For many decades, Cadillac sedans were a big deal. If you had a Caddy people knew you were living it up, traveling in the lap of luxury. They were the biggest, heaviest cars with leather seats you'd sink into and gigantic V8 engines. However, Japanese imports changed all that, bringing better build quality and efficiency to consumers.
Now, many of Detroit's finest brands gave up on the sedan. But not Cadillac, which offers a couple of four-door models that try to fight not only against Japan but also imports from Germany or Korea.
The CT4 is the smaller and cheaper of the two, and one of this story's heroes. And although Toyota, Nissan, and Honda are the main brands that encroached on American soil, YouTuber Sam CarLegion chose the Mazda3 for this review.
Why? Well, maybe the Canadian got tired of putting the Honda Accord in every video. On the other hand, if you're looking for surprising Japanese luxury, there's no better car than the Mazda3. Sedan or hatchback, it's got one of the best interiors of any compact. You can easily compare it to a Mercedes A-Class.
But the only problem is its size. We don't even need to check the CT4's proportions since if Cadillac made a "compact" the world would come to an end the very next day. But they're surprisingly close, with 2 inches in terms of wheelbase and 3.7 inches in terms of total length (5 cm and 9.4 cm, respectively).
The prices are also pretty close, with the Mazda3 sedan starting at about CA$37,000 in Canada while the CT4 begins at CA$39,000. South of that border, the American Mazda3 is $30,050 without destination, while the more traditional luxury sedan commences at $33,395.
But base prices aren't that relevant here. The Mazda3 does indeed have the "Turbo" engine with up to 250 hp from a 2.5-liter, while the Cadillac is basically cheating.
That's right, that's the CT4 with a 2.7-liter making 320 hp and standard with a 10-speed. Based on the design of the bumper, that should be the AWD Premium retailing from $45,890 before destination. Is that fair? Probably not, but the Mazda still launches better before the overwhelming power of the 2.7T overwhelms it. Sam says the normal CT4 with the 2.0T would have lost the race.
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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