After bringing you the very first leak and completely uncovered shots of the 2020 Cadillac XT5 facelift, GM has officially revealed the new XT5 in China. Although the updates are very minor, GM says that the vehicle gains 30 enhancements when compared to the 2019 model, some of which are rather noteworthy.
For starters, the 2020 Cadillac XT5 introduces Cadillac’s Y trim level structure, with the new vehicle now being available in Luxury (base), Premium Luxury and Sport trim levels.
The Premium Luxury model features a new grille with a bright metallic pattern very similar to that seen on the Cadillac XT4 Premium Luxury, along with bright exterior details, including the window surround and roof rails.
By comparison, the Sport model features a darker grille with a design inspired by Cadillac V-Series models, along with black body accents on the lower grille lines, window surround, and roof rails. In addition, the XT5 Sport features transparent taillight housings.
Inside, the 2020 Cadillac XT5 facelift remains mostly identical to the 2017, 2018, and 2019 models, while adding several updates. The most notable change is the addition of the new rotary controller for the third-generation CUE infotainment system, which was initially introduced on the 2019 Cadillac XT4. The rotary controls feature a primary wheel with physical buttons around it, along with a smaller volume control above it.
In addition, the 2020 Cadillac XT5 interior adds a switch/button to deactivate the automatic engine stop-start system, finally putting an end to those who detest the fuel-saving feature. There’s also the second-generation GM Rear Camera Mirror, which was introduced for the first time on the 2019 XT4 2019 and 2019 CT6.
The second-gen Rear Camera Mirror features various improvements, including a frameless mirror design, increased brightness adjustments (from 3 to 5), a zoom function, tilt/position adjustment of the camera, and an increase in the screen and camera resolutions from 1280×240 pixels in the first-gen to 1440×300 in the second-gen.
Finally, there’s a small update to the gear selector, which brings the XT5’s Electronic Precision Shift interface in line with the all-new 2020 Cadillac CT5 and CT4.
Under the hood, the 2020 Cadillac XT5 facelift gets GM’s newest turbocharged 2.0L I4 LSY engine with the TriPower moniker making 237 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. It will be mated to the new GM nine-speed automatic transmission, which replaces the Aisin-sourced 8-speed automatic on the 2017, 2018, and 2019 models. This combination will be the only powertrain option in the Chinese market. In North America, the boosted four-banger will be the base 2020 Cadillac XT5 engine, while offering the naturally aspirated 3.6L V6 LGX as an option on the Premium Luxury trim and including it as standard on the Sport trim.

GM turbocharged 2.0L I-4 LSY engine
Since its introduction in April 2016, the XT5 has become Cadillac’s best-selling model. And with the arrival of the 2020 Cadillac XT5 facelift, the midsize crossover becomes aligned with the brand’s trim level hierarchy intended to better meet the needs of luxury car buyers the world over, while joining the all-new XT4 and XT6 in Cadillac’s ever-expanding crossover portfolio.
We are expecting an official debut in the coming weeks, and a market launch in the third quarter of 2019.
Subscribe to GM Authority as we bring you the latest Cadillac XT5 news, Cadillac news, and ongoing GM news coverage.
Source: Cadillac Society
Comments
Still fugly…
This is so funny, the brand new Cadillac models (CT4,CT5,XT6,XT4) don’t even have fully digital instrument cluster.
This is a freaking SHAME.
Its more than a shame, it’s incompetence.
It is nice to have that feature as an option..But many do still prefer having actual dials with a small screen in the middle.
I know I digress to another segment but think of the new 3-series, many fans wish they still had the ability to choose between full digital or not.
They can. Here you go:
Base:
https://www.tflcar.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/2019-bmw-3-series-leak-interior.jpg
Wow even the base dash looks better than the optional dash of the CT5/XT6…
Cadillac is so so so behind. Sigh
And here is what u can get if u pay:
https://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.4043515.1538424848!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/gallery_1200/2019-bmw-3-series-black-leather-interior-dashboard.jpg
I had the pleasure of getting an XT5 as my rental last week and I loved the layout of the gauge cluster (among other things). To each his own.
Agreed. I hate the new digital trend.
Uglier for sure especially the back side. What a shame tacky wins again at cadillac. Great progress in technology and performance shame about the outer design.
Kwest
In the U.S. Cadillac has sold 178,000 XT5s in Just 3 years. And still one of the best selling luxury vehicles on the market.
Obviously a large number of people like the way it looks.
AMEN!!
My mom, her sister and my dads brother-in-law all bought one around the same time and everyone loves theirs!!
