Two or three years ago, Consumer Reports would hit every GM model with a brick until it was dead. However, things have changed, and the people we trust to review lawn mowers and burger meat now think buying American is better than doing it the German way. The 180-degree flip can be clearly seen in their take on the all-new Cadillac CT6 full-sized luxury sedan.
While the BMW 7 Series got a bad review for being too gimmicky and overpriced, the Cadillac CT6 is described as being more German than the Germans when it comes to delivering fun in a classy package. Are they crazy? Not when a Cadillac flagship is 1,000 lbs lighter than the S-Class.
To sum up everything they've said in this near 4-minute clip, the CT6 is a clear winner. It's not perfect, but at just shy of $74,000 with all the options, it undercuts the Germans by several tens of thousands of dollars. Has anybody checked if this is really a Cadillac and not a Kia?
Production of the CT6 just started in January. For now, the biggest Cadillac around is available with a 4-cylinder turbo base engine and two V6 engines, the standard 3.6-liter and a 3-liter twin-turbo offering 404 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque (542 Nm). Sure, the Germans have that too, but everything costs more.
Gas is at record low levels, so Cadillac will also introduce a 4.2-liter twin-turbo V8 soon. However, a plug-in hybrid is also on its way, being expected to include a massive 18.4 kWh battery.
Consumer Reports correctly estimates that most people will buy the CT6 with the 335 horsepower LGX naturally aspirated V6 engine. Prices for that model start at $55,500, so it's about nine grand cheaper than the one with twin screws. However, we'd risk the reliability problems and get a turbocharged sports sedan. This is 2016 after all!
The interior is pretty much what you'd expect from Cadillac these days. The infotainment speaking is crap, but you get more seat adjustment and stereo speakers than you could count. We figure that this feature-rich but not groundbreaking approach is designed for the typical Chinese consumer.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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