The 2026 Cadillac VISTIQ Sport Is A Stand-Out Electric Family SUV With Escalade Vibes
If you’re looking to buy a large three row SUV for your family from Cadillac, the Escalade has been an easy choice for well over 25 years. However, what if you wanted that space for your family, but without the excessive girth or expensive price tag of the Escalade? Where this is where Cadillac has been playing in that space with the original SRX, first introduced to America back in 2004. It morphed into the XT6 back in 2020, which was honestly nothing more than a guzzied up version of the Chevrolet Traverse. Well, for 2026, Cadillac is trying it again with the introduction of this model. This is the first ever Cadillac Vistic, a large premium all-electric three row SUV that has the look and presence that finally makes it feel a little bit more like a baby Escalade. So, as you can see, this week we are spending a full week with the latest Vistic in this sport trim painted in opulent blue. And the big question I went answered, has Cadillac managed to infuse their newest crossover SUV with enough luxury technology and presence that finally allows it to be considered a baby Escalade? Stay tuned to find out. [Music] So clearly Cadillac has done a much better job in the design department for the allnew Vistic, especially if you have it parked next to the old XT6. But before we start talking about the design, let me first go ahead and pop the hood and show you guys if this vehicle has a front trunk. Now, just like some other GM vehicles built on this particular Altium architecture, the company decided not to include a front trunk storage space. But since we’re underneath here, let’s go ahead and talk about the very impressive powertrain specs. Now, as you can see underneath the hood, there is actually a lot of empty space here that’s kind of like, you know, available to, you know, for for Cadillac to put a front trunk in this vehicle. But as you can see, there’s isn’t even a cover here to kind of cover up all the wires and the front electric motor. But the beauty about the Vistic is Cadillac has given this model a serious upgrade in terms of performance, especially if you’re coming from the old XT6 because all models utilize a 102 kWh battery pack that’s good for up to 305 mi of range. And all Vistics come with the most powerful setup that GM currently has in this particular SUV. It’s got two dual dual electric motors, so one at the front, one at the rear, delivering up to 615 horsepower and 650 pound- feet of torque. If you guys remember the XT6, which you can technically still buy for 2025, uh the top engine only offers 310 horsepower. So, this model roughly has almost twice the power and twice the torque of the XT6 with its naturally aspirated V6. It all goes out through a one-speed reduction gear transmission, and of course, it’s got electronic all-wheel drive from its dual electric motors. Now, Cadillac says this combination is good for 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds, which is literally twice as fast, if not faster, versus the XT6. Top speed is around 130ish miles an hour. And because this is a big SUV, it can still tow up to 5,000 lb. Uh, and uh Cadillac says the curb weight of the small, however, is a lot heavier than an XT6, weighing in at just over 6,200 lb. In reference, the Escalade that I had parked next to it is actually 100 lb lighter than this Vistic. But let’s go ahead and close up the hood here and talk about the exterior styling. Because as you can see, Cadillac has really knocked it out of the park in terms of the design language for the Vistic. In fact, if you guys like Cadillac’s current art and science design theme here, you’re going to find plenty to like with this allnew Vistic, especially if you guys get it in the sport trims. This is technically an extra 500 bucks over the base luxury trim. It blocks it blacks out a lot of the bright accents and it certainly looks very bold, especially when you have it in this opulent blue exterior color. It’s an extra $595 and it pairs beautifully with all the dark chrome accents. You can see the wreathless crest at the front is also illuminated for the Cadillac logo. And their crest grill also is completely closed off, but it does have some ambient lighting uh or light signature in the actual grill that kind of starts at the emblem and then it flows out to the headlights and kind of gives you a choreographic dance. You can see the uh LED turn signals are separated from the actual headlights. They are sequential and you have LED daytime running lights along with, I believe, nine individual stacked LEDs for the low and high beams. Uh there are some functional and non-functional vents, including some active grill shutters. Here you can see even the base trim comes with front parking sensors, a front camera system, and Cadillac’s award-winning Super Cruise. Their hands-free driving technology is also standard across the board on every Vistic, which really kind of shows that Cadillac is throwing in a lot of value for this model. Now moving around the side profile. This is where the Vista got a huge growth spur compared to the XT6. Its wheelbase is 121.8 in long. That’s almost a foot longer than the old XT6. While its overall length is 205.6 in long. So compared to an Escalade, this vehicle is around 6 in shorter in the overall length, but they have the same 122inch long wheelbase. This is around 7 in longer than the old XT6 while also being around 2 in wider and an inch taller. So, they