2024 Cadillac XT6

Volume configuration is the 3.6L LGX V6, standard on Premium Luxury and Sport; only the entry Luxury trim uses the 235 hp 2.0L turbo four.

Naturally aspirated V6 peak torque arrives high at 5000 rpm — the 2.0L turbo's 258 lb-ft is nearly as much and available from 1500 rpm.

Cadillac does not publish a 0–60 figure for the XT6; instrumented results for the V6 AWD cluster in the high sixes, so 6.9 s is taken as representative of the volume Premium Luxury AWD.

The naturally aspirated 3.6L is quiet and smooth with no turbo lag, but it needs revs to move a 4,500 lb three-row and the auto stop/start restart is coarse — competent rather than special for a luxury mid-size.

GM's 9-speed automatic with Electronic Precision Shift shifts smoothly once moving but is reviewed as slow to kick down and prone to hunting among its upper ratios in normal driving.

The 4,000 lb rating requires the 3.6L V6 plus the optional trailering/Smart Tow package on Premium Luxury or Sport; every other 2024 XT6 configuration, including all 2.0L turbos, is rated at just 1,000 lbs.

AWD is optional on Luxury and Premium Luxury and standard on Sport, where it is the more capable Twin Clutch Sport Control system with torque vectoring across the rear axle; AWD models add an Off-Road drive-mode calibration, but there is no low range.

A transverse-engine unibody crossover with roughly 6.7 in of ground clearance, no skid plates, no locking differential and no low range — the AWD Off-Road drive mode is a traction calibration, not hardware.

Two gasoline engines only — 2.0L turbo four on the base trim and 3.6L V6 above it — with no hybrid, plug-in or electric variant, and engine choice is effectively dictated by trim rather than freely selectable.

EPA combined rating for the volume 3.6L V6 AWD configuration; the V6 rates 21 MPG combined in both FWD and AWD form, and the base 2.0L turbo reaches 23 MPG on premium fuel.

EPA city figure for the V6 AWD, helped somewhat by stop/start and cylinder deactivation but still weak for a mid-size crossover.

EPA highway rating for the V6 AWD; Active Fuel Management lets the V6 run on four cylinders at cruise, which is where its numbers are closest to the turbo four's.

EPA total range for the V6 AWD; the large 22-gallon tank offsets the mediocre economy and keeps real-world range respectable for road trips.

EPA annual cost for the V6 AWD at standard assumptions; the V6's ability to run regular unleaded keeps it below the 2.0L turbo's $3,300 despite worse MPG.

The volume 3.6L V6 is rated for regular unleaded, unusual for a luxury-badged SUV and worth roughly $350/yr against the base trim; the deduction is for the mixed lineup, since the 2.0L turbo Luxury requires premium.

NHTSA tested the 2024 XT6 itself in both FWD and AWD form and awarded 5 stars overall, with 5s across every frontal and side measurement — driver and passenger frontal, side barrier front and rear, and the side pole test. Rollover is the only 4, which is unremarkable for a tall three-row crossover.

2024 is the year the XT6's crash record went bad on paper: it carries Poor in both of IIHS's flagship updated tests. In the updated moderate overlap front test the driver compartment held together but the rear dummy submarined beneath the lap belt, giving moderate head/neck and high chest injury risk — the worst result of eight mid-size luxury SUVs tested in that round. The updated side test is also Poor on rear-passenger torso protection. Small overlap front is Good on both driver and passenger sides and the original-protocol moderate overlap is Good, so the old-regime TSP+ streak Wikipedia notes was legitimate — it just belongs to the pre-2023 tests. No award for 2024. Two Poors in key tests is squarely the criterion's bottom band; the Good small overlap results keep it off the floor.

Four of the criterion's five named features are standard on every 2024 XT6 including the base Luxury — Automatic Emergency Braking with Forward Collision Alert and Front Pedestrian Braking, Lane Keep Assist with Lane Departure Warning, Lane Change Alert with Side Blind Zone Alert, and Rear Cross Traffic Alert — plus front and rear park assist, IntelliBeam auto high beams, Safety Alert Seat, driver attention alert, Teen Driver and a rear seat reminder. The gap is the expensive one: adaptive cruise control is standard nowhere and cannot be ordered at all on the Luxury trim, living in the Driver Assist Package on Premium Luxury and Sport. That is the criterion's mid-band case, but with blind-spot monitoring standard rather than optional the XT6 sits at the top of it.

