The outside of the 2021 Cadillac XT4 AWD made us instantly love it. We quickly rethought our lust for the outside styling. The more and more we drove it, we started to realized that this would be more of a long term relationship that we’d need to put some effort into making it work. It was also tough because we get loaners for only 1 week and it’s more about quick flings than long term relationships.

Looking at the exterior of the Cadillac XT4, you can see why we were excited for this one. Cadillac’s iconic headlight and grille styling, made its way to this CUV that looks more like an oversized hatchback. The Shadow Metallic color was a great that’s subtle but stands out more than the typical silver or gray.

When you get inside, that’s when we start questioning our love for the design. The color selection for this build was a very uninspiring gray. Cadillac does offer an all black option which would be our choice but feel like a white or ivory color would work in the XT4. Even though the color was bland, the seats themselves were extremely comfortable. The placement of the armrest on both the door and the center console felt like a perfectly tailored suit.

The Cadillac XT4 was powered by a 2.0L 4-cylinder. The engine’s power was sufficient for this vehicle. The 9-speed transmission was another story. When you put the XT4 in manual mode, you can only shift with the small paddle shifters that are mounted on the steering wheel. The 9-speed seems excessive and really difficult to shift when in manual mode because they are geared extremely close. The paddle shifters were also not as responsive and sometimes didn’t even shift after multiple attempts to shift. Our advise is to keep it in D and use your right pedal to manage the shifting.

Even though the Cadillac XT4 wasn’t quite the love at first drive that we’ve had with other cars, we were able to overlook some of it’s imperfections.