Seating & Visibility

The SRX seats five people and follows the common practice of having a large cargo area at the expense of backseat room. I didn't have enough legroom to sit behind a driver of my height (6-foot-1), and headroom felt cramped. Also, the rear seats don't slide forward and back, which might have solved the cargo-versus-passenger tradeoff.

Up front, there's a manually extending seat bottom that offers more support for your thighs. It works better than a lot of powered ones, and it's a nice touch for us longer-legged sorts. More cars should offer this feature.

Visibility to the sides and behind is poor because, as the roof slopes downward, the bottom sills of the rear windows slope up, making the rearmost window vestigial. This is more common these days among passenger cars, but it's a bit more of a hazard in the higher-riding SRX: Low-slung cars can creep in "below" you. You have to really make sure you have your mirrors set properly — more so than in other vehicles I've driven. It's a true blind spot.

    See also:

    Before Driving Off-Road
    Have all necessary maintenance and service work completed. Fuel the vehicle, fill fluid levels, and check inflation pressure in all tires, including the spare, if equipped. Read all the info ...

    Radio Menu
    Press CONFIG to enter the configure menu screen, then press CONFIG repeatedly until Radio is selected or press the Radio screen button to make changes for radio information displayed or to limit ...

    Under the Hood
    Like the regular all-wheel-drive Escalade and the Escalade ESV, the Escalade EXT uses a 6.0-liter V-8 that produces 345 horsepower and 380 pounds-feet of torque. The engine teams with a four-speed ...