This is one of the few current-protocol IIHS results the XT6 has, and it is a weak one: the standard AEB rates Marginal overall in the updated pedestrian front crash prevention test, with mixed outcomes across the 12–37 mph day and night runs. Standard fitment on all three trims and the availability of Enhanced Automatic Emergency Braking in the Driver Assist Package are real credit, but the criterion asks about measured performance, and a Marginal on the test that includes nighttime pedestrian detection is a bottom-band result. Scored just under the band line rather than at the floor because the system is standard everywhere rather than optional.

The coverage half of the criterion is answered well — Lane Change Alert with Side Blind Zone Alert and Rear Cross Traffic Alert are standard on every 2024 XT6, base trim included. The quality half is where it stops: both are alert-only on this platform, with no blind-zone steering intervention and no cross-traffic braking, and Reverse Automatic Braking is package content rather than standard. There is no safe-exit alert. Standard-on-all-trims but alert-only puts it at the top of the middle band.

Lane Keep Assist with Lane Departure Warning is standard across Luxury, Premium Luxury and Sport and does its job, but it is a departure-correcting nudge rather than a system that holds a line. Genuine lane centering exists on the 2024 XT6 only inside Super Cruise, which for this model year means ordering it as a standalone option on top of a stack of prerequisite packages on Premium Luxury or Sport, and it only works on Cadillac's mapped highways. On every base Luxury, and off those roads, the car has nothing that centers. Scored a touch below the 2025 car because 2025 folded Super Cruise into the Platinum Package and made the centering easier to actually obtain.

Availability is the problem more than quality. Adaptive cruise is standard on no 2024 XT6 and cannot be ordered on the base Luxury at all; on Premium Luxury and Sport it arrives inside the Driver Assist Package, so a large share of the lineup — and the volume configuration many buyers actually take — leaves the showroom with plain cruise control. Where fitted, the GM radar system is a competent full-speed-range unit with no notable reviewer complaints, and buyers who keep going up the option stack get real highway assist in Super Cruise. The score reflects a capable system a lot of the lineup can't have.

Super Cruise is offered on the 2024 XT6, and Super Cruise is the most mature hands-free system sold — but this is close to its most compromised application. For 2024 it is a standalone option on Premium Luxury and Sport only, unavailable on the base Luxury, and it drags in the Technology Package, Driver Assist Package and Premium Headlamp System as prerequisites, running the option stack into five figures. More important, the XT6 rides on GM's older Global A electrical architecture, so it was excluded from the 2022 coverage expansion that took other Super Cruise vehicles from roughly 200,000 to 400,000 mapped miles — the XT6 received a 20,000-mile update to about 220,000 miles instead, and will not gain automatic lane change or towing support. Available but genuinely capability-limited and coverage-limited: mid-band, below the 2025 car where the Platinum Package made it easier to get.

IIHS rated both XT6 headlamp configurations and both came back Acceptable — the standard LED projectors with high-beam assist fitted across Luxury, Premium Luxury and Sport, and the upgraded set that comes with the Platinum and Premium Headlamp packages. That consistency is the strength: there is no dim volume configuration to fall into and no penalty for buying the cheap trim, unlike several rivals whose base lamps rate Marginal. What is missing is any Good rating to buy at any price — the standard lamps manage only fair visibility on left curves, and the premium set trades its good straightaway reach for some glare.

The XT6's upright, boxy greenhouse gives it more glass than most rivals and better forward and side sightlines than the swoopier XT5, and reviewers credit the tall glass. Working against that are thick pillars, three rows of head restraints in the sightline and dark tint, which reviewers say leave enough doubt that deliberate blind-spot checks stay necessary. Camera compensation is the weak link: an HD rear camera and front/rear park assist are standard, but HD Surround Vision and the digital rear camera mirror both sit in the optional Technology Package, so the volume car relies on mirrors and a single rear view. Average natural visibility with partial, mostly optional camera support.

The second row is genuinely good: two complete sets of easy-access lower anchors in the outboard positions, generous room, and enough width and door aperture that Cars.com's Car Seat Check installed two seats in the captain's chairs without complaint. The third row is where it loses points — no lower anchors at all back there, only top tethers, and fixed head restraints that pushed a high-back booster off the seatback in testing. With IIHS rating the hardware Acceptable rather than Good, this is a workable but compromised setup for anyone needing seats across all three rows.

The 2024 XT6 is a three-row mid-size luxury crossover with a 60/40 split-folding second-row bench standard across all three trims, giving seven-passenger capacity on the volume Premium Luxury. Second-row captain's chairs are an available swap on Premium Luxury and Sport that trades a seat for easier third-row access.

