Let’s be frank: I personally never felt Chevrolet had a great minivan. The Venture was ho-hum at best and the Uplander was a train wreck. In theory you are supposed to keep going until you get it right and I am all for that, but at some point, you need to cut your losses and refocus on something else. General Motors has done that exactly with the Lambda platform based CUVs and left the minivan behind.

The Chevrolet Traverse is the latest (and last to the market) of General Motor’s large CUVs. This is no small vehicle and, in fact, is pretty much the size of a Tahoe. The thing is, while it is almost as big as the Tahoe, it drives and rides completely differently. The ride is much more like a car-based vehicle and the reason for that is the unibody design and construction of the vehicle. The Tahoe is a body on frame design. The Traverse is an older truck style vehicle.

The sister vehicles to the Traverse are the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and the now dead Saturn Outlook. The Traverse launched with an upgraded motor from these other vehicles; a 3.6 liter V6 featuring direct injection technology. This engine puts out 281 hp and 266 ft-lb (288 hp in LTZ trim). The direct injection gave the engine both more power while maintaining acceptable fuel economy. The power is routed through the front wheels with all wheel drive as an option. The six speed automatic transmission does have manual shifting abilities via a rocker switch on the gear selector. The engine is rated at 17/24 in front wheel drive form, which is a decent rating for a vehicle of this size. I managed to average 17.6 mpg in mixed driving, although my city driving has lot of stop and go while going into work and really does kill the gas mileage. In the beginning of the week, when it was straight to work in downtown, I was averaging a mere 15.4 mpg. Once I started driving on the highways a more, my mileage crept up above 17 mpg.

I have driven a lambda based vehicle before but it is has been a while. Upon entering the Traverse, I looked in my rear view mirror and remembered just how big this vehicle is. Site lines are good with decent sized mirrors. Those mirrors each feature a refracted lens for your blind spot. Driving this big CUV was a pleasant experience. The steering was not overly light but more is more car-like than big SUV. The power is more than enough to overpower the front wheels on numerous occasions. Slamming the gas pedal will result in the tires trying to grip the pavement, but the traction control quickly kicks in.

The interior is styled very nicely. With a large amount of space to work with, the designers definitely tried their best to sculpt the materials to prevent the look of vast expanses of plastic and it is job well done for the most part. The dash has nice lines and fits well with the current Chevrolet styling theme. The interior was a very dark place with everything being dark charcoal (pretty close to black) and no sunroof option on this vehicle. The seats are wide and somewhat flat and, without question, these are seats made for Americans. I liked the front seatback design which is unique and looks nice. The second row tumbles forward to allow entrance to the third row which is not a place an adult will want to spend time, although a child will be comfortable and it folds flat at the pull of a handle. Another sign that this vehicle is made for Americans is the cup holders because they are literally everywhere.

The styling of the exterior is very conservative. The sides are very plain and almost slab sided. Upon looking further, you will notice a slight character line towards the bottom of the doors and one near the door handles. These are by no means strong lines, but rather soft. The lines all integrate with each other quite well, flowing from one panel to the next with no break. The front is the sharpest part of the vehicle. The dual port grille and the headlights show similarity to the rest of the new Chevrolet vehicles, while still being distinctly different. The overall exterior will not offend anyone and is by far the most conservative of the three other Lambda vehicles.

The Traverse I had was a 1LT with a sticker price of $31,745. The trailoring package, which included a heavy duty cooling system and trailer hitch, cost $525. The rear view camera system is a $450 option was done the right way, in my opinion. With no navigation optioned on this vehicle, the screen was integrated into the rear view mirror; very easy to use and convenient. The total sticker price after destination and options rang to $33,495, and while this is not cheap, it is competitive for its class.

The entire week I had the Traverse, I felt like I should be heading to the soccer field to pick up the kids. While the vehicle has more then enough power to get up and go, it is by no means sporty and that is not its intentions. The vehicle is a family hauler, designed and engineered to deliver the kids to soccer practice and make trips to Costco.

The competition is stiff in this segment and the Traverse is here for the fight. Naturally, the big blue oval is a competitor in the Ford Flex but actually, the Flex and the Traverse are completely different vehicles. I can not imagine someone that wants a Flex will even give the Traverse a second thought and vice versa.

In commercials, Chevrolet compares the Traverse to the Honda Pilot and, while both sport three rows of seating, the Traverse is the larger vehicle. Without a doubt, the Traverse is a highly competitive entry into a cut-throat segment and the vehicle I had at just over $33k is a decent alternative if you do not want a minivan. Chevrolet buyers finally have a vehicle that is not a minivan but can haul the family while achieving acceptable fuel economy

Full Disclosure- The review vehicle was provided by General Motors

The first generation SRX was really never the sales success that Cadillac hoped for.  Styling on the the first generation made it look like a tall, boxy station wagon.  With both an optional third row and V8, the first generation was rear wheel drive with all wheel drive as an option.  None of this really lined up with what the mainstream rivals were offering.

