2008 Cadillac SRX

sleeper41sleeper41 Member Posts: 5
in Cadillac
I now have 1500 miles and must confess, I like the vehicle now more than when I test drove it. It is a great size for me. What I love most is the huge glass sunroof. My biggest complaint is the navigation system. The person responsible for selecting such a poor GPS should be fired. It is not user friendly and cannot be used, even by a passenger, when the vehicle is in motion. We own a portable Garmin in our other vehicle and it is so much better than the one GM selected it isn't funny. If I had known how poor the GPS was, I may not have leased this vehicle. I would have missed, an otherwise great vehilcle. A homerun, except for the GPS. Another shortcoming - the six-cylinder engine roars on light acceleration.
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  • ericzoomericzoom Member Posts: 213
    I find the 6 cyl. SRX pretty quiet on light acceleration. My Mazda 6 which i removed the stock tray and part of the airbox has a nice roar on acceleration, so i have a comparison.
  • sls002sls002 Member Posts: 2,788
    I have a 2007 SRX with nav and I use it all the time. It is true that you can't enter a destination while you are driving, but you can pick a destination from an address list that you have stored.
  • miked22miked22 Member Posts: 20
    Guys,
    GM's navigation system is fine. The reason it is disabled is because of the massive amount of lawyers that are sapping the life out of society. GM needs to prevent you from doing something stupid so they don't get sued. All the other manufacturers do the same thing. If you can't deal with it, either buy aftermarket or pull over to program system. On Lexus, it makes you hit a disclaimer button every time you start the car of the system will not operate.
  • miked22miked22 Member Posts: 20
    I am in my new 08 SRX Sport V-6 for about 2 months and I must say that it may be the finest vehicle I have ever owned. Cadillac did a wonderful job with this vehicle. The ride, power and the super nice interior make all the difference. I have had over 20 new vehicles and I can't remember looking forward to my morning drive more. If only GM would ditch that lousy XM and get Sirius we would really be in business.
  • fastguyfastguy Member Posts: 9
    Over the years I have read, but not posted to this forum. Now that the SRX has been sold, I feel compelled to put in my two cents worth. Ours was a 2004 SRX AWD V6 with Luxury Performance Package. In other words it had every available option except the V8 engine. It was purchased in December 2004 and sold in June 2008 with 60,000 miles and a stack of Cadillac repair orders. The problems were many so here is a short list: it used about a quart of oil every 750 miles, the catalytic converters went bad prematurely, parts of the side rails fell off, the sunroof failed many times, the sunroof creaked over every bump, the navigation failed, body trim pieces fell off, weather striping came detached, water leaked into the well under the third seat and remained there and worst of all Cadillac said the issues were within Cadillac guildlines.

    The sunroof and oil consumption issues were repeatedly taken to the dealership. I do believe that they tried but were unable to resolve them either because Cadillac refused the warranty claim or because they were unable to find a fix solution.

    I have owned about 40 cars during my lifetime including some during the notoriously bad 70's. None have come close to the poor quality of the SRX. Adding insult to injury, Cadillac was just not interested in making things right. They were outright hostile to my pleas for help. This car, by the way, was purchased with an extended General Motors warranty to 100,000 miles. That seemed to make no difference in their approach to customer satisfaction.

    The spiral down of GM is no surprise when their very best brand failed so miserably. I had thought they had mended their ways. Foolish me!
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    What did you buy to replace the SRX, if anything?
  • sls002sls002 Member Posts: 2,788
    I have to say that I am increasing happy that I got the V8, which still uses no oil between changes (more than 10,000 miles).
  • fastguyfastguy Member Posts: 9
    We replaced the SRX with a Honda Fit. My wife and I travel extensively by car and the SRX was the travel vehicle. Our second car is an 07 MB E350 Sedan which will become our travel vehicle. The Fit will be the vehicle for short trips around town and for Costco runs. The reality is the Fit has more usable cargo space than the Cadillac. No where near as comfortable but a heck of alot more fun to drive. And overall more functional

    The depreciation on the SRX was outrageous. New it had a 53K sticker. The trade brought us 12K. That amounts to almost $1,000 per month in depreciation. The good side is that we no longer have to suffer with it's many issues.

    We have been driving Mercedes for many years and somehow the looks of the SRX convinced us to take a shot at American. The lesson learned was a very expensive one.
  • fastguyfastguy Member Posts: 9
    It sounds as though your are surprised that it uses no oil. It has been many years since I have added even a quart of oil to any vehicle I have owned. Oil changes are at factory intervals and in all of our Mercedes since from 1999 synthetic has been used with the 10K plus intervals specified by the maintenance computer. I would also add that the oil added to the SRX between oil changes has amounted to more oil added to all of my cars in 45 years of car ownership.