really got the proportions, I think, right for this model. Now, looking at the wheels, these are the 21-in wheels that you get with the sport trim on the X on the Vistic, I’m sorry. This is also riding on a pretty fat 285x 45 R21 uh Goodyear Eagle Sport allseason tire. You can see all disc brakes. And then my particular test car, because it’s not the premium luxury, just has a fixed uh fully independent suspension. And Cadillac does offer an adaptive suspension with air springs on the premium luxury trim for an extra $15,000, which also rolls in rear wheel steering. My particular test car obviously doesn’t have it, but you do have around 7.2 in of ground clearance. And if you guys don’t like this gloss black along the wheel arch trim and the side sill, you have to go all the way up to the platinum trim, uh, which is an extra 5 grand on top of the premium luxury to get the full paint finish. looks really good on the platinum along with a unique grill setup that you have on that platinum trim as well. Now looking at the chargeport door, you can see it is power operated and unlike the L when that first came out which had a really rough opening power actuated door, this is a lot smoother and you can see this model still uses the J1772 and CCS combo plug. Uh the Cadillac does offer a NACS adapter that’s from the factory I believe for like 300 bucks that you can opt in. I’m assuming Cadillac will eventually adapt that NACA NACS plug. This model here is rated to go up to 305 miles on a full charge. It’ll accept up to 190 kilowatts of fast DC charging. Uh basically, you could probably go from 10 to 80% in around 35ish minutes or so. So, not the quickest charging EVs, but decent. Uh this model here has the standard 11 kW onboard charger, but there is an available 19.2 if you want to charge this vehicle even faster at home. on the with the 11 kilowatt on level two, it’ll probably take around 13 hours to charge this vehicle uh from empty to full. Now, my particular test car has for 600 bucks extra the black painted roof, which looks really good with the opulent blue, which includes black painted side mirrors, integrated turn signals. These are power folding with 360 camera throughout. You have, of course, the trendy popup pop out door handles with an illuminated LED light signature. And then, of course, the sport trim also gives you the black accents around the side of the vehicle. And then you can see there’s also a panoramic sunroof. That’s actually standard equipment. And it’s not even extra uh even on the baser trims, which also does open up to vent air, which I love. And then just like other Cadillac EVs, you have this kind of interesting design in the glass for the third row. I think Cadillac called it the staircase to heaven, although that might have just been an internal thing. It’s not something they actually share to the public. But as you can see, backing away from the vehicle, you kind of see the I guess the lineage here with the old XT6 at the back. But again, it tries to be a little bit more square, just like the Escalade that I have parked in my garage. There’s an interesting split design to the tail lights back here. As you can see, the upper portion actually houses the sequential LED turning signal, which kind of flows into the upper portion there. Down here, you have more of the turn signal along with the brake lights. Uh, of course, you have a rear spoiler back here, which houses the uh integrated third brake light along with a rear wiper that’s tucked under underneath there. That’s very clever. Typical badging back here with the Vistic. And then, of course, 900E is the torque in Newton meters, which I find to be annoying. E4 stands for all-wheel drive. All Vistics are all-wheel drive. And then you can see the rear bumper on the Sport looks a little bit more aggressive. Obviously, this is fully electric, so there’s no exhaust tips. You have integrated parking sensors. And then you have um your camera here for the backup camera and of course the uh digital camera rearview mirror. Now, looking at the cargo area, you can see push the Cadillac logo. It activates the foot activated power power lift gate. And this is where the Vistic um does have more space versus the XT6, although it’s not as much space as I like considering it’s much larger. You got 15.2 2 cubic feet of storage space with the third row up. The third row obviously is standard. That is around three more cubic feet versus the old XT6. So, you have a little bit of additional storage here to the side. You also do have some underfloor storage, which is relatively deep, which is good because there’s no front trunk. Um, but this is certainly going to be nice to kind of hide any items. And you can see the mobile charger fits nicely in there. If you want to fold down the second row, it’s power folding. You just push push that once and it’ll fold down. Although, as you can see, I don’t know why the head restraints didn’t actually fold down. They’re supposed to fold down on its own, but uh for some reason, they just didn’t. But we’ll go ahead and we’ll uh push that seat forward. As you can see, when you fold down the third row seat, you get up to 43 cubic feet of space. And if you fold down everything like I just did, you have around 80 cubic feet of space. So 80 cubic feet of space is actually only around 3 cubic feet more versus the XT6. So this is kind of where I was hoping Cadillac would have given this vehicle more space. So, keep that in mind. If you’re looking at like an