OK, a quick break from politics and cultural degradation for a minute, ’cause the production debut of Cadillac’s next generation CTS will be on display at the Chicago Auto Show starting this Friday. This vehicle, in my opinion, is one lean-mean-exciting machine! And yeah, it’s a Cadillac! Motor Trend has a particularly nice photo gallery showing all the unique design details that make this new Caddy extra special, from the new grille inspired by the Cadillac Sixteen show car from a few years back to panel stamping difficulty and precision never before attempted by the General — and they not only did it, they did it real-good!

A wider track, with wheels pushed out flush with the tautly-bulging wheelwells, positive/negative sculpting on the hood that would do a Bangle-Bimmer proud, plus a new direct-injection version of the corporate hi-feature V6 that pumps out 300 naturally-aspirated horsepower and once again, suspension development at the awesome Nrburgring Nordschliefe, all show that Caddy is truly in the hunt for the Germans.

Better yet, this time the CTS doesn’t leave all the good stuff behind when you climb behind the wheel. The current model is highly sculpted inside and a bit too avant garde with a confusing selection of material textures that don’t feel right, but this new CTS looks luscious. Cadillac is using a new manufacturing technique that utilizes hand-crafted components which have a distinctive custom look and that allow for much tighter tolerances, giving the ambiance of a “master-crafted”, instead of manufactured, interior.

There’s much to like, even love, here in this new CTS. The fact that the next CTS-V, with 500 to 600 small-block ponies under the hood, is due in about 12 months is just more icing on this satisfying cake. I’ve managed to own at least one new vehicle from all the divisions that made up GM in the ’60s & ’70s, except for Cadillac. This one just might be worth tryin’ to make the stretch.

For all you guys and gals out there that are lookin’ for a luxury-performance sedan and can wait until this fall — there’s no reason to buy that 3-series, C-class, A-4 or IS anymore, unless you just love givin’ your hard earned dough to the Germans and the Japanese. Come on . . . they’ve got enough already — support the home team! I think that you can do that with this new CTS and be proud and satisfied at the same time. Now there’s a win-win for ya! (db)

Technorati Tags: 2008 Cadillac CTS, Chicago Auto Show

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 at 4:42 pm and is filed under Automotive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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