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I`m going to make this short because this is a German car site. Hardly anyone here cares for the new CTS.
Just today, I went to my local Cadillac dealer to take the 2014 CTS for a spin. It was not the CTS-V Sport but the 272hp turbo Inline-4 with AWD. I must have spent an hour in this test drive.
I was impressed! The new CTS is quit large in the metal... Once you get behind the wheel and start driving, you instantly notice how light it feels.. The front seats are very comfortable with very good head and leg room. The rears are comfy to, but could use a little more knee room. (I like to adjust the front driver seat to my personal comfort position, then go around back to see how much leg room is there for whoever is sitting behind me in the rear seat when I drive.) The quality of the cabin, fit-finish are very good IRL... I would say it`s right up there with the Audi A6 and pre-facelift 5-Series BMW. The cockpit/ instrumentation is a really nice design because it feels like it sits up facing you. You don`t feel like your looking down at it, if you know what I mean. Traffic was a bit on the heavy side during this test drive, lots of looks with those front LEDS... This is an excellent car for bumping around town in, just excellent.. It feels light on it`s feet and is willing to make transitions. The steering is very accurate, firm, precise and sharp. The steering almost feels as accurate and precise as the 2011 BMW 325iX I test drove sometime back, which is really impressive for such a big car. The breaks have lots of bite with little travel, very confident in feedback. The Tranny was pretty good to... Down shifted on demand and was responsive with good shift times.
The turbo Inline-4 was pretty quiet around town. It`s got plenty of power for running everyday errands which you are going to be doing most of your life.
I liked how the front seat vibrates to remind me that another car was in my blind-spot.
The suspension is firm... I set it to the performance mode and could feel the difference, less body roll and a more even ride quality. I had a chance to play with the CUE system a little bit. pretty intuitive, but if you are not tech savy, you will not care for this system.
I finally took it on the freeway and nailed it pretty hard. This is where the 4-banger got a little noisy. I felt like the power was there across a wide rev-band when called. The response is really good, around town and on the freeway.
From a performance stand-point, this new CTS really stands out tall!! When the upcoming reviews come in from the car mags I`m afraid it will beat the competition from BMW, Mercedes, Audi and possibly the new Lexus GS in most of those tests. Even with the 4-Cylinder Turbo and AWD this car is really good. It just felt like a driving tool with luxury built into it. Like the German cars used to be... I really like this new CTS.
During this test drive my boss kept calling me to work on my off day, really pissed me off and basically ruined the high of my day.
Get ready for the new CTS. The Standard of the world has raised the bar even higher. This time it feels like it`s taking no prisoners.
