2022 Cadillac XT5 Reviews, Pricing & Specs

Styling is somewhere between the Cyberpunk angularity of the Lexus NX and the more traditionally styled Audi Q5, BMW X3, and Mercedes-Benz GLC. The XT5 mixes Cadillac’s trademark design cues, including a bold grille, daytime running lights that drip down past the headlights, and vertical taillights that vaguely reference classic Caddys. But that makes for an odd mix with the XT5’s compact footprint and tall profile. The XT5 is unmistakably a Cadillac, but an ungainly one.

In keeping with Cadillac’s trim scheme, the Premium Luxury and Sport models get slightly different exterior styling cues to give each trim level more of a personality. The Premium Luxury gets plenty of bright chrome, making it look more like a traditional Cadillac. The Sport gets darker trim and a mesh grille, a cliché marker of performance. The XT5 Luxury and Premium Luxury models get standard 18-inch alloy wheels; Sport models get 20-inch wheels as standard equipment. Cadillac also offers Onyx and Radiant styling packages with dark and bright chrome, respectively, along with 20-inch wheels.

Our test car’s interior felt suitably luxurious, but most of the features that stood out were part of the optional Platinum Package. Available on both the XT5 Premium Luxury and Sport models, it dresses up the interior with semi-aniline leather upholstery (basic leather seating is standard), a leather-wrapped instrument panel and door trim, and a microfibre sueded headliner. So, we don’t know if the XT5 meets luxury-car standards without this option package.

Materials aside, the interior doesn’t have a strong design theme. The XT5 doesn’t try to make a statement like the Volvo XC60’s Swedish minimalism, the Lincoln Corsair’s Midcentury Modern look, or the vaguely Steampunk aesthetic of the Genesis GV70. Nor does it have brand-specific markers like Audi, BMW, or Mercedes interiors, so there’s little to remind you that you’re in a Cadillac.

Standard on the Luxury and Premium Luxury trim levels, the base 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine produces power specs of 235 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque (on premium fuel). The 3.6-litre V6 is standard on the XT5 Sport and optional on the XT5 Premium Luxury, and makes 310 hp and 271 lb-ft of torque. Both engines are coupled to a nine-speed automatic transmission.

Equipped with the optional V6, our Premium Luxury test car felt reasonably quick. It will never be confused for one of Cadillac’s V-Series performance models, but the XT5 V6 has more than enough power for everyday driving situations. We were also impressed by the V6’s linear power delivery, and the smooth and quick shifts from the nine-speed automatic. Transmissions with this many gears sometimes choose a very high gear, and delay downshifts when the driver mashes the accelerator, but that wasn’t the case here.

Because our test car had the optional Platinum Package, it also had the “performance suspension” with adaptive dampers. Despite the name, we found this suspension setup was actually great for the relaxed, slower-paced driving one would expect a traditional luxury car to excel at. It cushioned bumps while providing excellent body control to keep the car settled. A soft suspension is no good if the driver and passengers are bounced around after every bump and sloshed side to side in corners.

The suspension was paired with steering that was also well suited to a luxury vehicle. The steering ratio was quick enough to make the XT5 feel nimble, without being so nervous that small corrections were constantly required to keep the Caddy pointed in the right direction. Finally, we were impressed by the quietness of the cabin, another important factor in the luxury experience.

Interior space compares favourably to the mainstay German luxury crossovers. The XT5 boasts more front headroom than the Audi Q5 and Mercedes-Benz GLC, albeit less than the BMW X3. The Cadillac also trails all three German vehicles in rear headroom. The XT5 has more legroom in both rows, however, although less front legroom than its main American rival, the Lincoln Corsair.

We found the seats themselves to be fairly comfortable, but not as comfortable as they could be. The front seats had narrow bottom cushions that could have used a bit more padding, and we felt the rear seats needed more cushioning all around. The XT5’s seats would be above average in a mainstream SUV, but they weren’t quite up to luxury-vehicle standards.

Cadillac quotes 850 litres of cargo space with the rear seats in place, and 1,784 litres with the rear seats folded. Both measurements beat the Q5, X3, and GLC, but the Infiniti QX50 offers still more cargo capacity, with the rear seats both up and down. A hands-free power liftgate is available.

Up front, Cadillac included a small cubbyhole below the touchscreen, which was a handy place to keep loose change or a small bottle of hand sanitizer. It helps make up for the fact that there isn’t much room on the centre console, which houses a rotary controller for the infotainment system and the shifter.

