Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
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Remember that safety alert seat I mentioned on Day One? Well it certainly wakes you up! Unlike most cars that shake the steering wheel or beep at you when you wander from your lane, the XTS uses vibration motors in the seat to vibrate the appropriate butt-cheek… cheeky.
It’s not a bad system, but can be a little startling at times when you are moving around in traffic or if a lane splits. Luckily this feature can be disabled, but what good is a system when you turn it off? The collision avoidance and back-up sensors are also tuned to use the seat, the back-up sensor is very annoying and the collision avoidance system is far too sensitive – twice it warned me I was about to die as a truck passed in the opposite direction of my travel in the opposite lane.
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So once you disable the nannies, how does the XTS drive? Out on the highway where a lot of my driving is done the XTS rides like… a Cadillac. Oh I know, that’s a cliché, isn’t it? But it is quiet, smooth and offers a serene ride. Compared to the Avalon I drove last week the Cadillac is noticeably quieter and more isolated from the outside world.
Dive into a corner with the XTS like most owners will never do and it really corners flat. This car is more capable than one may expect when looking at it. Steering and braking are both communicative enough to have some fun while being easy to manipulate as needed.
The 3.6L V6 that powers the XTS is excellent with ultra-smooth power delivery that makes acceleration feel effortless. It is the near perfect engine for a car of this type, as smooth and powerful (304 horsepower) as the old V8-powered Cadillacs that came in the ’80s, but of course much more fuel efficient.
