I just drove a traded-in Cadillac Vistiq, and I found myself a bit conflicted. This is a brand new EV that doesn’t really feel as modern as it should, and yet, it’s so cushy to drive that I still like it. Here’s what I mean.
Last week’s Trade-in-Tuesday brought us something rather interesting. Apparently someone traded in a brand new Cadillac Vistiq for a Polestar 4, giving me a great opportunity to test drive the all-new three-row Caddy.
Here’s what I thought:
I will admit that, when researching this car, a few of my wires must have gotten crossed, as I thought the whole time that this vehicle had come out in 2023. This was the car’s sibling, the Lyriq, and though I regrettably got that wrong in the video above, in my defense, the Lyriq doesn’t exactly feel like a particularly advanced, modern EV.
I recently drove the Rivian R2 and Lucid Gravity, plus I’ve driven the R1S. These are vehicles that feel fresh; their overall vehicle packaging is impressive, with lots of interior volume, big frunks, and clever features, plus their infotainment systems look big and modern. The Lyric feels a bit last-gen in those regards.
I mean, just look at the underhood area: 
It’s a bunch of power electronics all stacked up in such a way that it reminds me of EVs of yore — ones that adapted old ways of doing things, specifically stacking a bunch of stuff on a subframe and then decking that subframe onto the body. It’s not clean or elegant, and it doesn’t leave any room for a frunk.
The interior is nice, but if you covered the badges and told me this was a Hyundai Ioniq 9, I wouldn’t be surprised. The Ioniq 9 at least has Apple Carplay and some physical switches to control things like volume and HVAC, whereas the Cadillac has a Google built-in infotainment system and relies on an upper screen and a lower, angled one that tends to smudge and glare in the sun.
With all that said, I have to give Cadillac credit for resisting the urge to have touchscreen-adjustable vent aim, and instead going with these amazing joysticks:
Interior space in the first two rows is amazing — the car is wide, tall, and downright roomy.
For adults, the third row may be a bit tight and best suited for short trips, though I’m 5’8″, and if I’m in the two rows ahead, it’s not bad. The floor is a bit tall, meaning my knees sat higher than I’d like, but otherwise it’s OK; there are cupholders, speakers, USB ports, and vents back there.
Speaking of the tall floor in the rear, this leads to a squished cargo area.
The roof dips a bit in the back, presumably for aero reasons. It, along with the tall floor, combine to create a rather short rear aperture, so you can forget about loading big couches into this thing.
As for how the Vistiq drives, the answer is: Great. 615 horsepower means the 6,300-pound beast gets to 60 mph in under 4 seconds; the ride quality — while not exactly a magic carpet — is good, the seats are cushy, and just in general, the cabin is a great place to relax.
“It’s extremely comfortable and powerful, and it’s got a lot of presence to it. I could drive this thing all day, cross-country,” I say in the Trade-In-Tuesday YouTube video above. “It’s hard for me to hate a car that’s this comfortable and this baller.”
Is the visibility amazing out the back? No.
Is the Vistiq particularly efficient? No; it’s about as efficient as the boxy Rivian R1S.
Still. I know it’s not particularly space-efficient, which is unfortunate since packaging is a key way electric cars — which all have similar torque curves, similarly low centers of gravity, similarly quiet powertrains, and generally similar powertrain performance — can distinguish themselves. I know the Vistiq is not particularly energy efficient. I know its interior doesn’t look amazing. I know rear visibility isn’t amazing. I know there’s no CarPlay.
And yet, I walk away liking the 305-mile-range, $~80,000 Vistiq. And it all comes down to one fact: The thing is baller. The looks, the interior comfort, the way the SUV makes you feel when you’re behind the wheel. It’s just cool.
I can’t help but imagine this thing would ride a lot nicer with a more reasonable rim and tire spec. I’d take a Crown or lightly used Venza hybrid any day over this thing.
yeah but those rims look like turbojet intakes, which is pretty cool
Until you take a bird through one, lol.
The tech seems outdated, but even the car is murdered out like it’s 2005. Did the prev owner wear No Fear t-shirts and pound Monsters all day?
I can never see what black on black cars with tints look like.
