The new CTS is like the German competition, only more daring.
On Federico Fellini’s 1960 film La Dolce Vita, Anouk Aimée,
as Maddalena, cruises the streets of Rome in a 1958 Cadillac convertible.
According to the subtitles, another character tells her that the Caddy is “as
big as an apartment.” Felliniesque as this may sound, such big American cars,
especially Cadillacs, had Hollywood cachet back in the days when postwar Romans
had to stuff themselves into two-cylinder Fiat 500s.
The new car is 4.2
inches longer than the 2008-13 Sigma-platform CTS, including a 1.2-inch bump in
wheelbase, and is an inch lower and slightly narrower
Five decades later, Cadillac is again building credible,
world-class luxury cars. With the 2014 CTS, it seems that GM brass finally has
let its engineers and designers attack BMW while making the CTS the segment’s
biggest loser – the base car is nearly 250 pounds lighter.
Engineering chief Dave Leone started with the new Alpha
platform (ATS and the next Chevy Camaro) and designed more elegant
substructures. His team designed door structures, a hood, and other pieces of
aluminum; made parts like the engine brackets of magnesium; and added loads of
high-strength steel. Leone says the base car is 200 pounds lighter than a BMW
528i; the normally aspirated, 3.6-liter V-6 CTS is 350 pounds lighter than a
535i; and the twin-turbo, 3.6-liter Vsport is 400 pounds lighter than the 550i.
The 420-hp
twin-turbo V-6 sounds great when angry and quickly settles into a country-club
hush when it’s not aroused
The new car is 4.2 inches longer than the 2008-13
Sigma-platform CTS, including a 1.2-inch bump in wheelbase, and is an inch
lower and slightly narrower. The rear seat is placed closer to the rear axle,
and the backs of the front buckets are contoured to create impressive back-seat
space. The styling difference between this new, longer, lower CTS and the last
one is like the difference between an early Bill Mitchell Cadillac and a late
Harley Earl Caddy. The single disappointment is the rear fender/tail lamp
design, which was dramatic on the old car but is now too much like the XTS’s –
or even the old DTS’s – tail, pandering to Chinese tastes.
Interior design and quality of materials easily match what
you’ll find in a 5-series or a Mercedes-Benz E-class, although in light colors
the back seat lacks some visual dazzle. Up front, you still have to deal with
the problematic Cue infotainment system.
We had only the Vsport for our first drive, which included
many laps of GM’s Milford Road Course, known colloquially as the Lutzring, plus
a lap of the public roads surrounding the proving ground.
Interior design
and quality of materials easily match what you’ll find in a 5-series or a
Mercedes-Benz E-class
There’s a slight hesitation at throttle tip-in, even with
twin turbochargers. The 420-hp twin-turbo V-6 sounds great when angry and
quickly settles into a country-club hush when it’s not aroused. Credit that
naturally created induction noise for tamping down the incongruity of hustling
a large, comfortable American luxury car around this tight, technical test
track. The Vsport’s smooth, responsive Aisin eight-speed automatic transmission
works just fine here in Sport mode – there’s no advantage in clicking the
paddle shifters. An eight-speed is the cost of entry in this segment, although
it comes only with the base and twin-turbo 3.6-liter V-6s and rear-wheel drive.
If you get the all-wheel-drive normally aspirated V-6 (AWD isn’t available with
the twin-turbo) or either RWD or AWD with the 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder,
your transmission is a six-speed automatic.
The car rewards those for whom handling comes first,
acceleration second. The Vsport comes standard with Magnetic Ride Control,
which is now optional on the base CTS; the system offers Tour, Sport, and Track
settings. Although the stability control can be turned off completely, it lets
you rotate the car and steer with the throttle in Track mode. Try that in one
of the German or Asian competitors. This lets you enjoy trailing-throttle
oversteer. Over-cook it in a corner, and stability control kicks in, but only
long enough to make sure you’re not swapping ends. It shuts down once oversteer
is under control. This is easier than you think: you can feel the 50/50 balance
in the CTS, which handles as much like a two-seat sports car as a big luxury
sedan could allow. On the roads that ring the proving ground, ride quality and
quietness are what you’d expect of a Cadillac.
The Vsport comes
standard with Magnetic Ride Control, which is now optional on the base CTS; the
system offers Tour, Sport, and Track settings
“It’s easier to give a good-handling car a smooth ride than
to make a good ride handle,” Leone says.
Although we still miss power-steering pumps for feedback and
feel, the electric power-assisted steering (EPAS) in the CTS is tactile. We’ve
known for years that GM has benchmarked BMW steering, not in its current models
but from a couple of generations ago, cars like the E46-chassis 3-series and
the E39 5-series. Leone notes that the CTS’s EPAS is mounted on the steering rack,
not on the column, for minimal interference.
So Cadillac has met BMW at a cross-roads, where the American
brand is making its luxury sedans more dynamic while the German brand is making
its sport sedans more luxurious. Between the new CTS Vsport and the Maserati
Ghibli, Germany’s dominance in this field is facing a real, tangible threat. It
will take a direct comparison before we can be certain how far Cadillac has
come, but we’re pretty sure it could sell a few CTS’s in Rome, if not in
Munich.
