CADILLAC’S CT6 SEDAN IS READY TO TAKE ON THE TEUTONIC TRIO
The look is American. The badge is American. Even the audio system is American. But make no mistake about it, this car is Chinese.
No, it’s not made in China. It’s made right in Detroit. Nonetheless, the CT6 is resolutely Chinese as in it was designed for, and will see its biggest market in, China.
Before you get on your xenophobic high horse, I would tell you there’s a whole bunch of benefits to outsourcing the concept but not the build. For one thing, luxury cars — regardless of make — are mostly chauffeured in China, which means that rear seat comfort, so often ignored in midpriced luxury sedans, was high on Cadillac’s ergonomic ambitions.
Another welcome nod to the Chinese market is that the CT6 is not as strictly bound to tradition as it would have been if North America or Europe had been the primary market.
And therein lies perhaps the CT6’s biggest advantage over the Teutonic trio of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi. You see, the luxury segment has long been segregated into rigidly defined categories. By size — or by price — the segment is divided into three distinct groupings. If one were a BMW fan, those are, of course, the 3, 5 and 7 Series. For Mercedes, C-, E- and S-Class. Audi, A4, A6 and A8.
Not the CT6. Huge inside — those rear seats boast almost as much legroom as a stretched Benz — the CT6 fits into some luxury segment grey zone between the top-flight land yachts (BMW’s 7 Series, Mercedes’ S-Class and Audi’s A8) and their smaller midsized siblings (5 Series, E-Class and A6). Even the powertrain selection stretches boundaries, the CT6’s engine selection ranging all the way from a 2.0-litre turbocharged four to a muchrumoured, 7 Series-like twin-turbo V-8 that will eventually top the list. Thanks for the civics lesson, I hear you saying, but how does it drive? Besides stretching its wings, what else is Cadillac bringing to the table?
Well, let’s start with the engines. The current topflight engine — the twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6 — is a gem. Blessed with 404 horsepower, it motivates the CT6 with alacrity. Of course, that’s made easier because of its lightweight Omega aluminum/high-strength steel platform; the CT6 may be BMW 7 Series-sized, but its 5 Series-light, weighing in at 1,856 kilograms. That’s some 250 kilograms less than a Mercedes-Benz S550 and, even more impressively, 57 kilograms less than the much smaller E350 4Matic.
But it’s the base engine that impresses even more. Light weight — the 2.0-litre-powered car weighs but 1,662 kilograms, a whopping 153 kilos less than a BMW 528i xDrive — means the base four-banger feels mighty peppy. Its 265 horsepower is adequate to scoot from zero to 100 km/h in just more than six seconds, faster than the similarly engined 528i. Indeed, it’s only when you get north of a lose-your-licence-immediately 140-plus km/h that any paucity of power is noticed. If it were available with all-wheel-drive — the fourbanger’s height precludes mating it to GM’s AWD system — the 2.oT version of the CT6 would get my vote for car of the year. Besides being roomy — there’s 1,027-mm of legroom in the rear — the interior is full of goodies. I’m not usually a fan of Bose audio systems, for instance, but the Panaray version in the CT6 has 34 speakers. I had to get GM’s PR team to send over a schematic to find them all.
Like most Bose systems, it’s a little heavy on the bass, but unlike everything else I’ve tested from Bose, the sound is crystal clear with none of the muddiness common to the company’s lesser systems. So, while classical jazz will still sound better on an Audi’s Bang & Olufsen system, nothing I’ve tested will render Billy Idol’s snarl more guttural than the Panaray’s 34 speakers.
Even Cadillac’s often maligned Cue system garners some kudos. Oh, like everyone else, Caddy should not have incorporated its basic radio controls into the infotainment system. But Cue’s air conditioning controls are excellent. Front and rear climate controls get separate icons for temperature, plus there’s a whole plethora of directional control. The result is four-zone control as simple as pie.
And the navigation system is automotivedom’s fastest yet. The system loads and updates quickly. Key in the first few letters and a surprisingly accurate list of possible choices — not the seemingly random suggestions some systems generate — pops up. Impressive stuff.
Other high-tech highlights impress almost as much. Cadillac’s infrared-based Night Vision system makes mockery of the dark, able to “see” about a kilometre or more into the pitch black with amazing clarity. The only problem is that the display is located in the gauge set, which, while fine for a momentary glance, is not an ideal location for constant “real-time” safety notification. Thankfully, the CT6 gets around this by generating alerts — when a child runs across the street in the dark, for instance — highlighting the vulnerable pedestrian in red on its Head-Up display.
Even more impressive is Cadillac’s new rear camera mirror. Cadillac says it expands the driver’s field of vision by 300 per cent. And indeed, thanks to the elimination of obstructions like the side pillars, rear seats and roof — the camera is in the trunk lid — the perspective from the 1280 by 240-pixel display is equivalent to a combination of side mirrors and traditional rear-view all in one. It gets my vote for the safety/ convenience technology of the year.
In the minus column, my biggest complaint with the CT6 is that its ride is too stiff. Oh, you can tune it out by flipping the damping system to its Tour mode. But Sport mode is almost useless.