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:

    Storing an XM Station as a Favorite
    Drivers are encouraged to set up their radio station favorites while the vehicle is stopped. Tune to favorite stations using the presets, favorites button, and steering wheel controls, if th ...

    Driving On Grades
    Reduce speed and shift to a lower gear before starting down a long or steep downgrade. If the transmission is not shifted down, the brakes might have to be used so much that they would get h ...

    Tow/Haul Mode
    Pressing this button at the end of the shift lever turns on and off the tow/haul mode. This indicator light on the instrument panel cluster comes on when the tow/haul mode is on. Tow/Haul is ...