39.8 in of first-row headroom is mid-pack for a mid-size SUV. 2024 is a carry-over year within the 2020-launch generation — GM Authority headlined its model-year preview "No Significant Changes For The 2024 Cadillac XT6" — so the body structure and every published interior dimension are unchanged.

41.2 in is the weakest of the XT6's interior dimensions, barely above the SUV band floor and short of three-row rivals like the Audi Q7 (41.7 in), Acura MDX (41.6 in) and Lincoln Aviator (43.0 in). The XT6 shares its 112.7-in wheelbase with the two-row XT5 and the GMC Acadia, and that packaging compromise lands ahead of the B-pillar rather than behind it.

39.1 in of second-row headroom sits near the top of the SUV band and is one of the XT6's genuine packaging wins — the upright, boxy roofline reviewers criticize aesthetically pays off inside. Even the third row's 37.2 in is competitive for the class; it is legroom, not headroom, that limits the way back.

39.1 in of second-row legroom is genuinely good — comfortably adult-sized, ahead of the Acura MDX (38.5 in) and level with the Audi Q7 (38.8 in) — and combined with wide door openings makes the middle row the best place to sit in the car. The third row's 29.5 in is where the XT6 gives ground to the Traverse and Aviator.

A real third row rather than a token one, but a kids-and-short-trips proposition. Headroom at 37.2 in is class-competitive and access is decent — the second row slides and tilts, and the available captain's chairs open a pass-through — yet 29.5 in of legroom plus narrow shoulder room mean adults tolerate it rather than enjoy it. Cadillac's own "mid-size plus" framing concedes the XT6 is a stretched mid-size rather than a purpose-built three-row.

43.1 cu ft with the third row folded is mid-pack for a mid-size three-row and a clear step behind the Chevrolet Traverse it shares a wheelbase family with, which clears about 57 cu ft in the same measurement. Behind the raised third row there is only 12.6 cu ft — a few bags, not a family's luggage.

78.7 cu ft with both rear rows down is respectable without leading: well short of the Chevrolet Traverse's roughly 98 cu ft, but at the upper end of the luxury three-row cluster where the Audi Q7 and Acura MDX sit in the low 70s. Power-folding rear rows on the volume trim make the space easy to get at.

Competent, conventional, and short on ideas. A covered center console bin, usable door pockets, six standard USB ports, an available wireless charging pad and a power liftgate cover what a three-row family buyer expects. What is absent is everything the top band rewards: no configurable console, no underfloor bin of note, no 120V onboard power, and no fold-flat trickery beyond the standard split rows.

The front and second-row seats are among the XT6's better features — correctly padded, neither firm nor soft — with heated front seats standard on every 2024 trim and ventilated fronts plus a heated steering wheel standard from Premium Luxury up. Edmunds is specific about where it stops short, though: the reclining second-row captain's chairs are "nothing special," front lumbar is only two-way adjustable and there is no thigh-cushion extension, so long-legged drivers run out of support well before an Aviator's 30-way seats would.

Ride comfort is the thing reviewers most consistently credit the XT6 with, and in the volume Premium Luxury spec on passive dampers it is smooth and absorbent — exactly the brief for a mid-size luxury crossover. The deductions are specific rather than general: Edmunds found the Sport good at softening sharp impacts but poor at settling the vertical motions that follow, and no 2024 XT6 offers air suspension the way an Aviator, Q7 or X5 does.

Genuinely quiet, and one of the clearer places the XT6 earns its badge over the Traverse and Acadia it shares hardware with — acoustic glass, active noise cancellation and thorough insulation keep wind, road and engine noise well suppressed at a cruise, helped by the naturally aspirated V6's smooth character in the volume trim. Scored below the top band because Edmunds places it explicitly behind the class benchmark rather than at it.

A strong standard sheet for 2024: tri-zone automatic climate control, heated front seats, remote start and a panoramic sunroof are standard on every trim including the base Luxury, and the volume Premium Luxury adds ventilated front seats, heated second-row seats and a heated power tilt/telescoping steering wheel as standard rather than as a package. It misses the top band because the best of that content still requires stepping up from the base trim, and because there is no remote pre-conditioning of the kind electrified rivals offer.

The entry Luxury trim opens at $48,795 plus the $1,395 destination freight charge — $50,190 delivered, which for 2024 made the XT6 the cheapest way into a three-row luxury crossover and one of the very few under the $50,000 mark. That price advantage is the strongest part of its cost story, though the base car makes do with the 235-hp 2.0L turbo four and cannot be optioned with adaptive cruise at all.

