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Driving Impressions
If you like the feel of a traditional, truck-based SUV but want a smoother ride you're likely to find the Suzuki XL7 to your liking. In a way that's an oxymoron as the XL7 is not truck based, nor is it based directly on a car platform. Instead its platform is somewhere between a car and truck, an approach that's becoming more popular as interest in crossover SUVs grows. Its handling falls somewhere between SUV and car, as well.
The XL7 shares its basic design with the Chevy Equinox and Pontiac Torrent, and its engine is derived from the 3.6-liter dual overhead cam V6 that powers the premium Equinox Sport and Torrent GXP. For reasons which are not clear to us, however, Suzuki rates its version of this engine at a more modest 252 horsepower and 243 pound-feet of torque, compared with the 264 horsepower and 250 pound-feet claimed by the two GM divisions. Still, the XL7 engine is considerably stronger than the 3.4-liter pushrod V6 that's standard in the Equinox and Torrent, which rates only 185 horsepower and 210 pound-feet.
We found performance in the XL7 to be quite adequate, at least in a straight line. The five-speed auto shifts gears smoothly but the engine is somewhat noisy. The transmission includes a manual shift feature. We found it somewhat disconcerting that the selected gear does not show up on the marking beside the gearshift lever itself. The only readout is located in the center of the instrument pod.
As we turned on to a freeway on-ramp and accelerated, we discovered the front-drive XL7 we were testing suffered from some torque steer. (Torque steer is a phenomenon that occurs on front-wheel-drive vehicles and is experienced as a gentle tug on the steering wheel under hard acceleration.)
Presumably the all-wheel-drive models do not suffer from this, though we were unable to verify this because we only managed to snag a few minutes in an AWD model while driving on a very short off-road course, which was so mild that it could be traversed in a small front-drive sedan without any problem. However, we found the ride to be very smooth over this unpaved course. The XL7 is not designed for serious off-roading.
The all-wheel-drive version is intended to provide added security while driving in adverse weather conditions. If you can afford the extra $1,600 for the AWD option, we'd recommend it as it makes the vehicle a better all-rounder.
We were pleased to find the steering felt better in the XL7 than in the Chevrolet Equinox we last drove. Upon checking the specs we discovered why: the Equinox has electrically powered rack-and-pinion steering while the XL7 gets more traditional hydraulic powered rack-and-pinion steering. Judging from our experiences with electric steering, this still seems to be a case where the old is better than the new. Our only complaint is that the turning radius is too big, which is not conducive to parking in tight parking lots. Handling is what one would expect from a large and somewhat heavy SUV: It needs respect while cornering.
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