Our view: 2017 Cadillac XT5

Source: Our view: 2017 Cadillac XT5

The judgment: The 2017 Cadillac XT5 excels at delivering a luxury experience that should entice buyers of midsize luxury crossover SUVs – and worry its competitors.

Against the competition: The Cadillac XT5 is not to be confused with anything other than a luxury car. It feels more composed than the Lexus RX 350, but lighter and funnier than the Mercedes-Benz GLE-class. It also offers a more comfortable ride than both and has a premium interior.

Externally, the first thing you notice about the five-passenger Cadillac XT5 SUV is how fresh it looks compared to the SRX it replaces. It’s not that the SRX was an ugly car, but I think it’s been around long enough to kind of fit in. Not so with the XT5: it has a pronounced grille and manages to look more aggressive. It’s not radically different, but since it’s replacing a nice car, I don’t think it needs to be.

It’s roughly the same size as the outgoing model. The Cadillac XT5 sits on a slightly wider track and is roughly the same length as the model it replaces, although the wheelbase is about 2 inches longer. What is remarkable is that the increased length goes exactly where it is needed: for more legroom in the rear seats. Here you can compare the two Cadillac models.

The old SRX was a comfortable SUV that I had no trouble taking a long freeway drive in, but I wouldn’t want to take it anywhere with winding roads. The SRX felt a bit too heavy and cumbersome for something like this. This is not the case with the XT5.

The Cadillac XT5 is 292 pounds lighter than the SRX and it shows in its driving dynamics. The XT5 is still tuned up as a luxury car, but it never felt like wallowing or plowing on the tight roads and curves of the driving route. That it’s able to offer stable handling and a comfortable ride over bumps is impressive.

The steering is well balanced and has good road feel. It’s light enough to maneuver around a parking space, but it’s still okay when it comes to twisty stuff. Competitors like the BMW X5 offer more road feel, but also require more effort from the driver. However, I think that for the luxury market, Cadillac may have found the sweet spot between too light and too heavy.

There’s also a Sport drive mode available, which changes the steering to offer quicker response (as well as changing the transmission’s shifting for more aggressive driving), but I honestly didn’t notice much of a difference during my testing.

All XT5 models are powered by a 310hp 3.6-liter V6 engine with an eight-speed automatic transmission and are available with front- or all-wheel drive. All versions I drove had AWD.

What’s interesting about the Cadillac XT5’s setup is that it uses a dual-clutch system to swap power front-to-back and can send 100 percent of the power to either end of the car. The AWD system can also split torque side-to-side on the rear axle.

However, what drivers are likely to notice most is that the system requires some input from them. The XT5 requires you to switch from front-wheel drive (called Touring Drive mode) to all-wheel drive. The system will not do it automatically – like others do. It detects road conditions and outside temperatures and suggests drivers to switch modes.

Staying in front-wheel drive helps with mileage. The new Cadillac XT5 gets an EPA-estimated 19/27/22 mpg city/highway/combined with 2WD and 18/26/21 mpg city/highway/combined with AWD. But I’m not sure if asking the driver to switch modes to turn on AWD is the best solution. (If you select AWD, the XT5 stays in it until you switch modes, so if you park for the night the XT5 won’t default to front-wheel drive when you restart the car and drive away.)

The XT5 deserves credit for a stop-start system that is among the least intrusive on the market. In stop-and-go traffic, it was hardly noticeable that the engine was switched off or restarted. This is something that competitors – particularly the Mercedes-Benz GLE – miss. I really only noticed it when the engine started at a traffic light to run the air conditioning.

The XT5’s engine performance is good but unremarkable. It did what I wanted it to – it makes passes with ease and doesn’t make much noise – but it’s no barn burner.

Considering the competition, the Lexus RX offers the most instantaneous throttle response, but after that it’s not exceptional, and the Cadillac XT5 and GLE are similar in not offering that instantaneous throttle response, but otherwise offering satisfactory performance for the class. In terms of handling, the RX 350 feels light, but it bounces around and doesn’t feel as composed as the XT5. While the GLE feels composed, it also feels like it weighs significantly more than the 400 pounds it’s over the XT5. Here you can compare the cars.

