The XT5 is the Cadillac we've all been waiting for - and we got to try it twice

Cadillac has a bit of a crossover problem. While other luxury brands have been selling these versatile vehicles left and right, Caddy has been playing catch up, marketing its portfolio of brash, high-performance sport coupes and sedans under the "V" designation, alongside the regular versions of these cars.

But Johan de Nysschen, the executive who runs the marque, wanted crossovers, to compete with BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, Lexus, Acura, Infiniti, Lincoln, Volvo - heck, pretty much everybody in the luxury space.

True, Cadillac has the mighty Escalade, but that's a large-and-in-charge mega-SUV. It's not really designed for most suburban families. It also had the SRX, a crossover that evolved from a wagon, but it was getting long-in-the-tooth and wasn't an effective modern combatant in battles against the premium crossovers from the Germans and Japanese.

De Nysschen's goal is to shift the portfolio away from aggressive, near-exotic designs and platforms and bring Caddy into alignment with the rest of the luxury market. That means more crossovers, starting with the XT5, the SRX's replacement and the most important Cadillac in years.

We sampled the future when we received not one but two versions of the XT5, one in Florida and one in the New York-New Jersey area. Transportation Reporter Ben Zhang tried the black XT5, which came with a slightly higher-level trim package and tipped the price scales at about $64,000, while Senior Transportation Editor Matt DeBord investigated a $58,000 "crystal white" XT5.

Here's what we thought: