Cadillac CTS Range : GETTING BETTER ALL THE TIME

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In the past, UK-bound Cadillacs have been depressingly easy to poke fun at. With the latest models that has changed and the CTS is the most convincing of the lot. Andy Enright reports.

Many car manufacturers would give their eye teeth for an easily recognised brand, but sometimes your name can have negative connotations. Cadillac is just such a brand. Mention the name to any car enthusiast and they will tell you that the company has never produced anything particularly relevant to British drivers.

Think back to the last time you saw a Cadillac on British roads. I'm not talking about eight-litre behemoths from the 1970s with their chromed fins and mid-life crises at the wheel, specifically dealing instead with the new era cars imported by General Motors since 2004. You'll be excused if you can't think of a single occasion because only 700 were shifted from dealerships in that time, which means that each car has around 357 miles of UK road before it chances upon another. Despite massive promotional spends, Cadillac has never really had the right mix of products to appeal to British motorists and the tiny dealer network hasn't helped in this regard either. With the CTS, however, Cadillac at last has a car that stands a realistic chance of shifting a few units. It'll still be an individualistic choice but it's a marque that's now being taken increasingly seriously. First it's time to ditch any preconceptions. Think Cadillac and you'll probably think of a hulking great car that takes corners about as eagerly as a bulk freight carrier. The CTS is cut from different cloth and while it's certainly not a car that relishes being taken by the scruff of the neck and flung at a set of mountain switchbacks, it's a decent steer. A rigid body, 50:50 weight distribution, rear-wheel-drive and multi-link rear suspension might suggest that this is a BMW, but if you can't beat them you may as well copy them. The CTS rides well and is not unathletic in its handling, but it's not the sort of car that makes the driver forget its size.

"It feels an honest product and looks great inside and out"

Two mainstream petrol engines are offered to British buyers. The entry-level unit is a 2.8-litre V6, good for 208bhp but the more satisfying option is the 306bhp 3.6-litre V6. Both powerplants can be teamed with either a six-speed manual, which really doesn't suit the nature of the car, or an automatic which does. The other option is the 6.2-litre V8 which gives the barnstorming CTS-V model its huge 556bhp and 0-60mph acceleration of under four seconds. This second-generation CTS is a clear evolution of its razor-edged predecessor and the design has aged very well, the car still looking more like an escapee from a motor show than a common or garden executive hack. If anything, the styling is even more extreme than before, the wheels being teased further towards the corners of the vehicle to improve agility and passenger accommodation with the wheel arches gently flaring over them to suggest a toned muscularity. As Audi has demonstrated, a big, bold grille does wonders for raising the profile of your wares and the CTS doesn't shy away from advertising who built it. Inside it's a bit of a revelation. Yes, there are some scratchier finishes than you'd expect to chance upon in an Ingolstadt product but it's attractively styled and has much more of a personality than the reheated Saab innards that its little brother, the BLS, serves up. The entire dash top is covered in stitched leather and the V-shaped centre console, deeply cowled instruments and ostentatiously chunky steering wheel give the CTS genuine showroom presence. The refreshing thing about it is that it is clearly an American car but has been bullied into offering European style quality. The class-leading infotainment system includes a fully retractable multi-function eight-inch touch-screen VGA display.Â This is combined with a 300 watt 10-speaker Bose 5.1 Cabin Surround sound system which not only offers full iPod integration (developed in conjunction with Apple engineers) but also includes a 40-gigabyte hard drive and CD player with MP3 file compatibility.Â A DVD player and TV tuner provide further viewing pleasure for occupants when the vehicle is parked. The CTS is not an inexpensive car to run. An indicator of how far it has to go in terms of efficiency and engineering comes when comparing the CTS's 3.6-litre engine to the powerplant found under the bonnet of BMW's 530i. Both engines will get the cars to 60mph in 6.3 seconds and on to a top speed of 155mph, but due to having 183kg less to haul about, the BMW does it with 268bhp where the Cadillac needs 306bhp. This translates into fuel economy figures of 36.7mpg for the car from Munich and 23,5mpg for the Caddy. Emissions? 182g/km for the BMW and 285 for the CTS. That would be forgivable if the CTS were a markedly bigger car but open the boots and there's 520 litres of room in the 5 Series and 373 litres of bag space in the Cadillac. This might make depressing reading if you're a Cadillac dealer looking at selling somebody the benefits of the CTS over the comparably priced 530i SE and it shows the benefits of BMW's massive research and development budget but it also fails to recognise that for some customers at least, the sheer `want one' factor of the Cadillac CTS is going to outweigh any Top Trump-style comparisons. Cadillac has been forced to face up to some hard and uncomfortable truths in the last four years and the British arm of the business is nothing if not completely candid about the size of the task that confronts it. The CTS is the very best weapon in the portfolio of Cadillac products and it remains a little off the pace of the best of its German rivals. That's not to say it's set to continue Cadillac's run of dismal sales. What the big Caddy has in spades is likeability and that goes a very long way. It feels an honest product and looks great inside and out. What's more, it has an image that is hard to pigeonhole, which may well be an advantage for those who have established ideas of what a BMW, Audi, Mercedes or even Lexus or Jaguar driver looks like. Take a look. You may well be extremely surprised.

Facts At A Glance
CAR: Cadillac CTS range
PRICES: £26,430-£56,495 - on the road
INSURANCE GROUPS: 15-17
CO2 EMISSIONS: [3.6] 285g/km
PERFORMANCE: [3.6] 0-60 6.3s Max Speed 155mph
FUEL CONSUMPTION: [3.6] combined 23.5mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: twin front and side airbags, stability control, ABS
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: length/width/heightmm 4860/1842/1400 [est]