Hmmm, this looks like the dictionary definition of a Yank tank…

The SRX is nearly as long as a Range Rover and weighs well over two tonnes, so it’s hardly compact. But you ain’t seen nothing yet. Compared with its obese brother, the Escalade ESV (2696kg and 5.6metres long), the SRX might seem a bit on the diminutive side. It’s also over here for the first time. The SRX is offered in left hand drive only and with a choice of 3.5-litre V6 or 4.6-litre V8 (tested here), seven seats and more kit than Chelsea.

So what is it?

Cadillac calls it a crossover – part estate car, part 4×4. The former’s more convincing than the latter. It’s a proper seven seater with good head and legroom and easily enough space to carry odds and ends. The boot is massive and with the seats fold down you could fit most of DFS in there. The four-wheel drive system is brutal but effective but the fragile-feeling suspension and meagre ground clearance knocks any cliff-scaling aspirations on the head. But then it could always tow the mountain behind it. Underneath is a mighty 4.5-litre Northstar V8 engine developing 325bhp and 315lb ft of torque – enough to blast the SRX to 62mph in a scarcely believable 7.4sec. That’s only 0.2secs off a VW Golf GTI. The flipside to such energetic driving is economy hovering in the mid-teens and CO2 figures normally associated with products from Boeing.
continue reading "Cadillac SRX"

What’s this? A Cadillac I like the look of? What’s going on?

Strange things indeed. Oh-so-US Cadillac has long spoken of being a BMW alternative, offering look-at-me impact for less shy and retiring types. But while the Art & Science styling theme had plenty of drama on the 1999 Evoq concept car, it’s always appeared a bit like cheap Christmas tree baubles in production. However, by evolving the theme to include the more organic element of – shock – contours between the straight lines, Cadillac may have hit on something. The all-new CTS, which arrives here in summer 2008, is certainly ostentatious – from the deep grille and chromed alloys, to the functional cast-metal wing vent and LED-packed vertical clear-lens tail lights. However, clean surfacing and better proportions (note the forward-set front wheels, the higher windowline and shallower glass) give it a well resolved look.

Hang on, this sounds promising. What’s this CTS all about, then?

You, like all but 450 people this year, have probably ignored Cadillac’s UK foray until now. A muddled marketing and retail strategy have done it no favours; what, exactly, is the point of the brand? It’s not even registered on the radar of most UK car buyers. That’s what the CTS plans to sort out. A BMW 5-series rival for those after a more outgoing alternative, it’s essentially the bling choice of the executive car sector. Don’t be sniffy; there are plenty of successful people out there who want to show it. Understatement is not for them. The thing is, because they’re successful, they usually know what they’re talking about. Blind bling won’t do. It needs substance. That’s what Cadillac’s sought to achieve with the CTS.
continue reading "Cadillac CTS 3.6 V6"

Another US saloon arriving in Britain with right-hand drive? What’s so special about the BLS?

It’s the first Cadillac offered with a diesel engine. Well if you discount the disastrously unreliable 5.7-litre Seville diesels of the late 70’s.

So a creaky old car maker trading on past glories has finally caught up with the rest of the world. Big deal. Why should I be interested?

It rides and handles just like a European car, albeit a very average one, and it’s got a decent interior that’s far more suited to European tastes. The seats aren’t covered in red velour at all.
continue reading "Cadillac BLS 1.9D"

GM came out fighting with new product in tune with the times at the Detroit auto show 2009. The Cadillac ConverJ is an electric-powered limousine not seen until press day, harnessing the same plug-in hybrid tech as the Chevy Volt.

GM product overlord and everyone’s favourite sound-bite merchant Bob Lutz said the Volt’s drivetrain had been renamed the Voltec system and it was this lithium-ion battery set-up that underpinned the ConverJ concept car.

‘The battery can be smaller or larger than the Volt’s in this system,’ he confides, meaning it can be scaled up or down to suit urban vehicles or big luxury cars such as the ConverJ.

‘Owners will be able to drive the ConverJ 40 miles without using a drop of fuel – and an additional 700 miles with the engine spinning,’ says Lutz. ‘If you do predominantly short urban runs, you may never have to buy another drop of fuel again.’

Lutz talks about range anxiety and says he once ran out of electricity in an EV and felt totally stranded (tellingly, he had to be rescued by a big gas-guzzling pick-up truck). That’s one of the advantages of the range-extending Voltec system, which uses an internal combustion engine to charge the battery. The Voltec also uses electricity to drive the wheels; the petrol motor purely acts as a generator.

GM: the industrial story
Chief exec Rick Wagoner glosses over the minutae of GM’s colossal problems, but more details emerge in interviews at Detroit. North American boss Troy Clarke confirms that it is making good on its promise to Congress to slash costs – and says it will focus product and marketing resource on just four brands: Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC.

That spells a bleak future for Pontiac, Saturn, Saab and Hummer; the latter pair are up for sale (with no buyers forthcoming) and GM has already said it will sell or close Saturn.

Lutz also said that Pontiac will have to get by with four models: the G8, G5, Vibe and Solstice.

