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Wow. The same ...

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DETROIT -- General Motors has postponed the launch of the next-generation Cadillac SRX sport wagon because of the company's financial problems.

In a memo last month, GM Vice Chairman Robert Lutz told vehicle line executives the project had been delayed. The re-engineered SRX was scheduled to debut in 2008.

Sources say GM also killed plans for an SRX-V performance version. That decision was made late last year.

Lutz's memo was the same one in which he said that GM's rear-wheel-drive Zeta architecture had been canceled.

The company downplayed the delay of the SRX.

"It is definitely not a product cancellation," GM spokesman Pat Morrissey said.

He said the sport wagon will be pushed back only "a few months."

An interior freshening of the SRX planned for the 2007 model year is scheduled to proceed as planned, Morrissey said.

In his mid-March memo, Lutz told employees: "As part of our efforts to address the current business situation we are facing today, we have had to make some difficult product portfolio decisions."

In the same memo, Lutz said GM had canceled a midcycle face-lift of the Hummer H2 and right-hand-drive versions of the mid-sized GMT 361/371 SUVs - the Buick Rainier, Chevrolet TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy and Saab 9-7X.

Lutz said that the number of concept and show vehicles will be reduced, and that projects will be delayed at GM's Specialty Vehicle Activity and High Performance Vehicle operations.

The high-performance operation helped create GM's supercharged engines as well as develop Cadillac's V-Series vehicles and Saturn's Red Line performance versions.

Last month GM said it was canceling all vehicles planned off the Zeta architecture. But Lutz told employees GM was not abandoning rwd vehicles.

"We will continue to evaluate our future rwd plans," he said.

He added: "These cancellations and delays allow us to realign resources to accelerate some of our key strategic high-volume product launches."

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DETROIT — Cadillac is looking at a variety of upgrades and enhancements for its family of luxury utility vehicles, including the recently redesigned Escalade, but there are no plans to offer the sort of performance modifications it now provides as part of its V-Series.

The first Caddy ute to get a modest makeover is the SRX, which shares its underpinnings with the STS and CTS sedans. As part of a midcycle freshening for model-year 2007, Cadillac will offer a new SRX Sport kit in August that is primarily an appearance package, with unique wheels and tires, grille, rocker panels, and front and rear fascia. With 18-inch wheels and tires, the SRX Sport package will cost $2,500; with 20-inch wheels and tires, the package will be $3,500, Cadillac executives told IL.

The brand will also do a similar appearance package for its long-wheelbase Escalade ESV in model year 2008 or 2008. Called ESV Platinum, the package will borrow styling cues from the V-Series cars, with a leather-wrapped console and pillars, heated and cooled cupholders and a suede headliner. The Escalade ESV Platinum edition will retail for upward of $70,000, according to Cadillac executives.

Cadillac also is considering a special black chrome package on the standard Escalade for '08 or '09 but probably will make it available only on vehicles with black exterior paint.

Sadly, there are no immediate plans to offer an SRX-V or a V-Series variant of the Escalade, executives said.

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Cadillac’s 2007 SRX, launching next month, features an upgraded interior hand-crafted in part through Cadillac’s ‘cut-and-sew’ interior process.

Coverings for components including the instrument panel, center console and door trim are cut, sewn and wrapped mostly by hand, according to Cadillac.

The process, also applied to Cadillac’s STS-V and XLR-V models, enables details such as French stitching and reduces of gaps and seams.

SRX also features multiple other interior materials upgrades, new flush mounted switches and controls and added storage bins. Entertainment options such as a Bose 5.1 surround sound system, DVD navigation and rear entertainment and auxiliary jack for MP3 players are also available.

The 2007 model also adds a six-speed automatic transmission (Northstar V8 models only) and a new Sport model featuring body-colored front and rear fascias and optional 18- or 20-inch wheels.

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SRX: The 2007 SRX has a redesigned interior centered on a new instrument panel. A six-speed automatic is standard.

Insiders say GM has delayed plans to re-engineer and restyle the SRX for the 2008 model year, blaming high gasoline prices and lackluster sales. The SRX may be restyled and re-engineered for the 2011 or 2012 model year; it might be redesigned, using GM's global rwd architecture; or it might be dropped from the line, if sales do not grow and Cadillac buyers shift to the BRX.

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