2020 Cadillac XT5 Review: Keeping up with the Teutons

While Cadillac has in recent years done a good job buttressing its compact SUV entry with some company, in the form of first the smaller XT4 and then the larger XT6, the XT5 remains the firm’s top-selling utility model. It is still the model on which the success of the premium brand largely depends, at least until the promised EVs start to come down the pike.

Though it’s been relieved of the burden of drawing entry-level luxury buyers into the fold – that job now falls to the XT4 – the 5 competes in a ferociously fought-over segment, populated by not just Japanese and German luxury models but also premium range-topping variants of mass-market models, like the RAV4 and, especially, the Signature edition of the CX-5. For consumers ready to compromise on status, that model fully-loaded comes pretty close to offering a comparable experience to that of a basic XT5.

(The MSRP of the XT5 Luxury is $43,998. The price of the CX-5 Signature? From $43,965).

There’s some apples-and-oranges comparisons going on there, of course, beyond just the extra cache you get from the Cadillac badge. But the overall point is that the XT5 faces pressure not just from left and right, in the form of German and Japanese stalwarts, but also from below.

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