08 Jan 07
When it comes to cars, you can't get much more American than Cadillac. A long-established brand with an upscale heritage, the General Motors-owned brand has traditionally provided the wheels to some of the US's more senior citizens - indeed, the joke was that owners were in the age range 65 to dead.
But Cadillac - as the company was more than keen to tell us at the launch of the new CTS - has changed. Its cars since 2000 have been an attempt to lift the company out of its 80s/90s doldrums, which it has achieved thanks to models such as the Escalade, XLR and CTS, the entry-level Caddy.
The new CTS continues Cadillac's attempt to modernise itself and freshen its range, while remaining true to its heritage as an upscale car. It has tweaked its rather angular styling to include more sculpted wings and include some design cues that recall Cadillacs of old, including a side air extractor and vertical design elements such as the high rear corners.
There's also a new emphasis on interiors - not usually a strong point of US cars - with luxury being the watchword. Influences for this include the stitching on premium leather goods such as Prada shoes - it's all in the details, after all. Also inside, the centre stack has been designed to flow into the console to create a cockpit-like space.
Cadillac also made a big deal about the driving qualities of the CTS, something that Europeans might well raise a sceptical eyebrow, especially when the presenters at the launch - real GM employees from the team that designed, developed and built the car, which was a nice, if slightly hokey touch - started talking about testing the CTS around the Nurburgring.
Under the hood, the CTS is powered by a 3.6-litre V6 engine that generates 300bhp and works in conjunction with a six-speed gearbox taken from the STS-V and XLR-V high-performance Caddys.
Cadillacs are the kinds of car that Americans get excited about but leave us Europeans shrugging our shoulders and wondering what the fuss is about. The new CTS continues this fine tradition.