Premium Luxury is the volume trim and the one worth buying: it is where the 310-hp 3.6L V6 becomes standard and where the equipment luxury buyers expect arrives — genuine leather, 14-speaker Bose, heated and ventilated front seats, heated second row, heated steering wheel, wireless charging, navigation and 20-inch wheels. At $54,995 plus $1,395 destination that is $56,390 front-drive, $58,390 with AWD, a $6,200 step above the base Luxury.

GM parts and labor rates keep the XT6 materially cheaper to service than its German rivals, and the 4-year/50,000-mile bumper-to-bumper term absorbs nearly all repair spend in years 1–3. The figure splits the two mainstream estimates: KBB's roughly $6,200 combined bill for this generation (front-loaded by a year-four service that covers the V6's plugs and fluids) against CarEdge's much lighter $3,201, which understates wear items on a 4,600-lb three-row crossover. The estimate sits above CarEdge rather than at it because the XT6's five-year major-repair probability is roughly double the smaller XT5's.

The item that sinks this category, though 2024 is holding a little better than the orphaned 2025 final-year car. Unlike the projections used for later model years, there is now two years of observed data: KBB's tracked curve for the 2024 XT6 runs $43,147 new to $35,465 to $30,600 at roughly two years, which extrapolated to year five lands near $22,300 — about 40% of the $56,390 volume-trim MSRP. CarEdge's curve (48% retained) and iSeeCars' retrospective nameplate figure (46.4%) sit higher, so the estimate splits toward the middle at 43%. In percentage terms that is unremarkable for the class — KBB calls XT6 resale "about average for the segment" and iSeeCars has it depreciating slightly slower than the luxury large SUV average — but on a $56K vehicle it is a large absolute loss.

Cadillac's bumper-to-bumper limited warranty runs 4 years or 50,000 miles — the luxury-brand norm, matching BMW, Audi and Lexus, and a year longer than the mainstream Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia the XT6 shares a wheelbase with. It is transferable to a second owner and includes towing to the nearest dealer for warranty work; rust-through protection runs 6 yr / 100,000 mi.

Six years or 70,000 miles on the engine, nine-speed automatic, transfer case and drive systems — better than the 4/50 the German luxury brands offer and a step above the 5/60 on the mechanically related Chevrolet and GMC siblings, but near the bottom of the framework's 5–10 year band, which is scaled against Hyundai/Genesis-style 10-year terms.

Cadillac covers exactly one service visit — oil change, tire rotation and multi-point inspection, redeemable at a participating dealer within the first year — where BMW (3 yr/36k Ultimate Care), Audi (Signature Care) and Volvo include years of scheduled maintenance, so this lands mid-band rather than high. The offsetting perks are real but not generous for the money: 6-year/70,000-mile roadside assistance and courtesy transportation matching the powertrain term, and three years of OnStar connected services. The 2024 car scores a shade below its 2025 successor on this item for one specific reason — 2024 XT6s ship with the lesser OnStar Remote Access plan, while Cadillac made the richer OnStar Premium Plan standard for three years starting with the 2025 model year.

$56,390 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (43% retained, or about $24,248) leaves about $32,142 in depreciation. Add the projected $5,300 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $37,442 in total.

2024 is the first XT6 model year Consumer Reports had enough owner-survey data to rate, and the verdict went the wrong way: an initially average 43/100 prediction and a first-ever "Recommended" nod in December 2023 have since been replaced by "less reliable than other cars from the same model year," with Transmission the single flagged trouble spot. J.D. Power pulls the other way — the XT6 ranked first in its segment in the 2024 IQS and won the Upper Midsize Premium SUV dependability award in the two most recent VDS rounds — but IQS measures 90 days and those VDS wins cover 2022 and 2023 cars, not this one. Real 2024-owner data outranks a proxy, so this sits below the segment median.

Cadillac's three-year dependability standing is genuinely strong — top-five overall and second among premium brands behind only Lexus in consecutive VDS rounds — but the brand's initial quality slid hard in exactly this model year, from 174 PP100 in 2023 to 214 against a 195-point industry average. Strong long-term, below average out of the box, average at Consumer Reports: mid-pack once all three studies are weighed.

Only two recalls on the 2024 car and neither is a powertrain campaign, but one is an assembly defect with crash consequences (a windshield bonded without urethane) rather than a software fix, and the recall count understates the picture. The real pattern is service-bulletin traffic on the nine-speed: a June 2024 service update for out-of-spec transmission clutch retaining rings, and a shudder TSB spanning the whole 2020-2024 run.

