- My first experience with Super Cruise
- Is the XT6 a good three-row SUV for a large family?
- Final thoughts
Schools are generally made up of a bunch of cliques — like jocks, nerds, and the all-around popular group. The 2022 Cadillac XT6 feels like one of the main stars of those movies where, say, a nerd makes a deal with a popular person, like tutoring them in exchange for their own chance to be popular. The popular person agrees, gives the unpopular person a full makeover that fools others for a bit, but eventually falls flat — there’s only so much you can dress up a car, er, nerd. It is what it is.
In the luxury SUV world, the popular clique consists of mostly lighter, two-row SUVs — discrimination! — like the Audi Q5, BMW X3, Mercedes-Benz GLC, and Cadillac XT5.
The 2022 Cadillac XT6, then, is somewhat popular by association; it has siblings at the popular table, namely the XT5, as well as an older and, uh, much larger family member, the Escalade. The Cadillac family has obviously taken the XT6 under its wing and tried to dress it up to make it look a bit fancier than it is.
It’s not bad, by any means. It’s just not all that you’d probably expect from a Cadillac, especially at this tested price point of $76,183 (before taxes and destination fees). The Sport trim, the middle of three trim levels, starts at $62,698, but this tester has quite a few options added, and you’ll have to decide for yourself which are necessary and which might just be a cool party trick to impress the populars. For example, you might splurge on the 20-inch gloss black wheels for $3,675 — depending on who you’re trying to impress.
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
Where things get a bit complicated is with the $2,705 Technology Package, which includes a head-up display, rear camera mirror and washer, HD surround vision (as opposed to non-HD), and automatic parking assist with braking. However, due to the microchip shortages, there’s a credit of a whopping $50 because this vehicle actually isn’t equipped with front and rear park assist, but will be retrofitted free of charge when the part becomes available. If you’re on the fence about this option but intend on purchasing the Super Cruise ($2,875) and/or the Driver Assist Package ($2,275) then GM has made up your mind for you, as the Tech Package is required with either of those.
My first experience with Super Cruise
Have you seen the videos of celebrities using Super Cruise in the Escalade for the first time? Well, of course they’d test it out in that more-popular SUV, but XT6 can be equipped with Super Cruise, too, for an additional $2,875. This one is.
I chose to test it out at 10 p.m. because that meant I could go for a kid-free drive. I hopped on an unusually empty 401 and set my speed limit. I hit the Super Cruise button and nothing happened. I got a notification telling me it was an undetectable location. When I did finally get it to work, it lasted all of five seconds, then it disengaged and I was locked out — the car told me to check the owner’s manual.
Once I reached my destination (in Vaughan) I didn’t check the owner’s manual, but instead just Googled “Super Cruise lock out.” Honestly, I’m not sure what exactly I did wrong, but if you’ve been locked out, restarting the ignition will let you back in. I’m unsure why the vehicle wanted me to read the owner’s manual, it could have just said “restart me when it’s safe.”
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
Anyway, I really don’t know what I did wrong the first time, because on my way home it worked perfectly fine. I engaged Super Cruise for 90 per cent of my drive home on the 400 and 401. There was a section of construction where a car cut me off and I refused to let the XT6 have a potentially glorifying or horrifying moment; I slammed on the brakes and took over for a bit. Still a kid-free drive, I blasted some music with a bit of bass so I could take the hands-free driving opportunity to play some air drums. I could get used to this.
In that same week, I had to make a trip to the Hamilton airport, which meant using a chunk of the 403 around 10 p.m. Once again, I turned on Super Cruise and let it do the work. However, what I failed to notice along the 401 and 400 was that Super Cruise is a bit scary on curves. There’s a section of the 403 that is super-curvy, and instead of braking a bit for the turn, the car remains at whatever speed limit is set. If I had been driving behind someone earlier in the day, then the SUV likely would have seen the car ahead braking to take the slight turn, but with no one ahead, it followed the curves at full speed. It’s not my favourite part of the Super Cruise feature, but then again, it’s not called Super Curves.
The only other issue I have with this feature is that it isn’t tailored toward my daily routine drives, at least not yet. Personally, I wouldn’t add this costly feature because my drives usually consist of more local driving rather than highways. Super Cruise can only be activated on specific sections of some highways, not on local roads.
Due to the large amount of highway driving in the week with this tester, the XT6 was showing an average fuel consumption of 9.9 L/100 km. Under normal circumstances of combined city and highway driving, the XT6 should average 11.5 L/100 km (13.1 city, 9.5 highway).
Is the XT6 a good three-row SUV for a large family?
The XT6 is set up as 2+3+2; the middle seat in the middle row is best used as extra cup holders that can be pulled down, if needed. The outward seats in the middle row should have heated capabilities, but there’s a $50 credit for the missing functionality; again, this will be retrofitted free of charge, when the chips become available. Regardless, I had a forward-facing car seat latched into one outward seat and a booster in the other, making heated seats pointless.
The booster was being repeatedly moved because we had to flip the seat forward in order for my son to get to his high-back booster seat in the third row. He could easily hop back there, and sat comfortably. During an almost hour-long drive, my husband found out the hard way that the third row probably wasn’t made for tall adults — and I had to listen to him complaining about his aching legs.
The teeny-tiny cargo space with the third row up is, well, teeny-tiny, but you can fold down either or both of the two back seats for some added storage space. In case you’re wondering why the seats don’t close when you press the button, it’s because you have to hold them down — I could probably do it faster if it was manual.
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
Speaking of holding down buttons, the memory settings for the driver’s seat need to be held down, and it’s actually quite annoying. You need to hold ‘1’ (or whichever setting is desired) for as long as it takes to get your seat back to its position — you may as well just do it manually. Furthermore, there’s a fourth button in the memory set that will move the seat back for easier access to exit the vehicle. Some cars do this automatically; when the car shuts off, the driver’s seat moves back. Not this one. Once you’ve set your exit position, you’ll then need to hold down this button for as long as it takes to get to that exit setting — keep in mind you’ll have to hold the specific memory button to reset your driving position when you re-enter.
I’m not sure why Cadillac insists on so many press-and-hold features; it would make life so much simpler if it was just a simple click.
One other thing: I’m not a fan of the seatbelts that pull you in tighter once hooked. This is probably TMI, but if anyone is accustomed to tender breasts during that time of the month, then you can probably understand the pain felt as the seatbelt tightens a bit too eagerly. It used to be a function that could be turned off, but apparently that’s not the case anymore.
2022 Cadillac XT6 Photo by Renita Naraine
Final thoughts
The XT6 (and quite a few other GM vehicles) has a feature that can detect pedestrians; when it does, a little orange person appears on the HUD and gauge cluster. This is only noteworthy because as I was driving on the highway, I passed a truck with a huge picture of a person, and the XT6 warned me of the person and I found it a bit funny.
Ideally, yes, this is a family SUV — it has optimal space for kids in the back rows, but probably isn’t made to fit taller people in the third row. Realistically, no matter how many Cadillac badges are placed throughout the XT6, it doesn’t make it any more luxurious or popular. Let’s be real, if you cover the Cadillac badge on the steering wheel, the front cabin doesn’t quite scream Cadillac or luxury. It actually looks a bit like a Traverse that finally splurged on an upgraded, but not better, climate control setup and the dash just seems like a lot of wasted space.
I think you’ve just gotta love it for what it is, without all the extras. Isn’t that the moral of all those movies about kids trying to be someone they’re not?
Keyword: Millennial Mom’s Review: 2022 Cadillac XT6