Escalade, for example, or an Escalade IQ, that model is going to have roughly 40 more additional cubic feet of storage space. Um, but this is definitely still very useful. You have a power alley here and some ambient lighting. Uh, but compared to other EV SUVs in the class with three rows, this is honestly pretty comparable. So, clearly Cadillac did a fantastic job in the exterior design of the new Vistic. But what about the interior? Before we get inside, let me show you guys the key fob. As you can see, this is Cadillac and GM’s current intelligent access key with the Cadillac logo, some additional metallic trim. You can see it has all the usual buttons here that you’d expect. Uh, lock, unlock, uh, remote start, power liftgate, and then a panic feature. Uh, when you have the vehicle locked, uh, the mirrors will fold. Well, actually, they’re supposed to fold in, but for some reason, they’re turned off. But when you unlock the vehicle, this is kind of where, just like other EVs, the door handles, you can see, will pop out, and you basically just pull out on the door handle, and that will allow you to enter the vehicle. Now looking at the rest of this cab and as you can see my particular test car has the opulent blue exterior with the jet black interlux. So this is technically a synthetic leather. Cadillac does offer an even higher quality synthetic leather called Nuvalux that you will get on the premium luxury and the platinum trims. For a base, you know, faux leather, I have to say this is honestly pretty impressive looking. It feels really nice. The seats are also perforated, which means they’re heated and ventilated. Uh I believe you have a 14-way power adjustable uh power adjustment for the front seats. They’re also massaging. So, the massaging, heat, cooling is standard across the board on every version of the Vistic. So, that’s one of the reasons why this vehicle is significantly more expensive. Now, in terms of the materials on the door panels, you can see there’s a soft touch injection molded plastic here with this interesting like carbon fiber look trim here, which has some orange accents to it. I actually think it looks really nice with the uh alloy trim here. This is actual, I believe it’s genuine alloy trim. You can get wood if you guys go for the premium luxury or for the platinum trim. You have a nice padded armrest area here. I don’t love the piano black plastic here. This is the door handle. If you pull that, uh, that’s what will open up the doors. It actually feels like a traditional mechanical lever. There’s more aluminum trim here. And then this model also comes with, I believe, the 22 speaker AKG audio system, which sounds pretty good for a standard premium audio. It’s definitely nice. You have hard touch plastic here and this kind of interesting texture here, which kind of looks and feels a little cheap. Additional storage here, uh, which is great. But overall, the interior certainly makes a nice first impression. Now, when you get inside with around 7.2 in of ground clearance, this has a nice easy step-in height. And then as I shut the door, the door has a relatively solid sounding thunk. Remember, this is built on the Altium architecture, something that it shares with the Lyric, but it has been obviously superersized. Now, looking at the interior, once you sit inside with the key fob, the car actually automatically turns on. There’s no need to actually turn on uh the vehicle with a start stop or you can just put your foot on the brake. It’s kind of similar to what Tesla does. A lot of EVs do this uh which is definitely a nice touch that you can kind of quickly get used to. And unlike the Escalade IQ or even think about the uh XT6, this is a huge upgrade in terms of technology. Now, the Escalade IQ has a massive 55-in pillar-to-pillar display. This has the more manageable 33in curved OLED display. So, this is definitely not as big, but remember the old XT6 had like an 8 in center touchscreen and it didn’t even have a fully digital instrument cluster. So, this with its floating design definitely feels a lot more modern and a lot more sophisticated. It is missing a heads-up display. That’s what the premium luxury trim will get you for the extra $14,000. But you can see it’s got the new Cadillac steering wheel with the Super Cruise status bar and the camera that watches your face. The wheel itself is standard with a power tilt telescoping mechanism. So you can kind of get easy. You can get a comfortable uh seating position pretty nicely. You have a paddle here to give you maximum regen. This engages velocity max mode where you want the full 615 horsepower. There’s a heated steering wheel along with your super cruise buttons here and your audio control switches and whatnot. You can see the gauge cluster. You can customize the way this looks to go from basically a sport or touring um look for the gauge cluster by taking it out of the linking for the drive mode. You can see it actually looks pretty good. I like it more in sport mode. uh preferably. You can see there’s also an energy monitor. You can pull up a map display, uh assist uh display, of course. And then you can kind of go to a clean look if you guys don’t want all that additional uh stuff. And then over here on this side, you can see this is the center touchcreen, which I don’t have I don’t actually have the uh extra or what the dimension is of this screen here. But you can see it’s got Google built in. It’s based off of Android Automotive. And of course, just like other