful shopping trip, loading up a grocery cart. The kid is happy, pushing their mini-cart along. Life is good. Then, the following reasoning seems to take place in their brain:

“Hmmm, there is chocolate. I will eat some chocolate now. Oh. My dad is telling me not to eat the chocolate in the store. Aha, I will employ my wily charms to get my way. I will beg him. Hmmm, this is not working. Dad is a horrible person, who has been so nice to me all day and just bought me an ice cream cone 20 minutes ago, but I will forget that for now and start crying. What’s this?! He’s ignoring me?! The nerve! The gall! Fine. I’ll ramp it up. Once I start screaming about the importance of said chocolate in my life, he’ll crack. OK, my throat is hurting from screaming, but I still have no chocolate. This Dad character is a tough nut to crack. Well, it’s time to add the flailing of arms to my act, and preferably while near a shelf laden with glass jars of mustard than I can knock over. Whoops, there it goes. Clean-up on aisle 4. That oughta get his attention. Man, why is Dad such a meanie? I am making an enormous scene here, and still no chocolate! This is bordering on ridiculous. HEY! There’s my cousin! Yay. Yippee. I am so happy. I can’t wait to run over and say hi. Hey, this is weird. I have water in my eyes. I must have been crying about something. I can’t remember what it was though. Oh well. Hmm, Dad is staring at me with a confused look.”

Socially-Unacceptable Behaviour

Abigail has a neat talent for being “open” about how she feels. It’s tough to say much, because I often find myself being proud that she’s confident enough to be honest to people. But sometimes it goes too far, and I suppose there’s a lesson to be learned in what things can be thought but not said.

“Dad, thanks for coming to get me from the birthday party. I’m glad you’re the first parent to show up. This was the worst party ever. The cake tasted gross. And look at this loot bag. Are they serious? Oh, and doesn’t their house smell like cat pee? I can’t wait to go home.”

Amalie just loves to pick her nose. I mean, she’s an artist with it. It’s not a simple pick and flick. She goes deep, and she has a look on her face that displays pure content. It’s a nice relaxing activity for her, and you hate to take that away from a child, but when it’s at the table, or whatever, we do ask her to stop.

Similarly, Andon loves pulling his own body parts. Given the opportunity, he’ll hang on for dear life and yank things to the point where you’re expecting a life-altering injury. And then he lets go, lets the business snap back into place and laughs and laughs. Which is why we try not to ever give him the opportunity. Once he graduates from diapers, I’ll be buying him a gonch with a belt on it so he can’t do any damage.

You Can Only Take So Much

Our kids LOVE to do “performances”. They both firmly believe they are professional dancers, singers, choreographers, musicians, actors, athletes, you name it. And they will practice putting on a show, and then perform it. This behaviour increases ten-fold when we have company over. I don’t want to crush my children’s dreams, but sometimes, you just have to curb it. We’re like “OK, sure that would be really nice to see a ballet show.” I look at the company, and they’re glancing at their watches, doing the “Oh look at the time!” thing. And that’s BEFORE the 20 minute performance. It’s cute, but it has to be limited.

Why? – again, it’s something that you don’t want to stop immediately, because it shows their brains are actually working, but you can hear all the stories you want. There is no greater torture than answering “why” to 4000 questions in one evening. The most battle-scarred, hardened CIA operatives in the world couldn’t last through one night of being subjected to my kids’ questioning. “No, please, no more! I’ll tell you everything! Please, just give me back to the waterboarding guy. That was way better. Just no more questions!”

So, to be clear, raising children is a very rewarding thing. Ha ha! No seriously, it has its moments. When you come home and the chalk writing on the sidewalk reads “We <3 U, Dad! Love, Abigail + Amalie” (like it did today) or when your baby lays its tired head on your chest and takes a load off, whether its 2 days old, or 8 years old, your heart will melt and you will realize that every single moment of pain and head-shaking is worth it. But don’t you start thinking it’s all going to make sense.

The biggest reward to all this may lay some time in the future.

When we’ll hopefully be there to witness our children’s children. Doing the same things to them. PAYBACK!

 If you’ve enjoyed this, feel free to browse my archives tab for other posts.

If you’ve been reading my vehicle reviews, you’ll know that I’ve brought in some new blood in terms of categorizing my posts.

I have three categories that I currently use – my typical “Review”, and two newer ones: “Comparo” for multi-vehicle comparison tests and “Quick Take” for a slightly less detailed, quicker read.

