2017 Cadillac CT6 not a flagship, but damned good to drive
Your momma may have called it the crook of your arm, and the Urban Dictionary offers a crude slang alternative, but we can tell you authoritatively that the soft place on the inside of your elbow is really called the cubital fossa. We’re far less certain about what to call the Cadillac CT6, because its maker assures us that this — the biggest, most luxurious, and most technologically advanced sedan in its showroom right now — is absolutely not the brand’s flagship.
Introduced for the 2016 model year and built on General Motors’ new aluminumintensive rear-wheel-drive Omega architecture, the CT6 is close to the size of the standard BMW 7-series (the one we don’t see in America anymore, because we only get the stretched-wheelbase version). Prices start in the mid-$50K range and can run well past $90,000. What’s least flagshiplike about it is the range of powertrain offerings.
Starting with a 265-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four driving the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic, the CT6 offers a pair of optional V-6s, both with allwheel drive. The naturally aspirated 335-hp 3.6-liter occupies the middle ground, while the performance option is a twin-turbo 3.0-liter generating 404 horsepower. Other luxury marques offer similar turbo fours and sixes in their top sedans, but they also tend to offer V-8 or even V-12 engines.
Cadillac has a turbocharged 4.2-liter V-8 coming, but even when the CT6 gets it, probably in 2019 models, we’re told that car won’t be the Cadillac flagship, either. Watch for something bigger and more flashily styled, like the Escala concept but still using a version of the Omega platform, to play that role. If Cadillac has a flagship today, then, it must be the Escalade SUV.
For this review, we drove a 2017 Cadillac CT6 Platinum equipped with the twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6 and all-wheel drive. This one had premium paint ($500 worth of Crystal White tricoat), a $495 spoiler, and optional 20-inch wheels ($2095), for a window sticker of $91,580.
We took it to the track to get a fresh reading on its performance abilities. It accelerated slightly better than the previous model we tested and suffered only a little in braking and skidpad grip on allweather rather than summer tires.
What’s new: While we look forward to the boosted V-8, the one powertrain Cadillac offers on the CT6 right now that we haven’t tested yet is a
plug-in hybrid edition, built in China, that arrived late in the 2017 model year. It uses the turbocharged 2.0-liter and a pair of 100-hp electric motors and can go up to a claimed 30 miles on electricity alone. The CT6 plug-in (it’s treated as a separate model) claims a 62MPGe combined rating from the EPA and has a base price of $76,090. Touted for late 2017 introduction but now delayed until the 2018 model year is Super Cruise, a handsoff semi-autonomous feature that should rival those offered by other high-end luxury sedans. Otherwise, the CT6 that arrived for 2016 is largely unaltered this year.
What we like: We especially enjoy driving the CT6, which delivers sports-sedan-grade handling, steering, and braking responses that are among the best in the full-size luxurysedan class. It drives like a smaller car, a feat few of these behemoths have mastered. The CT6 needs more power to measure up against performance models from Audi, BMW, Jaguar, and MercedesBenz, but it has the moves to play in that league.
It’s also pioneering with some distinctively digital-age technological comforts, including in-car streaming video displayed on 10.0-inch screens, a 34-speaker audio system engineered with Bose, and a 360-degree video-surveillance system. Oh, and there’s the interior rearview mirror that’s really a wideangle high-def video generated by a rear-mounted camera.
What we don’t like: The Cadillac User Experience, more commonly known as the CUE system, for managing nearly everything inside the cabin continues to be irritatingly obtuse, although the CT6 benefits from updated software and a reconfigured button field for the climate control. And while the interior materials are properly luxurious and well fitted, there are too many of them, with multiple colors and surface textures of leather and wood, sometimes with a scrap of carbon fiber or aluminum slapped in just because. It seems less like an elegant room than one showcasing an expensive quilt.
Twenty-inch wheels are standard on the top Platinum trim level we tested (the option on this car was just for a different color/design), but 19s with a little more sidewall would be preferable for those of us who regularly traverse cratered roadways.
Verdict: Maybe it’s not the flagship, but the CT6 is a terrific driver’s car.