I’ll admit, I wish the materials were a little better inside, but its pretty fast, it gets great mileage (I’ve personally gotten up to 31 MPG on long HYW trips), its quiet, and the sunroof is awesome! There is nothing this car cannot do. Its fantastic in the snow, we’ve even moved a 70in TV in it…. great car. And unlike our 2014 CTS, its only had one minor problem (which was the drivers side heat not working) in 41k miles.
Even my dad (who is not a Cadillac guy at all) was impressed…..as was I.
What an utter Joke. Wow
How is this a refresh? You mean it received a new Grill? LOL
Cadillac should be sold and forgotten….
Must deactivate stop/start every time vehicle is started according to official chat line. The nuisance persists!
Every, I mean every manufacture that I have seen that has the button has to do it every time you start the vehicle. Its possible some might be changing this option. So right no its no different than anyone else, and the start/stop issue is so blown up its ridiculous. Regarding the styling of the car. Just because people here may not like it, the buying public does so that is all that matters. So why mess with success when its a very nice vehicle.
Instead spending a bunch of money on refresh they can spend more on the new vehicle in couple of years.
Exactly what Joe said.
The refresh might not seem awesome or exciting to enthusiasts, but it will be very much great, exciting and highly attractive to the other 99% of luxury car buyers out there – the people who are the target market for this car. And it will sell, as much or better as it was selling before.
One small point: BMW’s implementation of auto stop/start is a perpetual disable or enable that doesn’t get reset at each ignition cycle. There are a few other OEMs that have it this way as well, nicking Mercedes and Audi (on some models). The addition of a disable switch is sufficient to correct the customer dissatisfier that this system was to some owners of the 2017, 2018 and 2019 XT5.
Im a simple man. I see Alex’s post and dislike it. This guy cant be trusted. Lied about the Escalades interior and ran away.
Looks like U dont have any insiders. Next time when u tell us ur thoughts, dont forget to mention that they are only ur thoughts and not the real fact.
Once again it was not the Slade. Its time for you to say sorry and say that u dont know. U only think its the Escalade.
“Can’t be trusted”. This is a site/forum for people who follow GM and enthusiasts, he’s not leading the UN. Even if Alex is wrong about the Escalade interior, so what, it’s a mistake. Of all the stuff this site gets correct they’re not allowed to make a few wrong calls? Simmer down
It was his thread. Lots of people from all over the intrnet think that its the Escalade now. Because of him. When u are not sure u should NOT call ur thread like this :
“Spy Shots Show 2021 Cadillac Escalade Interior For The First Time”..
People can make a wrong decision and buy smth else.
And he has not changed that thread yet.
He only showed that he has no real insiders… So yeah, Luft has no credibility now.
If people are already refusing to buy the new Escalade before its officially revealed because of what Alex posted, then they’re idiots.
Again, that one article he POSSIBLY got wrong overshadows everything else this site has gotten and continues to get correct? You must be a joy to work with lol
You know Johnny… I know that I shouldn’t, but I will bite.
First things first: it’s not a thread. It’s an article. Let’s get your terminology in order before swinging the big stick.
Second: mistakes get made, but luckily GM Authority is still accurate 99% of the time. Please show me another automotive publication with that kind of track record. I’ll wait…
Third: every automotive publication in the whole wide world published the shots you’re referring to as the Escalade. Are you suggesting that I influenced every single website out there and caused them to do so? Dang am I mighty.
Fourth: the fact that GM Authority may have mis-labeled one set of spy shots, and then updated the story to reflect that error. That makes you jump to some really overarching conclusions. When you’re in the midst of it all, with myriads of information/sources coming at you all at once, you sometimes make mistakes. Something tells me you wouldn’t fare any better.
Fifth: what’s this nonsense about running away? The article in question was updated to reflect the doubt associated with the spy photos.
Sixth: nobody made any purchase decisions base on the spy shots in question. If you think they did, you really have a lot to learn and understand about this industry and the decision making process behind the vehicle buying process.
Seventh: it’s just my opinion? Sure. It’s “just” that. Please find a more qualified source, I’d be more than willing to listen to him/her 🙂
Nah, the one running away is you. Or more accurately, you’re not running… but rather hiding behind a fake user name and an equally fake email address. Put your real name and face out there. Stake your reputation on it. Then we’ll be talking.
—
K: thank you so much for the kind words and for coming to our defense. I sincerely appreciate it.
A.L. – over and out.
are u mad bro lol
Just tell me, is it that the Escalade or not?
I know better than to get mad at faceless internet trolls like yourself. But are you mad… bruh? You sure sound like you’re all kinds of sour. It’s not a good look, homes.
And no cuz, not the Escalade, bro. Any further questions, brewski?