The volume XT6's 3.6L LGX V6 is the most proven member of GM's high-feature V6 family — naturally aspirated, and past the timing-chain failure mode that plagued the earlier LFX — but the nine-speed automatic behind it drags this well below mid-band, and 2024 sits squarely inside the worst cluster. Powertrain is the largest complaint bucket at NHTSA for this model year, the only trouble spot Consumer Reports flags, and the failures owners describe are outright ones: slipping transmissions, no reverse, rebuilds, a lemon-law buyback.

The cabin is the XT6's weakest quality credential and shows a design that ran to the end of its life untouched: reviewers consistently call out hard, flat-black plastic on high-touch surfaces like the center console, around an 8-inch screen from a pre-curved-display era, at a price where rivals do better. Leather and wood on upper trims lift it, but it reads a class behind an Acura, Lexus, Lincoln or Volvo interior.

Assembly quality is markedly better than the material selection suggests, and 2024 has the most on-point evidence of any XT6 model year: the car ranked first in its segment in the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study that surveyed 2024 vehicles specifically — the study that captures rattles, misalignment and 90-day defects. Reviewers who criticize the plastics still describe the build itself as high quality. Held out of the top band by the brand's below-average IQS result around it.

Roughly 590 US Cadillac stores make this one of the densest luxury service networks in the country — far broader coverage than a Genesis, Land Rover or Volvo owner gets — and dealer-service satisfaction ranked third among premium brands with the year's largest gain in the segment. Kept out of the top band only because Lexus and Porsche rank ahead on satisfaction.

Almost everything mechanical under the XT6 is shared GM hardware — LGX V6, LSY four, nine-speed automatic, C1 platform pieces common to the Acadia, Traverse, Blazer and XT5 — so parts move through both dealers and independents and five-year upkeep runs near the luxury average. Marked down from the model's usual standing by a concrete 2024 failure: an owner told internal transmission parts were on backorder with no timeline while the dealer advised against driving the car.

Every 2024 XT6 from Luxury to Sport carries the same 8.0-inch CUE center touchscreen the car launched with for 2020, and no larger display is available at any price. This is the year Cadillac gave the smaller XT4 a 33-inch curved display, which makes the XT6's screen conspicuously the oldest hardware in the brand's SUV lineup.

CUE is easy to learn — shallow menus backed by a console rotary controller and real volume and tuning hardware, which reviewers genuinely like — but it is decade-old GM software on a screen roughly half the width of what Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Lincoln fit in this class, and some touch-sensitive controls are flagged as finicky. That lands it near the bottom of the mid-size luxury segment, well below the segment's 75 median.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto are both standard on every 2024 XT6 trim including the base Luxury at $48,795 — no wire, no package, no upcharge. That matters more here than on most cars: with a native screen this small and this old, projection is the interface most owners actually live in, and GM was simultaneously deleting phone projection outright from its newer EVs.

Natural Voice Recognition is standard and embedded navigation is standard on the volume Premium Luxury and on Sport, so the hardware box is ticked. But this is CUE-era command-and-control voice rather than a natural-language assistant — there is no Google built-in on this pre-VIP platform — and unlike a 2025 XT6, a 2024 does not carry GM's eight years of included core OnStar, so connected-map services lapse to a paid subscription after a short trial. Most owners default to Siri or Google Assistant through projection.

Audio is the strongest part of the XT6's tech suite: a Bose 8-speaker system is standard even on the base Luxury, and the 14-speaker Bose Performance Series is the system fitted to the upper trims. It sits a tier below the Burmester and Bowers & Wilkins hardware in German rivals. Scored below the 2025 car and at MEDIUM confidence because 2024 sourcing genuinely conflicts on whether the 14-speaker system is standard on Premium Luxury or an extra-cost option — U.S. News lists it among options, dealer trim copy treats it as upper-trim content.

There is no full-digital cluster on the 2024 XT6 at any price. The base Luxury gets a small color driver information display between conventional gauges, and even the 8-inch color Driver Information Center is locked inside the optional Technology Package on Premium Luxury and Sport — so the volume car as it sits on the lot may not have it. Every German and Korean rival in this class moved to a configurable full-width panel years earlier.

The XT6 is over-the-air capable through its OnStar cellular connection, downloading module and infotainment updates in the background, and Cadillac sells some purchasable upgrades that way. But this is GM's pre-VIP electrical architecture, so updates are maintenance- and infotainment-scoped rather than the regular feature-adding whole-vehicle drops the Lyriq platform receives — squarely the criterion's middle band.

This is the clearest place a 2024 XT6 is worse than an otherwise identical 2025. The myCadillac app covers remote start with climate preset, lock/unlock, locate, diagnostics and status alerts — the right function list — but on a 2024 those commands are a paid Remote Access subscription after a one-month trial. GM's eight years of included core OnStar arrived with model year 2025, so the 2024 car lands in the criterion's "core remote functions, subscription-gated" band rather than above it, and there is no phone-as-key on this platform either.

