Auto News 5

Today's Suburban isn't quite as old as the nameplate itself, which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2010, but it is showing its age. General Motors launched the GMT900 range of trucks almost seven years ago, and thanks to a number of factors -- including a frosty full-size truck market and that bankruptcy you might have heard about– the typical mid-cycle update granted to its predecessors never happened. Save for some minor tweaks, including the addition of a USB audio input within the cellar-like center console and an electronic trailer brake controller placed just left of the steering column, what you see is essentially GM's state of the art circa 2006. Which is to say it was ho-hum then, and is completely outdated now. The Suburban's cabin -- even in fully-loaded LTZ guise -- looks old and schmaltzy, and lacks the fit and finish that you'd expect from a truck pushing $60k.

Using the slightly altered words of Katy Perry, "We're hot then we're cold, we're yes then we're no" when it comes to our Acura ILX. We damn and praise the car from sentence to sentence, and we know it.

For the past few months, complaints have been building about squeaks and rattles in our Infiniti. "Has anyone else heard an annoying squeak coming from somewhere in the left-rear passenger compartment?" asked copy editor Rusty Blackwell. Answer: yes. Associate web editor Donny Nordlicht, for one. "The JX is starting to show some wear," he said. "There are some serious rattles, creaks, and squeaks coming from the second row. I tried folding the seats and then unfolding them, to no avail. Also, the driver's door handle squeaks every time you pull the handle." Senior online editor Phil Floraday agreed, calling the noises "completely unacceptable" and noting that our Four Seasons Infiniti QX56 held up much better.