By the way, this here report you’re reading and commenting on – on the 2020 Cadillac XT5? Cadillac Society and GM Authority were the FIRST IN THE WORLD to report on it, even before Cadillac released the images. I wonder how someone who you describe as supposedly having “no sources” gets to do that. You pickin’ up what I’m puttin’ down, home slice?
“And no cuz, not the Escalade, bro. Any further questions, brewski?”
Then change the NAME of that article.
Newsflash: there is a WHOLE OTHER article in the works that you don’t even know about, and it’s coming in the next day or two. These things don’t grow on trees; they take time, focus and work to produce. That article will aim to set the record straight.
That, my dear troll creature, is a much better and more effective approach than changing the name of an old article that has already been forgotten.
Luckily, I’m a professional and therefore feel significant personal responsibility for the work of GM Authority… and the plan I outlined above was happening without your aforementioned “recommendation.” Hence, your entire tirade was completely and utterly unnecessary.
On a separate but related note, allow me to ask: do you typically try and drag people’s names and reputations through the mud when you don’t like something, or is that honor solely bestowed on to me? Keep in mind that I could have blacklisted your trolly self hours ago.
Ok. Alex Luft. Johny is satisfied. Johny will be waiting.
Will aim to set the record straight?
You need some new spy shots to do that 🙂 Have you seen the real thing?
Alex… I disagree 100% with you and I live by Cadillac. I talk to Cadillac customers every day. This is not a refresh its a new grill that simple. The number one complaint I hear from Cadillac customers is “Why are they using a 4 cylinder engines I want something bigger at least a V6”. What does Cadillac do, The put a 2.0l crap engine in everything!! Did the learn nothing from the CT6 (Had to delete the 2.0L cause no one wanted it)? The answer is easy no they did not. Cadillac customers want vehicles with power and we now have a huge lack of that. On a side note, We are not attractive to 15% of the luxury car buyers look at the numbers. So I fail to see how this XT5 which is on the market right now with a different grill is going to be attractive to 99% of the buyers out there. Maybe we need so people to stop drinking the kool aid and point out the issues before Cadillac is no longer a brand.
Glad we both live and breathe Cadillac, but I disagree with your thinking.
You mention Cadillac customers, and it’s a term that gets thrown around a lot. What is that? Who is that? That’s the question of the day. Let’s think this through, pro marketing style.
Cadillac customers can be broken out into two very general subsets of people. The first are those who are already Cadillac customers. In this case, let’s narrow that down further to existing XT5 owners/lessees. To them, the XT5 just got better by addressing the two biggest problem areas – infotainment controls and auto stop start disable button. So, existing XT5 owners end up being offered a better product than the one they currently own.
Note that these people can continue buying the XT5 with the NA 3.6L V6 engine… though about half of these buyers don’t even know what’s under the hood. They would be just as content with the new 2.0L LSY under the hood. So there’s no issues there whatsoever here with existing XT5 buyers; instead, there is only upside to those accustomed to the XT5 with the 3.6L.
Now let’s look at the second group of people that many loosely refer to as “Cadillac customers”. These people are those who are not existing customers, for one reason or another. To that end, these are POTENTIAL Cadillac customers, and therefore represent an enormous opportunity for GM/Cadillac (within the luxury car realm… we’re not talking about out-of-segment people here). There are significantly more of these people than there are EXISTING Cadillac customers.
These people currently drive luxury cars that are not Cadillacs. Notably, the well-known German trio, Lexus, and the remainder of the luxury subset. Now, these people are very much accustomed to having their D-segment luxury cars with a 2.0L turbo engine, which is the base engine for every single German competitor to the XT5. Hence, these people – if Cadillac can do all the right things to attract them to consider the Cadillac product – now have choice: stick with what they’re familiar with in the boosted four, or upgrade to the 3.6L V6. Once again, upside. Big, fat, major upside.
So you see it’s not koolaid… it’s good thinking: the existing Cadillac customer is great… and there is absolutely no reason to think that this customer is not going to like or appreciate the updates for the 2020 MY. But the bigger opportunity is the customer who doesn’t drive Cadillac at the moment.
From the sound of your comment, it appears that you sell Cadillacs. If so, then you are coming into contact with existing Cadillac customers at your store… but there is a whole world of luxury car buyers that you are not at all familIar with… because they are buying Lexus, BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Volvo, Infiniti and Acura, and traditionally have not considered Cadillac, let alone walked into a Cadillac franchise. From a business standpoint, the focus should be two-fold:
1. Retain the existing customer base,
2. Conquest non-owners.
In my prior comment, the 99% figure that you referenced in your comment is simply to showcase that the overwhelming majority of potential buyers in this space will think the 2020 XT5 refresh presented here is an improvement over the pre-facelifted model… not the other way around. It was not to say that most people desire the XT5.
