Video: 2020 Cadillac XT6: First Look

Now it used to be, if you wanted anything more than five passengers in a Cadillac SUV, you had to go for a $75,000 Escalade. Well, not anymore. This one's going to come in at significantly less than that. Let's have a closer look at the new 2020 XT6. Underneath the new XT6 shares a lot of its components with the GMC Acadia. It rides on the same platform. It's about the same size. But, the styling is significantly different. They have introduced a lot of Cadillac style elements for the XT6, like this front end that they've taken off the concept car, Cadillac Escala, from a couple of years ago. You have the vertical light pipes as well. That's very much a Cadillac element. And there are two different trims that you can choose. One is the Premium Luxury model, like you see here, that has a lot of chrome trim. And the other is the Sport model that has a lot of gloss black trim, on the grill, and on the trim down the body side as well. Under the hood is Cadillac's 3.6 liter, 310 horsepower V6. Now we've seen that engine in a lot of different models, and it's appearing here as well. It's made it up to a nine-speed automatic transmission that drives the front wheels. All-wheel drive is optional on the Premium Luxury model and standard on the Sport. The inside is pretty much straight Cadillac playbook. You've got some decent leather. You've got, actually, some really surprisingly nice wood. This is the Premium Luxury model. On the Sport model all of this gets replaced with a kind of faux carbon fiber, but it still looks really quite good. If you're familiar with the Cadillac XT5 or the Cadillac CT6 sedan, really nothing in here is going to surprise you all that much. There is something new, however, there is a new knob for the Cadillac User Experience Multimedia System. It has a jog function. So, in addition to the touch screen, and the controls on the steering wheel, you can use this rotary knob to help switch between applications and screens and functions on the multimedia system. So this is a three-row crossover, but it's not the biggest three-row crossover that General Motors offers. I said before, this is on the shorter wheel base platform. So you've got a decent second row with either a bench or captain's chairs, and you have an easy flip fold into the rear seat as well. Now the rear seats are power-folding as standard, and the second row does flip forward fairly easily, but you're not going to see the same kind of room that you would see in, say, an Escalade. But they don't necessarily want it competing with the Escalade. The bigger question is how is it going to compete with the new Lincoln Aviator? And how the new XT6 competes in the segment is really going to be the big question. Against vehicles like the Infiniti QX 60, or the Audi Q7, or the Acura MDX, it should stack up fairly well. But against Lincoln's new 2020 Aviator, it might be another question. On paper, this thing has 310 horsepower, Aviator has 400. Aviator has things like a 30-way power seats and a 28 speaker sound system. And XT6 doesn't quite have that level of technology yet. So, let's hope they've got some good lease deals. If you want to find out more about the new Cadillac XT6, come join us at cars.com.