When it comes to luxury cars, Europeans and North-Americans have managed to achieve fascinating results through different paths. The first used to focus on what their cars would have, while the second group’s concern has been how to create them. Wealthier clients tend to have classical tastes for being usually older, but the way each brand has tried to please them was making the American sales fall behind. This article’s sedan is GM’s way of showing how strong is Cadillac’s intention to turn things around.
Even though North-American cars are used to receive several partial updates during their lifecycle, whether small or deep, the structural updates take much slower rhythms. Cost reduction is always a very probable reason for this kind of decision, but in this particular case is also possible to mention the fact that Cadillac, Chrysler and Lincoln were used to be very dependent on the domestic market. Until thirty years ago, the North-American clients didn’t think too much of buying from foreign automakers because they weren’t so many, and these few pioneers would still take a long time to build respectable reputation at that market. Both reasons converged basically into a lack of threats to the domestic brands. Even when the 1990s arrived, cars like Chevrolet Caprice and Ford Crown Victoria received all the new style trends while keeping twenty-year-old platforms, and therefore much of the internal structure. Those buyers have only started to be satisfied with more when the Europeans managed to ascend in North America, specially the Germans. Those have always offered very modern cars, with cutting-edge technologies and frequent improvements on each and every possible aspect.
In other words, it was needed to keep up with the new competitors in order to keep in business. Such adaptation took a long process, which was captained by ending most of the famous nameplates to facilitate transitioning to the twentieth-century luxury cars. Cadillac announced its upcoming big leap with concepts such as Evoq and Imaj around 1999, and started it with a whole new line started with CTS and Escalade. Although this brand’s market evolution needed to slow down during the 2008 crisis, XTS is the first concrete result of Cadillac’s prepare for the future. This sedan takes the flagship car’s position without being old-fashioned nor “transitional” – the line was completely reorganized, ending both DTS and STS and dividing their customers between the cheaper CTS and only one full-size sedan. And when it comes to the structure, K-body platform was finally dropped in favor of Epsilon II, which is used by GM’s luxury sedans from several countries… and is twenty-eight years younger. This is what makes XTS the very first symbol of what Cadillac will take as a priority, from now on. Straight lines and sharp creases always give a modern impression, even when they come with all the discretion demanded by an executive sedan, but this time that modernity comes for the entire car.
Sharing Buick LaCrosse’s long-wheelbase underpinnings enabled XTS to repeat many of its measures, which includes an 18-cu-ft trunk and more rear seat space than, according to Cadillac, Audi A6, BMW 5-Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class’s. But XTS’s true impressive features are related to technology. This is the CUE infotainment system’s debut, whose 8” touchscreen eliminates most of the internal buttons and controls an endless list of functions. Also interesting is the safety department, which features adaptative cruise control and front lighting, active brake assistance, blind spot monitoring and alerts for rear cross-traffic and lane-departure, not to mention forward collision assistance, OnStar and driver’s seat vibration in case of imminent accident. Such number of programs can display their information through an optional 12.3” color screen which literally replaces the dashboard, being able to assume pretty much whichever setting the driver prefers. Other standard items will be magnetic ride control, HiPer strut setup in the front and air suspension for the back, along with Brembo brakes, 19” wheels and GM’s latest V6 3.6L engine, which boosts XTS with 300 hp of power and 264 lb-ft of torque. There will be only a six-speed automatic transmission, but the front-wheel drive can be upgraded for a Haldex AWD system.