I won’t buy any vehicle with this function, especially if it has to be deactivated every time. It’s ridiculous and I can’t imagine the toll it takes on the starter. GM products don’t wear well to begin with.
It takes like half a second to turn it off. I press the push button start in my car and immediately turn off auto stop/start. It’s not hard or time consuming.
Every new care has this now, my 2015 has it…
There’s a single image on Cadillac’s website.
Does anyone else notice that GM’s mid-cycle enhancements are always about half of what the competition does with theirs? I’m assuming GM is making a handsome profit on this and other SUV models, yet this is all they could muster??
Cadillac refreshes are usually on par with other manufacturers; the exception being CT6, which received such a massive overhaul that it could have been a new model.
It depends on the vehicle. The 2019 CT6 was substantial. The 2020 XT5 didn’t need as much work, as it’s already a very competitive package. What it needed more than anything was a new grille to bring it in-line with the rest of the family (for the time being) and a new trim level structure, which this update delivers.
They could have done only that and called it a day and it would continue selling like hot cakes, but they did a lot more than that (next-gen shifter, next-gen rear camera mirror, new engines, new transmission, auto stop/start disable switch, etc.).
Meanwhile, it’s important to understand where this fits into the entire strategy. The next-gen XT5 is coming much sooner than anyone currently realizes… and that’s where the focus is. We’ll have a report out on the next-gen XT5 soon.
I’m hoping this next report involves it riding atop a VSS-S that can accommodate RWD/AWD like Ford’s CD6.
Or that it’s on the VSS-R.
Or that it cuts straight to being underpinned by the BEV3 in RWD/AWD format.
Well, they sure outdid themselves on the ’19 Camaro refresh.
From the interior shot, it looks like it’ll have the Bose Performance speaker system as an option.
Knowing GM though, they cheaped out on the main speakers in the doors and they have a plastic cover instead of the metal one.
LOL What facelift. It literally looks like the XT5. What is the difference. Very disappointed ?
Man some of y’all, I don’t think anything GM does will never appease you. This product hasn’t even debuted in the NA market and it’s already not enough! It’s only a MCRs, most automaker’s especially in the luxury market don’t do revolutionary changes for MCRs. And where did the 3-series comparison come from? This doesn’t even compete with that model. Not saying it’s the best product, but that interior is far from worst in the segment. At this point I don’t think any of you would even appreciate the new C8.
Invisible redesign is quite ok, but I miss some options like bigger lcd display, full digital cluster, more colors inside. This is the way how to win. GM don´t understand its costumers is more arrogant than the old one.
Live to dream.. Cadillac differentiating the XT5 from other GM crossovers by offering a Cadillac only engine in the form of the LGW Twin-Turbo 3.0L DOHC-4v V6. Cadillac has detuned the LGW to have an engine output of 355 hp instead of 404; but this will still give it a 20-25 hp advantage over the naturally aspirated 3.6L V6 and give buyers reason to buy the Cadillac XT5 instead of the new Chevrolet Blazer.
This can’t happen unless GM differentiates Cadillac CUVs with a RWD/AWD platform.
Cadillac crossover engine choices are what they are because the 3.0TT and Blackwing aren’t engineered for FWD/AWD applications.
it sounds like some of you people don’t even like yourself not to mention a car
Honestly, the XT5 Platinum already had a great interior.
The addition of a disable feature for start/stop fixes one of the 2 real problems with the car. The tuning knob for CUE fixes the other.
Overall the update appears to be a success. I do wish there was an available upgraded engine. Preferably the 3.0L twin turbo.
WTF, no RWD mode and no V8 option?! FAIL.
Has anyone seeing the Mid Cycle Refresh Audi just showed of the Q7?
Two quick points I’d like to make…
One: That is how a real Auto Maker does a Mid Cycle Refresh. GM needs to learn a thing or two.
Two: GM should probably not even bother with the upcoming XT6. It is already Dead Last in its Segment and it isn’t even out yet. Unbelievable.
GM is going down a bad road lately. They need to step out of it ASAP!!!
Why in the world does Cadillac not offer a heated seat back on the XT5 ?
A major bad move from the SRX. A “cheapo” move since the 2017 came out.
It appears to be a “ cost cutting move”, but really how much could they be saving ?
For people with a bad back or neck this feature is very useful & desirable.
And if the “current Cadillac owner” age was studied I think GM would find a huge
percentage of Cadillac owners probably due have sore backs and or necks.
Cadillac Ciel and CTS-V are always best models in the whole family of cadillac. by the way thanks for sharing this appreciate your work.
GAMINGWILSON