The Cadillac has pushed and pulled and stretched the CTS every direction it possibly can, Sedan, Coupe, wagon, V, all of the above.
Now, they've got to work on the other end of the business, the 5 series or E-Class competitor, and that's why they're putting a bullet in the head of the STS and the DTS and bringing out this guy, the XTS.
They talked about it having a lot of room for grandpa 'cause let's face it, there still is an older demo that loves Cadillacs.
In fact,
the car just is replacing over almost a third of their sales up until 2008, 2009, the automotive washout.
So, it's not a sector they can just walk away from.
This guy has got exceptional rear-seat leg room, they say.
Good space all around, but notice how it doesn't print big.
It just prints more substantial, instead of a car that's replacing.
Now, into the hood is the key story.
We've got a 3.6 liter direct-injected V6 giving a 300 horsepower and 17/27 or 17/28 depending on the drive line as your EPA mpg.
The technology is interesting here.
They have cast in the exhaust manifold as part of the head that does 2 things.
It lets them save about 12 pounds on the engine, and on a V6, it's aluminum; that's a significant savings.
It also lets them optimize the exhaust flow to get more power and better scavenging out of the thing, more efficiency, and it's going to lead them to fewer places where the thing can break.
If you don't have a manifold bolted anywhere, that place where it bolts up can't leak around the bolts from the gasket and all of that.
So they said they get several wins out of that design.
Notice, this is gonna be the biggest Cadillac passenger car in the line, yet without a V8 option, though I'm sure that will come later in the V series.
This car is also gonna boost the new Cadillac CUE system, the new Cadillac user experience.
It's got a screen that no longer pops up needlessly like it does on current Cadillacs.
It's much bigger.
It has a ribbon at the bottom and a ribbon at the top that steal from both smartphone and personal computer practice.
Also, it's got a proximity sensor, so what's on the screen will change as your hand gets near it,
readying itself for control input.
Same thing goes for the instrument panel, about 12 inches across, all LCD on a dial in the stack.
So this guy hits the market in the Spring of 2012.