It’s time to add another. I’ve been presented with several opportunities to drive (and review) readers’ vehicles, ranging from one end of the spectrum (1960′s 6×6 Deuce military truck) to the other (Porsche 997 Turbo), and a number of goodies in between.

I am so grateful for these opportunities and want to start taking these fine folks up on their offers when I find time and I thought we could use a new category for these reviews. They’ll likely be different from what I typically do when I tear a new vehicle apart – less exhaustive and probably more relaxed.

I thought of using “Reader’s Ride”. But that’s so old it farts dust, and it’s being used elsewhere frequently. Then it occurred to me – AHA! I’ve got readers with HUGE brains, influence and abilities – why don’t I put it out there, and maybe I’ll get an idea that’s ridiculously awesome!

If you’ve got a fantastic idea, post it in the comments. Pending on the volume and quality of the response, I’m hoping to pick a winner and the big brain that came up with it scores a rad wildsau.ca t-shirt which will be custom-created, haphazardly folded and mailed to you. Any size. Even big enough to fit the gentleman in the picture. I don’t care if I have to have this shirt made up at a tent and awning store, I will make it happen.

So….. what would call this category? Privately-owned vehicles, new, old, vintage, sports cars, military trucks, and everything in between. Show us what you got, people!

The incredible Photoshop work on that picture was done by my friend Rene Mayer, whose ability to give from the heart knows no bounds. Follow him at @Rainyfool

Oh, and if you’ve got something juicy I can take for a spin and share with my readers, drop me line at tom.sedens@

UPDATE:  The contest is closed – thank you everyone for having some fun with it and for the rad suggestions.  @ChrisinEdmonton came up with the winner, “Wildsau’s Wheelhaus”.  I liked the nod to my name, the reference to wheels, and the German spelling for Haus. Great job, man!  I hope you’ll share a pic of you in the t-shirt!

First I drove the new Escape, powered by the 2.0 Litre EcoBoost. That engine, which I already checked out in my Explorer EcoBoost review, has no business being relegated to so few vehicles, and left me duly impressed. It’s competitive on every level. Not to mention the lovely styling, inside and out, of the new Escape. It’s a great package. It drove well, with ample torque and smooth power delivery. Great ride, lively handling for a crossover and well thought-out details and an impressive level of tech throughout – not to mention competitive pricing. The Escape has been a perennial best-seller for Ford, and I can’t imagine they have anything less than a winner on their hands with the new one. Oh, and did I mention best-in-class fuel economy?

It was the second drive that really got me amped up. Because it was something completely different. I got to take a plug-in electric Focus out on the town. There’s something unsettling about a car that simply doesn’t make a sound. Hybrids give you a taste when you turn them on, but eventually you’ve got those reassuring engine noises happening. Not here. This car is silent, except for an electric whine when you really step on it, but you’ve got to be listening very carefully to even hear it. Essentially, the car package is familiar and builds on a very nice car as it is. I spent some time with a Focus and loved it! There are small, subtle differences – a plug-in just ahead of the driver’s door, with a ring that lights when you open the door – to remind you to charge your ride. Efficiency coaching tools available on a dash screen, helping you accelerate, coast and brake as efficiently as possible – IF you want the help.

What surprised me (although it shouldn’t have) is how remarkably unremarkable this car was to drive – it’s just a normal ride. Power delivery was ultra-smooth, and as there isn’t really a gearbox, it just simply builds momentum in a very linear fashion. It’s faster than it seems, because you’re waiting for a rev sound to build to a crescendo, and you’re somewhat disappointed when it doesn’t, but then you look down, and you’ve handily hit 100 km/h. Range, under super ideal circumstances, is 160 km, but you can safely expect 100 km in almost any case. The only thing I didn’t get excited about was the regenerative braking feel, but I’ve gotten used to it from the hybrids I’ve driven. A small price to pay for the equivalent of 100 mpg fuel economy.

I didn’t get to drive it, but they also brought a hand-built pre-production new generation Fusion Hybrid (1 of 7 in existence), and I couldn’t help but be stunned by the looks – again. I love this car’s looks. There’s a whole lotta Aston Martin circa a-few-James-Bond-movies-ago styling in the grille, but it works wonderfully here, and this car will be a hit. It’s a looker.

Oh, and although I didn’t get to drive it either, there was a handsome SHO sitting there, silently confident with 365 HP lurking under the hood. Want. Badly. Funny how I get more and more excited by large, fast sedans as I approach the time in my life where I’ll get back into diapers and have someone feed me again.

