2014 Cadillac CTS 3.6L Premium Collection review notes: Thrilling Caddy dynamics, but still figuring out CUE

EDITOR WES RAYNAL : This 2014 Cadillac CTS three.6L Premium Collection drives like a massive ATS, and I indicate that as a compliment. This vehicle proves Cadillac continues to be on a roll. For starters, it seems to be terrific. Prolonged, minimal and creased, the exterior form looks just correct. It attracts crowds wherever it goes. The LEDs search wonderful at evening to give the car a potent physical appearance.

   The interior is lovely, also, and it is genuinely quiet in there, really tiny road noise. The resources appear nicely assembled and also appear like high high quality. I even am coming to terms with CUE. Obtaining employed to it I suppose. I am thankful I can flip the radio up and down and/or switch stations with steering wheel buttons…

     This CTS is a much greater driver than the last one particular, and like the ATS, it truly is down to the chassis. It is seriously dialed in. The vehicle feels nimble for a midsize sedan. The steering is about best, the suspension is company but compliant, and the automobile feels balanced and stiff. This typically aspirated V6 (clearly not as powerful as the twin-turbo in the Vsport), but the auto doesn’t feel like a puppy by any indicates. The transmission upshifts early for far better fuel economy, but there are paddle shifters for guide handle if you want to play.

    Total, this is a heck of a good midsize sedan. Individuals who think the default choices in the midsize luxury class are the BMW 5-series, Mercedes-Benz E-class and Audi A6, want to get a new Caddy CTS for a spin ahead of plunking down their income. 

The 2014 Cadillac CTS 3.6L Premium is good looking, inside and out.

     ASSOCIATE WEST COAST EDITOR BLAKE Z. RONG : I hadn’t expected to be impressed by this CTS, and indeed a track day at Willow Springs Worldwide Raceway in California hadn’t endeared me to a 2.0T model, which hemmed and hawed and panic-tensioned the seatbelt as I cornered right up until my shoulder felt like it had been pummeled by the New England Patriots starting defense. Properly, the 3.6-liter V6 model has the very same unnerving seatbelts that by no means failed to elicit a range of emotions from passengers, primarily shock and uncanny discomfort. Perhaps since Cadillac is aware of that the CTS is worthy of such enthusiastic driving — it is a auto that is utterly engaging, with steering which is weighty and exact, with a chassis that feels quickly comfy and acquainted to push, and push hard.

      That three.6-liter engine creates very good midrange energy, but never feels terribly fast. Individuals expecting to be blown away like the Maxell Guy will want to appear at the 420-horsepower Vsport. What’s far more, it runs out of steam at greater rpm. But it does retain a pleasantly subtle growl, hidden as it is underneath so numerous layers of acoustic engineering.
On the freeway, the interior is quiet, contemplative. There’s a great deal to contemplate. This is perhaps the most lovely and effectively-put area to sit and keep that GM has ever produced. Some might criticize the myriad interiors, textures, and lines inside — and rightfully so, as it truly is a great deal to get in at initial glance. But it operates. Totally reconfigurable digital gauges sing and dance and flitter in and out like a Broadway musical. The center console is swoopy and shiny, the dashboard intricately shaped, the stitching sufficiently higher-contrast to distinguish itself. Once within, the CTS is insulated enough to mask all of your shouts at CUE, which isn’t my favourite automotive working technique on the marketplace right now.

     The exterior is swoopy, also, simply because we can lastly hark back to what Cadillac does best: acres and acres of ponderous bodywork, which is shiny and glassy and polarizing but impossible to ignore. It really is constantly been this way. The front end is a perfect mix of curves and angles jutting up against each and every other, taut and sinewy and subtly aggressive until it oozes downwards in back. 

     SENIOR Road Check EDITOR NATALIE NEFF: The CTS is lovely, inside and out, with a captivating exterior that isn’t going to try out to be something but a Cadillac, wrapped about a really pleasurable area in which to devote time. The mind-numbing drudgery of rush-hour site visitors is rendered powerless by the cozy confines, but off-ramps and winding back roads erupt in Technicolor glory by a chassis nimbler than the car’s dimension signifies. I loved driving the CTS, in all manners and on all roads.

      And in contrast to Mr. Rong, I located the three.6-liter V6 engaging and remarkably fast. No, I was by no means blown away, but the engine’s dexterity surely impressed me, powering the vehicle, as it did, with self-assurance by way of an accordion of targeted traffic, deliberate stabs of the gasoline pedal rewarded with prompt pickup and a decisive throttle response. I could easily “settle” for this non-turbo edition of the three.6.

      All that said, that discomfort-in-the-butt CUE system is an absolute deal breaker for me. For my $ 68,000, I’ll be damned if I’m forced to stab, stab, stab at a fan “button” or slide a finger repeatedly to get a lot more volume. Significantly, I’m so sick of these types of touch interfaces. They are inefficient and dangerous and I can not wait for automakers to finally figure that out.

      Base Value                : $ 65,485

     As-Examined Price    : $ 67,825

     Drivetrain                  : three.six-liter V6 RWD, eight-speed automated

     Output                        : 321 hp @ 6,800 rpm, 275 lb-ft @ four,800 rpm

     Curb Excess weight   : three,616 lb

     Fuel Economy (EPA City/Highway/Mixed): 18/29/22 mpg

    AW Observed Fuel Economy: twenty.two mpg

Options: Jet black/morello red accents ($ 1,650) 18-inch polished aluminum 15-spoke wheels ($ 750)