Cadillac EVs, there is no wireless CarPlay or Android Auto. So that’s super frustrating. But at least you have Google Maps built in. You have Amazon Music, Spotify. You can go into the Google Play Store and download Ways, for example. But if you’re looking for Apple Music, that’s where you’re out of luck. Cadillac does not play, or at least GM system here does not play with Apple Maps, which I think is an issue, especially if you’re going to have me use the native system to get rid of course of Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. Uh, now going back to the This is the home display pretty much here. Uh, there’s your full 360 camera, which includes trajectory and distance markers. That is even standard on the base trim. So again, there’s a reason why this car is a lot more expensive. The camera quality and resolution, I have to say, isn’t the best. Um, if I put the vehicle into reverse, it gives you the trajectory and distance markers. There’s your backup camera. Nothing super special. I actually wish it took up more of the entire screen, but remember, this interior kind of is similar more to the Lyric as opposed to being more similar to uh the um Escalade IQ. Now, there is a dedicated off button there. If I want to turn off the vehicle, I can just tap that there. or if I accidentally did that, I can just put my foot on back on the brake. That’ll activate that. You can adjust the ambient lighting in this interior just like you can in other Cadillac models. And you can also use the Google Assistant. The charging display here allows you to kind of adjust how you want to charge the vehicle, what percentage you want to charge it to. Sign into your Escalade or Maya Cadillac account or you kind of go into your settings over here. So, this system is pretty quick and snappy, easy to use. It was It’s practically nearly perfect. It just needs Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. So, I’m hoping Cadillac will eventually, like other GM EVs, regress and add that back. You can see there’s your drive mode selector for this vehicle. Uh, it does have four modes, a touring, sport, snow, ice, and then a my mode. You can turn on and off your regen braking from there. Uh, Cadillac offers either off, normal, or high. Uh, and it’s a very, very strong regen braking. It looks like if you go into the my mode here, you can actually adjust how you want the suspension to be and the steering and the brake field. So, it actually looks like this model does come with an adaptive suspension, which we’ll try out later on the road. Uh, I personally like being able to put everything in sport except for the suspension, so I can kind of have that in comfort. That’s kind of like my go-to if I’m going to customize the drive settings. You can see the Vistic does include a separate screen here. I believe this is 8 in. This allows you to adjust your climate control functions. Uh, I believe there’s a threezone climate control. You can also go into your, I guess, like a representation of the climate. You can go into your seat controls here. Activate the heated and cooled seats, the heated steering wheel, and there’s also a massage function. You can see there’s actually only three different types or four different types of massage, it looks like, with three different intensities. It’s nice how it’s standard. You can adjust it from the screen over here. Or you can also just push this button here. That’ll activate that. The seat controls, you can see, are located here along with your twoerson memory. And the window controls, they’re onetouch for all four. They have a high quality feel to them. And you can see there’s the power folding mirrors, although for some reason it didn’t actually fold the mirrors when I locked the car. Your dimmer switch is over here. There’s even some alloy sport pedals. And then if you guys don’t want to use the touchcreen, you can use the Cadillac controller here, which I think has a much higher quality feel than the last lyric that I was testing. There’s also a home button here. You can see the cup holders. Cadillac got rid of that little center piece that you could push down. There’s still a little bit of creakiness to this console, but it does feel a little bit more sturdy. You have a wireless phone charging pad over here. It looks like two wireless phone charging pads. So, that’s nice how Cadillac gave you that along with two more USBC charging ports. You have a decently padded center console. You can see the additional storage over here and more storage down here. So, that’s definitely nice. You can open this up, you find another USB, and it’s a pretty deep center console storage area. So, that’s great if you want to hide away some stuff there out of praying ice. And then, like I mentioned earlier, these seats are called Interlux. They are comfortable, supportive. The massage works well. The cooled function works well. And the AKG audio system is bumping if you guys are also an audio file. If I want to open up the glove box, just touch that on the screen. That opens it up. It’s damped and lined with felt. It’s a bin style. Gives you an additional storage, which is great. And then you have a digital camera rearview mirror here, which is great if you guys regularly have stuff up to the roof. You can see the headrest actually blocks the view. So, this is a really important feature that’s standard. There’s also an interior camera that watches you in case you fall asleep for super cruise. This has a woven material on the headliner. You