There was a presentation too, about Ford’s focus on sustainability and efficiency, and their 30 year plan to reduce their global carbon footprint. If you look past the marketing, there’s actually a company that seems earnest about making a difference, and doing it realistically. Also, there was significant talk about how much carbon is coming out of our tailpipes (his words, not mine) and I couldn’t help but wonder how he knew I had chili for lunch.

Anyway, I came away very impressed with the two vehicles I drove, and even though they were pre-production mules, they were rock solid and a good indicator of what the future will hold when you stroll into your local Ford showroom. Looking forward to it, Ford!

A fun little get-together made even better by seeing familiar faces and meeting new people.

Thanks to Focus Communications, Ford and all the people that were involved putting this event together.

The X1 is BMW’s newest, smallest and most affordable model in their “SAV” (sports-activity vehicle) line-up and it’s based on the 3-series Touring platform.

It starts at CDN $38,500 – my Alpine White review vehicle, which included the Premium and Sports packages and power seats, rang in at CDN $42,440.

Exterior

The exterior will look familiar but causes many to do a double-take. It’s a much lower stance than other BMW cross-overs, and looks more stretched out – and maybe like it has a big nose. It’s not a big vehicle, but certainly not tiny either. The surprisingly-low roof is adorned with metal roof rails and a shark fin antenna. The front end drops down lower than expected as well, and looks aggressive, with large kidney-grille openings and a chin spoiler finished with brushed metal. The same metal is used in the handsome trim under the doors and on the back valance.

I was surprised at the lack of HID headlights, and the lack of BMW’s signature driving light haloes. The side profile is nice, stretched out as already mentioned, and the belt line sweeps up behind the back doors to complete the small rear window profile. The whole look is finished off with nice rims and reasonably sized rubber.

Under the Hood

Here’s the big story, since this engine will be powering BMW’s vehicles with the 28 moniker. It hasn’t been a 2.8 Litre engine for a while, but this is a whole new direction. It’s their new 2.0-Litre, twin-scroll turbocharged 4-cylinder. It puts out a solid 241 HP @ 5500 RPM. The stuff that matters for around town is the torque, and that’s where this engine leaves the old, normally aspirated 6-cylinder in the dust. It churns out 258 lb.ft of torque – at a ridiculously low 1250 RPM. Yum! Coupled with BMW’s new 8-speed automatic, the X1 makes the 0-60 run in 6.7 seconds.

Fuel economy is also improved, and significantly so. The X1 is rated at 10.2 L/100 km (23 mpg) in the city, 6.5 L/100 km (36 mpg) on the highway, and 8.5 L/100 km (28 mpg) for the combined cycle. I saw around 10.5 L/100 km (22 mpg) driving it fairly aggressively, which is very good. Thank goodness, because it swills premium fuel out of its 63 Litre tank.

The Drive

BMW has long made it clear that they are the driver’s car manufacturer, so let’s talk about that. The X1 is, much like their other non-M SAVs, a significantly less sporty experience than their cars in terms of the drive. It’s only fitting, when you make something bigger, heavier, taller and longer. The X1 is certainly not BMW’s sportiest drive, but it does do well, all things considered.

The engine is great, and gives you a happy snarl when you fire it up. I found a little lag when stepping on it, but then it builds momentum with aplomb, surging ahead enthusiastically. To be honest, I think that hesitation is almost more driveline/transmission related than actual turbo lag. I also found that most of that lag can be alleviated by slapping the transmission into sport mode, leaving the engine in the meatier part of the rev range. The hesitation isn’t bad at all, it’s just there. As smooth as the engine is, it’s not as smooth as the old 6-cylinders were. Power is plenty for everyday driving, and once on boost, it pulls happily at any speed.

The 8-speed auto is generally very smooth, and seems quite intelligent. Manual mode with the slap-stick or paddles is decent, and quick enough with one gear change – request two gears up or down at once, and it takes a couple of seconds to get there.

The ride is sporty, which is my way of saying acceptably firm. It remains firm at all speeds, but is comfortable enough. The handling is good for a crossover – I’d like sharper turn-in, but once it’s into the corner, it’s happy and will slingshot out of it when you step on it. There’s a bit of body roll but less than most of the competition. The all-wheel drive system was smooth and unobtrusive, and effective in the snowstorm I was lucky enough to do battle with – in late April. I felt the steering was alright, but not as communicative as I’ve come to expect from BMW – it was also very hard to steer at lower speeds, such as while parking.