While there is more room for rear seat passengers, they should either be short or be willing to recline the seat; There just isn’t a lot of headroom. Granted, I’m 6ft 2in and carry a lot of my height in my torso, but others who aren’t as tall as me also noted the XT5’s tight rear headroom. There’s actually less space than in the SRX. Cadillac says reclining the leather seat solves the problem by effectively giving you more room – and it does – but I’m just not sold. In fact, if you’re a taller guy who likes to sit upright, the XT5’s rear seat will likely be an issue.
I’ve driven cars that had pre-production interiors so I won’t talk about the craftsmanship, but the choice of materials and overall design is good. There are numerous decorative trim options including carbon fiber, two types of aluminum and three types of real wood.

They vary by trim level, so I only got to try one of the aluminum and one of the wood interiors, and I was impressed. The wood has managed to look like real wood – something that is not always the case. The same goes for the aluminum; it had the right shine and if I was going to go with the Cadillac XT5 it would be the choice I would go for. It seemed best to fit in a modern car.

In a welcome change from the SRX, visibility is improved. Cadillac moved the side mirrors from the windshield pillars to the door and installed glass where the mirror was supposed to open the cabin. This has a big impact on improving forward visibility from the power front seats, although the pillars sweep backwards to somewhat obstruct all-round visibility.

I think the Cadillac does a better job than the RX 350 or the GLE when it comes to offering a truly luxurious interior. The RX 350 uses too much plastic that doesn’t look attractive enough to beat either the Cadillac or Mercedes-Benz. The GLE class offers materials that rival those of the Cadillac, but I still think they fall short. Finally, it’s a personal preference of mine to integrate the infotainment screen into the dash rather than the tablet-on-dash look that’s all the rage right now. Of the set, only the XT5 integrates the screen.
Cadillac retains its Cadillac User Experience system to handle multimedia and navigation controls. I haven’t played with the CUE system too much, but what little I’ve done has shown that while it’s not the most intuitive right off the bat, I was able to pick it up fairly quickly. However, it doesn’t have a volume control, so I used the steering wheel controls for this function. Either way, it’s nice to have a touchscreen to switch between menus, as opposed to the awful mouse controller that Lexus uses. Apple CarPlay is standard.

I tested the Cadillac camera rear view mirror extensively and I liked what I saw. Unlike a reversing camera, it provides a permanent rear view while driving forward. Built directly into the conventional interior mirror, the display offers such a wide, distortion-free view to the rear that I almost felt like I didn’t need side mirrors on the freeway. And if I had the back seats full, I’d find it handy to be able to see behind me instead of seeing the smiling faces of my passengers. I want to test the camera’s rearview mirror at night to see how well it works, but during the day it’s a treat. Things that appear in the rear view are a bit closer than they appear, but not so much that I’d say it’s a bug. It just takes some getting used to.

For those living in areas that use a lot of road salt, the camera has a washing system to keep the rear lens clean. That’s a nice touch.
Cadillac switched from a traditional, mechanical shifter to an electric shift knob, and oddly enough, the biggest advantage is creating a space under the center console big enough for a small shoulder bag or purse. This proved handy on my test drive, and it’s something I would use a lot on a day-to-day basis myself.

The cargo area isn’t exceptional as it’s not particularly large but not so small that it’s not useful.
As this is a new car on a new platform, crash test results for the XT5 are not yet available at the time of publication.

Cadillac offers a variety of safety features, most of which are bundled in optional Driver Awareness and Driver Assist packages, including automatic front and rear emergency braking at low speeds, lane departure avoidance, rear cross-traffic alert, blind-spot alert, and adaptive cruise control.

You can browse the full list of features here.
Sometimes when cars are redesigned it can be hard to see why it was done that way. However, the 2017 Cadillac XT5 takes a comfortable, aging car design and brings it to the top of the class.

It stands out as a luxury crossover SUV, so its strengths lie in a high-quality interior and comfortable driving. Its handling has also been improved, putting it well ahead of the Mercedes-Benz GLE class and the Lexus RX350.
But I’m still not convinced of the four-wheel drive. The rivals don’t have a similar setup, and the difference between the four-wheel and two-wheel versions is just 1mpg, so it really feels unnecessary. However, after many hours with the Cadillac XT5, this seemed like the biggest mistake and I think that says a lot.

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