Six USB ports standard across three rows is genuinely good for a three-row family SUV — two more than the XT5 offers — so third-row passengers are not left out. What keeps it out of the top band is that wireless phone charging is withheld from the base Luxury and there is no household-style 120V AC outlet anywhere in the lineup.

Proximity keyless entry with push-button start and remote start is standard across the range and a power liftgate is standard on every trim. Three things hold it mid-band: the hands-free kick-sensor liftgate is extra-cost rather than standard on the volume trim, there is no phone-as-key of any kind on this platform, and app-based remote start on a 2024 requires a paid OnStar plan once the one-month trial ends.

The hardware is good when fitted — HD Surround Vision, Automatic Parking Assist with Braking, Surround Vision Recorder, a rear camera mirror and rear pedestrian alert — but on the 2024 XT6 all of it sits inside the optional Technology Package on Premium Luxury and Sport and cannot be had on the base Luxury at all. An HD rear camera plus front and rear park assist are the standard baseline, which is a rung behind rivals shipping surround view on the volume car.

A configurable full-color head-up display showing speed and navigation is offered and reviews well, but it is bundled into the optional Technology Package on Premium Luxury and Sport only — it cannot be ordered on the base Luxury at any price, and even a mid-trim buyer has to buy a bundle to get it. Available but top-trim-gated is the criterion's middle band.

Three rows standard with wide-opening rear doors, available tip-and-slide captain's chairs that make third-row access easy, IIHS-Acceptable LATCH hardware and an available hands-free power liftgate cover daily family logistics well. Two real limits keep it out of the top band: 12.6 cu ft behind the third row is overwhelmed by a full-size stroller plus groceries, and the third row has no lower anchors at all — only top tethers.

A 5-star NHTSA overall result and standard AEB, blind-spot detection, rear cross-traffic alert and lane-departure prevention are undercut badly for family duty by the 2024 car's IIHS record: Poor in the updated moderate overlap front test specifically because the rear-seat dummy submarined under the lap belt, and Marginal in pedestrian AEB. That is precisely the occupant a family buyer is shopping for. Compounding it, adaptive cruise control cannot be ordered on the base Luxury at all and rear automatic braking is package content.

A quiet cabin, standard tri-zone climate, a standard panoramic sunroof, heated second-row seats on Premium Luxury and six USB ports make the first two rows a pleasant place for a long haul. The seven-passenger case is where it falls down: 29.5 in of third-row legroom is a short-trip proposition, 12.6 cu ft behind that row cannot carry seven people's luggage, and no rear-seat entertainment system is offered.

The naturally aspirated 3.6L V6 in the volume trim is smooth and untemperamental in stop-and-go traffic, the cabin is well isolated, the tall glass gives good sightlines, and the console rotary controller keeps the small screen usable on the move. Against that, the nine-speed is hesitant to kick down at low speed, Edmunds calls the throttle tip-in oversensitive enough to make low-speed drivability tricky, and there is no lane centering at all unless a buyer climbs the whole option stack to Super Cruise.

21 MPG combined and about $2,950 a year in fuel put the V6 XT6 among the more expensive ways to commute in this class, with no hybrid option to blunt city driving — a criticism reviewers made of the XT6 throughout its run. Two things keep it off the floor: the V6 runs on regular gasoline, and the 2024 car is EPA-rated 1 MPG better combined than the otherwise identical 2025.

At about 199 in long, 77 in wide and with a 39-ft curb-to-curb turning circle this is a genuine mid-size footprint that needs deliberate parking. The tall glass and standard front and rear park assist help, but HD Surround Vision and Automatic Parking Assist are locked inside the optional Technology Package rather than standard, so the volume car as commonly configured works off mirrors and a single rear view.

A 4,000-lb maximum rating with the V6 and the trailering package covers a small utility trailer or a pair of jet skis, and 78.7 cu ft of flat load floor is usable cargo space. But that rating requires the right engine and the right box ticked — every other 2024 configuration, including all 2.0T models, tows just 1,000 lbs — and a 4,362-lb unibody luxury crossover has no payload or powertrain headroom for sustained work duty.

Mechanically reassuring: the 3.6L LGX V6 and nine-speed automatic are long-serving, high-volume GM units on a platform shared with the Acadia, XT5 and Traverse and built at Spring Hill alongside them. What makes it a poor hard-use candidate is everything above the chassis — a leather-trimmed luxury cabin, 20-inch wheels on the volume trims, no vinyl or work-grade interior option, and no fleet or commercial history at all.