The X1 was quiet at all speeds – road, wind and drivetrain noise was very good, and a last-generation BMW 328 owner commented that it was quieter than his car. Visibility out was very good, except for one area – the belt line that sweeps up so prettily at the back always made me feel there was a car there when doing a passenger-side shoulder check.

Interior

The interior is all business – typical BMW. This car was all black, which makes it even more serious. Materials are nice, but not fantastic. Some soft-touch surfaces, mixed with hard plastics and black piano gloss trim pieces. The seats are leatherette. While they are very comfortable, and have excellent bolstering, it seems a bit cheesy to offer vinyl seats at this price. I know “leatherette” is the new thing, but I prefer real dead cow hide in my cars when I’m dropping $40K or more. The black leatherette is matte finished, and because of the lack of sheen, it looked almost more reptilian than bovine. Regardless, they’re nice seats – heated and power adjustable, with a memory setting for the driver.

In front of you is a great manually adjustable steering wheel with a fat rim and controls for media, phone and hands-free operations. Sitting behind it is a set of BMW’s highly-readable, clear gauges and a driver information screen, which shows you fuel economy and range, and average speed.

Headroom is very good, and the rest of it is roomy enough – not large, but not tight. The center stack contains the audio system and a dual-zone, automatic climate control system. The console contains the shift lever, a parking brake lever and an armrest.

Tech/Convenience

The stereo, while very simple and saddled with a poor user interface, sounds incredible – crisp highs, full bass, excellent balance. Sources are AM, FM, CD, auxiliary and USB. The auxiliary, USB and 12 V plugs are at the bottom of the center stack.

Of course you have power windows, door locks and mirrors. The steering wheel is heated, and you have automatic headlights. The ignition is push-start, with a silly caveat I’ll tell you about in the Nitpicks section.

Overhead, you’ll find a huge, panoramic sunroof – the front section tilts and slides.

Rear Seat

Though you’ll find 3 seats, 3 headrests and 3 seat belts back there, and the center seat isn’t horrible, it’s realistically seating for 2 adults because of the very intrusive driveshaft tunnel on the floor. However, my 3 kids fit fine and were very comfortable. Headroom is outstanding back there – legroom and knee room are pretty good. The backs of the front seats are hard plastic panels, which means there are no map pockets, and it would be uncomfortable if you’re of the long-legged persuasion. The seats themselves are comfortable and recline to several positions. It feels airy and probably roomier than it is thanks to the large sunroof overhead.

You’ve got door bins with bottle holders, and 2 LATCH connectors for children’s seats. The LATCH connectors are hidden with weird plastic lids. There is a 12V plug at the back of the center console.

Storage

The X1′s cargo space is reasonable at 14.8 cubic feet. I loved the flexibility of having rear seats that fold in three sections – fold all three 40/20/40 sections flat and you’ve got a versatile 47.6 cubic feet to work with. You’ll also find a 3″ deep under-floor storage compartment, 4 heavy-duty tie-down loops and a solid tonneau cover that swings up with the trunk lid.

In the front, you’ve got nice door bins with bottle holders, a deep open bin at the bottom of the center console, a large lidded bin in the dash where BMW’s widescreen display usually sits and a smallish, strangely compartmented bin under the sliding armrest lid as well as a glove compartment. A single cupholder resides in the console.

Nitpicks

OK, let’s talk cupholders.  BMW has never taken cupholders nearly as seriously as we do in North America, and I pointed that out in my review of the 328. I found a small, spring-loaded metal cover over a slot on the right side of the center console and finally figured out that’s where BMW wants you to slot in their additional cupholder. Words can’t describe how dumb this solution seems, so I’ll leave you with a picture to ponder this insanity.

The FOB must be inserted into a slot – much like a key would – before the push-button ignition works. So why bother with a button if you have to basically put a key in anyway?

I wasn’t a fan of BMW’s new shift lever – I’ve never met someone who says they like it. It pivots around a center point, requiring you to depress a side button to snick it forward into reverse (totally opposite to what you’ve been doing for your entire driving career) or backwards into drive. To put it into Park, you have to press the “P” button on top, instead of moving the lever. I didn’t even remotely get used to it after a week.

Other nitpicks are more regarding what’s NOT there – especially at this price. Something that costs over $40,000 should have lit vanity mirrors, HomeLink garage door openers, a back-up camera and Bluetooth streaming for the stereo. Many vehicles that cost slightly more than half as much offer these things, often as standard equipment. Oh, and no satellite radio standard. Whaaaat???