have LED map lighting as well. And then the panoramic sun center, if you can see, is nice and nicely sized. And if you push this button, it also tilts or it also opens up to vent air just over the two front seats along with a built-in wind deflector. But this is a feature you typically don’t get in a lot of EVs where you just get a glass fixed roof as opposed to allowing it to open up and vent air. So overall, the interior definitely reminds me a lot of the Lyric, which is not a bad thing. Uh the technology is a big improvement over the XT6. It just really needs Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to be perfect. And the interior quality and build quality also seems pretty solid, which is definitely a nice improvement over the last lyric that I tested. Now, moving into the second and the third row, this is where the Vistic is designed to again be kind of like a replacement for the Escalade. You need to have space for your family back here without the excessive size of the Escalade. But, uh, this is where this particular model here, my test car, has an optional $600 captain’s chairs arrangement. So, this does lower the seating capacity to uh six as opposed to seven. The third row only sits uh two people across. Um these captain’s chairs are covered in the same interlux. They are also three-level heated. However, no cooled seats back here. And I’m also noticing no retractable sun shades. This upper door panel material is soft touch injection molded plastic here. Here, there’s also real metal trim and more of that carbon fiber look trim with the kind of copper accents which looks nice. Down here, it’s also hard touch plastic with additional storage. Uh, but I believe if you guys, you know, go for the upper trims, you might be able to option in cooled seats, although I personally did not see that in the options list when I was building this vehicle. Now, getting inside, as you can see, um, the second row basically allows for up to 40 in of legroom. Now, when I get back here, it’s technically 40.5, so it’s about an inch more versus what you got in the XT6. This is basically my driving position. This is spacious, but it’s also not as spacious as the last Hyundai Ionic 9 that I was in, which, you know, some people would be, you know, shocked to see me compare this to a Hyundai, but they’re actually similarly priced. The floor is completely flat back here, which is nice. You have a separate screen. This to me looks like maybe a 5- in display. It seems like it’s a about the same size as that screen. So, that could be an 8 in display, actually. So, this is nice with accessing your uh quad zone climate control system, which actually it looks like the second row here has its own climate. And then and then the third row has its own climate. So I lied earlier. This is actually a fivezone climate control system. So that’s very impressive to see a five zone. So this seat here has its own climate along with this seat. I just wish it had cooled seats. You only have three level heated seats back here. You can kind of go into a climate screen there. And then you can adjust the ambient lighting from over here as well. This is pretty similar to what I saw on the Escalade IQ, just of course without the massage function, without the cooled function. You do have two storage cubbies here. You have rear seat air vents, uh, which is nice, along with your two USBC charging ports, a 12volt power outlet, and then this actually opens up to reveal the cup holders in addition to a little more storage. You do have another vent over here, which is great how Cadillac gives you the option of so many vents. And then the sunroof, as you can see, comes into the second row. It allows you to kind of get more uh light. The headroom space, as you can see, for somebody my height of 5’7, I have plenty of headroom still, so this is pretty easy to get comfortable. And then I can slide this seat forward and back via this little lever, which when I move it all the way up, there’s no space. But I can also recline the seat. Although that’s not the most, I guess, aggressive recline. So, it’s it is nice to kind of get comfortable. These headrests, I have to say, are annoying because they come forward too much and your head is practically hitting this upper portion. So, I don’t love the shape of that uh headrest strength there. So, I think that’s kind of something Cadillac could work on. But let’s go ahead and hop into the third row of this vehicle because that’s where the old XT6 had a few problems there. Now, to get into the third row, the button to get back here makes it pretty easy, but it’s also pretty low. I guess this is good for kids if you have small kids. They’re going to see that pretty easily. Just push that. You can see, push that again and hold it. It’ll slide the seat forward and out of the way. And this is great if you have a child seat anchored here because it’ll still allow you to slide the seat forward. You can see the third row only seats two people across as opposed to three like in an Escalade IQ for example. But when you climb back here, you can see I have to say the seat the floor is pretty like high up. But once I climb over into this side here, um you can see this is with the seat all the way back. Cadillac says you have around 30.5 in of legroom back here, which is around an inch more than the XT6. It’s not great. Um, I would definitely be a little bit uncomfortable back here. Although, I can do this with the seat all the way back for shorter trips. If