The standard infotainment system includes an 8-inch touchscreen, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, Bluetooth, and a 4G LTE WiFi hotspot. An 8-inch digital instrument cluster display and a head-up display are also available as part of the optional Technology Package.

Usability is vastly improved over previous Cadillac infotainment systems, but that still leaves merely adequate tech. Other luxury brands offer larger screens, slicker graphics, or more sophisticated voice-recognition tech. That may be fine for new car buyers who don’t prioritize tech, but it’s also another area where the XT5 fails to stand out.

While the touchscreen itself was easy to navigate, we also found that the array of secondary controls mostly just took up space. The rotary controller didn’t make things easy, and the buttons haphazardly distributed on the centre console were difficult to find while driving. Cadillac also included some capacitive touchpads, but they also weren’t ideally placed, and lacked physical feedback. That means you don’t know if you’ve actually pressed the touchpad hard enough to get a response.

An eight-speaker Bose sound system is standard, but our test car had the optional Bose Performance Series 14-speaker system. It produced excellent sound, something we could really appreciate thanks to the XT5’s quiet interior.

The XT5 comes standard safety features that include forward-collision warning, automatic emergency braking, front and rear park assist, automatic high-beam headlamps, lane-keep assist, and lane-departure warning. Like other Cadillac models, the XT5 also has the Safety Alert Seat, which is standard here and vibrates when one of the warning systems is triggered.

An optional Driver Assist Package adds adaptive cruise control, “enhanced” automatic emergency braking, and rear automatic braking. The Technology Package adds a rear pedestrian alert function, surround-vision camera system, night vision, and automatic parking assist. Blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert are available as well. However, the XT5 doesn’t get the more advanced Super Cruise driver-assistance technology available on some other Cadillac models.

The 2022 Cadillac XT5 received top “Good” scores in all Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) crash tests, and the top “Superior” rating for front-crash prevention tech (when equipped with optional enhanced automatic emergency braking). However, the XT5 only received a “Marginal” headlight rating and an “Acceptable” rating for LATCH child seat anchor ease of use.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gave the 2022 XT5 a five-star overall safety rating, with five stars in frontal and side crash tests, and four stars in rollover crash testing.

Natural Resources Canada fuel consumption ratings for the turbo-four base engine are 9.6 litres per 100 kilometres combined (10.8 city, 8.2 highway) with FWD and 10.1 L/100 km combined (11.2 city, 8.7 hwy) with AWD. The V6 comes only with AWD in Canada and is rated at 11.2 L/100 km combined (12.9 city, 9.2 hwy). Our V6 AWD test car averaged 12.6 L/100 km over a week of driving, per the trip-computer readout.

It’s worth noting that some competitors offer hybrid options for greater fuel efficiency. The Audi Q5, BMW X3, Lincoln Corsair, and Volvo XC60 are all available as plug-in hybrids in Canada, while the Lexus NX is available with both hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains.

Cadillac offers a four-year, 80,000-kilometre, bumper-to-bumper limited warranty and six-year, 110,000-kilometre, powertrain limited warranty.

Pricing starts at $44,298 for a base Luxury model with FWD (prices do not include a $2,200 destination charge). The Cadillac XT5 Premium Luxury and Cadillac XT5 Sport trim levels start at $51,398 and $56,398, respectively, with AWD being standard on both in Canada.

Our Cadillac XT5 Premium Luxury test car had AWD, the V6 engine, the Platinum Package, Technology Package, Driver Assist Package, tri-zone climate control, 20-inch wheels, embedded navigation, and the Bose Performance Series 14-speaker audio system. That made for a well-equipped car, but also inflated the as-tested MSRP to $70,733 including fees (Canadian, estimated).

Cadillac isn’t the only luxury brand to hide its best features behind an options paywall, but that still doesn’t make the XT5 a good value. When equipped with the Platinum Package’s upgraded interior and suspension, as well as the more powerful V6 engine, the XT5 is a good luxury SUV. But because these optional features were the source of our test car’s positive attributes—particularly the driving experience—we can’t say the same of a base XT5.

Cadillac also doesn’t offer any standout features that justify choosing the XT5 over its many German or Japanese compact luxury SUV competitors, crosstown rival Lincoln Corsair, the Volvo XC60, or the newcomer Genesis GV70. That long list of rivals means General Motors needs to do more to keep this Cadillac competitive.

Note: Images show a US model.