Provisions amount to a dealer hitch package with a 4-pin harness, roof cross rails and carpeted cargo tie-downs. There is no onboard 120V outlet on any 2024 trim, no bed, no washable surfaces and no work-focused upfit ecosystem behind the vehicle — the criterion's bottom band, and appropriately so for a luxury crossover.

A well-isolated cabin, supportive heated-and-ventilated front seats and roughly 460 miles from the AWD model's 22-gallon tank at 21 MPG combined make it a competent mile-eater. Fatigue-reducing driver assistance is where it gives ground: adaptive cruise control is optional and unavailable entirely on the base Luxury, and Super Cruise for 2024 is a standalone option requiring three prerequisite packages — roughly a $13,950 climb — on Premium Luxury or Sport only.

Twin-clutch AWD with an Off-Road drive-mode calibration, roof cross rails for bikes and boxes and a 4,000-lb tow rating handle gravel roads, trailheads and a small toy hauler perfectly well. What rules out genuine backcountry or camping duty is 6.7 in of ground clearance, all-season tyres, no skid plates, no low range and no 120V onboard power.

Folding the second and third rows opens a flat 78.7 cu ft hold, and roof cross rails plus a dealer hitch extend that to bikes and cargo boxes — solid mid-band flexibility. The weak point is the 12.6 cu ft well behind the third row, which is small for a seven-seater and means flexibility collapses exactly when the vehicle is fully occupied.

Secure and more nimble than its size suggests — the unibody architecture gives it livelier handling and easier low-speed manoeuvring than the body-on-frame Escalade, and Consumer Reports found it handles like a much smaller vehicle without excessive body lean. But it is a 2020-vintage crossover on the Traverse/Acadia wheelbase family with no performance ambition, and body-motion control is the specific weakness: even the adaptive-damper Sport absorbed sharp impacts while letting the residual vertical motions run on. Mid-pack against the Audi Q7 and Acura MDX, well behind a BMW X5.

The XT6's most criticized dynamic trait, and 2024 reviews are blunt about it: the steering is accurate enough to place the car but returns nothing through the rim, and front-drive versions add torque steer under hard acceleration — a poor look in a $50,000-plus luxury three-row. Weighting is consistent and the ratio is fine; there is simply no feedback.

One of the XT6's solid areas. Instrumented stops from 60 mph average about 120 ft — par for a 4,400-lb mid-size crossover — with pedal feel and straight-line stability both praised and no fade reported in repeated stops. Braking hardware is unchanged for 2024, and the Sport trim adds six-piston Brembo front calipers. Good rather than class-leading.

The naturally aspirated 3.6L LGX in the volume Premium Luxury is genuinely smooth and lag-free, and the nine-speed slips between ratios unnoticed at part throttle. The calibration is what undercuts it: Edmunds reports an oversensitive throttle tip-in that makes low-speed drivability tricky, the transmission is slow to kick down and often needs two downshifts to find a ratio, and owners report light-throttle shudder from the 9T65 in the 25–50 mph range.

Near-silent at a cruise — the acoustically insulated cabin is one of the XT6's clearest wins over its Traverse and Acadia siblings — and the V6 is vibration-free at idle and light load. Under hard acceleration the LGX gets loud and, by several accounts, coarse rather than tuneful, which keeps it out of the top band.

39.0 ft curb-to-curb is unremarkable for a mid-size SUV — mid-band, and a consequence of the 112.7-in wheelbase shared with the XT5 and Acadia rather than of the XT6's own length. Unchanged for 2024, which GM Authority confirms as a no-significant-changes model year; larger-wheel trims sit at the top of the quoted range.

Sightlines are good — tall glass, an upright greenhouse and a commanding hip point — and the dashboard is uncluttered, with the touchscreen operable either by touch or the console rotary controller that testers like. Adjustability is what holds it back: Consumer Reports' testers were frustrated by the restricted seat and steering-wheel adjustment ranges, and Edmunds notes only two-way lumbar and no thigh-cushion extension — real problems for taller and shorter drivers at this price.

Nobody recommends the XT6 to a driver. It is competent, quiet and pleasant enough with a smooth V6, but the numb steering, deliberate transmission and total absence of distinguishing character make it an appliance — and 2024 is a carry-over year that changed nothing about how it drives, adding only paint colours and accent packages.