you want to be more comfortable, you’d ask this passenger to move their seat up a little bit. You can see with that interesting design in the glass, you kind of have to see through these little lines back here. Uh, at least it is nice and leather padded. Over here, you do have third row air vents along with the USBC charging port. You have one cup holder on this side. And then on the passenger side, you also get the same thing along with the padded leather there, which is a nice touch. Uh there is also an unexpected glass roof here in the third row which allows you to get a little bit more light. So it kind of helps to not make you feel claustrophobic back here which is nice. And then in terms of the headroom space, if I lean back, there’s actually maybe an inch of additional clearance. So this is not bad. This is actually usable for adults and it’s pretty comparable to the last Hyundai Ionic 9 that I tested. So I think Cadillac did a great job in making this vehicle a lot more familyfriendly, especially if you guys are coming out of the smaller uh XT6. So Cadillac obviously has had so much success with the Escalade. And unfortunately for the company, they really haven’t had a chance to trickle down that three row family SUV success from the big Escalade into a smaller, more manageable unibody crossover. But now, of course, they’ve got the Vistic. And this model, as you guys know, is a very, very big upgrade from the XT6, especially in terms of size, in terms of performance. This model, of course, with its standard dual electric motors offers up to 615 horsepower. 615 horsepower is just absolutely insane given what the, you know, the XT6 just had uh with its optional V6 engine making just 310 horsepower. This is again a big upgrade versus that model, especially if you guys are coming from, you know, the old XT6. Now, Cadillac says the performance of this model is good for around 3.7 seconds to get to 60, which honestly is faster than most of its rivals. Even the Hyundai IonX 9, the last one that I tested, took around 4.5 4.6 seconds. So, the last Vistic that I drove when I was out in Detroit for the first drive for this vehicle, did it in around 4 seconds. So, to get the best time, you basically have to hit the V button here to get the velocity max driving mode, obviously, to give you the full power and have the vehicle in sport mode. My test car is the sport trim with the smaller 21in wheels. So, let’s go ahead and see what we can get 0 to 60 wise. I had to move my 0 to 60 timer up here, and that’s because um it doesn’t get get very good signal uh on the dashboard, which is kind of annoying. But, we’ll just go ahead and floor it and see what we can get here. Holy smokes. Wow. So, on that run, we just got 3.68 seconds there. 3.68 is pretty much right on with Cadillac’s number um of 3.7. And that is that makes this vehicle about a second faster versus the Korean rivals like the Hyundai Attic 9 or the Kia um EV9 which eventually Kia is going to do a GT version of the EV9 which I’m hoping I’ll get a chance to drive. Probably by early next year. I don’t know when Kia’s going to do the drive program for that vehicle. But this is definitely, you know, punching above its weight in terms of acceleration. It’s kind of, you know, impressive that this is the standard powertrain. In fact, this is the standard powertrain that’s in the Lyric V. Let’s try another run here. This time, uh, it’s a little bit more uphill. Just slams you back into the seat. 3.83 seconds there. That’s with it more going slightly uphill. Every time you put your foot down, this thing just feels so fast. And if you have this thing loaded up with up to seven people or if you’re towing 5,000 lbs, you have plenty of power to get around town, to pass people. And that’s what I love about the Vistic is it comes standard with the crazy fast powertrain. There’s no D-tuned version of this powertrain, which I’m actually thinking Cadillac could easily do. I mean, they could just put the 500 horsepower version of this powertrain in a baser model and reduce the price by 10 grand. I think they actually could consider that, should consider that because this is definitely a very expensive car. Now, of course, this particular one that we’re driving is missing the rear wheel steering, which I believe can steer the rear wheels by up to 5°. It’ll improve the handling. It’ll improve the ride quality with the adaptive air springs as well. But I have to say, for a vehicle that weighs 6,200 lb. The steering, as you can see, is relatively quick and precise. The suspension is just very, very soft. Even when it’s in its sport setting, um this is with the dampers in its firmst setting. I actually think the ride is fine. It’s really only over the bumpiest or crappiest roads you’re going to notice the kind of um jitteriness. But my test car has the smaller 21-in wheels. I imagine if you’re driving one that has the 23-in wheels, which technically if you have the 23-in wheels, you’re going to have the adaptive air suspension because it’s only paired in when you guys go for the platinum trim. This thing actually has a pretty good ride. I actually think the ride in this vehicle is better versus the last Hyundai Ionic 9 that I drove. The body motions are a little bit more in check. The rattling that you’re hearing is my annoying gimbal that keeps moving about in the center console space here. But uh the one pedal drive in this vehicle I think is a little bit too intrusive at times. Don’t even have it in high. I have