Other GM news at Detroit NAIAS
It’s a busy press conference, with the new 2010 Cadillac SRX, 2010 Buick LaCrosse and 2010 Chevrolet Equinox shown, plus announcements that the Chevrolet Orlando concept car will be sold in America, as will the production iteration of the Chevrolet Beat supermini concept. It was confirmed for production with the Spark badge; in Europe it will replace the Matiz city car.

In the United States the Cadillac CTS has become one of GM’s minor success stories. Cadillac builds 240,000 cars a year and the CTS, its 5-series saloon, has become a core part of the range. Now the latest Cadillac CTS reaches the UK this September, after the best part of a year on sale in the US. GM is desperate to export more than the current 5 percent of its production; this is the car it hopes will do the deed.

It’s a tough job for the new CTS though. In its recent history Cadillac has had two stabs at building its name in the UK, and both have bombed. Now with the operation taken in-house by GM, this is the third approach to an age-old problem – getting European buyers to understand that Cadillac is to be considered alongside Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Lexus.

So why is the Cadillac CTS going to work this time around?

With GM running the European sales operation directly it reckons it will keep a tighter reign on marketing. More importantly, the CTS has been built much more closely to British and European requirements.

So they say. One of the requirements most British premium car buyers demand is that the car is built in Germany. OK, Lexus isn’t but Cadillac would be delighted to match the sales of the posh Toyotas. Then there is style. The CTS has it in abundance, but there’s no arguing that it is an acquired taste. It does, we reckon, grow on you.

When Cadillac introduced the Saab-based BLS to the UK two years ago, it crowed about the ten percent price advantage over the competition. Was that a deal clincher? How many BLS have you seen on the road recently? It’s Cadillac’s biggest UK seller but the latest UK figures show that Cadillac has sold just 94 cars in the first six months of the year. The CTS has to offer much, much more to tempt A6, 5-series and E-class buyers.

A rival for the BMW 5-series. Seriously?

It’s not as improbable as you might think. Dimensionally the CTS is spot on, and there’s no arguing that it has the road presence to match or even better the BMW. You may have your doubts now, but just think back to the disbelief that surrounded Chris Bangle’s new generation of BMWs.

But it is the interior that gains the CTS the most points. It shouts quality and solidity in way we haven’t experienced before from Cadillac, or indeed any other US brand. It’s subtle and refined, with some fine detailing like twin stitching along the seams of the leather, subdued light tubes that spill blue illumination to the floor and the discrete use of carbonfibre.

Forget the ten percent price advantage too. Spec a 525i SE to the same level as this CTS 2.8 Sport Luxury and you’ll get a bill the wrong side of £40k. The Cadillac costs £26,995. That includes full leather, a six-speed automatic, fully electric seats with memory on the driver’s side, and so on. Showroom success will also be helped by the infotainment system: sat-nav, 300 watt Bose 5.1 surround sound, full iPod integration, 40Gb hard drive for music storage and a DVD TV. The sound is witheringly good.

So it measures up in the showroom. What about the dynamics?

There are two engine options currently, a 3.6-litre V6 with 307bhp, and a 2.8 that produces 208bhp. Trim wise there’s little difference save for chrome alloys, twin exhausts and steering wheel button shift for the auto on the 3.6, and the saving is £6k on the smaller engine.

Which makes it the obvious choice. Except you’d never guess it has 208bhp. Acceleration away from rest is ‘relaxed’ and as much as you play with the box by shifting into Sport or tweaking the lever for manual shifts, the CTS is bogged down by its weight. At 1775kg it is 170kg heavier than a BMW 525, while torque that peaks at 6300rpm tells the other half of the story. Things get a little better once the speed has built up, with more enthusiastic throttle response once you reach 50mph.

It’s a shame, because the chassis is competent. The 2.8 gets a median suspension set-up, stiffer than the US cars but not as firm as the sometimes over-harsh 3.6. It is a satisfactory compromise, giving the rear-drive chassis decent poise in the bends with steering that has sufficient weight and directional accuracy. The performance isn’t there to make this a sports saloon, but it certainly makes a nod in the right direction.

Sounds OK. So what’s the catch?

There is more than one. You may save yourself £13k on a similarly speced BMW 525i SE, but boy will you pay for it elsewhere. Economy is, on the combined cycle, 25.7mpg and we readily saw 24 on the trip computer. The benchmark BMW, however, has a combined mpg of 37.7mpg, and a CO2 output of 178g/km compared with the Cadillac’s 263. To be fair to Cadillac, take the Jaguar XF 3.0-litre as the comparison and the differences are very much smaller.

Of course a diesel will overcome some of these issues but the new 2.9-litre V6, developed in conjunction with VM Motori in Italy, is still a year away. A second problem is the dealer network. Currently there are just six places to buy your CTS in the UK. And when you come to sell your used CTS? One trade expert estimated that a three-year 60,000 mile CTS will fetch just 28 percent of its list price.

Verdict

Cadillac doesn’t have massive targets for the CTS, just a few hundred petrol versions in a full year, at least double that when the diesel arrives. So take on board, if you will, the performance, economy and CO2 factors for the 2.8, and if you accept these, you’ll be driving a pretty nice car that probably no one else you know owns. Just don’t kid yourself that Cadillac ownership is going to be as straightforward as other brands, nor as cheap as the list price implies.