A Drawn Together snippet! My heart swoons…
I wish I was a little bit taller, I wish I was a baller
I wish I had a girl who looked good, I would call her
I wish I had a rabbit in a hat with a bat
And a ’64 Impala…
The problem with GM (could be good depending the angle of this) is that they are using their ICE electrical architecture for EVs, making their wiring big, chunky, heavy, gross. Rivian and others put some effort when they started from scratch and made clever design decisions.
Their next generations better have wiring half the size and weight.
I’m disappointed by the interior space, or lack thereof, for the size and price.
I DO like the design language, though.
My in-laws get Caddys and the interiors of those vehicles are so damn tight and claustrophobic. I’ve not been impressed with any of the vehicles they’ve had so far.
Wouldn’t want to step on the Escalade’s toes!
That does seem like an issue for most 3-row crossovers, though. At least the ones that don’t look like a minivan with worse doors. Start with an already high load floor and then have to squeeze seats back there and you end up with a short cargo area.
It’s stupid ugly.
What’s baller about a mom mobile? LOL
Maybe you meant ‘mob mobile?’ It’s mate black, with huge rims, and no shiny parts. Maybe all the mothers in your area actually mobsters.
David’s positive review talked me out of considering getting one of these used.
For decades GM core competency has not been as an automaker but a money maker. GM execs dont care about cars at all but profits, they just happened to land a job there and would have made the same profit optimizations anywhere else they landed. This is why all GM products appear half-assed, they appear at first glance to be competitive but very soon notice there is no heart there, no desire to make anything that is actually great or innovative (which is both risky and costly and the last thing you need when you optimize for quarterly profits). GM needs to go bankrupt to make room for other companies that makes innovative, quality vehicles
This is the entire economy now. Ever since the cult of shareholder value took over in the 80s, with very few exceptions, every major company has pivoted from making stuff to making money, and the stuff all sucks now.
The Ex-Old-Site-Adjacent-Comrades at Defector are very on point here: https://defector.com/how-will-the-golden-age-of-making-it-worse-end?giftLink=a01fa3b4df8638a22ffecea3bb5f2d25
We can all thank Jack Welch and Ronald Reagan
Greed is, in fact, Not good.
I think the entire counter argument to this is the Corvette and anything on the Alpha platform. There very clearly are car people within GM because no exclusively profit driven company would go so hard in those markets.
GM has always been chock full of genuine car people who happen to be incredible engineers that want to build amazing shit, but they get shot down by bean counters. Every once in a while the bean counters slip up, or the engineers hide it well enough that a gem slips through.
I’m not sure this is one of the gems.
6G Camaro Zl1 manual owner can attest, alpha platform is the jam…
Super late reply
I think this is little more than appeasement to the actual car guys who work there. Usually requires an exec or two who are sold on the pitch, and want one themselves. Then they get justified as ‘marketing’ as halo cars in the budget, so the bean counters don’t completely lose their minds.
But it’s hideous.
This is good advertising for your shirts. I can’t see a trace of Vistiq on it.
The giant dash screen is exactly the same one in the Buick Envision I currently have as a rental. It’s not the worst, other than the steering wheel blocks part of it. They keep that space of the screen relatively clear of icons (other than turning the HUD on/off) since they know the wheel blocks it. It still makes it FEEL badly designed, even knowing they worked around the limitation. But it’s definitely quick and responsive, so I give GM credit for that.
No Carplay, but it’s got Google, about the worst company for spying and data theft. It is nice to read that it rides well, though I don’t know if it’s something like an old Cadillac (with better steering) or relative to rather unimpressive modern cars.
Okay David define Baller? I know you are not that up on the hipster or GenX slang so my guess is whoever edited this slipped it in as a lark.
Baller has been in use since at least the 90s, which means DT has recently learned about it.
It also means I just learned about it.
Pretty soon he’ll learn about “Yo Momma” jokes.
Plus, as all TH viewers will know, you can than ask people if they want ride
onin Vistiq“And yet, I walk away liking the 305-mile-range, $~80,000 Vistiq.”
I’d like it a lot more at $20k, even if that price came with a non-baller Chevy bowtie.
