XTS is a bold, elegant design and efficient in ways it encompasses passengers, GM claims. Other say it looks like a Buick with a Cadillac grille. XTS replaces DTS and STS in the Caddy alphabet line.
The Cadillac XTS sedan was unveiled today. Cadillac claims it will be the most technologically advanced production car in the brand’s history when it arrives in showrooms in the spring of 2012 as a 2013 model.
Larger than the CTS line, but at 202 inches in overall length, much smaller than historic Cadillac sedans, the 5-passenger car lacks a V8 and uses a 300 horsepower (224 kW) direct injectionV6 coupled to an all-wheel-drive system. A front-wheel-drive version will also be available.
Cadillac XTS will be the most-spacious Cadillac sedan in the current line, with interior space roughly comparable to current full-size sedans. In what appears to be a clear bid to make the XTS saleable to the chauffer-driven communist ruling class in China, XTS has 40 inches (1,016 mm) of rear legroom. That’s about four more inches than the BMW 5 Series, and Mercedes-Benz E-Class and about two more inches than the Audi A6 – and comparable to larger sedans.
The Germans, of course, sell stretched versions of their cars in China to provide the required rear space. And it remains to be seen if Cadillac will eventually build a larger version of the XTS in China as it slowly recovers from its 2009 bankruptcy which interrupted its new product programs. Ultimately, Cadillac needs a bigger car then XTS if it is serious about competing globally in the Luxury car market.
CUE - Cadillac User Experience - is comprised of an eight-inch screen in the “center stack,” the faceplate below the screen and steering wheel controls. The stack has only seven buttons – four of them for the radio. That’s less than half the controls found on the center stack of the typical car.
GM previously said that it will invest $117 million to prepare the Oshawa Assembly Plant in Canada to build the all-new, full-size Cadillac XTS next year, creating, or in the current lamentable employment trend “retaining” 400 jobs on the Flex Line. The full-size Chevrolet Impala is also built at Oshawa now and eventually will share a version of the platform with Cadillac.
First shown as the Cadillac XTS Platinum concept car last year at the NAIAS in Detroit, the concept was a V6 powered, all-wheel-drive plug-in hybrid design. No word on a hybrid today.
XTS is a so-called “five meter” car, as was the Cadillac Catera, about the size of current STS or just over 200 inches in overall length, once considered the optimum size for a European luxury car before BMW and Mercedes upped the ante with super-sized S-class and 7-series behemoths.
Cadillac has apparently abandoned plans for a new generation of rear-wheel-drive cars, and the XTS is derived from the GM Epsilon front-drive platform. XTS is a cautious or bland design that is derived from the Cadillac 16 concept with its styling forms adapted to the different proportions.
The semi-big sedan will be without a V8 engine, using instead a smallish V6, a nod to the inevitable demise of the V8 engine, which for six decades defined American automotive excellence, but now in a world of encroaching CO2 limits and increasingly stringent fuel economy regulations would look more like decadence.
In production form, Cadillac XTS with 18 cubic feet (509 liters) exceeds both mid-size and full-size competitors – more than Audi A6 and A8L, BMW 5 and 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz E- and S-Class.
Highlights include:
- Haldex all-wheel-drive system with electronically controlled limited-slip differential
- Magnetic Ride Control, rear air suspension and Brembo brakes – all standard
- Standard 19-inch wheels and optional 20-inch wheels
- Direct-injected 3.6L V6 engine
- Capless fuel tank filler for easier, cleaner refueling
- Folding rear-seat headrests that enhance rear visibility
- Safety Alert Seat that vibrates to alert the driver
- Intervening braking system that lessens or avoids potential collisions
- Short- and long-range radar systems that support adaptive cruise control, front and rear automatic brakes and a rear cross traffic alert
