Cadillac XT5 Revisited and Ready

The Cadillac XT5 Crossover replaced the SRX in 2017.  The newly designed XT5 is the first of several crossovers for Cadillac — there will be a smaller XT4 and a longer XT6 coming soon.

In terms of size, the XT5 is a mid-size 4 seater with plenty of room behind the back seats.  The XT4 will be a smaller 4 seater with less storage room.  The XT6 will be a full 6/7 seater with storage room.

The one I enjoyed for a few days was an XT5 Luxury FWD.  The XT5 comes in several successive trims — Standard, Luxury, Premium Luxury, and Platinum XT5.  The Luxury like I drove features:

  • Leather seating surfaces, 8-way adjustable front passenger side, driver and front passenger power lumbar control, driver and front passenger heated seats
  • Memory Package: Includes two presents for power driver’s seat, outside mirrors, tilt-and-telescoping steering column, and driver personalization features
  • Automatic-dimming rearview mirror
  • Heated steering wheel
  • Cargo Management System with adjustable cargo fence and retractable cargo shade
  • UltraView® Power Sunroof
  • 18-inch bright machined face alloy wheels with Light Argent accents
  • Heated and power-adjustable outside mirrors with driver-side auto dimming
  • Lane Change Alert with Side Blind Zone Alert
  • Rear Cross Traffic Alert
  • Rainsense front wipers

The engine in the XT5 has 310 hp / 271 lb-ft of torque, which not too long ago was muscle car territory.  The 8-speed automatic transmission was flawless and responsive.

One feature that bears some getting used to — the shifter.

There are two buttons on the shifter — one to the left side, and one on top.  First, the one on top, marked “P”, puts the transmission into PARK.  Remember that and you’ll be good.  The one on the left side of the shifter has to be depressed in order to shift either to reverse or drive.  Reverse is forward and left, drive is back.

Overall, the XT5 is terrific.  It drives great, visibility is complete, and power is plentiful.  Safety features are omnipresent.

I am very interested to see the XT4 and XT6 on the road.  Based on the XT5, Cadillac knows how to do these.

Thanks to Crest Cadillac for the XT5 test drive.

 

Cadillac CT6 and My Favorite Murder

One of my Wife’s birthday presents in August was a trip to see Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstack from the  My Favorite Murder podcast live when they were to be in Dallas.   The PodCast live performance was this November weekend, and what better weekend for us to have a 2018 Cadillac CT6 in the driveway for the ride downtown?

The CT6 is the largest Cadillac sedan, with a huge 122.4″ wheelbase — the space between the front and rear axles.  That’s almost a foot longer than the other large Cadillac sedan, the XTS.

I had driven a CT6 Platinum with the 3L TT but had not tried the ‘standard’ CT6 with 2L Turbo or 3.6L V6.   In a way this weekend’s test drive was a delight to find just how much Cadillac one can get for a least expensive CT6, around ~$50K.

The test CT6 had the LGX 3.6L autostop, variable displacement V6 engine for 345 hp.  The all wheel drive (AWD) system requires no attention, but gives you the benefit of four wheel propulsion if the weather or conditions demand.  A lot of our CaddyInfo fans have expressed concerns about start/stop, but I am getting quite used to it.  Start/stop technology is when the car automatically turns the engine off when stopped, then turns it back on when or before you need to proceed.  There is a button on the dash to turn this feature off, but I think the more time we spend with it the more we will trust the Cadillac will handle it and let it do so.

The real treasure of the CT6 design is it is a full size car with the svelte shape of a midsize

For our drive down to the historic Majestic Theater in downtown Dallas, I hooked up a USB cable and my iPhone so we could use the huge 10″ center infotainment display for navigation.  The route was pretty easy, except we knew one of the bridges on the way was under construction and impassable.   Also, once I get downtown in Dallas I find careful planning and route management are the order of the day.

Parking in a local public parking garage was uneventful — we bypassed the ‘compact car’ sections for an open area higher up where the CT6 could have some room.

We arrived early for the Podcast show, and walked over to Dallas Chop House for coffee and dessert in the lounge area.    That worked out very well for enjoying our wait, but we footnoted it for a return trip for a full steak dinner another trip.

The My Favorite Murder Live! 10:30 pm show started late, but was engaging and funny.  Our seats in the theater were front-row after the orchestra pit, and we laughed throughout the two woman show about every but murders, and murders.  My Wife is a big fan of the podcast.  We had VIP tickets and we stayed after the show for my Wife to meet and have a picture taken with the Stars.

Ann (center) with the Podcast stars, Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstack

The drive home went very well, with the CT6 happy cruising at the speedlimit and limited traffic due to the very late hour.  Overall I enjoyed the weekend test drive.

My favorite features of the CT6:

  • Wonderful seating and view out the front, huge leg room and space in the rear seats
  • Variable displacement V4/V6 feature — I like the power of the LGX V6 but I would like to explore the ability to go into V4 mode and get much better fuel economy more.
  • Selectable Dash display — although limited to 2 selections in this model.

My nits about the CT6:

  • Cadillac should have gone even more dramatic with the styling
  • I would make a Heads Up Display a standard feature; this model did not have it
  • The 3.6L V6 and 3L TT V6 are only available in AWD, not RWD.

Crest Cadillac in Frisco, Facebook, provided  the car for this test drive.   I am also a Crest Cadillac customer — I bought my ATS-V there, and recommend them to others.

ProClip iPhone Car Mount for the #Cadillac XLR Test Drive @ProClipUSA #cars @iPhone_News

After meeting them on Twitter ( @ProClipUSA ) I recently ordered a ProClip iPhone 6 Plus holder for my Cadillac XLR.

What ProClip USA is doing is nice — they make a custom mount that sort of clips into the geography of your specific car, then make standard holders for various phones or tablets that anchor to their mount.

I was expecting the parts to all snap together so I was a bit surprised that some assembly was required — one main screw and 4 anchor screws.  Not much trouble though and may be a trade off for versus shaky video.  The video is framed because the iphone is vertical.  Keep in mind we are testing the mount and not the camera/phone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6carwTfiww

Here is a resulting unedited quick drive test.  The sound is a useless but the video capture looks pretty good.  The mount appears to hold the iPhone 6 plus fairly steady.  I did NOT ask YouTube to steady the video, although that is available post-production.

I am concerned that for out the front of the car the camera should actually be turned side-ways for video.  The mount is really perhaps designed to help you use your phone as a phone while in the car, for phone calls or navigation.  I will see if turning the phone still lets it see out (!)

Updated: Here is a quick car-stopped video of the rear camera with the iPhone rotated sideways:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMTGh1G6P9E

Proclip Sideways out the front is a bit blocked:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc6tpbrMFjI

The last two pics in the gallery are stills out the front from the vertical iphone:

IMG_2760

or with ‘reverse video’ turned on for the iphone and shooting a still back into the Cadillac XLR from the rear camera on the iphone

IMG_2761

and a still with the phone rotated sideways:

IMG_2772

Overall the ProClip USA mount appears to work as intended.  Install required a few minutes. I will update the post with more info as it gets more use.