Details

The X1 has a stellar dead pedal, and I loved it.

When you set your cruise control, a cool little marker needle shuttles around the outside bezel of the speedometer and stops at the speed you’ve set your cruise at. Totally unnecessary, but totally awesome!

The Verdict

I enjoyed my time with the X1. It’s a great little crossover, offering more space and utility than I thought it would, and putting down very respectable numbers in terms of performance and fuel economy.

I think the biggest barrier the X1 is going to run up against is the perception of value. As noted, I’m looking for some more goodies when I buy a vehicle in this price range, and although it offers a lot of neat things (hello, heated steering wheel!), I’d prefer to see it have the basics down first, as per the nitpicks section. Those are glaring oversights, and shouldn’t require a step up in option packages – not at this price.

I give the X1 a solid 7 out of 10. In the end, I wish it would give me a little more for my dollar – then I could enjoy the great performance and fun ride a little more instead of being a little pissed that the dude beside me in the CR-V has a back-up camera. And paid $10,000 less. If the X1 were $3000-4000 less, or offered more standard equipment at this price, I would have given it a 7.5 out of 10.

WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) was quite high. She liked the way it drove, and the space it offers inside. She didn’t like the goofy shift lever nor the finnicky user interface on the stereo.

So in my books, the biggest strike against it is value. It’s not a terrible value, not at all. This is, after all, a BMW and is to be considered a premium crossover. But you can buy vehicles for less that offer more. They don’t say BMW on them and they don’t drive like the X1 to be sure, and those two things are what a lot of shoppers are looking for. If you don’t mind spending a little more and getting a little less in terms of tech and convenience, you will still end up with a fine driving machine that offers a chunk of utility and versatility.

It also might be the cheapest way to get into a BMW, if that’s what you’re after. Call it a gateway drug and drop me a line when you upgrade to your M5. Hi-yoooooo!

Disclosure:  Vehicle was provided by BMW.

If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my other vehicle reviews under the car reviews tab at the top of my blog.

This time around, two heavy hitters drop the gloves and square off. We’ve got two mid-size cross-overs and they are bringin’ it.

In the right corner, we have the 2012 Lexus RX 350, a venerable best-seller since 1998, sitting atop what is basically a Camry platform. It has evolved through the years, but remains easily recognizable, and has a stellar reputation. It starts at CDN $44,950, but when you start padding it with one of the option packages starting at $5,000 (and going up to $17,000!!!), things quickly get pricey – this one, as tested, was $57,550.

In the left corner, the 2012 Cadillac SRX – a relative newcomer to the game, joining the market in 2004 with the first-generation model which was generally unloved. This is the new one. It starts at CDN $42,160. You can easily jack up the price here as well, and the Premium trim level I was driving rang in at $58,120.

Under the Hood

The RX 350 tucks Toyota’s wonderful and ubiquitous 3.5-Litre V-6 under the hood. In this setting, it puts out 275 HP @ 6200 RPM, and 257 lb.ft of torque at 4700 RPM. It cranks this out through a 6-speed automatic transmission, and is rated at a respectable 11.8 L/100 km (20 mpg) in the city and 8.3 L/100 km (28 mpg) on the highway. I averaged 14.5 L/100 km (16.2 mpg) during my time with it.

The SRX’s mill is a 3.6-Litre V-6, similarly mated to a 6-speed automatic. The Caddy puts out 308 HP @ 6800 RPM, and 265 lb.ft at a low 2400 RPM. Fuel economy is rated at 12.7 L/100 km (18.5 mpg) in the city, and 8.3 L/100 km (28 mpg) on the highway. Driving it over the week, I saw an almost identical average of  14.7 L/100 km (16 mpg) .

Advantage: Tie –  in terms of power, fuel economy and even price, these cars are very close – on paper anyway. Both engines are tragically shrouded in Tupperware.

Exterior

As noted, the Lexus has evolved through the years, seemingly chiseling away bits and become more sculpted and… swoopier. It hasn’t been without criticism, but I found the lines to be pleasing. The now-familiar shape’s latest iteration has clean lines, smooth flow and is nice to look at although it’s grown a bubble butt. I loved the big handsome 19″ rims, and I found that the RX’s lines did a fantastic job of hiding how big this vehicle is. It doesn’t look big on the road, but this isn’t a small vehicle. The familiarity can be a trump card, or a strike against it, pending on your perspective. People basically don’t take a second look at the RX anymore, but that’s great if you don’t like stares. HID headlights complete the look.

