In most parts of the country, carping about the state of this nations roads is an art form. New expletives have been crafted solely for use when ones brand-new set of winter tires slam into an unexpected pothole. Fillings have been jarred loose by washboard road surfaces. Alignment mechanics rejoice the former, dentists do brisk business with the latter. Hey, at least someone is making bank off our rough roads.Yelling into a vacuum yields little, so CAA holds an annual campaign in which Canadian road users including cyclists, pedestrians, motorists, and users of public transit are encouraged to cast a vote for what they feel is the worst road in their region. Every road is eligible, regardless of surface type or length.Across Canada, wild temperature swings and an abundance of road salt conspire to scupper even the best paving job. Jagged lines cut every surface like a botched episiotomy, with macadam crumbling like day-old sponge cake. Armed with CAA’s list of Ten Worst Roads in the Maritimes and the keys to a 2020 Cadillac XT6 crossover, we decided to seek out these potholed pavements in an effort to gauge the state of our roads.Would the Cadillac provide a comfortable journey? Will this infrastructure hammer our spines into oblivion? Did I make a theme-based playlist filled with The Stones and the score from Rocky?The answers to those questions were yes, no and an emphatic yes.Our pothole-tamer: the Cadillac XT6First, the Cadillac. The luxury arm of General Motors has been fiddling with their Standard of the World for a few years now, rolling out two new sedans and three new crossovers in quick succession.The XT6 is the largest of these, acting as a draw for customers seeking a snazzy three-row machine with all-wheel-drive. Cadillac already has a three-row SUV in its quiver of course, but the large-and-in-charge Escalade scares away some customers thanks to its bulk and truck-based roots. For anyone trading out of an Acura MDX or Volvo XC90, the XT6 will be much more approachable.Outside, the Cadillac certainly looks the part, with our Sport-trimmed tester dipped in $900 worth of inky Stellar Black Metallic paint. Unlike the Premium Luxury models, the Sport eschews all exterior brightwork save for a spear along its lower flanks and one edging the perimeter of its front grille. A completely blacked-out grille, bookended with headlights narrowed like the eyes of a stern headmaster, is a dealer-installed accessory and should be fitted to every XT6 regardless of colour.Pine Glen RoadPointing the long XT6 nose containing a 3.6-litre V6 engine making 310 horsepower towards New Brunswick, we set off in search of what CAA has deemed to be some of Atlantic Canadas worst roads. Plugging the street of Pine Glen Road just outside of Moncton into the Cadillacs satnav is easy thanks to recent changes. Now deploying a rotary dial incorporating jog functions into the system, CUE is no longer an exercise in frustration.The drive to Pine Glen Road is an exercise in cutting through early morning fog on the Cobequid Pass, a stretch of road notorious for its pristine pavement but reliably horrid weather. With no sinkhole (yet) consuming the Trans-Canada Highway near Oxford, we carried on to Moncton, the land of St. Hubert and Jean Coutu pharmacies.Turning on to Pine Glen Road, a long stretch connecting far flung communities with the city of Moncton, we find pristine pavement. A quick check of the satnav confirms we are indeed on the correct path, even if the macadam were traversing looks as far from a Worst Road contender as your author looks like a Chippendale model. What happened?Councils take the CAA Worst Roads lists seriously, is what happened. A few clicks down Pine Glen Road we happen upon a large road crew, feverishly laying new tar atop the old crumbled surface. Stopping to chat with the site foreman, he explained theyve been on the job since August, upgrading a road thats heavily travelled by woods trucks and the general public alike.Using heavily calloused hands to adjust his white hard hat, the man looked proud to be working on the project. If the sign posted by a local church is anything to go by, locals are pretty proud as well.All good things must come to an end, of course, and the new pavement disappears as one drives deeper into Pine Glen Road. By the time were out of the residential areas and into the wooded areas, its easy to see why this road made CAAs top ten. Its most heavily travelled section, however, is now billiard-table smooth thanks in no small part to The List and a crew of hard-working pavers.Working the lozenge-shaped shifter to handle a three-point turn in a roadside cutout was more frustrating than strictly necessary, given the button-and-lever dance one has to do in order to engage reverse gear. GM is not likely to change its design anytime soon, since the thing has popped up in everything from this Cadillac to Buicks to the Chevy Bolt. Electronic shifters are tremendous,
Origin: We take on some of Atlantic Canada’s worst roads in a new Cadillac