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Road Test: Comparison Test
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2004 Midsize Luxury V8 SUVs Comparison Test
Introduction
By
John DiPietro
Date posted: 10-21-2004
Around the time we conducted this comparison test, the Summer Olympics were starting to unfold, and, in the spirit of the games, allow us to introduce our competitors. Representing the U.S.A. are two delegates, the Cadillac SRX and the Lincoln Aviator; from Germany come the BMW X5 4.4i and Mercedes-Benz ML500; and Japan is represented by Infiniti's FX45. Coming into the competition, the BMW and the Caddy looked like the favorites for the gold — the X5 won our last comparo and the SRX has been getting rave reviews from everyone on our staff who has gotten seat time in it.
You may have noticed that in that past test, the Bimmer actually tied the Acura MDX for first place, so you're probably wondering why the Acura isn't here, or the Volvo XC 90, for that matter. The title of this comparo gives the answer; this time we decided to make V8 power a requirement (and although the Volvo gets one for 2005, it wasn't in time for our test). The X5 that won last time was the six-cylinder 3.0i model. We ended up with an interesting field of five players. Yet within these five are two distinct groups — one that is decidedly performance-oriented that uses unibody construction (the SRX, X5 and FX45), and another that is more traditional SUV in architecture, meaning body-on-frame design (the ML500 and Aviator).
Even with the recent softening of the market, SUVs are still popular, especially those of relatively manageable size with luxury nameplates sporting V8 engines and virtually every luxury feature you could name. Unlike the larger 'utes, such as the Cadillac Escalade, that might actually see some heavy-duty use (such as pulling a trailer), these midsizers tend to be used more as upscale station wagons that can handle tough climates. As such, their duties consist chiefly of transporting the kids to school or hauling the bargains home from a warehouse store where a box of cereal looks like it came from the land of the giants.
The fresh-faced competitors in these games are the Caddy and Infiniti — the SRX debuted for 2004 and the FX just one year before — while the BMW, Benz and Aviator have all been around the country club parking lot a few times. Much like a pentathlon, these SUVs battled it out in five areas: performance, features, price, editors' evaluations and editors' picks (personal and recommended). In addition to using these vehicles as our daily drivers for two weeks, we subjected them to a rigorous 100-mile loop that included a fast freeway run, meandering two-lane blacktop, broken pavement and no pavement. It's no wonder that we didn't even come close to averaging their city mileage estimates, but such is the price to pay for comprehensive evaluation.
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