2003 Cadillac CTS

Cadillac has broken a lot of new ground with its all-new CTS. It drives like a European luxury sports sedan and, like Mercedes-Benz and BMW, this new Cadillac uses rear-wheel drive instead of front-wheel drive. It is designed to appeal to younger buyers who want European performance in an American luxury product. The smallest of Cadillac's sedans, the CTS replaces the European-built Cadillac Catera, two generations of which failed to capture the imagination of the American buying public. The CTS is built in America, but its power, handling, luxury, and electronics put it in direct competition with sedans from around the world: the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, the BMW 3 Series, the Audi A4, the Lexus ES 300, and the Lincoln LS. Cadillac engineers used a BMW 5 Series (the previous 528i) as a performance benchmark. This is the first car to be built on GM's all-new Sigma rear-wheel-drive platform. The CTS will be built in GM's first brand-new factory in years, in Lansing, Michigan.