Introduction

Years from now, the year 2003 will be remembered as the beginning of the comeback for Cadillac, carried on the broad edgy shoulders of the rear-wheel-drive CTS. The 2003 CTS almost had it all, but the engine wasn't strong enough to fill the promise of the superb new chassis, and the competition from BMW and Audi demanded more than 220 horsepower. The 2004 CTS responds with two punches, a left jab (255-horsepower V6) and right cross (400-horsepower V8). 2004 also brings some needed softness into the interior, and tweaks the suspension to balance that additional horsepower on the road. The handling of the '03 CTS was widely praised, and now it's even better.

Walkaround

The CTS is the first production car in Cadillac's new design vocabulary that started several years ago with the Evoq show car. Cadillac calls this new style Art & Science, and it relies on a festival of wedges, sharp junctions and angles. "Edgy" is the adjective that is frequently and aptly applied. It looks slightly different from every angle, with all points of view interesting. From the front, it looks imposing, with a strong confident eggcrate grille sweeping upward like a wing, and horizontal sharp headlamps stacked with two beams inside. An all-business air dam features simple rectangular foglights and a long narrow intake near the skirt. The sharp edges of the nose vanish from a side view, but they reappear on top of the tall, wide taillamps which travel vertically at the car's rear corners and extend horizontally on the short, high deck. The view from the rear is marred by the indentation cut widely around the license plate, housing the backup lights in a sea of sparkling white plastic. The seven-spoke alloy wheels look especially sharp in the mirror finish, mostly because of their sportier centers. The new dual exhaust pipes look cool too.

Interior Features

The CTS interior isn't like anything else on the market today. It's very angular, for the sake of style, although in '04 it's been softened here and there. There is a very European presentation of the instrumentation, meaning clear gauges. The CTS is sold in Europe. Done up in several high-tech textures, the dashboard and instrument panel are rendered in muted shades of gray with excellent, highly readable graphics. Almost everywhere the texture is dimpled like a golf ball, which we didn't particularly like and wondered if the texture would gather dust. The center stack, where most of the adjusting is done, juts out proudly and prominently from the rest of the dash, with the elaborate GPS navigation system at the top center location. Climate controls are at the bottom, controlled by amber-lighted pictograms like other Cadillacs. The three-spoke steering wheel contains buttons for the sound system and cruise control, and is deliciously padded in leather for all but the part of the rim between about 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock, a Cadillac trademark that we wish could be ordered away. The wood is lovely, but with gripping two materials with your hands, sometimes at the same time, is not ideal; the wood is colder, harder and more slippery than the leather. The leather seats are excellent, comfortable for all-day driving with good bolstering to hold your torso in place through the sharp corners. There's good support for the driver's right leg; where the right shin touches it feels padded, but it's only soft and hollow. There's a good dead pedal for the left foot. The CTS offers more interior room than some of its European competition. A quite tall driver or passenger will be comfortable in front, and only slightly cramped in the rear. There is a convenient pass-thru tunnel between the rear seats, to the trunk. The door pockets are not very deep. The small triangular speakers for the optional Bose system are mounted on the A pillar, and look cool.