JAMES HEALY XL7 review

[regfootball]

Suzuki hits the nail smack-dab on the head with new XL7

here

very positive review

Clichés can be usefully accurate, so let's indulge: Silk purse from a sow's ear. That's supposed to be impossible, but Suzuki has done it, transforming a vehicle that, in other guises, is sold as General Motors' Chevrolet Equinox and Pontiac Torrent.

For its XL7, Suzuki lengthened the body (but not the wheelbase) of the midsize crossover utility vehicles some 9 inches so that a third-row seat fits inside. It also improved pretty much everything else about the vehicles that, sold under their GM nameplates, feel crude. For Suzuki being a bit player in the U.S. car market, such pleasing results are unexpected.

[Hudson]

I like Suzuki products, but I disagree with Healy's positive review. The one I drove for a week was cheap, cheap, cheap. Power was adequate and room was good, but the quality of the interior was cheap (have I said it was cheap?).

As a long-time Suzuki owner, I have come to appreciate the vehicles they build and sell. But Suzuki is not alone in cheapening interiors over the past 10 years or so, and the XL7 shows this off.

Does anyone else miss soft dashboards in inexpensive vehicles? Remember when a base SUV or pickup or compact car has a soft dashboard? You'd be hard-pressed to name a car or truck under $20,000 (in many cases even under $30,000) where the dashboard, door coverings, and anything else in the interior (aside from the seats and the steering wheel) are soft to the touch. Wouldn't you pay another $100 or $200 to not touch hard Fisher Price-like interior components in your car?

[C.H.U.D.]

Yes! My Cavalier interior, while cheap to the eye, has softer dashboard coverings than the Cobalt, GM's so-called "premium compact".

[MyerShift]

I know what you mean by that.

Every car I've driven seems to have harder and harder and cheaper and cheaper feeling plastics.

The build span is: 1987, 1993, 1997, 1996.

My Buick Skyhawk had the softest plastics and most abundant carpeting on the doors and dash of any of my cars. I sure do miss it.

4-On-the-Floor Baby!!!!

Edited January 8, 2007 by MyerShift