2003 - Cadillac Cts on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Cadillac ATS was almost front-wheel drive

"We were going to do a front-wheel drive Cadillac compact off of Delta because it was going to be less expensive," Doug Parks, General Motors' vice president of global product programs, told the Automotive News during the Detroit Auto Show in January of this year. That sentence, referring to early ATS discussions more than five years ago - a period when the automaker, and the industry, was struggling - reveals that Cadillac's highly acclaimed rear-wheel drive compact sedan almost never happened.
Parks revealed that that automaker actually built a 2.0-liter test mule, on GM's Delta platform (shared with the Chevrolet Cruze and Buick Verano) and tested it in Europe. While the prototype was "pretty darn good," according to Parks, the team realized that in order to compete against Mercedes-Benz and BMW it would have to invest in a new rear-wheel drive platform.
The resulting all-new Alpha platform would eventually underpin the Cadillac ATS, and many would argue that its balanced rear-wheel drive chassis is its single most important attribute. Thankfully, the Alpha's goodness won't stop with the ATS. The upcoming 2014 Cadillac CTS and the future Camaro will also share its architecture, meaning the Cimarron will remain a distant memory.

2014 Cadillac ELR

Well, this is awkward.
A few years ago, Audi Of America's boss Johan de Nysschen went on record describing the Chevrolet Volt as "a car for idiots." Fast-forward to earlier this summer, and the well-regarded executive suddenly found himself in a new office with new business cards bearing the title: President, Cadillac. That means that among other challenges, de Nysschen is now tasked with selling the ELR, a car that is, at its core, a Volt in a sportier, less utile frock wearing a price tag that's twice as expensive.
Frankly, it's not a prospect we imagine the South African executive and recent Infiniti boss relishes. Just about nobody is buying the ELR - Cadillac has sold but 774 examples of its plug-in hybrid coupe this year and it presently has an almost a 200-day supply according to Automotive News. What's more, those numbers actually represent big improvements over just a few months ago, before GM started heaping on the incentives. The cynic in us says that the bad news for De Nysschen is that he's got a borderline sales-proof car in his new corporate garage. The good news? Cadillac customers apparently aren't idiots.

Cadillac CT6 to be lighter than CTS, get PHEV model

Cadillac is suddenly one of the most talked about automakers in the US with Johan de Nysschen taking control. The brand claims that it eventually wants to become, once again, the standard of the world. One of the first vehicles to actually prove whether that's possible is its upcoming CT6 flagship sedan. We still don't know what the production version looks like undisguised, but other important details are falling into place. The latest big news sheds some light on the Caddy's powertrain and some estimates of its weight and size.
General Motors product chief Mark Reuss dropped the details at the automaker's Global Business Conference. According to The Detroit News, he revealed that the CT6 would use a twin-turbocharged, 3.0-liter six-cylinder engine with an eight-speed automatic transmission, and a plug-in hybrid would be an additional option. He reportedly claimed it would be the most "powerful six-cylinder gas engine in the segment" and said the hybrid could get around 70 miles per gallon.
Reuss also revealed that the CT6 would be about 53 pounds lighter than the current CTS, despite being about 8 inches longer, according to The Detroit News. If that's the case, the new flagship is about 203.5-inches long, which is 1.5-inches more than the XTS.