At an evening release in New York City, Cadillac unveiled the third generation all-new 2014 CTS sedan. Cadillac's best-selling car just got a big edgy make-over.
The All New 2014 Cadillac CTS is here
General Motors has a thing for night unveiling. Just months earlier the General unveiled the seventh generation Chevrolet Convertible the evening before the 2013 North American Auto Show was set to officially kick off. So it wasn't much surprise to see Cadillac pull the tarp back in an evening event with the spotlight to themselves.
What was surprising was to see full sets of leaked images of the new luxury mid-sized sedan race around the internet long before the Cadi's curtain call. Still, not all the magic was lost as the new CTS is a very different car both inside and out. Here's the skinny.
2014 Cadillac CTS in New York
First, the new CTS is bigger, a lot bigger. The body was stretched an extra five inches in length from its previous model, while the whole car was lowered about an inch. The longer, lower, and more athletic-looking CTS has also been on a diet. It's now dropped nearly 300 pounds, a point Cadillac was sure to drive home when pointing out the 200 lbs difference between CTS and the BMW 528i.
The weight-loss is the result of an aluminum diet and balances the car to a better 50/50 weight balance. The CTS features Cadillac's first aluminum door structures and will be the segments lightest car, welcome news to drivers who love to throw it through the corners.
The styling is still the bold edgy look with bold thin vertical LEDs that has dominated recent Cadillac designs, but the CTS has a softer, more refined look. Some will argue the styling has simply matured, though the truth is more likely to attract Chinese buyers, who were put off by Cadillac's brash new look.
A softer but not gentler Cadillac
Under the hood, the new Cadillac comes in three flavors. A new Twin-Turbo V-6 offering 420 horsepower and 430 lb.-ft. of torque with the brands first eight-speed automatic, a 3.6L V-6 with an estimated 321 horsepower with eight-speed RWD or six-speed AWD options, and a 2.0L turbocharged engine rated at an estimated 272 horsepower paired with the six-speed.
New Cadillac CTS Interior
Inside Cadillac added to the lavish styling with more lavish tech in a bid to appeal to younger buyers. Available eight and twelve inch high-resolution displays with haptic feedback give the Cadillac infotainment system a more tablet feel, Automatic Parking Assist for us lazy parallel park-ers, forward collision alerts, lane departure warnings, and blind side zone alerts. And to keep you comfy in all that safety gadgetry, 20-way adjustable heated and cooled seats.
The Cadillac CTS Interior is tech-filled
Cadillac is understandably proud of its newest edition and hopes to not just compete with BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, but beat them at their own game.
“The all-new 2014 Cadillac CTS sedan delivers crafted design, thrilling performance and sophisticated technology,” said Bob Ferguson, vice president, Global Cadillac. “The car that has always been Cadillac’s centerpiece stretches figuratively and literally to challenge the world’s best.”
Can Cadillac's newest luxury car take the mid-sized market by storm? After the ATS's won last year's North American Car of the Year honors, its unlikely the CTS will settle for be willing to settle for anything less than a repeat.
Long lines and a long night for the new CTS
