A feather in the cap to Cadillac comes when you measure curb weights. At 1,940 kg the SRX is 30 kg lighter than the next lightest, the RX 350 – not bad for a four-year old platform.

Continuing our walkaround to the back uncovered more surprises, all of them good.

“Even the trunk is finished in quality carpet, with the lid for the underfloor storage braced by a locking hinged brace that will keep it open for you while you load,” Jonathan gushed.

“In the cargo area itself is a track and gate system that allows you to secure your cargo should it not fill the full space of the respectable 844 L trunk.”

The U-Rail cargo system is innovative, and would be cool on its own without the underfloor storage brace. I’ve seen bonnets with less intricate and lower quality support struts than this thing. It even has multiple rigid-mount hooks and one mounted retracting elastic strap to keep all your stuff in place. For some reason looking at it reminded me of my old housemate’s basement….

Anyway, kudos to Cadillac for understanding that innovative interior design helps add value to a luxury car. Perhaps they went a little far with CUE though…

CUE is an automotive journalist’s favourite whipping boy and that’s not altogether fair. I really love the customizable display embedded in the instrument cluster, though I prefer it in the fully fledged all-digital versions in higher-up Cadillac models. I also don’t mind the volume slider these days. But I rue the absence of a tuning method that doesn’t skip through presets. If you could program the steering wheel to skip stations instead of presets, I would have no complaints about CUE other than its occasional slowness. As it is, the system is still more of a distraction than a help. At least it looks good.

The SRX is powered by a 308-hp 3.6L V6 also making 265 lb-ft of torque, mated to a six-speed automatic. SRX FWD is the lowest trim and FWD is standard on the Luxury Collection as well, but our tester was fitted with AWD for an additional $2,625 over the non-AWD trim.

The Performance and Premium trims are the top two trims and both get power-assisted, hydraulic, rack-and-pinion, variable-effort, speed-sensitive steering. This trim doesn’t get the variable-effort speed-sensitive bit. But it does get cruise control, blind-spot alert, power-adjustable pedals (which I didn’t realize until after writing the review and wish I had. My legs are to your legs as T-Rex’s arms are to your arms) and interior lighting. There’s also a rear-vision camera, power liftgate, generous sunroof, heated steering wheel, and eight-speaker Bose audio system.

The $545 Driver Awareness package added forward-collision alert – a very sensitive and scary device – lane departure warning, auto high beam and a safety-alert seat.

The seat is great for lane-departure and blind-spot monitoring, vibrating on the appropriate side, but it doesn’t really work for feeling out a parking space in the garage. The camera does the job well enough so the seat is just a distraction. Most cameras do the job, come to think of it – why do the annoying tone things exist anyway? All they seem to do is wake up my daughter.

Connect with Autos.ca