    I can understand the sometimes a car will have an issue such as oil consumption. I cannot understand why the manufacturer would not correct the problem other than the sheer cost of engine replacement. This is unconscionable as all of the maintenance was performed at Cadillac dealerships.

    Good luck with your car. I hope it treats you well for many happy miles.
  • sls002sls002 Member Posts: 2,788
    The FWD northstar V8's are known to use some oil. My 2002 Seville used about 4 quarts every 10,000 miles. My 1998 Aurora (small northstar V8) did use some oil, but the oil was changed at 3-4,000 mile intervals, so I don't recall adding more except at longer intervals.

    However, part of my response is a result of the problems I see with the V6 in the CTS forums. My understanding is that GM's policy on oil consumption is that engines that use more than a quart in 1,000 miles are using more than they should. However the dealer has to confirm the consumption rate. Most of my cars have not used too much oil. The one exception was a 1976 Buick Riviera that I owned for a short time. It did use more oil and then started using coolant. About then I traded for an Oldsmobile diesel.

    I do find that my SRX is a much more fun vehicle to drive than the FWD Seville was.
  • sleeper41sleeper41 Member Posts: 5
    Good for you. My next car will be a Honda. I have come to hate this SRX. Noisy on acceleration, an absolutely, positively useless GPS. 8 out of 10 times the built in GPS cannot find a business. I use my wife's Garmin now, sticking it on the dash. I'm getting ready to buy the new 800 series Garmin, which has voice recognition. Yipee! Now I don't have to buy a Lexus to get this feature. I have about 18 months left on my lease and I'm counting the time. I am dissapointed in myself for not figuring out what this car is costing me per month. Imagine, I'm paying $576/mo and am allowed 833 miles/mo, comes to $0.69 cents/mile! If I go over the limit I get a deal at $0.41 cents/mile. What a waste.
  • fastguyfastguy Member Posts: 9
    That is very interesting. Cadillac told me that 1 quart for each 750 miles (which was my experience) was normal. They did the monitoring routine, which cost me an extra oil change, and said everything was OK. My Mercedes (all of them) have never used one quart of oil in all the years I have owned them. They did not consider the color or smell of the oil which at 1000 miles was worse than my Mercedes at 10,000 miles. I believe that if I had stuck to getting the problem resolved, it would have been fixed. There were so many other issues that I just gave up. The water leak issue was unresolvable. It would have eventually lead to a rust issue in the pan under the third seat. The bottom line here is that Cadillac won by wearing me down to the point where I no longer cared. I am so relieved to not have that car in my garage. To top it all off, I discovered that in our travels, we could get as much into the Mercedes Sedan as the SRX. And it is much more a joy to drive at maybe $2,000 additional.

    I am really glad you enjoy you car, but I do feel compelled to tell the world of my experience.
  • fastguyfastguy Member Posts: 9
    You are doing OK. My depreciation was 68.3 cents per miles plus the lost opportunity paying cash. I did not finance or lease. Be happy you do not have to try to trade it in. All of dealers I talked to said it is a truck and we don't take trucks on trade. I had to go to a rural dealership to make the trade because I was unable to sell it myself. BTW Cadillac dealers said the same thing.
  • ericzoomericzoom Member Posts: 213
    I've had no problems yet with my 6 month old 08' SRX V6, but i'm glad i only lease it. When lease is done, it goes back.
  • sls002sls002 Member Posts: 2,788
    Some oil should be used if the engine is lubricated as it should be. In particular, the oil on the cylinder walls should burn. However, if the rings are seated right, they should reduce the oil on the walls to a minimum so that oil consumption is minimal. Engines designed for synthetic oils will probably use less oil. My Seville was designed for conventional oil, and when I used synthetic in it oil consumption was probably more than it would have been with conventional oil. The RWD northstar V8 is a third generation design, and was designed for synthetic oil (I think), so I am not surprised that oil consumption is less, but I think my engine may be better than average.

    I think that your dealer must have determined that your oil consumption, while more than it should have been, was not a result of a leak or bad head gaskets. My guess is that your rings were not seated right or were not as tight as they could have been. Your service department may not have been interested in doing something about it too.

    I will say that I would probably have bought a BMW wagon, but the nearest BMW, Mercedes or other upper end lux brand name dealer is more than 300 miles from where I live making service exceeding difficult and expensive.
  • fastguyfastguy Member Posts: 9
    It was not the dealer that said oil consumption was within normal parameters but Cadillac. I agree that the issues was most probably rings. That does not excuse Cadillac from denying the warranty claim. Particularly since the vehicle was always serviced at Cadillac dealerships and always before the computer said service needed to be done. If this had been the only issue, then I would have kept the car. I went back and looked at my service records, there were 97 warranty claims in 41 months of ownership. That does not count the water leak which was never submitted. The sunroof alone accounted for a third of the claims and it still creaked and rattled at the time of sale. The remainder of the claims were all sorts of problems anyone of which would not have been an issue, but together made life extremely miserable.

