When I told my husband I’d be driving the as my first-ever review car, he was far more stoked than I was about being in a proper SUV. “Just wait—you’re going to love it,” he said. “You’re not gonna want to go back to driving your shitty little hatchback all the time.”

While an outing in a luxury SUV didn’t totally convince me that this is the kind of car I need to be in every day of my life, I was actually pretty surprised. The XT6 dispelled many of my previously held conceptions about what driving a modern SUV would be like, even if I felt like it still had room to improve. Which it does.

(: Cadillac was kind enough to let me drive their XT6 with to the ends of the Earth and back [i.e.: between Philly, NYC, and upstate New York] for three days.)

Cadillac’s first-ever XT6 is new for the 2020 model year as the company’s latest foray to the ceaselessly growing crossover market. (The Escalade is a real SUV, mind you.) It’s a large-medium option that has good interior room and luggage space without quite going as huge as Cadillac’s range-topping, opulent truck.

That space has been a gaping hole in Cadillac’s lineup for years. The XT6 is now a direct competitor to other higher-end three-row vehicles like the Audi Q7, BMW X5, and Lexus RX L.

It’s not revolutionary; the XT6 fits neatly into a well-trodden class of car. That’s not wholly a bad thing. It is, simply, A Thing To Note.

The XT6’s 3.6-liter V6 engine comes with a nine-speed automatic transmission that you can shift via paddles on the steering wheel and makes a Cadillac-claimed 310 horsepower.

I did really enjoy the four different drive modes: Touring, AWD, Sport, and Snow/Ice, all of which seem to set the car up for… pretty much exactly what they sound like. While I didn’t get a chance to test the Snow/Ice setting on snow or ice, I did use it in a torrential downpour to get me more grip. This mode basically tempers throttle response a little, effectively making it easier to maintain traction.

Cadillac also implements something called Active Fuel Management technology, which shuts down two cylinders to save gas when V6 power isn’t needed. I really enjoyed it—I managed to drive from Philly to NYC to Monticello to NYC back to Philly on a single tank of fuel. While the XT6 only gets 20 combined mpg, according to , the vehicle’s range is good enough to keep you from having to pull into gas stations too often.

The XT6 comes in two different trims: Sport and Premium Luxury. The most obvious differences between the two levels are decorative. Premium Luxury models feature wood trim, 20-inch wheels, Galvano finishes inside and outside of the car, and red taillight lenses. Sport, on the other hand, has a carbon-looking trim, 21-inch wheels, a sportier grille, and clear taillight lenses.

Both modes come with the standard slew of driver-assist technologies—helpful stuff like lane change alert and speed limiters. You can check out the full list below:

The three-row Caddy lists at $53,690, but that creeps up very quickly when you start adding options. Our test car here had $3,700 worth of soft materials through the Platinum Package, it’s another $2,000 for Night Vision, plus more for the wheels you see photographed, driver assistance tech like emergency auto braking, captain’s chairs, the premium headlights, and the paint choice, all added up to a very heavy asking price of just over $73,000 for this vehicle in particular.

The dude noted above drives a 2015 ATS, which has a cringe-worthy, impossible-to-use haptic-feedback CUE infotainment system.

Thankfully, the XT6’s system is entirely different. You don’t have to press something three times to get it to register the weight of your finger. There’s no annoying delay in responsiveness. It’s actually a pleasant experience.

Just looking at the XT6 probably isn’t going to get most folks very excited. It’s decent enough, edging on the assertive-but-still-inviting side—but it’s definitely still an SUV, and it’s definitely a family car. There’s not a lot of particularly distinctive Cadillac flair when you look past the grille and taillights.

And that carries into the cabin. The dashboard is oddly shaped and looks like it’s melting. The cupholder space is cramped, with the rotary knobs and shifter all being packed into the same area.

There also isn’t a surplus of luggage space with the rear row of seats up. While even plenty of adults would be comfortable in that third row, you’re trading off on that legroom for your ability to carry a lot of shit. Even just an overnight bag and my perpetually-stuffed backpack took up most of the room back there. You might want to add a roof box if you need extreme cargo capacity and passenger space together. Or a bigger car.

There were a fair amount of features included in the XT6 that I wasn’t super keen on and that were initially disorienting, but not in a way that actively took away from my driving experience. It was like switching from a PC to a Mac for the first time: a tough transition at first, but one I could get used to.

One of the biggest—and most disorienting—of these features was the rearview camera. While the rearview mirror initially appears as the standard mirror we’re used to, a flip of the switch on its underside changes everything. Instead of a mirror, there’s a camera-based digital display showing you everything behind your car.

The Cadillac XT6 is a good car, but it’s not a far-and-away great car.

It’ll be competitive, but maybe not a class leader. Given that it’s Cadillac’s big strike back into the world of the non-truckish luxury SUV, I felt like this car should have flat-out blown me away to actually make a splash in what’s become a very oversaturated market.

It suffers from what it doesn’t have more than anything. You’re not going to get in and say, “man, this whole experience sucks.” You’re more likely going to get in and go, “man, it sucks that this doesn’t have Super Cruise.” (.) Without any standout features, it’s tough to say the XT6 has anything that will really set it apart from the other vehicles it competes with.

2020 XT6 AWD Sport

2020 XT6 AWD Sport

+

Infotainment, ride quality

-

Minimal personality, even less room for stuff once the seats are full

TL;DR

A classy and expensive crossover SUV

Power

310 HP • 271 LB-FT

Weight

4,690 LBS

Price

$57,095 List • $73,040 As Tested

That said, it was a damn fine car to ride around in, and I enjoyed what it did have. I love a good SUV that makes me feel like I’m actually driving a much smaller car, and the XT6 absolutely owned in that regard.

The XT6 is one of those cars that you’re probably not going to pine after but will decide to buy after a lot of cross-brand comparisons and test drives. There’s not enough here to say this would be a great car for everybody, but what it does have will likely satisfy certain niches of folks who are looking for a good three-row crossover.