Cadillac CTS test drive since 2007 sedan

Cadillac CTS

Cadillac CTS second-generation is another attempt by Americans to create a full-fledged competitor to German premium cars.
Car control is blindly risky. But such an experiment will feel how close Cadillac has come to understanding a phenomenon called a European car. The doors of the new CTS are closed with thoroughbred muffled cotton. He does not reach the sound alarm, including his obsessively bell bell for each occasion. Take the front panel in the cabin and you will get pleasant tactile sensations. Go on the road-road, and you will discover for yourself a responsive steering wheel, a dense pendant and other charms of harmonious nature with sports notes in character. Such is the last attempt to CADILLAC to measure the best engineering schools in Germany and Japan. At first glance, this attempt brought convincing results.
Now you can safely open your eyes, and your eyebrows will immediately crawl up from sincere surprise. The interior is distinguished by taste and quality. On top, the front panel is finished with genuine leather with elegant horizontal stitching, sweeping on the door. All this looks high -class and frankly expensive. It is great that this style is an integral part of CTS in any configuration, even the most basic. The central console in the form of the letter V visually cuts the front of the cabin in two; It is crowned by a retractable monitor of the navigation system, from the foot of which a silver waterfall begins its way. Closed between the formidable ventilation deflectors, it streams of a round analog clock, a cascade runs away through three buttons blocks and collapses in the immediate vicinity of the gearbox lever. Further, the stream flows smoothly in the middle of the front seats, ending its path somewhere below the armrest. However, the attention of the driver is more often riveted to the instruments of elegant design, enclosed in a tripty of embossed bells. Also beautiful.
The appearance of the car is different from the piercing-cutting and cannot be called. GM artists created a sculptural image in a faceted industrial style, developing the ideas that were embodied in the first -generation car. Small surfaces, formed by several harsh lines, form a unique style that endows CTS with indisputable recognition. And not only one CTS, but also any modern Cadillac car. With the change of generations, this style has become more honed and balanced, although it has not lost its extremism. Well, approaching the European standards for elaboration of the interior and running characteristics, CTS retained a significant distance from BMW and Mercedes in terms of exterior design, while many classmates, on the contrary, spend a lot of efforts on borrowing.
And the previous CTS, if you recall, consisted of one corners, but its rudeness bordered on vulgarity. The new model looks an order of magnitude more aesthetic. The dimensions of the overhang are in harmony with the size of the wheelbase, huge wheels are placed in the corners of the body, and the arches are played with muscles. The rising window sill line creates a feeling of dynamism. As for the vertically oriented optics, it no longer seems provincially simple-minded. The reincarnated CTS is still effective, but before this spectacity was momentary, poorly hiding the clumsy praop-visible under it; Today it is more intriguing. The most indicative example of the radiator cladding, the architecture of which attracts the eye for a long time.
An interesting car, enchanting. But what are her prospects? In order to realize the scale of the tasks facing it, it is just timidly mentioning that CTS is a direct competitor to the 5th BMW series. The car is designed on the rear -wheel drive platform of Sigma, which underlies the previous model and undergoing appropriate modernization. We especially note that there will be a full -wheel drive version. The handout with an electromagnetic coupling will direct 30% traction to the front wheels under normal conditions and up to 100% when the rear wheels slip.
Now CTS fits into European requirements to ensure the safety of a pedestrian in the event of a collision on the latter in particular, the car has acquired a shooting hood. The body added in stiffness rests on a multi -link suspension behind and transverse levers of unequal length in front. The distribution of mass along the axes is the perfect 50:50, and the top modification in addition to the large -liter engine receives a system for maintaining a road clearance. At the moment, the line of power units is formed by two V-shaped six: 211-horsepower 2.8 liters and 311-horsepower with direct injection of gasoline. Both engines can be ordered with a 6-speed mechanics or a 6-band automaton. The car does not yet have a diesel in 2009. True, its main parameters are already known: direct injection, six cylinders, 2.9 liters, 250 hp, 550 nm. Then the dealers will enter the all-wheel drive version and the super-powerful CTS-V modification.
