Driving the 2026 Cadillac Vistiq Sport

December 24, 2025

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When Cadillac designers first launched the 2026 Cadillac Vistiqthey known as it the “child Escalade.” At practically 206 inches lengthy, it’s bigger than any Escalade besides the present technology. I spent every week driving it round Washington, D.C., and its suburbs, together with a one-day highway journey. I discovered the Cadillac you’ve most likely heard least about to be a really compelling electrical stand-in for the one you’ve got most likely heard most about.

I don’t know when vehicles will cease rising. I’ve been testing them for 25 years, and compact SUVs at the moment are in regards to the measurement midsize SUVs had been once I began. The largest autos, just like the Cadillac Escaladedwarf something on the highway a technology in the past.

In the present day’s gas-powered Escalade has grown to just about 212 inches, and the all-electric Escalade IQthe leviathan of at the moment’s automotive market, measures over 224. Cadillac determined it was time for a child. A really large child.

The Vistiq is so new to the Cadillac lineup that you could be not have seen many on the highway. It’s straightforward to overlook, because of the enormous cultural footprint of the Escalade. However, in reality, it just about *is* an electrical Escalade. The gargantuan Escalade IQ is the outlier.

The Vistiq is an electrical 3-row SUV longer than a gas-powered Escalade with all of the house and comfort a household wants, as much as 305 miles of vary, and a efficiency mode that comes as a shock in a comparatively sensible automobile.

Which Trim Stage

Cadillac builds the Vistiq in 4 grades – Luxurious, Sport, Premium Luxurious, and Platinum. All 4 have the identical energy and battery, although Sport and Luxurious fashions get sportier suspension tuning, and Platinums get an adaptive air suspension.

My tester was the Sport mannequin, and I by no means felt any lack of luxurious.

New 2026 Cadillac VISTIQ Costs

	Retail Value	Honest Buy Value (92620)
Luxurious	$79,090	TBD
Sport	$79,590	TBD
Premium Luxurious	$93,590	TBD
Platinum	$98,190	TBD

Favourite Function

GM’s Tremendous Cruise hands-free freeway driving system stands out as the benchmark amongst these early, proto-self-driving setups. It retains getting smoother.

It’s included in each Vistiq no matter worth, and works on pre-mapped highways. As of publication time, GM states that the system covers over 750 million miles of North American highways.

It accelerates, brakes, and steers to maintain the Vistiq in its lane. It modifications lanes to search out a gap and adjusts its pace when the pace restrict modifications (staying, for example, 5 miles above the posted restrict).

You have to maintain your eyes on the highway and keep able to take over when prompted.

Tremendous Cruise took me many of the approach from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore, driving easily via site visitors jams and open, flowing site visitors. In testing a yr in the past, I discovered it to be hyperactive and prone to change lanes with out motive. That drawback is already gone, and I believe the system will maintain getting higher with time.

What It’s Wish to Drive

The “child Escalade” moniker does the Vistiq a disservice.

Not that the Escalade is disagreeable to drive. Nevertheless, tying the Vistiq to the Escalade implies weight, measurement, and the heavy, rugged manners you may anticipate from a full-size SUV. The Vistiq is surprisingly fast and lightweight on its toes for one thing genuinely Escalade-sized.

Steering really feel is mild – I’m unsure I felt any extra weight to the 3-row Vistiq’s dealing with than I did to the compact 2-row Optiq I examined a couple of months earlier than. It handles suburban parking tons with relative ease for such a giant boy.

Braking is agency, and belies not an oz. of the automotive’s greater than 6,000-pound weight.

In Tour mode (the on a regular basis setting it defaults to on startup), acceleration is progressive and brisk. Every little thing about it looks like a smaller SUV.

Then there’s the shock. On the steering wheel sits a button with a stylized purple V.

V-mode is Cadillac’s efficiency setting, usually reserved for high-performance fashions with the V moniker within the identify. My Vistiq tester was no high-priced Vistiq V. Nonetheless, there was the V on the steering wheel.

V-mode provides this household hauler a zero-to-60 time underneath 4 seconds, in case you may consider some motive you’d want that. It’s wildly pointless right here. Cadillac’s simply exhibiting off, nevertheless it’s a exceptional feat in a 3-row household SUV.

Inside Consolation and Know-how

Cadillac’s electrical SUVs have been dwelling to some uncommon inside design, however the Vistiq’s cabin is an train in restraint. The place the Optiq options four-color cabins and contrasting textures, the Vistiq will get tame hues and soft-touch Inteluxe (a fake leather-based designed to age higher) all over the place.

My tester’s cabin was a staid black, however Cadillac gives some fascinating colours, together with beautiful blue seating at some trim ranges.

Cadillac supplies the motive force with a pair of screens mounted as in the event that they had been one curved display floor – a show display for the motive force’s devices and a central touchscreen. This design is sort of ubiquitous amongst luxurious vehicles in 2026, and works moderately properly right here. One other low-mounted display handles local weather management.

A passenger complained that the second-row captain’s chairs had been a bit firmer than anticipated. They’re vast and supportive, however to not all tastes on lengthy drives.

The Vistiq is full of recessed, dial-a-color ambient lighting, together with a characteristic surrounding its dual-pane panoramic glass roof. I discovered {that a} bit distracting in my peripheral imaginative and prescient, however I’m certain you get used to it when you personal the automotive.

Limitations

Person-experience designers run most features via touchscreens, however Cadillac nonetheless insists on clean capacitive contact controls on steering wheels. Many luxurious automakers have moved away from these in 2026, as clients are inclined to desire tactile buttons that reply with a click on.

Accessibility may very well be a problem for some. For a automobile that’s basically Escalade-sized, I’d prefer to see seize handles in any respect positions and the choice for vast working boards that might make entry and exit simpler.

Key Concerns

GM has moved quicker than most rivals in electrifying its luxurious fleet. The Visti has few rivals as a real 3-row electrical SUV from a luxurious automaker. Its closest rivals could be high-end trim ranges of the Let’s EV9 and Hyundai Ioniq 9, at the very least for now.