Cadillac rolls out its new CT6 flagship luxury sedan
The luxury brand Cadillac, soon to move from Detroit into luxurious new headquarters in New York’s SoHo district, is using the occasion of the New York International Auto Show to unveil its new flagship luxury sedan — the CT6.
The 2016 vehicle will be in production by fall and on sale before the end of the year.
It is the first, the General Motors division promises, in a series of vehicles that will change global perception of what a Cadillac is and can do.
“Cadillac wants to move back to the center stage of the luxury car market,” company President Johan de Nysschen told The Times. “But we cannot do that with the narrow product line we have today.”
The just-unwrapped CT6 is a lightweight, rear-wheeldrive performance sedan, long on premium appointments, in the Cadillac tradition, but also long on what De Nysschen called “driving dynamics.”
At under 3,700 pounds — the result of new automotive technology that enables engineers to more freely join aluminum and steel chassis parts — the most powerful of the CT6s will be driven by a 3-liter, twin-turbo V-6 engine offering 400 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque.
The lighter chassis, the company says, means more power and better fuel economy from its engines.
Cadillac will also offer the CT6 with a 2-liter, in-line, turbocharged four-cylinder engine pushing 265 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. The CT6 can also be had with a naturally aspirated, 3.6-liter V-6 engine, which makes 335 horsepower and 284 pound-feet of torque. All three engines will be mated to the company’s eight-speed automatic transmission.
The company also boasts that the CT6 will offer nextgeneration versions of its active chassis system and magnetic ride control. The combination, Cadillac says, means that every wheel drives, every wheel turns and every wheel is individually suspended, under certain conditions, for maximum road feel and control.
But the car, while offering improved “driving dynamics,” will also offer the premium appointments for which the brand has been traditionally known: leather and wood interior details, carbon fiber body elements, fully adjustable rear seating and climate control.
The result, Cadillac says, is sports car performance in “bank-vault levels of quietness.”
Cadillac representatives said the car is meant to compete for buyer attention with vehicles such as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Audi A8 and BMW 7 Series — though it will offer the agility of lighter sport sedans like the Audi A6 or BMW 5 series.
Cadillac has not released pricing information. A fully loaded version of its midsize luxury CTS costs about $71,000, while a similarly tricked-out Escalade ESV, the company’s most expensive vehicle, costs just under $100,000.
Like the Lincoln Continental revealed in New York this week, the CT6’s success will depend greatly on its reception in China.
“The CT6 is important to Cadillac’s image globally, but it will be most important to Cadillac’s volume aspirations in China,” said Stephanie Brinley, senior analyst at IHS Automotive.
The company’s De Nysschen said Chinese buyers are important. But so are younger buyers, at home and abroad.
“China is vitally important to us, but we also have to appeal to a new audience,” he said. “The baby boomer generation remains important for us, but by 2020 more than 80% of the luxury cars in the world will be bought by someone who is from Gen X or Gen Y. They bring different expectations to the market, and brands that do not evolve will be marginalized.”