A neighbor hit the Q5 last week. Just a passing glance as they were turning around. No big deal but it damaged the door pretty bad. It gave me an experience with Geico that kind of blew me away. Geico (their insurance) called me for the first time Wednesday to acknowledge the accident. They asked me a couple questions about the damage and then said their driver admitted guilt at which point they set me up for an appointment at a highly regarded body shop a few miles away from me about 30 minutes after our call ended. They said they'd have a rental waiting. That was a pleasant surprise.
I assumed it would be an econobox but when I pulled up there was a Cadillac XT5 waiting out front for me. Geico is under no obligation to provide me with a similar loaner to the car I drive so that was a nice touch. They had me in and out within 15 minutes and the owner of the shop, who ended up being a neighbor of mine and a classic car guy, said the car will be done tomorrow. So kudos to Geico. I've never had something go that seamlessly from start to finish. The XT5 was decidedly less impressive...
XT5
It's not that the XT5 is bad. In fact, it's easy on the eyes and the interior looks nice enough and actually feels nice too. It's not poorly designed. It's just that for any rational person to purchase this vehicle it would need to exist in a world where the Audi Q5 and the BMW X5 do not because compared to either of those it's just a hodgepodge of GM parts bin sadness.
First off, it's front wheel drive based which means it suffers from maddening torque steer which, really? That's still a thing in 2018? You can fix that by turning all wheel drive mode on which promptly reduces the gas mileage from barely passable to laughably bad. It's rated at 19/26. I put 300 miles on it today and managed 20mpg. A Maserati Levante gets 20mpg on the expressway. This is not a Maserati Levante.
I guess this wouldn't be so bad if it performed well or had a decently smooth powertrain. It doesn't and it isn't. Everything about the driving experience is yawn inducing. I can't imagine anyone cross shopping a Q5 against this and wanting this. I haven't driven the new Q5s but my 2014 is buttery smooth, has power where you need it and gets really good gas mileage for what it is. Generally about 26mpg on the expressway doing 70mph. I can only imagine the new Q5s are better.
Then there's the interior. Cadillac's CUE system isn't horrible but it's not good either. Some of the buttons on the screen are maybe a 1/2" square which makes them impossible to press on the first attempt. Apple CarPlay is the great equalizer with infotainment systems though and I found myself completely bypassing CUE.
Overall nothing about this felt luxurious. The driving dynamics were comically bad, the engine rough and loud, the interior nice though still far behind that of Audi or BMW and the price... $55,000 as equipped for mine. I just went on Audi's site and priced the top of the line Q5 with every option package ticked. That gets you adaptive cruise control with traffic jam assist (low speed autopilot), adaptive LED headlights, the heavenly Bang & Olufsen Sound System, a 0-60 time of 5.9 seconds versus 6.6 for the Caddy, better gas mileage, Audi's virtual cockpit instrument cluster, color heads up display, much better build quality and it's cheaper by like $400.
Who's buying the XT5?
I assumed it would be an econobox but when I pulled up there was a Cadillac XT5 waiting out front for me. Geico is under no obligation to provide me with a similar loaner to the car I drive so that was a nice touch. They had me in and out within 15 minutes and the owner of the shop, who ended up being a neighbor of mine and a classic car guy, said the car will be done tomorrow. So kudos to Geico. I've never had something go that seamlessly from start to finish. The XT5 was decidedly less impressive...
XT5
It's not that the XT5 is bad. In fact, it's easy on the eyes and the interior looks nice enough and actually feels nice too. It's not poorly designed. It's just that for any rational person to purchase this vehicle it would need to exist in a world where the Audi Q5 and the BMW X5 do not because compared to either of those it's just a hodgepodge of GM parts bin sadness.
First off, it's front wheel drive based which means it suffers from maddening torque steer which, really? That's still a thing in 2018? You can fix that by turning all wheel drive mode on which promptly reduces the gas mileage from barely passable to laughably bad. It's rated at 19/26. I put 300 miles on it today and managed 20mpg. A Maserati Levante gets 20mpg on the expressway. This is not a Maserati Levante.
I guess this wouldn't be so bad if it performed well or had a decently smooth powertrain. It doesn't and it isn't. Everything about the driving experience is yawn inducing. I can't imagine anyone cross shopping a Q5 against this and wanting this. I haven't driven the new Q5s but my 2014 is buttery smooth, has power where you need it and gets really good gas mileage for what it is. Generally about 26mpg on the expressway doing 70mph. I can only imagine the new Q5s are better.
Then there's the interior. Cadillac's CUE system isn't horrible but it's not good either. Some of the buttons on the screen are maybe a 1/2" square which makes them impossible to press on the first attempt. Apple CarPlay is the great equalizer with infotainment systems though and I found myself completely bypassing CUE.
Overall nothing about this felt luxurious. The driving dynamics were comically bad, the engine rough and loud, the interior nice though still far behind that of Audi or BMW and the price... $55,000 as equipped for mine. I just went on Audi's site and priced the top of the line Q5 with every option package ticked. That gets you adaptive cruise control with traffic jam assist (low speed autopilot), adaptive LED headlights, the heavenly Bang & Olufsen Sound System, a 0-60 time of 5.9 seconds versus 6.6 for the Caddy, better gas mileage, Audi's virtual cockpit instrument cluster, color heads up display, much better build quality and it's cheaper by like $400.
Who's buying the XT5?