The $50,190 base Luxury is decently stocked for the cheapest three-row luxury SUV on sale — UltraView panoramic sunroof, Bose audio, tri-zone automatic climate, heated power front seats, remote start, LED headlights, wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and a standard ADAS set (forward collision warning, low-speed automatic emergency braking, lane keep assist, blind zone and rear cross traffic alert, Safety Alert Seat). What holds it mid-band is what money cannot buy on it: adaptive cruise control is not available on the Luxury trim at all, every trim shares the same 8.0-inch CUE screen, upholstery is synthetic leather, and wireless charging, navigation and ventilated seats wait for Premium Luxury. It rates a notch above the 2025 car only because Super Cruise was still separately orderable for $2,500 in 2024 rather than locked inside an eleven-thousand-dollar Platinum Package.

Price is the XT6's whole argument and in 2024 it was a real one: $50,190 delivered undercut every other three-row luxury crossover, and the $56,390 volume Premium Luxury bought a 310-hp V6, real leather, 14-speaker Bose, navigation and one of the roomiest third rows in the class. The counterweights are content age and running cost — an 8.0-inch screen on a 2019-vintage architecture, no hybrid anywhere in the range, EPA figures reviewers repeatedly called disappointing — and the case inverts at the top, where a loaded Sport crests $70,000 against rivals that are demonstrably more luxurious for the money. Consumer Reports quantified exactly this split, recommending the car overall while scoring it just 49/100 on value.

Three well-spaced trims (Luxury, Premium Luxury, Sport) spanning roughly $50K to $70K loaded, front-drive standard with a $2,000 AWD option on the two lower trims and twin-clutch performance AWD standard on Sport, a second-row bench or captain's chairs for six- or seven-passenger seating, and — unlike 2025 — Super Cruise orderable as a standalone $2,500 option rather than bundled. The gaps are real: the 2.0L turbo four is confined to the base trim and the V6 to everything above it, so there is no engine choice within a trim, and there is no hybrid, PHEV or V-Series variant in a class where electrified three-rows were becoming common.

A low-volume also-ran in a growing class, and the trajectory was flat at best. XT6 deliveries fell about 5% over the first nine months of 2024 to 13,387 units, placing it 11th–12th of fourteen entries in the luxury E-utility segment, before a 38% Q4 jump lifted the full year back to roughly 18,500 — a rebound that came alongside brand-wide momentum and active incentives rather than any change to the car. For context, GM needed to combine the XT6 with the Buick Enclave to reach an 11% segment share in Q3.

Cadillac was in decent shape in 2024 — 160,204 US deliveries, its best year since 2016, with the Escalade the top-selling large luxury SUV for an eleventh straight year and the Lyriq leading electric mid-size luxury SUVs — and the brand landed essentially at the premium-sector average in J.D. Power's 2024 APEAL study. The XT6 draws less of that halo than other Cadillacs: its defining critical complaint is that it never escaped its Traverse/Acadia origins, Consumer Reports logged only an approximate 3/5 owner satisfaction rating, and resale lands at par rather than as a brand bonus.

Buyers did well on this car. Cadillac ran stackable national programs on the 2024 XT6 nearly every month — up to $2,500 off, subvented financing (2.9% APR for 36 months in August, 3.9% by October) paired with $1,000 in finance cash and a $1,000 purchase allowance, a nationwide lease on the Luxury trim plus local market leases on the higher trims — and slow segment placement kept dealers negotiable. It stops short of the top band because the allowances are moderate in absolute dollars on a $56K vehicle, and slightly below the 2025 car's score because the end-of-run clearance money that came with the final model year was not yet on the table.

The worst item in the category. 2024 is the fifth model year of a first generation that launched for 2020 and never received a mid-cycle refresh — the anticipated 2024 update was cancelled, and GM Authority's own year-over-year summary reduces the changes to new exterior paint options plus a small extension of Super Cruise road coverage. The architecture dates to 2019, the CUE screen is 8.0 inches when rivals had moved to much larger displays, and there is no electrified option. It rates slightly above the 2025 car only because a 2024 buyer had not yet been told the nameplate was ending.

2024 is the XT6's best year on this measure, which is why it rates above the surrounding model years without approaching the segment's leaders. Consumer Reports recommended it for the first time in the nameplate's life, placing it 3rd of nine luxury midsize three-row SUVs at 72/100 with a 76/100 road test, praising ride, quietness and transmission. Everyone else lands on well-reviewed-but-never-the-pick: Edmunds 7.3/10 after road and track testing, U.S. News 7.9/10, Autoblog "comfortable and capable, but not a class leader." It carries no major 2024 awards, and the credential it used to have is gone — the earlier Top Safety Pick+ run ended once IIHS's updated moderate-overlap and side tests produced two Poor ratings on the 2024 car.