it in its normal setting, which I think is actually too strong. Thankfully, it is a full one pedal drive that’ll bring you down to a full stop, which is nice. I also love the digital camera rearview mirror in this car, which does a great job at just getting rid of the uh compromised view out of the back. Again, if you drive this vehicle normally, it creates or it has that actual electric motor sound, but there isn’t much noise in this vehicle. Uh it’s a relatively refined car that’s going to be great for those longer road trips. So that’s if that’s important to you, you’re going to really prefer that uh of course when you uh are considering some of its rivals because that’s one of the reasons why you go for a luxury brand. Now I’m going to try one more 0 to 60. Although I’m going to take it out of velocity max mode because I want to see if it makes a difference. This this road here is pretty level and we’re just going to floor it and see what we can get here. Definitely feels slower from a stop. 4.4 seconds there. So when you have it in Vmax mode, it’s going to shave around8 seconds off the 0 to 60 time. 3.68 is very impressive. So Cadillac should be pretty proud, but there is room for a less powerful D-tuned version to do in the 4.5 second range, which still keeps up with most of its rivals. Now, the one vehicle that I haven’t had a chance to drive is the Rivian R1S. And that model is crazy fast, especially if you guys go for the if you go for the quad motor version of that. But this honestly is going to be plenty fast enough for most people. Now, I’m going to switch the drive mode into its tour setting. It still feels really fast even in its tour setting. So, that’s really impressive how fast it is. Anytime your foot goes down to the pedal, the steering gets noticeably lighter in this mode. the suspension gets a little bit softer. My personal favorite again is the my mode where I can have the suspension in comfort, but everything else in its sport setting. So, that’s kind of a nice, you know, a nice compromise there. A lot of, you know, manufacturers are starting to add like the adaptive suspension technology and that kind of interchangeable drive mode. Now, in terms of visibility, I can see out of the front and the side pretty good. The back when you have the camera on is also nice. Uh, the seats are also comfortable and supportive. The one thing I forgot to do is turn on the massage function. um which the massage function in this car actually does a pretty good job. I also have an Escalade at the same time as this vehicle. And while the seats in the Escalade are a little more comfortable there, there’s semi there. It’s the semianolene leather. This is certainly still not bad for an interlux, the fake leather, the synthetic leather. Um the vehicle itself doesn’t have any squeaks and rattles. It goes down the road with a level of solidity that you expect from a luxury brand. And at the same time, this thing is roadtrip ready. Uh, and I also forgot to mention, we started off this review with a full charge or just under a full charge. It was showing 340 mi of range. That’s very impressive how this vehicle actually does have 340 mi of range. Uh, considering it’s only rated at 305 mi of range. Of course, Super Cruise is also going to be standard on this vehicle. It’s one of the best hands-free driver assistance tech you’re going to find. Uh, and then let’s go ahead and talk about the real world range. Because in my week’s worth of testing, I was able to drive this vehicle in mostly ideal conditions, mid70s, perfect weather, and I actually was pretty impressed. I was able to achieve 290 mi of realworld range in actual testing. Um, now, of course, that’s in ideal conditions. That compares very favorably, of course, with the 305 mi of range that the EPA rates this vehicle at. If you go for the 23in wheels, it drops the range to 300 miles. So, keep that in mind. the bigger wheels and tires are going to affect the range a little bit more. Let’s try one more 0 to 60 run here. I have it back into its sport setting or that’s the sport setting and floored. This thing is so fast. You really don’t even need that much uh space to get to 60 mph. Uh but we got 3.7 seconds there. So Cadillac’s claim of 3.7 is pretty much bang on and it makes this vehicle one of the quickest base powertrains you’re going to find. So I’m pretty impressed with that. I’m impressed with the real world range. I’m impressed with the comfort, the technology minus the wireless CarPlay, Android Auto. I mean most of the times if you have the GPS up, it looks pretty impressive there. I just want to be able to put my phone integration there. Now you can integrate ways, but it’s not the same. It’s not the same as the one that you have connected to your phone. So just uh keep that in mind. But overall, I think what Cadillac has done here is they’ve finally developed a midsize or it’s basically more of a large uh a three row crossoverbased SUV that doesn’t feel like a penalty box. It doesn’t feel like a guzzied up version obviously of a Chevrolet Traverse. And Cadillac could have done that. They could have easily just taken the new Traverse and given us a Cadillac version of that car. Actually, I kind of think that would it would do well if it had the twin turbo V6, but I don’t think that’s ever going to materialize. But what what’s nice about this car is there is no Chevy equivalent. There is no GMC equivalent. And I think that’s what makes the Vistic a lot more special. So if you guys are