The Cadillac is a different story, coming across as an avant-garde hunchback, throwing its angular styling right in your face. I think it’s a bit of a polarizing design, but I quite liked it. Cadillac is sticking to their guns with its styling, and I’m a fan. I liked the 20″ rims, the chunky integrated exhaust outlets, and vertical LED tail-lights, as well as the jewel-like styling of the headlights – they look great, on or off.

Advantage: Cadillac

Interior

Lexus is known for its interiors, and this one is no exception. Everything feels substantial and well-done. The materials are lovely – soft-touch plastics, beautiful leathers, glowing woods.

Extraordinarily comfortable front seats (clearly leaning toward butt-happiness instead of sport), are both heated and cooled and power adjustable, with good side (but poor thigh) bolstering. In front of you sits a bin of excellent, simple gauges, and a nice steering wheel with phone, handsfree, media and info screen controls. The wheel is power-adjustable, and ties into the driver’s seat memory.

The dash is styled with more swoopiness, with lines slashing across your field of vision, and negating what would be a center stack. You’ve got a large screen deeply set into the dash, a media system below that, and a very cramped dual-zone automatic climate control system. Underneath that sits an angled pod for the shift lever and then your center console. I wasn’t a big fan of the dash styling, and as beautiful as it is, I felt the interior came across as a little stodgy and perhaps even a little dated.

The Cadillac’s interior felt equally as luxurious, but significantly more current and modern. That said, it felt dark and moody and I would have appreciated a few more touches of lighter color/materials. Speaking of materials, they are excellent here – soft-touch plastics, nice stitching. Gorgeous leathers clad the comfortable front seats, both of which are heated and cooled and power adjustable. Unfortunately the seats don’t offer nearly enough side or thigh bolstering for sporty driving. The driver’s seat has memory settings as well.

A nicely styled gauge bin sits behind a decent steering wheel, which has cruise, media, phone and handsfree controls and is manually adjustable. The center stack from the top starts with a cool, retractable touch-screen, a classy analog clock and buttons for the media and nab system – lower down are the controls for the dual-zone automatic climate control system.

Advantage: Cadillac – both had beautiful materials, but I preferred the Caddy’s styling and usability

Tech/Convenience

Both of these players offer a lot, and I can’t really list it all.

The Lexus’ big screen is nice and clear, but I prefer touch-screens. It’s accessed with a novel mouse-like Remote Touch joystick pad, which took me a while to get used to and is a bit distracting – but it works. A back-up camera displays here, with a nice, wide picture, but unfortunately without any distance markings. There is a small driver information screen, allowing you to see outside temp, an eco gauge, instant and average mileage, average speed and fuel range. You also have a heads-up display which only shows your current speed.

The Lexus sound system, feeding off AM, FM, satellite, CD, Bluetooth streaming, auxiliary or USB sources, is absolutely incredible – one of the best I’ve heard.

Overhead, you’ll find a tilt/slide sunroof, and HomeLink garage door openers. The trunk lid can be opened and closed remotely from the dash, the trunk lid itself and the FOB.

The Cadillac’s touchscreen is very clear and easy to read, and easy to navigate. It displays the back-up camera, along with distance markings which move to display your trajectory when you turn the wheel, and it has front and rear distance sensors with audible and visual warnings.

The driver’s information screen is round, located in the middle of the speedometer. It’s very crisp and legible, displaying fuel range, average fuel economy, trip meter, instant and average speed, navigation instructions, a timer, fuel used and vehicle settings.

The Bose sound system sounds very good (but not as good as the Lexus!) and sources from AM, FM, CD, satellite, auxiliary, USB or Bluetooth.

Overhead, you’ve got a huge, panoramic, full-length sunroof – the front section tilts and slides and there’s a full-length power sliding shade. You’ve got HomeLink openers, power adjustable pedals and power folding mirrors. The trunk lid, just like the Lexus, remotely opens and closes from the dash, the key FOB and a button on the trunk lid.

A nifty tech detail – when the car senses rear passengers, it shows little silhouettes of them in the driver’s information screen, and they light up when the seat belts are done up – a great tool for knowing if your kids are buckled in.

Advantage: Cadillac – it fairly bristles with tech and convenience measures, and simply it outshines the Lexus

The Drive

Unsurprisingly, the Lexus was very quiet and isolated – that goes for the engine, transmission and the ride. Power was always adequate, and the throttle response was highly satisfying, never leaving you waiting. The transmission is very smooth, and even in the sport or manual modes, I felt it was a bit slow and leaned toward comfortable cruising – it suited this vehicle. The V-6 will give you a growl, but only when stepped on – otherwise it remains almost silent.