The Vistiq is clearly somewhat ‘old GM’ in that it’s an inexpensive new hat on an existing chassis — the under-hood space and the dash layout give away that it relies heavily on the engineering of the Lyriq which is 3-4 years older than the Vistiq, and because that car was delayed by a year-and-a-half (due to the pandemic) it’s riding on bones that are almost a full product cycle old — more, when compared to the 3-4 year cycles that the Mainland China OEMs are doing as they get up to speed.
There’s a very obvious constraint where GM doesn’t want to launch all their EV SUVs at once for some reason, but that’s led to this slow trickle of what are effectively the same car in 2 wheelbases and 2 trim levels (Chevrolet and Cadillac)
I appreciate the insight, Sam!
I probably need to know your credentials for declaring things “cool” or “baller.”
It’s an overpriced piece of crap. $80K for a machine that takes one boringly from Point A to Point B, and expensively, I might add? 39kWh per 100 Miles (per EPA, Edmunds tested it worse than that)? Maybe for $40K, and if I were in the market and part of the target demographic, I’d be interested.
Sure, it’s on the lot that you are forced to “advertise” here. Don’t think we don’t understand the gun pointed at your head. Guessing every car for sale on all of their lots are “cool” or “baller.”
Naw, if it were shit I’d say it’s shit. Which is why the review you see above is more critical than any Vistiq review on the web. I keep it 1000.
If you thought it was shit you’d skip it and move on to the next vehicle on the lot.
I’ll stick with the rusty Jeep articles. I can feel your soul in those.
Didn’t even slam the shittiq name.
Your critique of the Vistiq was oblique.
Nope, I’ve ripped on plenty of Trade-In Tuesday vehicles. Check them out on our YouTube channel! If anything, it’s easier to evaluate a crappy vehicle!
Baller doesn’t equal cool.
Baller is trashy plus money.
This vehicle is baller af.
I wouldn’t say “trashy,” more like “gaudy,” but yeah, still agree overall. If this were 2003, this dang thing would be in every rap music video with spinners, underglow, and giant speakers.
The color and wheels do it no favors, if it were a deep but vibrant jewel tone red, blue or green with silver wheels with half the spokes it’d look a lot classier.
Feels like the front end of those cars is growing and growing, until one day it will envelop the cabin, and they will reinvent the bus. It will also probably be bigger than one as well.
Sounds like it’s a baby Escalade. That’s a good thing.
Yes. But. At that point get an Escalade!
I’ve never understood the mid-size caddy buyer though.
I probably will later in life.
Or not!
But its a real segment, can’t question that!
Uhh, this is about $30k-$50k cheaper than the electric Escalade IQ depending on trims. This car is under $100k in top trim so that’s a big percentage.
I hate frunks and after being in the business for 16+ years, I’ve never met a customer who cared about them. Ever. And I do deal with EVs. Frunks are one of those things that automotive journalists love, but regular people don’t care about.
What I have experienced, is the proliferation of unnecessary soft touch plastics everywhere in cars and unsightly USB-C ports being placed only in places where you can’t hide them…All thanks to automotive journalists!
Are these an improvement? No.
Automotive journalists love to say that everything needs to be soft touch–but soft touch scratches and mars and you can’t repair it, only replace, and it’s too expensive to replace. Harder plastics can sometimes be repaired. Making the underside of a glovebox softer plastic where it can get scuffed isn’t doing the consumer any favors.
Similarly, automotive journalists, since they’re in different cars all the time, have made the entire industry move to having exposed ports for devices so they can find where to plug in. If I buy a car, I know where the plugs are and I want them hidden away so there aren’t unsightly cords everywhere… But this isn’t a choice anymore because automotive journalists decided that their inconvenience is more important than good, minimalist design.
Say no to frunks. I just want all the car nonsense I’m not going to deal with under there! Washer fluid for the win!!
No one ever calls out how Tesla and Rivian both don’t offer Apple CarPlay and have worse reliability than Land Rover or Alfa Romeo by far. They have frunks, though!
Wow, tell us how you really feel!
I’m pro-frunk because of the anti-theft element, but I’m also OK if an automaker foregoes it for a tighter, more efficient interior package. What I don’t like is wasted space or a bunch of hardware just stacked up; I like things integrated tightly.
