Road Test
Cadillac CTS (04-) 3.6 V6 Sport Luxury 4dr Saloon
Test date 26 July 2005
Price as tested £29,895
For Distinctive looks, raw performance, decent standard kit
AgainstRoad noise, poor touring range, crude ride, nasty trim
You won’t miss the new Cadillac CTS the first time you see it pull up behind you in traffic. The tall, thin headlamp clusters, oversized grille and angular lines are very imposing, almost evil-looking. It’s different, un-Germanic, controversial, even. If you’re going to beat BMW and Mercedes at their own game, as Cadillac would like to with the CTS, you need to offer drivers something new. But then it draws level, and the visual drama wanes a little as the featureless slab sides come into view. They’re just a little bland.
As the CTS passes and disappears over the horizon, you can’t help but feel a tinge of disappointment. The rear is better, mirroring the front end’s tall lights and big badge, but you feel Cadillac lost its nerve when it came to really taking a chance with the styling – and this was the time to take a chance. There’s no question that the CTS looks refreshingly different, but the overall design doesn’t live up to the expectations set by that in-your-face front end. Will the rest of the CTS push hard enough to challenge the usual order?
There is a strange novelty in driving a Cadillac in the UK – the brand is so rooted in American culture and so rare on UK roads it feels like you’re piloting a party piece. Cadillac did sell right-hand-drive Sevilles in the UK from 1998 to 2001, but those cars hardly helped to raise awareness of the brand: the V8-powered front-wheel-drive Seville was a dynamic disaster and no more than a few hundred were sold. Lessons must have been learnt, though, as the CTS is rear-wheel drive and based on GM’s Sigma platform, which Cadillac claims has been honed at the Nürburgring circuit in Germany.
Your Say