For the second generation, Cadillac has taken a much more mainstream approach.  The third row option was ditched, front wheel drive and all wheel drive replaced the old drive train and there is no more V8. The largest change is the price.  This generation is starting at $33,330 where the first generation was $38,880 for the V6 and $45,880 for the V8.  The new SRX is much more competitively priced.  You can immediately tell that Cadillac is gunning straight for the RX in every sense of the word.  A base SRX is now almost $4,000 less then the starting price of a Lexus RX.  So how does it stack up?

The interior is closely related to the CTS, which is not a bad thing.  The center stack with the rising screen is directly lifted from the CTS.  The software used in the touchscreen is definitely upgraded.  I could pair my phone using only the screen in the SRX while I had to dig out the manual to figure out phone pairing with the voice command system in the CTS.  The gauge cluster has a trick screen in the center of the speedometer.  This screen essentially had all the trip computer functions while also displaying the speed limit on most major roads.  Navigation directions are also shown with this display.  The interior has non-overpowering white LED “mood” lighting at night.  The seats are supportive but not firm.  They are much softer than the seats in the CTS Sportwagon which, in my opinion, were better.  The cargo area has a track running around it that sliders can be placed in to secure cargo.  This is a very nice feature that is executed quite well.

The styling of the SRX is strong both inside and out.  From the outside, the evolution of Cadillac’s arts and science styling is in full swing.  The sharp creases and strong character lines all play together to create a rather good looking CUV.  The rear end has the classic Cadillac “tail fin” tail lights.  The angular styling leaves a D pillar in the back that creates a large blind spot.  The rear window is very small, causing visibility to be less than stellar when backing up.  The back-up camera is a much needed feature.  The front air dam is low and I actually asked people at GM about this.  They said it was both for aerodynamics and it looks better in their opinion.  I do not know about all that, but in deep snow it acts as a plow.  The little touches on the outside caught my eye.  For example, the headlight has the Cadillac symbol stamped in the reflector.  One thing that did not add up was the GM chiclet.  This “Mark of Excellence” has now been removed from new models, but I assume the tooling for the SRX was already in place before the decision was made to ditch this “Old GM” symbol.

The engine in the vehicle I had was the base 3.0 liter direct injection V6 putting out 265 hp and 223 ft-lb to the front wheels.  All wheel drive is optional with this engine.  The optional 2.8 liter turbo V6 puts out 300 hp and 295 ft-lb to standard all wheel drive with torque vectoring.  Both engines feed out to six speed automatic transmissions with manual shift capabilities.  The base 3.0 liter is some what of a dog.  The lack of torque is the main problem here.  The SRX is not light weight, as such you can feel every one of those 265 hp and 223 ft-lb trying to get underway.  The vehicle is more engaging than the class champion, Lexus RX, but feeling the engine trying to cope with the vehicle’s weight is not the best experience even though it does get up to speed just fine.  More power would be welcome via the optional 2.8 liter turbo.  The problem with this option is the mileage, which is rated at 15/21 mpg while the front wheel drive 3.0 liter is rated at 18/25 mpg.  People seem to take these numbers very seriously these days and that turbo looks thirsty on paper for this vehicle segment.

The particular SRX I had was a premium collection vehicle with a sticker price of $47,010.  This is the top level non-turbo model.  There were not many options, but rear seat entertainment was on board for $1,295 and of course GM’s crystal red tintcoat for $995.  Each rear seat has a flip up monitor attached to the back of the front seats with two wireless headphones and  a wireless remote control that comes standard with the system.  I liked the set up, and in my opinion, was done correctly.  The upgraded stereo that was in this package was a 10 speaker 5.1 digital surround sound by Bose.  I was not really that impressed with the system.  It sounded decent enough but the optional Mark Levinson system in the Lexus RX is better.  I would have liked to have seen something like the optional Harmon Kardon system from the LaCrosse in the SRX.

Equipped with 20 inch wheels, low profile tires and front wheel drive, I will admit I was a little nervous when the blizzard came through town.  In fact, I drove through three blizzards and over 1000 miles within three days while driving the SRX.  The only problem that I saw was with the front air dam.  It is so low that it plowed through the snow and getting started down an unplowed street was not easy.  It is worth mentioning that I was able to make it up a driveway that was covered in 2.5 feet of snow.  To do this I had to turn off traction control and slam the gas in order for it to crawl its way up.  Overall, I was impressed with everything it did in the snow.  I somehow managed to eek out 26.5 mpg on the highway back through one of those storms.  That is 1.5 mpg more then the EPA’s 25 mpg highway rating.

So we have gone from a rear wheel drive with an optional third row and V8 to a front wheel drive and optional turbo V6.  How did we fare?  The SRX is now officially a competitive vehicle.  The last generation was not a mainstream approach and sales reflected that.  Yes, I do think the base engine is under powered.  In reality, the general public might not even notice.  They will notice the mileage numbers that the turbo gets and will not be that impressed with them.  I am guessing most SRX’s will leave the lot with the base 3.0 engine and customers will be content.  The vehicle has distinctive styling and I like the overall packaging.  While some powertrain improvements are needed, this new SRX is a solid contender in this hotly contested segment.

Full Disclosure- The review vehicle was provided by General Motors