Date: 2-5 September, 2023
Location: Louisiana
Distance: 764 km
Up front: The cabin is quiet and refined—even on par with its German peers. However, its premium-economy grade of materials disappoints in the luxury segment; the dashboard and doorsill are cheap soft-touch plastics, the leather feels worse than Mercedes’ man-made Artico leather, and the paddle shifters are made of cheap hard plastic despite having a competent 9-speed automatic gearbox. The standard Bose speaker system is great for hip-hop but terrible for classical string instruments, is this a good thing? Depends on your musical tastes.
Cadillac is an old-fashioned brand and that has its advantages. The update since 2020 has dialled back on the piano black, so the sun no longer glares at you from nine angles. It’s kept a physical latch for the glove compartment instead of placing a button for it in the screen, so you don’t need to fiddle about three menu levels deep just to retrieve your…gloves. The 12V socket in the sous-centre console storage cubby is out of sight, but exists in case you have an additional accessory.
In the back: The back seats have the same dimensions as the pre-facelift model and are just as supportive as the old model with its upright seating position. One of the great things about having a high internal seating position is that the windowsill doesn’t come up over your shoulder and makes the back seats feel like a prison. Heated rear seats and rear climate control are available, but only useful if you’re in a household of three or more.
The rear cargo partition is a great addition that stops smaller items from rolling around or helps categorize zones for longer trips. I used it to keep heavy items like packs of water farther back and luggage closer to the boot lid for easy access to my suitcase that I need every night. The floor carpets are plush but don’t wrap around the edges to catch dirt.
Driving: This V6 model with 310 horses should be paired with AWD instead of FWD. The FWD model chirped around bends and lost traction when accelerating from a standstill. It has plenty of power but nowhere to put it—the same issue faced by much cheaper Hyundai N-series cars. Visibility is still terrible and the car drives like a floating box on wheels—it is a Cadillac after all. The braking is much improved; it’s linear, logical, and gentle yet firm. The engine is supposedly naturally aspirated, but it’s so sluggish beyond 70km/h that it feels like there’s turbo lag. The Mercedes-Benz GLC300 has almost 60 fewer ponies yet accelerates from 0 to 100km/h slightly quicker than the XT5.
At this point, it’s worth remembering that the base XT5 is $10,000 cheaper than the equivalently sized base GLC300, so don’t let the “luxury” base-level trim fool you into thinking it’s equivalent. This is a good school run-mobile, but it’s no luxury car.
