If subtle charm and understated sophistication is your thing, the Cadillac CTS is not for you. But in the best tradition of American consumer goods the CTS is dramatic, striking and exciting.
Its bold grille and sharply creased bodywork may be brash, but the result is a handsome and well proportioned machine.
Best of all, it is something different, something a bit more brave and exciting than the executive saloon norm.
The 307bhp 3.6-litre V6 drives the rear wheels and is coupled to a conventional six-speed torque converter automatic. But although the basic layout of the drivetrain isn’t exactly ambitious, the internals of the CTS are far from archaic.
The engine gets direct injection and variable valve timing, translating to a 15 per cent increase in power, eight per cent increase in torque and three per cent improvement in economy over the outgoing 3.6-litre V6.
The transmission gets its own box of tricks, too. You can select your own gears if you wish, and although the gearbox will still kick down low in the rev range, the CTS will hold the gear you choose if the revs are higher, even to the extent of butting into the rev limiter at 7000rpm.
The most interesting feature of the transmission, however, is what Cadillac calls Performance Algorithm Liftfoot (PAL). This system prevents the car from selecting a higher gear if it detects a high lateral acceleration on a closed throttle. In other words, it won’t upset the car’s cornering balance by upshifting mid-corner and means that the driver will still be in an appropriate gear when he/she opens the throttle again.
Refinement levels are helped by the use of intelligent solutions such as a sandwich of materials ahead of the dash known as ‘quiet steel’, designed to reduce noise passing from the engine bay to the cabin.
The CTS is well designed and feels like a thoroughly engineered car, in spite of its largely unpopular powertrain.
