2026 Cadillac Optiq: Nice. Nice. Not thrilling, but nice

So recently your author was driving to a car show on a Saturday, in Eldridge, Iowa. It was faily mild for early summer, but by the time I’d seen all the cars, and wandered back to the XTS, it was a little warm so I decided to turn on the A/C.

And it blew warm air. But hey, it’s hot, it just started, it’ll be OK.

It wasn’t. Crap.

So I ran a couple errands. On the way home I turned it on again, just for the hell of it. And it blew cold! Oh gee, it must have been just a fluke it’s fine now.

It wasn’t.

That evening I went to my folks’ because Dad was cooking. And when I drove home that night about 10 PM, I turned on the A/C. And it blew warm air again.

OK. F this. I’m done. So I scheduled it at McLaughlin. Glad I got the extended warranty! And so Monday before last I dropped it off in the morning and got the keys to this brand new Optiq.

Funny thing, at first I thought it was a Lyriq. I’d sat in a Lyriq at the regional auto show last March, and just assumed. From the front it looks like one, and the overall shape is similar. And the interior seemed exactly the same.

It wasn’t til I got done at the office and walked out to the car at the end of the day that I noticed it said “Optiq” on the tailgate. Oops.

Anyway, it is VERY different than an XTS or final gen CTS. It’s really swoopy and futuristic. As I piloted it out of McLaughlin and onto John Deere Road, I felt like I was driving the time machine from Back to the Future.

And yep it’s electric. I have no interest in ever owning an electric vehicle, but I liked this car a lot more than I thought I would. It isn’t a big ponderous, ill-handling mess—though it is, at 5200 pounds, about 1200 lb fatter than my much roomier, much Broughamier 2019 XTS.

It’s not a big vehicle, and the handling was pretty nice. It is of course very quiet. And yes, I know that it’s an EV so duh it’s quiet.

But even beyond that, it seemed surprisingly silent. I suspect it has a crapload of sound insulation.

And the entire instument panel is a single touchscreen. So 8 years from now, if it decides to roll over and die, you’re screwed. No redundant controls, other than the HVAC buttons along the bottom of the dash. Only a couple other minor buttons are in evidence, off to the left of the steering wheel.

The stereo was nice. And though I don’t like it enough to subscribe myself, I enjoyed the XM radio too, mostly sticking to the 60s 70s and 80s channels. It’s kind of surreal driving this swoopy thing and listening to “A Little Bit Me” by the Monkees at the same time.

And despite being a smaller, narrower vehicle than my XTS, it seemed a little sluggish. Nothing terrible. Nothing like Paul Niedermeyer going up a 30% grade in a 1960s Microbus he insists has sufficient power. But a few times, yeah, I wished it had a little more oomph. I wonder what this thing would be like with the 3.6L V6? I bet they’d sell a hell of a lot more of them!

The interior, while super futuristic, also seemed, at least to me, to have a little bit of that 1950s Motorama “dream car” vibe. I liked the color combo too, black with a black and white “tuxedo” interior, with additional royal blue accents on the instrument panel and door panels.

One interesting thing: I later picked up an Optiq color chart and, believe it or not, a navy blue leather interior is available. It almost makes me want to get one. You know, if it was a sedan. And had a V6. Ha!

But it was a pleasant vehicle, seemed pretty well assembled, and the interior, while lacking the usual Caddy wood trim and chrome bits, still seemed sufficiently “Cadillacy” to me. It doesn’t have cheap vibes coming off of it. It did have an annoying lane departure nanny that would buzz your seat. I quickly hated it. It would sometimes even do it if I was totally in my lane, but the road was curving. Fortunately I figured out how to turn it off—it’s one of those 2-3 buttons to the left of the steering wheel.

At any rate, it was a pretty nice vehicle, and I enjoyed it.

I’m still not buying an EV though! And I got the XTS back this past Friday, all washed and detailed and 100% functional again. Smithers, another lime rickey!