Our Cadillac is driven by a 3.6-liter engine, which makes a bass rumbling from double exhaust pipes of impressive sizes. Electrified chairs and steering wheel provide a quick search for the most convenient landing, after which it remains to overcome the last difficulty to deal with small buttons on the central console and start the motor. In the process of moving in space, some nuances crawl out, for example, the aggravated sensitivity of the accelerator, emphasized by sudden delays in responses. Already there is no that magnificent lightness, the smoothness that is associated with us with the word Cadillac. It is not always predictable to switch the machine, which in transitional modes every now and then starts into the dance between the ranges. The box is equipped with three modes, but the one that is called sports holds the transmission with absurd enthusiasm. Despite the fact that after 6000 rpm the motor is spinning poorly, the automatic box refuses to switch, falling in the waiting for the red zone. Precious moments have to be saved by interfering in the work of the box, for which the steering wheel is provided manipulators. Otherwise, this mode is a good adaptive algorithm allows the machine to deftly adapt to the driver's temperament, switching downwards occur softly and quickly.
The premium sedan requires a smooth traction engine that does not produce excessive noise effects to high revolutions. The starting jerk of CTS is quite decent, but the area of \u200b\u200bthe best traction starts at 3500 rpm, with lower revolutions, the machine, despite the promising numbers of technical characteristics, clearly lacks enthusiasm and enthusiasm.
Talking about active driving in the context of Cadillac brand products is somehow not accepted, but the new CTS has been breaking stereotypes that have been developing for decades. The car holds on the road confidently, practically not rolling, without swinging and accurately performing the driver’s commands. As the car with a claim to sports has stood, CTS famously deals with the turns of various complexity. You are enough for an accelerator pedal for accurate control of the car balance thanks to the rear drive and properly configured ESP, condescending to easy skidding. The winding provincial roads will even ask the heat of the supercar, but Cadillac does not think to give up, even if the sophisticated habits is inferior to the Bavarian five.
The only serious drawback I would call the rigid passage of irregularities, and in more calm modes the suspension as a whole reliably isolates passengers from the vicissitudes of the road relief. CTS ambitions it reinforces the short and informative pedal of the brake (the performance of the mechanisms themselves could be higher), as well as the chairs with a successful profile, tightly, almost to numbness in the hips fixing the bodies of the pilot and his partner. The level of comfort is high, there is enough space inside both for people and for baggage, however, long -legged drivers will complain that their knees in corners rest on the central console, then into the details of the interior decoration of the door. On the CTS high-speed tracks, like the sparks of Cadillac (you still have to get in the case that both of the copies provided to us on the go were creaked and resonated with the salon panels), so you can relax and enjoy the sound of an advanced audio system compatible with Apple iPod. The level was on the level of onboard navigation.
There is no need to say that CTS is beaten by the BMW of the 5th series, but he has already learned to deliver the notorious pleasure from driving. This Cadillac is a bright, charismatic nature, supplemented luxurious interior. If you need a business class sedan, and German options seem to be pain trivial, CTS is able to save you from the torment of choice.
Some technical characteristics of Cadillac CTS
Dimensions, mm 4867x1841x1473
Equipped mass, kg 1757/1767
Base, mm 2880
Trunk volume, l 385
Benzine engine type V6
Working volume, cubic meter. cm 3564
Max. Power, L.S./rpm 311/6400
Max. moment, nm/rpm 374/5200
Mechanical transmission 6-speed/automatic 6-band
The rear drive
Max. Speed, km/h 249/241
Acceleration time 0-100 km, with 6.3/6.3
Tank volume, l 68
Richard Brener
Photo by Jami Lipman, Charlie Mages
Haymarket Magazines Ltd, Autocar

 
 
 

Source: Avtopanorama magazine