The ride is exceptional, which means it’s also softer in the corners – although the handling is competent and never felt sloppy, there’s plenty of body roll and a more luxurious feeling than a sporty feeling. The brakes felt a bit spongy and also a bit grabby at times, but I can report that the emergency braking is spectacular. I was cut off on the freeway, traveling at over 100 km/h. The driver would have driven right into me, had I not slammed on my brakes, and even though I locked up the tires, smoking and squealing, control was never lost or compromised and it’s ability to react so well certainly saved the day, and maybe my life.

Speaking of highway speeds, the Lexus is amazing there – so quiet, it’s almost creepy. Wind, road and engine noise is negligible and this would be a spectacular car for a road trip. Visibility is very good, even with those big rear pillars.

The Cadillac feels fleet of foot, but always left me with a second’s lag before the power came on. Power delivery is smooth, but because of the lag, felt a bit soft from a standing start. That said, it always felt powerful enough. The transmission is very smooth, and will hunt for higher gears as soon as possible – gear changes aren’t particularly fast here either – even in sport mode, shifting down is… let’s call it leisurely. I felt the sport mode was much more noticeable than the Lexus’, tightening up the throttle response and holding shift points noticeably longer.

The ride is firm (firmer than I anticipated by far), but still comfortable. The additional firmness gives the SRX the advantage of reduced body roll and a pretty sporty feel when you throw it into corners. The handling is very nicely controlled, with quick turn-in for a cross-over, and the drive is more fun than the Lexus’. You’re also rewarded with a little bit of feedback, versus the detached numbness of the RX 350.

The Cadillac is also very quiet – wind and road noise are non-issues, even at highway speeds. As with the competition, the V-6 remains almost silent unless you step on it. Speaking of highway speeds, the Caddy was very comfortable there and felt extremely stable and connected. A last note – as smooth as it is, it’s not Lexus RX smooth.

Outward visibility was pretty good, but shoulder checking is hampered significantly by the size and angle of the rear pillars.

Advantage: Lexus – I loved how the engine, transmission and suspension interact, and although I would prefer sportier handling, it was ultimately a more satisfying drive

Rear Seat

The Lexus surprises with the unusual ability to comfortably seat three adults back there. You’ve got 3 seats, 3 seat belts and 3 headrests, and you could use all of them – head, foot and legroom are generous – to the point of being exceptional. The seats are very comfortable, and slide forward or back, as well as recline.

You’ve got nice door bins, 2 seatback map pockets, and the middle seatback folds down to give you two cupholders, a padded armrest and a storage bin underneath. If you’re putting children’s seats in, you have two LATCH connectors and plenty of room.

Surprisingly, that’s about all you get back there – in terms of luxury, or comfort, it’s quite spartan. No heated seats, no temperature controls, no media controls, no power outlets – a bit shocking, since vehicles at half the price include some of those things.

The Cadillac’s rear seat isn’t as roomy, but you’ve still got good head, leg and foot room – it actually feels even roomier than it is, thanks to the airiness that the huge sunroof brings. There are 3 seats, 3 seat belts and 3 headrests, but only 2 adults will be comfortable for longer drives back there. The reclining seats are very comfortable.

There are two levels of door bins, 2 seatback map pockets, and the middle seatback folds down to provide two cupholders, an armrest and a storage bin. Space for children is excellent, and you get 2 LATCH connectors.

The SRX sets itself apart in terms of luxury and tech – at the back of the center console you’ll find an easily-operated panel with controls for a separate climate zone, the media system (along with two headphone plugs), seat heaters, adjustable vents, a 12V plug and a roomy pop-out bin. Fantastic!

Advantage: Cadillac – I enjoyed the space the Lexus provided, but would much prefer to spend my time in the Cadillac thanks to the additional features

Storage

The RX350 offers less storage compartments than I expected. You’ve got great flip-out door bins allowing for easy access, a dual cupholder with a lid on the console, and another strange flip-down cupholder on the left side of the dash. The center console bin is carpeted and has auxiliary, USB and 12V plugs inside and there’s a big glove compartment – necessary for the encyclopedia-sized owner’s manual. It took me a while to find it, but there is a novel storage area UNDER the center console – it’s open and provides a roughly one square-foot space to put bottles, or anything else, as well as a 12V plug – and keep things out of the way. Good thinking!