As for hard plastics vs soft touch? To me, it depends on the application and the location of the plastics. A hard touch plastic that won’t warp in the sun >>a soft touch surface that looks like a swollen marshmallow after a few years.
Love me a frunk at least big enough to store the charger cables, some gloves, an older jacket and a few wet wipes in a ziplock.
Normalizing the idea that the frunk on an electric is where charger cables, adapters, and other bits of important but infrequently used easy to lose miscellany lives would be a good thing – an at hand first place to look that’s easy to remember. Trunk compartments and other dedicated storage can be anywhere, and having the storage under the hood makes it easier to remember to put stuff back where it belongs – you’re less likely to toss the cable in the back seat and drive off because hey, there’s a hood still up!
It’s also easier to retrieve the cables from the frunk when the stern of the ship is loaded with dogs, luggage, food, strollers, etc.
Absolutely, all the arguments for under-mounted spare tires apply! Ideally, it should become ‘common sense’ that you find an electrics charging stuff under the hood. Just a feeling of ‘that’s their home, that’s where they live’, regardless of whatever car you’re in.
When you put it that way, one could argue that the frunk is the correct space for the spare tire, jack, spare bulbs, car care supplies, etc, rather than under the floor in the rear where the cargo goes.
Yeah, like an old Subaru that stored the (full size) spare over the transmission!
Yeah, exactly. The frunk is the ideal space for all the stuff that’s ‘not always, but immediately’. Cables and a charging adapter are probably in that category for a lot of people that have a home charger and use fast chargers only the road.
Today you’re more likely have a can of fix-a-flat and a small compressor. But that and some led road flares, a rechargeable light, ice scraper/snow brush, canned ham, etc.
That’s what Porsche does with Boxster, Cayman, 911.
At least the older ones that still came with spares….
The kind of stuff you can store under the floor in most ICE SUVs since you lose a lot of that space to batteries or motors in EVs.
The fact is that the Vistiq has a TON of under-hood space that’s entirely unused for styling (and probably crash protection) reasons. They could have packaged systems that sit under the rear floor or behind the dashboard there, or they could have provisioned a frunk. They did neither!
Exactly!
How about a removable frunk to cart in the necessary stuff together?
A tote bin doesn’t make room for itself.
I doubt journalist have this much influence anymore. Probably tests well with focus groups, and/or looks good on a presentation for shareholders. And is probably easier to marketing.
Hard agree on soft plastics. I wish we still had exposed metal like cars had in the past.
I’m starting to wonder if they’re just forcing what they want upon us since we’re getting so much tech in all spheres of life that nobody I know from blue collar to doctors are asking for or seem to want.
Oh, I think this is 100% true, especially because the markup on those things is probably huge. It loves me some tech, but there’s a difference between useful and gimminicky, and the scale has tipped towards the latter since, what, 2016?
I agree. I sound like a Luddite now (who get a bad rap), but I used to embrace technology. It’s just that for at least the last decade, the tech is of little to use to the user, but a big source of revenue and opportunity for spying and control by the purveyor.
Dude.
Breathe.
And what we consumers want aren’t USB plugs – but wireless charging/bluetooth connectivity. At no extra cost.
And Frunks.
All the Frunking Frunks.
But we do not want hard, brittle plastics like the map pockets and interior door handles on Mom’s old Volvo 240 either.
Soft is good.
If you put something in it, it costs. Nothing is free please understand that. What you are saying is I want the people who don’t want what I want to pay for the stuff I want that they don’t want
That’s not what I’m saying at all.
I want softer plastics and am happy to pay for it.
If someone else doesn’t want it – I’m sure there are other options for them too which I am uninterested in.
One size does not fit all.
They weren’t all brittle and soft touch often deteriorates in worse ways quicker.
I’m interested in how you repair scratches in hard plastics. In my experience, the best result is you didn’t make it even worse, which is far more likely.
I’ve found just painting scratched hard plastic can work wonders.
I imagine painting it would fill the scratches well. Then it would be a matter of whether the paint will bond well, or flake off.
I once had to reverse a inner side mirror cover panel tweeter install gone wrong on my XJ. I had drilled out a 1″ hole to fit the tweeter because like an idiot I drilled before I properly thought it out.