    BTW Synthetic oil was specified for this car and was the only oil authorized to keep the warranty in force. I am also very compulsive when it comes to my cars. I do make it a habit to check the oil every Saturday along with washing and periodic detailing and primping. During our last driving trip I the car needed a quart almost every day.

    Don't get me wrong, the SRX looked great and was a joy to drive, but the price paid in depreciation, trips to the dealer for warranty repairs and the abuse from Cadillac were more than I could bear
  • sls002sls002 Member Posts: 2,788
    It was your dealer who determined whether or not there was something wrong with the engine. While I would not have wanted an engine that used that much oil either, I can see that even at a quart every 500 miles, the engine would only require 200 quarts in 100,000 miles at a cost of about $1000 or so. Replacing the engine would have cost a few thousand and is probably not worth doing.

    I have not had 97 warranty claims total (or that many repairs) in the last 40 years of driving.
  • sls002sls002 Member Posts: 2,788
    a little searching on "oil consumption" in the Mercedes forums will reveal that some have problems too, and Mercedes does not replace otherwise working engines.
  • fastguyfastguy Member Posts: 9
    The solution was not engine replacement, but tearing it down and replacing the rings. The dealer wanted to do the job, but Cadillac would not let the warranty claim go through. Had you seen the oil after 1,000 miles you would not have felt confident about the lack of cooperation, either. In any event, the car was so riddled with other issues, especially the water leak, that it was a lost cause.

    I am glad you like you car. That is great. I liked mine also. It looked great and drove very well. Life, however, is too short to put up with a bad car.

    So what is acceptable oil consumption to you? And what is an acceptable number of warranty claims? Do you accept pieces of trim falling off at highway speeds? Do you accept leaks that allow massive amounts of water in the car? Do you accept navigation systems that only tell you to "stay on the current road"? Do you accept rattling catalytic converters? Do you accept memory seats that forget where to go? Do you accept sunroofs that creak and rattle? Do you accept rear view mirror motors that fail? Do you accept weather stripping falling off? The list goes on. The dealer was as frustrated as I. To top it all off, I had to prove to Cadillac that I had an extended GM warranty as their system failed to record it. I just got tired fighting the machine that was designed to tell you to go away. So I did, for good. GM has a serious problem that they will not acknowledge. I am not a complainer. Yet they forced me to become one. As I say, life is too short.

    I think I have said enough on this forum. My point has been made. No one, not even you, should have to put up with the "we know better than you" attitude of Cadillac.
  • sls002sls002 Member Posts: 2,788
    It is unfortunate that you had a bad car. It was the first year of production, which is not a good reason. However there are owners in the Mercedes forums who have similar complaints about what a piece of junk their Mercedes is. The point is that some vehicles are troublesome, while others of the same model are not.

    To answer your question on oil consumption, would you have been willing to pay half the cost of fixing the engine? Or perhaps more to the point if the oil consumption had started after the engine was no longer under warranty, would you have fixed it? It is not obvious to me that your dealer really knew exactly why the oil consumption was high. I think that he was guessing.

    I do have a Nav, which I find very helpful. While it does have some quirks, mine has gotten me through a number of strange cities.

    I will say this, with all the problems you had with the SRX I would certainly not have wanted to keep it beyond the warranty period. I don't blame you for not wanting another Cadillac either. My experience with GM products has been quite good. Still I would consider other makes if there were dealers closer to where I live.
  • juliebug8juliebug8 Member Posts: 4
    Hey I have had all of the above includung a non funtioning NAV system and much more it has been in the shop 78 days and have even had Cadillac hang up on me when asking for help. My lawyer is asking me to look for people with the same problems. Any thing else that could help me ???
  • jstraumannjstraumann Member Posts: 1
    Hi Fastguy:

    I read your note and got sick to my stomach! I have a 2008 SRX I just got 3 weeks ago, and yesterday whilst reading the manual and checking things out I found a *lake* in the well under the 3rd row seat. I couldn't believe how much water was there...

    I take it from your post you ahd teh same problem and it was enver resolved??

    John.
  • pbeallepbealle Member Posts: 4
    I have an '08 with everything except V8. I've driven Japanese cars for 25 years and have loved them, but decided to buy American. My last 3 cars were Acura MDX, Infiniti FX35 and Infiniti Q45, all great cars. But, I like the SRX even more. It's supremely comfortable, has great luxury features and is wonderful to drive. I like some of the little amenities like the motorized, movable pedals, and the big sunroof. I do not like the fact that the doors lock every time you move, and that it can't be disabled. And I agree that the nav system is retarded. My 2002 Acura MDX has a much, much better one. Why would GM have an inferior product, 6 years later?

