Luxury Undersold
The phrase ‘the Cadillac of…’ may not be as commonplace now as it used to be, but just the fact that it exists shows how much of an imprint this brand had on society and pop culture in its heyday. For some, the idea of a Cadillac conjures up large, floaty, soft, plush and luxurious rides for society’s upper echelon. It was a luxury to aspire to. Having a Cadillac in your driveway was nothing short of a badge of honour. But the modern Cadillac doesn’t necessarily cling to those traditions – an ethos wholly apparent in the XT4.
This little subcompact, short for Crossover Touring 4, is essentially a more luxury-focused version of the GMC Terrain, but it gets an exclusive 2.0L turbocharged 4-cylinder engine under the hood. We think the styling is far sharper than its sibling too, with long head and taillights helping it shy away from the generic amorphous blob shape many crossovers fall victim to. But the XT4 and its bigger sibling, the XT5, to us, still don’t look like a Cadillac. If you put a Chevy or Buick badge on it, it wouldn’t look out of place. We’d have liked to see some more DNA from Cadillac’s iconic SUV, the Escalade, trickled down to these crossovers. There's also a curious badge on the back, denoting '350T.' The T is easy enough - it's turbocharged. But 350? It's not a 3.5L engine. Instead, it refers to its torque output.
We’d say it’s a similar situation inside. It’s not a terrible interior, but there’s nothing about it that screams premium luxury – especially in our tester’s mostly-black colour scheme. Again, swap that Cadillac badge for another, and we’d be hard pressed to question anything being out of place. The touchscreen interface is clear, easy to use and responsive however. As well, we do appreciate physical buttons for quick and tactile HVAC control. It may look tidier hiding these functions in a sub-menu, but we’d argue it’s far safer for drivers to use muscle memory to hit a button than try to navigate through a touchscreen menu while driving. To be fair though, there is a dial that you can use to navigate the menu as well.
There’s more premium tech goodies to go around too. Wireless Android Auto/Apple CarPlay is a very welcome feature – especially when paired with the built in wireless charger in the armrest. But it’s incredibly peculiar that such a premium brand wouldn’t include some features that are considerably basic at this point – like adaptive cruise control as standard. It does have a distance warning that will alert drivers and brake in an emergency – so if that tech is already built in, why not use it in conjunction with the cruise control? We would have also liked to see a Heads-Up Display. This is a fairly affordable vehicle, but adding option packages to get such basic features drives that cost up quickly.
Driving the XT4 does start to harken back to Cadillac’s roots somewhat. It’s not a dramatic vehicle. The engine and transmission work together harmoniously without jerks, kicks and other unpleasantries. You can pop it into sport mode to get some more aggressive shifting going but, as with many ‘sport modes’ on non-sporty vehicles, we found it a novelty at best and enjoyed the drive far more without its use. Visibility is excellent too. Its compact size makes navigating around tight parking lots, city streets, country roads and highways no issue. There is enough power and responsiveness to build up speed when you need to. You will get some body roll should you take corners briskly, but this isn’t the vehicle for sporty driving. It’s a comfortable road-tripper, scenic-route-taker, glamping kind of crossover. A hint of ruggedness, but better at pampering than conquering – and that’s 100% okay.
The XT4 starts at just over $36,000 in Canada – a little cheaper than many of its rivals from Germany, Japan, and even domestically. But options, like our tester’s $3,195 Sun and Sound package and $1,595 Technology package quickly shoot that cost up, making those initial savings non-existent quickly. Sometimes less really is more – and not always in a good way.
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