Cadillac XTS. Difference maker. The Management Fleet

We get to grips with the comfort, handling, technology, and slightly troublesome tyre pressure warning signals on our Management Fleet Cadillac XTS.

It’s only natural that I’ll compare the Cadillac XTS to the CTS that it replaced on crankandpiston’s Management Fleet, but let’s be clear right from the off – there’s very little comparison. The XTS is bigger, and in a segment above, but even taking that into consideration, it’s a big, big leap forward for the American brand.

We’ll start with comfort. The CTS seats were a touch on the hard side. The XTS pews feel like sinking into a familiar armchair. I’ve got the option of heating or cooling the seats, and the latter has had plenty of action as the sticky summer heads towards its end.

From the driver’s seat I have an excellent view of the very high-tech dashboard. The XTS boasts fully digital gauges, and they’re extremely customisable, to a level I’ve not seen in any other cars. You can choose from a variety of different levels, and I’ve settled on the most jazzy option, that gives me a large tacho and analogue-style speedometer, and the options to fill in other slots with a bewildering array of information. I’ve opted for tyre pressures (more on that shortly) and fuel range.

The Bluetooth system has proved useful most of the time, automatically taking the sound from my phone away from my headphones and into the thoroughly decent in-car sound system. It hasn’t been flawless – on a couple of occasions the display proudly proclaims that it’s playing a song, but no sound emits despite stopping and restarting the player. It seems completely at random, which is a touch frustrating.

I’m also struggling to get to grips with the touchscreen. Don’t misunderstand me, I get the concept – it’s just that it doesn’t seem to like my fingers a lot of the time. I’ll find myself prodding at a command and it not registering, which isn’t ideal when on the move. Thankfully for the majority of commands, there are wheel-mounted buttons that do the job.

I haven’t really touched on handling and performance, so I’ll get onto that next month. For now though, rest assured that it’s a considerable improvement over the CTS.

Troubles? Well, one that’s oddly familiar. In our CTS, the tyre pressure monitoring system played up, constantly suggesting that there was a flat right-rear tyre even when all was well. And coincidentally, we’ve got the same issue in the XTS – despite three trips to the air pump to make sure, the on-board system is confident that we’re lacking air in the right rear. A trip to the service centre is on the cards to get that looked at, and also to reinstall the handle for opening the armrest storage box, which I mentioned last month but haven’t gotten around to sorting yet.