    I'm impressed with the oil life monitor that provides for oil change intervals of up to 12,000 miles. An excellent feature. People change oil way too often, it's a myth that's been perpetrated by oil companies and car dealers. Use synthetic oil and spread out your oil changes. You'll save 2% on gas mileage, maybe an extra buck a week, thus paying for your oil change.

    So far, I would be happy to buy another Cadillac. If the car disappoints me down the road, I can go right back to Infiniti or Acura, but so far I'm happy to have bought an excellent American car. If a million people would do that this year, switch to American, it would do more than a major stimulus package.
  • dglozmandglozman Member Posts: 178
    One small problem with that. America does not build enough cars that you would choose over Japanese/German. Yes, Cadillac is one of them. I do not like the current SRX, but the pictures of 2010 SRX look very promising....

    The biggest problem with majority of American cars is interior quality. so far I can not find better built and better layout then my Honda Accord (talking about the same class american)
    But when it is time to replace by Lexus RX - the ONLY one American SUV that I would consider is SRX.
  • pbeallepbealle Member Posts: 4
    You're often right that Japanese interiors are better. However, the 2008 SRX(not the earlier years) is better than my Infiniti FX and my Acura MDX. So, some progress has been made. I have rented a Ford Focus three times and been impressed with driving it and would to buy one to continue my "buy American" campaign, but you're right, the interior is a little too plastic. Haven't seen an Accord interior in years but will check it out next time I pass a dealer.

    My initial attraction to the SRX was the exterior styling, the knife edges vs. other SUVs that look like vitamins, or bars of Dove soap. Basically all cars come out of the same wind tunnel now and it's hard to find a car with an edge anywhere. That's why the SRX looks different on the road.
  • timtx01timtx01 Member Posts: 11
    Has anyone else had any really bad experiences with Stewart Cadillac in Houston? I recently purchased a vehicle from them, and I after the deal was done I was mistakenly given some information that I'm sure they would have prefered that I not see. I was not at all happy with the experience. I told the salesman point-blank I will NEVER buy another car from them, and he just shrugged it off. I would suggest people steer clear of this dealership. They are not in it to build a lasting relationship with the customer.
  • tidestertidester Member Posts: 10,059
    Consider writing up a report in Dealer Ratings and Reviews.

    tidester, host
    SUVs and Smart Shopper
  • bballard1820bballard1820 Member Posts: 1
    My wife purchased the SRX a little less than a year ago. The vehicle was loaded, the Signature Edition and was on the showroom floor. Just what she was looking for. When she drove it home, the following day she found several interior problems. Within a month the black piece between the windshield and sunroof cracked in half. Since then we have had that piece replaced three (3) times due to cracking and now has two broken cracked spots in it. The last time they replaced it the dealership chipped a large spot on another part which they did not inform me. We can hear air coming through the sunroof constantly. Also several interior CHEAP pieces have broken and just noticed the door handles are coated with a chrome sticker material which is peeling. She has tried to keep some of these problems from me so I would not go off ...................
    Now my wife is to the point she is going to bring the vehicle to the dealership and tell them they can keep it and she does not want it back. We still have a lien however she would rather her credit take a small ding than continue like this. Any advice?? Only have 19,000 miles on vehicle.
  • 08srxlemon08srxlemon Member Posts: 7
    Pbealle, It's been over 2yrs. since your message was posted, how do you feel about your 2008 SRX Caddy now ????
  • 08srxlemon08srxlemon Member Posts: 7
    Miked22,,, How do you feel about your 08 SRX Caddy now ???
  • ericzoomericzoom Member Posts: 213
    I just turned in my leased 08' SRX, and I found it to be a pretty reliable vehicle. It drove well, and was very comfortable. It had great pickup for a heavy vehicle with a V6. To be honest, I found it to be a better vehicle than my 11'SRX.
  • 08srxlemon08srxlemon Member Posts: 7
    I spend to much time at the dealer for repairs,,, I don't want to waste anymore of my time posting all the problems,,, no one cares... I get soaked from head to toe when it rains or snows,,, dealer said the leaks are fixed and will tell me the same if I bring it in again so whats the point,,, no time to go into all that has gone wrong with this lemon,,, just dido all the negative posts regarding the SRX I experienced it all... I hate this car...
  • gmcustsvcgmcustsvc Member Posts: 4,252
    08srxlemon,
    I’m sorry to hear that you have had such an unsatisfactory experience with your SRX. If Customer Assistance can be of any help to you, please email Christina with more information.

    Best,
    Sarah
    GM Customer Service
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