Used 2019 Cadillac XTS Premium Luxury Sedan Review

The 2019 Cadillac XTS delivers on Cadillac's traditional strengths with a smooth ride, quiet cabin, a big back seat and classy styling. It's a smart pick if you want a luxury sedan without the sporty pretenses of Cadillac's sportier sedans, such as a stiffer ride.

That's not to say the XTS can't hustle. Although the standard V6 struggles to propel this big sedan with any urgency, the 304-horsepower engine does fine once up to speed. There's more magic from the 410-hp turbo V6 that comes with the top V-Sport trim, which offers the immediate pickup we love from Cadillac's past. But it's also available only in the fully loaded trim, which may be overkill for most drivers. It's fast but perhaps not feasible for your budget.

It's hard to go wrong with any of the XTS trims, whether you just want a standard set of luxury and tech features or more modern conveniences and all-wheel drive. Recent updates have included more comfortable seats and increased sound deadening for reduced road and wind noise. For 2019, the XTS gets a larger, higher-powered smartphone charging pad, but it otherwise carries over its luxury formula unchanged.

Whichever XTS you choose, you'll get a sharp luxury sedan with loads of room, especially in back, and a comfortable, quiet ride.

The 2019 Cadillac XTS is a five-passenger large sedan available in five trim levels: base, Luxury, Premium Luxury, Platinum and the turbocharged Platinum V-Sport. The base trim (called simply XTS) comes nicely equipped with a fair amount of luxury and tech, while the Luxury amps things up with features such as heated front and rear seats and a navigation system. The Premium Luxury adds more desirable tech features, and the Platinum loads up with the best of the Cadillac catalog. The Platinum V-Sport also comes fully loaded and adds a more powerful engine.

The XTS comes equipped with a 3.6-liter V6 engine (304 horsepower, 264 pound-feet of torque) paired with a six-speed automatic transmission and front-wheel drive. All-wheel drive is available on all but the base trim.

Standard features on the base model include 19-inch wheels, LED headlights, heated mirrors, rear parking sensors, keyless ignition and entry, dual-zone automatic climate control, eight-way power front seats, leather upholstery, a power-adjustable steering wheel, and 60/40-split folding rear seats with a cargo pass-through. Tech features include a rearview camera, Bluetooth, OnStar (with a 4G LTE data connection and Wi-Fi hotspot), an 8-inch touchscreen, two USB ports, wireless smartphone charging, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone integration, and an eight-speaker Bose audio system with satellite radio.

The Luxury trim adds automatic wipers, auto-dimming mirrors, ambient interior lighting, driver-seat memory settings, a heated steering wheel, heated and ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, a navigation system, front parking sensors, and an automatic parking system (front-wheel-drive models only).

An optional Driver Awareness package for the Luxury trim adds lane departure warning, lane keeping assist (front-wheel-drive only), blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, forward collision warning, low-speed automatic emergency braking, a vibrating safety-alert driver's seat and a surround-view camera system. A panoramic sunroof is also optional.

The Premium Luxury comes standard with the Driver Awareness package and adds 20-inch wheels, an adaptive suspension, adaptive headlights, automatic high beams, a head-up display, tri-zone climate control, adjustable front-seat thigh support, an upgraded driver-configurable gauge cluster display, a 110-volt power outlet, passenger-seat memory settings, and a 14-speaker Bose surround-sound audio system. Options include rear sunshades, 22-way massaging front seats, the panoramic sunroof and the Driver Assist package, which adds adaptive cruise control, higher-speed automatic emergency braking and reverse automatic braking.

Moving up to the Platinum adds the above options plus an electronic limited-slip differential, a simulated-suede headliner, upgraded leather upholstery, extended leather trim (center console, dash panel), and a deluxe rear armrest with audio and sunshade controls.

The Platinum V-Sport is, no surprise, equipped almost identically to the regular Platinum trim, with the exception of a turbocharged 3.6-liter V6 engine underhood (410 hp, 369 lb-ft). All-wheel drive comes standard with the V-Sport, as does a six-speed automatic transmission.

Each vehicle typically comes in multiple versions that are fundamentally similar. The ratings in this review are based on our full test of the Cadillac XTS V-Sport Premium (turbo 3.6L V6 | 6-speed automatic | AWD).

NOTE: Since this test was conducted in 2018, there have been no significant changes to the XTS.