The trunk has a comfortably high load floor, and provides 40 cubic feet of volume. It’s covered with a removable, retractable tonneau cover, and includes a cargo net and hidden storage bins under the floor. There are handy levers on either side, which quickly release and fold the rear seats down, into a 60/40 split, much like the Honda CR-V I recently reviewed.

The SRX has upper and lower door bins, a pop-out bin in the center stack (with an actual, honest-to-goodness cigarette lighter), 2 upholders, and a dual-level bin under the armrest – which houses the USB, auxiliary and 12V plugs.

The cargo space is smaller than I anticipated, providing only 29.2 cubic feet of volume with the rear seats up. The load floor was also quite high, and I think that the angles of the rear window, etc negatively affect the size of the space back there. The space is covered by a removable, retractable tonneau cover as well, and there are tie-down hooks, and underfloor storage spaces too.

I absolutely loved the adjustable cargo rail – the end mounts sit in a track that loops around the perimeter of the trunk and can be slid into any position, moving the rail to virtually any position or angle as well. Brilliant, and truly functional. Of course, it can be removed too. I wasn’t fond of the long lift-over depth – I have a feeling you could easily get your pants dirty when lifting things into the depths of the trunk space.

Advantage: Tie – I definitely appreciated the extra cargo space in the RX350, but really enjoyed the additional storage spaces and the cargo rail in the SRX

Nitpicks

As noted, I wasn’t a fan of the Lexus dash. Even though there are relatively few buttons, it felt cramped and busy, and it drove me crazy that there is no temperature read-out on the dash – you have to look at the screen on top.

Other Lexus nitpicks revolve around what wasn’t there – it seems odd to have a luxurious vehicle like this without parking distance sensors (as far as I could tell) – power folding mirrors would be nice too, considering how wide this thing is.

The Cadillac has the most retarded dead pedal – I love my dead pedals, and this one was insulting. It’s there, but it’s too narrow and too short for any normal shoe. I’d rather just not have one there.

The back of the SRX’s front seats are hard plastic, which is a surprisingly cheap touch, and also sucks if you’re particularly tall and your knees are pressed against them. Uncomfortable!

Details

I just can’t help but reiterate how substantial everything on the Lexus feels – even the doors feel as though they were carved from one piece along with the body, and when they shut, they just become one. It’s very impressive build quality and supports a well-deserved reputation.

The Caddy had some cool and thoughtful stuff going on. I loved the adjustable, dual-height cupholder in the console – very useful! The trunk lid can be opened to maximum height, OR to 3/4 height, in case you’re parked in a low-ceiling parkade. I liked the clear, jewel-like crystal shapes hidden on either side of the speedometer – they flashed a glowing green along with the signal arrow when your turn signal is on.

The Verdict

Two great cross-overs. One that felt a little old-school – a model with a long life span, and a very positive reputation and a highly-esteemed company history. One that felt current, modern and fresh – a new model trying to make up for its predecessor’s short-comings, and building on a company that has risen out of the ashes nicely.

Both are great vehicles, and both felt very good and boasted exceptional build quality and materials to match.

I ended up surprising myself with the results after going over my notes, pictures and tallying things up. I give the Lexus RX 350 an 8 out of 10 and the Cadillac SRX an 8.5 out of 10, but they arrived at their score in quite different ways. They were both excellent driving machines, for different reasons. Both envelop the driver and passengers in comfort and luxury, both have good levels of technology (one better), both provide reasonable cargo space (one better), and both would be fantastic vehicles to own. My guess is that the Lexus may prove to be more reliable in the long run, but both felt very well put together.

WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) was quite high for both. She loved the luxurious ride in the Lexus, and how much room it had in the back, and just that it was Lexus. She liked the Caddy quite a lot too, but not as much, and she felt it was a bit rougher off the line.

If you want a soft, luxurious, cushy cross-over, you’ll love the RX. If you want a slightly harder-edged, sporting and techno-laden cross-over, you’ll certainly enjoy the the SRX. Both are awesome in their own way and both would be great vehicles to own.

Of note, every single person I got feedback from on both vehicles preferred the Cadillac, inside and out – and the Cadillac got 100% positive reactions from people, where a number of people were disappointed in the Lexus’ interior – mainly the styling and lack of goodies in the back.

Disclosure:  Vehicles were provided by Lexus and Cadillac.

If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my other vehicle reviews under the car reviews tab at the top of my blog.