My frantic plan was to glue the circle back into the hole on a piece of plastic backing, use a bit of plastic filler to fill the gap and paint it. Unfortunately I found out the hard way acetone was the wrong solvent to use on that plastic too. Even so after carefully gluing the circle in place, filling in the gap, texturing the filler a bit and spraying the paint the pieces looked almost perfect. I had to look closely to see anything was amiss. Within a few weeks I had forgotten anything had happened.
After that I was a believer. The key was to use paint intended for automotive trim plastics, available at any auto parts store.
I’ve been in a shop where they did work once with acetone and acrylic and it’s like magic, very impressive.
Acetone can craze acrylic. I found that out the hard way too.
I paid “dr vinyl” $50 to repair a damaged hard plastic interior panel – the repair texture was 99% and the color was 95% match. Unless someone knew where to look the repair was hidden.
But be honest YOU always knew where to look
There used to be a process you would melt a compound place it on the damaged area use a mold to kind of match the grain and let it cure.
It can be covered with upholstery or graphic vinyl, painted, or otherwise refinished in a similar way to paint (though I found results to vary at my fairly low skill and patience level). More importantly, since it’s almost always a thermoplastic, if it gets cracked, it’s readily weldable.
I could see howvwith a split part of a suitable shape you might be able to soften it enough but not too much, then push the two sides together.
I’ve wondered surface scratches might be “healed” by applying just enough heat with a torch to melt the frayed burr back to smooth.
If it’s cracked cleanly and you have one visible side, you can grind out the back in a V and weld from the back. Do it right and you shouldn’t see anything more than the hairline of where the crack was. There are some plastics you can clean up the surface with heat, but it’s not a technique I’ve used.
“Test suitability in a concealed area.”
That’s the smart advice I never follow.
There are a handful of people getting paid to write critical automotive reviews.
The influencers will say whatever they are told to until they are all just replaced with AIs spouting straight press releases.
I think you’re overstating the power of automotive journalists and the amount of pre-purchase reading happens in the average vehicle transaction. Most mouth breathers are caught off-guard by their interest rate / monthly payment / loan term / loan amount after underwater trade-in (pick at least two from that list).
Hey some of us mouth breathers have severe allergies that require breathing through the mouth to you know like live. In fact we require medical devices just to get a refreshing night’s sleep. It’s not like the nasal people are coming off well
I wrote that in the middle of my mouth-breathing season until these allergies go away for the winter.
Frunks would be great if used for the right reason. Leave the back for cargo but the frunk for spare tire, custom tool kit, spare gas can for the hybrid, a fire extinguisher emergency first aid kit anything vital you don’t want buried in your luggage
My ’90 Legacy had hard plastics, but their “cheap” looks were very durable and I greatly prefer that to soft touch that can degrade into a sticky, nasty mess. And it was blue. Try finding a car with an actual color interior nowadays. Color is also something I’ll gladly take that over black soft touch.
Sixty years ago, I had a frunk in my Corvair . . . I was not impressed. A serious amount of room was lost to wheel wells big enough to give the front wheels space to, duh, turn. Better to create (more!) secure space in back, than up front, regardless of the drivetrain choices. About the only places where frunks start to make sense is in full-size EV pickups, where they supplement the open bed, in back.
Could it be the two are related? I for sure wouldn’t mention my ardent desire for frunks should I see you foaming at the mouth at their mention 😛
How can one hate extra storage space that comes in place of machinery?!?
The only time I hate my frunk is when I forget it’s there and I pack the trunk to the gills.
The F150 Lightning owners I know, me included, absolutely love the frunk. It’s the size of a hot tub and means you have a vehicle with a giant trunk plus a truck bed.
No CarPlay = no GM
So it’s not the most energy efficient, it’s not at all space efficient, but it’s relatively comfortable and makes you look like you’re driving something more expensive.
It’s a 21st Century Cadillac Series 62/Calais.
You should write my headlines
I’ll have my people call your people.
It has exactly the same rear light signature as the twice-as-expensive Escaladeiq!
Pretty much the equivalent of making love to your significant other then experience premature ejaculation and her saying it was fine.