looking at something like the Escalade or the Escalade IQ, which are very, very expensive vehicles, you’re going to find a lot to like in this Vistic. I personally would probably spend a little bit more and go for the premium luxury trim. But as is though, this car has a ton of features baked in, and I think there is room for Cadillac to introduce a slightly less powerful version. So, after spending a full week with the first ever Cadillac Vistic, I have to admit here, guys, Cadillac has one of the most comprehensive EV lineups in the industry. And this is kind of coming where, you know, Cadillac’s had a really slow start with the Lyric when it was introduced three years ago. But, they have really been introducing some impressive EVs from the base optic all the way up to the Escalade IQ. I’ve had a chance to drive the Optic, the Lyric, the Vistic, and of course, the Escalade IQ. And this model could very well be kind of like the sweet spot. I mean, at the entry level end, there’s the Optic, which I actually really like. Looking forward to driving driving the Optic V at some point. I just had a chance to drive the Lyric V. I haven’t had a spent one for a week yet, but it also delivered very impressive performance. But this essentially takes everything that you like about the Lyric and gives you the additional interior space for your family. Unlike the XT6, which felt very much just like a fancy Traverse, this vehicle has that premium feel that Cadillac has been introducing with its really nice uh really upscale interior, impressive technology, usable second and third row, and a cargo area that is a little bit on the small side. Something like the Ionic 9 or the EV9 is going to offer a little bit more space. This is definitely still a big improvement. And what I like about this car is it doesn’t have that cumbersome feel of the Escalade IQ because that model weighs over 9,000 lb. This is a more manageable 6,200 lb. But as you guys saw, acceleration is uber impressive. 3.7 seconds all day long, 0 to 60. Plenty of power to haul around up to seven people and their stuff. And it’s going to really going to shock people, especially if you’re trading out of your XT6 and into something like this. Now, here’s kind of the sad thing about the uh Lyric or the Vistic is it’s a lot more expensive versus the uh XT6 because you could buy an XT6 today at a starting price of just under $50,000, which I know is a steal compared to what this car starts at because the Vistic starts at just under $78,000. Now, I should point out that this vehicle is extremely well equipped. If Cadillac would introduce a less powerful version without super cruise, without the massaging, ventilated and cooled seats with a little bit less features, they could introduce a model that’s probably, I want to say, $65,000, which seems more like the sweet spot. I mean, if you’re looking at something like the Ionic 9, that starts at around $58,000. An EV9 starts at around $57,000. So, I think Cadillac should consider introducing a cheaper version that’s around $10,000 less than this vehicle. But regardless, it does come extremely well equipped. And also keep in mind, if you look at a fully loaded XT6, those can top out at around $75,000. And for $77,000, I’d get with go with the Vistic all day long. Now, my particular test car is the sport trim for an extra $500. And it basically adds the captain’s chairs and the black painted roof and the color upcharge. All in, this model here is around $82,000, which actually is not that bad because the last Ioni 9 that I tested was $79,000. An EV9 GT line from Kia is also around $80,000, around $78,000 fully loaded. But then there’s also vehicles like the Rivian R1S, which is almost $100,000 to start, so that’s a lot more expensive. A Model X is also a lot more expensive. There’s there’s a ton of value to be had here and I think that’s where the Vistic becomes a really enticing proposition, especially again if you guys don’t need the excessive weight and size of the Escalade IQ because that model starts at like $150,000. So, there is a substantial discount to be had here for this model. But also keep in mind if you guys are looking at the premium lux trim, that’s an extra $15,000. And then there’s the uh platinum trim which is like around $20,000 more. So, you can option this vehicle up to be well over or a little under $100,000, which I think is a little expensive at that end. But, um, this model here at around $82,000 is definitely a strong value for what you’re getting in terms of real range, in terms of performance, in terms of luxury, in terms of technology. But, all that said, hope you guys have enjoyed my full overview on the brand new 2025 or 6, I’m sorry, Cadillac Vistic and this sport trim. If you’re also looking to see the latest cars I’m testing, be sure to follow me on Instagram at redline_views. Please like us on Facebook and as always guys, please keep subscribing to the Redline Reviews YouTube channel for all the latest reviews. Thank you so much for watching. I’ll catch you all in the next video. [Music]
With the arrival of the first-ever #CadillacVISTIQ, it looks like #Cadillac has learned from their past mistaken by finally offering a modern 3-row family SUV that isn’t the flagship #Escalade. The 2026 #VISTIQ slots right below the flagship #EscaladeIQ in the lineup, and with over 600 HP and 300 miles of range, it brings the heat to the emerging 3-row premium electric family SUV segment.
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