XT4 Is a Cadillac Brimming With Buttons, Finally
If automotive strategy were a game of chess, Cadillac just castled with the all-new 2019 Cadillac XT4. GM’s luxury division made one of the most prudent moves in the game, filling a seat at long last in a popular class it’s skipped for years. Compact luxury SUVs like the Acura RDX, Audi Q5 and Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class are the best-selling cars for their respective brands, and the XT4 could achieve similar results by sheer force of being in the right class at the right time. But I hope Cadillac credits some of its success to a few other aspects, because certain XT4 cues need to spread throughout the Cadillac lineup pronto.
Related: More 2018 New York Auto Show News
Let’s start with the most important cue: CUE. Cadillac User Experience, the brand’s dashboard interface for major controls and touchscreens, sports an overhauled setup in the XT4, which I saw up close at the 2018 New York auto show media preview.
Gone are the touch-sensitive buttons that bedraggle all other Cadillac interiors to varying degrees. Two rows of tidy physical buttons control everything from heated seats to climate-control settings. A volume knob at armrest level replaces the infernal volume touch-slider in other Cadillacs. Gone are the old CUE’s touch-sensitive buttons, haptic feedback and all — and good riddance. Phillip Kucera, interior design manager for the SUV, admitted as much.
“I think we really learned our lessons,” he said regarding early versions of CUE. “The latency, it just didn’t work. … You just kind of poked something, it hesitated, and then you’d poke it again. And now you’re two screens in.”
The XT4’s control knob at armrest level doubles as a tuning knob, and it also controls everything on the screen, Kucera told me. But you can also use the touchscreen itself, he added. Cadillac doesn’t lock out the screen when the XT4 is moving, as some automakers with touchscreen-and-knob combinations do.
Overall cabin quality is competitive for the class. The Q5, GLC and Volvo XC60 still have the lushest interiors in terms of overall consistency; the XT4 stashes cheaper materials below armrest level, as many others do. But most surfaces your arms and knees touch have generous padding and, in typical Cadillac fashion, prominent stitched wrapping. A downward-plunging stitch adds some visual pizzazz to the armrests, and none of the interior styling comes at the expense of utility: The center console sports SUV-appropriate storage cubbies, including a nifty smartphone slot with wireless charging.
A quick take on seating: Both rows feel cushier than the washboard-like chairs in the XT5, Cadillac’s larger (mid-size) SUV. The rear bench sits high enough off the ground that adults’ knees won’t dangle in the air, but that comes at some expense to headroom. Both XT4s on display at Cadillac’s unveiling had panoramic moonroofs, which typically cut some overhead space; as such, adults in back may have to slouch — no different than in an XT5 with a panoramic roof, but a concern nonetheless.
Styling is subjective, but if you’ve read this far down, I suspect you already like it. Suffice it to say the XT4 is on the small side of this class — a few inches short of the German compact SUVs — and it looks the part, with clipped overhangs and an interesting but stubby profile. Lower exterior panels have a lot of cheap-looking gray cladding, certain to stand out if you get a lighter paint color.
But the XT4 starts in the mid-$30,000s, a price that’s more in line with subcompact luxury SUVs than their larger, compact peers. On value alone, that buys Cadillac a seat at the table — and this is one popular table. If the driving experience holds up, it should bring new shoppers aplenty.
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