>> What the world needs now, is not another biggest crossover SUV. But we've got one in the garage, so let's check it out.
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Our system is a six disc internal changer of course, you see that little logo over here, and it also has Sirius radio optioned up on it. Bear in mind there's an interesting difference on these six disc head units, there are two on the CX9. One will have an MP3 logo here, ours as you see, does not. Ours will not play MP3 discs. In terms of an iPod or anything like that, there is no iPod adapter in the truest sense, but you do have an auxiliary jack back here. It's very nicely faired in, and there's a twelve volt right by it. One thing I like, a really small detail, the door on the power is not spring loaded, so you can open it with one hand and plug in your power adapter. How many cars put a spring on that damn thing, so you got to hold it up, plug it in, drive off the road, and kill yourself. And by the way, we have a rear seat entertainment package on this vehicle, which also affects the front seat, interestingly enough. By getting the RSC package it bumps up the main head unit to two hundred and ninety six watts, don't know where they get these numbers, eleven speakers, obviously one of those is a sub, and you also get audio pilot noise reduction, and center point synthetic surround sound technology, all that BOSE technology built in. But of course you also get the rear seat rig, let's go check out those details. Now the actual screen in the back seat is quite generous. A flip-down nine inch LCD, with an associated DVD player right above it. One thing I noticed, because the roof's kind of arced on this vehicle, even when the display is down, it doesn't get in the way of the rear view mirror for the driver. Very cool. Headphones are wireless, they have two pair of those. Of course you get a remote, and this cool little belt clip that lets you store it on the back of the junk pouch on back of the front seats. But they also talk about auxiliary AV input jacks here in the rear area, and I'm damned if I can find them. Oh there they are, yep, back here. This is the third row seat that I'm putting down, and to the left of it you'll find the AV input jacks under a nice little door. Problem is, nobody will ever be back there. Bad move. Oh by the way, that sub-woofer I mentioned lives down here. Do not pour water on this part, good thinking. Now underway our CX9 moves pretty well, it's got a three and a half liter V6, twenty four valve, dual overhead cam, the usual stuff. Two sixty three horsepower, two forty nine foot pounds, hooked to an only choice six speed automatic. So the power train is nothing for you to think about. One thing I did notice though, in stop and go city driving, when you're in first and second gear a lot, it's almost jerky in first, as if the calibration isn't right. It applies too much power in that stump pulling first gear, and you end up doing a lot of this rhhh stuff, rhhh, as you try and start and stop in the dice and slice traffic. Oh by the way, our CX9 is a grand touring version, which is a high trim level, and it's also all wheel drive optioned. You don't have to get all wheel drive on these, you can get them front wheel drive if you like. Even with the all wheel drive, you don't find a whole bunch of all terrain fiddly knobs and buttons inside this car, it isn't that kind of all wheel drive. It's city all wheel drive, so you don't spin out in a puddle of Kool-aid down at the Target parking lot. Okay, let's talk price. Thirty four thousand will get you into a CX9 grand touring without any bells and whistles added. It does include Bluetooth hands-free by the way. Then we have the rear seat entertainment package I mentioned, that's the much better stereo, with all the BOSE technology and the sub-woofer, and the rear seat screen and DVD player, about twenty six hundred bucks. If you want navigation, there are a couple ways to do that.
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You can get navigation with rear view camera for about twenty one hundred, or nav rear view plus power rear hatch for about twenty five hundred. Our vehicle came out about thirty eight thousand.
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