As much as we liked the design of the Cadillac XT4, not everyone was onboard with its style. Some liked it while some didn’t. But everyone seems to agree that the XT4’s lighting signature was its best feature. As it turns out, there was good reason for that. The SUV’s exterior design manager, Therese Pinazzo, admitted to Autoguide that the company put particular importance in developing the XT4’s lighting structure to make it look high-end without having to spend too much in costs.

What's So Special about the Cadillac XT4's Headlights?

This is one of those times where we can peek behind the curtain to see how difficult it is to design a car. Even the smallest of details require a tremendous amount of work. One misstep and the whole thing falls apart.

While it’s true that the entire look of the XT4 didn’t impress a certain segment of the population, the XT4’s headlamps and taillamp received generally positive reactions. This can be attributed to what Therese Pinazzo described as a priority for Cadillac as a brand. “The lighting is always the most important thing in a Cadillac,” Pinazzo told Autoguide. “In this one, the headlamps and taillamps were kind of tough.”

The issue most engineers and designers have in developing intricate lighting fixtures are the budget caps companies put in the development of these components. Often, engineers will have to subvert their own expectations if they don’t fit into the company’s budget. Fortunately, Caddy designers were able to design a lighting structure that looked great and somehow fit into the company’s budget. It didn’t come without any hand-wringing, though, as Pinazzo explained. “It is more expensive, and we needed to keep the cost of the vehicle reasonable, so it’s something we had to fight for,” she said.

The results speak for themselves. The flowing headlamps are made from two LED strips and extend in three different directions, with one end stretching back into the fenders while another drops vertically into the intakes. This specific end also acts as a turn signal, a feature that was apparently more expensive to execute but was deemed too important to pass up. The headlights even came with a particular Easter egg, specifically the serrated detail that can be found on the end that stretched into the fenders. That detail, according to Pinazzo, came late in the development process of the headlamps because the design and engineering teams weren’t aware that they had to be included to meet safety regulations. The taillamps, on the other hand, feature two different fixtures, one on the C-pillar and another on the tailgate. Designers tried to make it look like one continuous piece, succeeding in doing so because there’s not much of a gap between them.

If there’s anything that Cadillac showed in the development of the XT4, it’s that the smallest of details are often some of the hardest ones to execute. It’s a good thing, then, because what they accomplished with the lighting structure of the SUV turned into one of its most enduring features.

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Cadillac XT4

We're busy updating our full review of the 2019 Cadillac XT4. but you can check out our speculative text or head over to our featured news on the new XT4 for the finer details

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