Road Test
Amazingly, each new product coming down the GM pipeline these days seems to signal that the once-defining beancounter bureaucracy has finally been replaced by a genuine desire to create top-notch products. And this latest CTS is the most comprehensively integrated vehicle we've seen yet.
GM's confidence is so high that it flew a passel of 2008 CTSs from Detroit to Germany-at a cost between $20,000 and $30,000 each-to be test-driven by the motoring press on the highly challenging Nürburgring racetrack, just as it did six years ago with the original CTS, the first model to bear the knife-edged art-and-science design language of 21st-century Cadillac.
Since the CTS spent extensive development time on the tortuous 12.9 miles of Nürburgring pavement, we asked lead development engineer Rob Kotarak how many laps he'd turned there. Quite a few, he said, but all of them from the passenger seat. That's because he hasn't acquired GM's top driving certification and therefore is not allowed to drive at the German track. Meanwhile, a first-timer from Car and Driver gets to lap freely-what was that about a bureaucracy? Just so you know, Mr. Kotarak, your car is quite adept. Despite our inexperience with the Nürburgring (read "driving like a hack"), the CTS was planted and predictable and never did anything unexpected.
The '08 CTS retains a 113.4-inch wheelbase but adds 1.5 inches in overall length and swells almost two inches in width as do its front and rear track. That extra width means not only more handling prowess but much improved proportions as well. There were times when the first-gen CTS could look a bit awkward; it seemed tall and narrow from behind and not that desirable in profile. But there's no bad view of the new car, from its attention-grabbing front end and better-integrated vertical headlights and taillights to its muscular fender flares. The redesigned CTS still might not stand a chance to be as responsive as the smaller and much lighter-by about 400 pounds-BMW 335i, but our favorite sports sedan has nothing on the Caddy's aggressive looks.
