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2021 Cadillac CT5 Review | Is the price (and size) right?

The Cadillac CT5, which was brand new for the 2020 model year, took the place of the CTS in General Motors’ luxury sedan portfolio. Its mission is the same as the car it replaced: compete on equal footing with the German trio of Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz along with Japanese brands Acura, Infiniti and Lexus. But it does so with a radically different package than the CTS. In place of the sharp corners and angular greenhouse of its predecessor is a smoother sedan with a flowing fastback shape. The new CT5 is also around $10,000 cheaper than the CTS it replaces, despite the fact that the two are within a few inches in exterior dimensions. So while it may be sized similarly to the cars it used to compete with, including the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes E-Class, it's now priced like a 3 Series or C-Class.  Clearly, Cadillac thinks this refined strategy will position the CT5 to better compete against those established luxury players. The car itself drives quite well and is stylish, well equipped, and that price-to-size ratio gives it a unique proposition to attract buyers away from the Europeans. What's new for 2021? The CT5 finally gets CadillacÂ’s Super Cruise semi-autonomous technology for 2021. It's the latest version that includes Lane Change on Demand functionality, but itÂ’s only available on Premium Luxury and V-Series trim levels. CaddyÂ’s sport sedan also gets a 12-inch digital gauge cluster with multiple themes, including a Track theme on the high-performance CT5-V. A new Diamond Sky special edition package will be offered on Premium Luxury CT4 and CT5 models, adding interior and exterior styling upgrades along with all-season run-flat tires on unique wheels. Additional updates include wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and a console-mounted rotary infotainment knob that enables left and right clicks to more easily navigate the infotainment system. 2020 Cadillac CT5 View 22 Photos   What's the CT5Â’s interior and in-car technology like? The Cadillac CT5 interior can best be described as “nice enough.” Unfortunately, "nice enough" isnÂ’t quite good enough to compare favorably with Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz or Volvo. We'd say it's not good enough to compare with cross-town rival Lincoln, either, but they won't be selling sedans in 2021.

Cadillac's Blackwing V8 was the best engine at the worst time

It should be clear that GM knows how to innovate and engineer excellent products when it wants to. Cadillac's 4.2-liter twin-turbo Blackwing V8 is recent proof of that. Yet, as related in an extensive Road & Track piece, the Blackwing became victim to some of The General's bugbears, like the reticence to — for whatever reasons — unleash its excellence everywhere, fund that excellence, and be consistent with that excellence over the long term beyond the Corvette and full-sized pickups and SUVs. The R/T story relates tales told by "several people deeply involved with the Blackwing project" about how an engine 18 years in the making was deprived of its reasons for being in less than three. Starting around 2000, GM spent a dozen years building Cadillac up to the point where the American luxury brand could rationally flip to the chapter called, "Taking the Fight to the Germans, but for Real this Time." The first steps in the plan meant an exclusive platform and an exclusive engine. The platform was called Omega. You know the engine's name. They were going to be the aluminum-blocked fist and velvet glove enabling Cadillac to break on through to the other side of luxury — proper luxury to global standards, that is — with a range of beautiful and dynamic crossovers and sedans. An engineer involved in the project estimates GM poured $16 million into the Blackwing's clean-sheet development. Many more seven-figure sums went into creating the first sedan on the Omega platform, the CT6. The automaker dropped millions again poaching ex-Audi and Infiniti chief Johan de Nysschen, and moving Cadillac's headquarters to New York City in 2014. Further pallets of cash funded the development and debut of the Escala concept at Pebble Beach in 2016. In 2018, GM revealed its dramatically named DOHC twin-turbo V8. Considering what came before, the Blackwing clearly wasn't designed for cars. It was designed for world domination. However, against the backdrop of plummeting sedan sales, the CT6 didn't sell like GM had hoped. The automaker hesitated to marshal another fleet of Brinks trucks to fund entries into a cratering bodystyle. Removing sedans from the world domination equation created more difficult math for the crossovers and the Escala.

SRX-replacing Cadillac XT5 spied for the very first time

Cadillac has got big plans in place to revitalize its lineup, with new sedans, coupes and crossovers. And it all starts with this, the replacement for the SRX.
Expected to be called XT5 in line with the brand's new naming scheme, the crossover will be based on a scalable new platform called C1XX - or Chi, for short. In its shorter form, Chi is anticipated to underpin the XT5 as well as a new Chevy crossover and the next-gen GMC Acadia. In long-wheelbase form, the platform is slated to give us a larger Cadillac crossover as well as a new Buick Enclave and Chevy Traverse.
Power in the XT5 will be provided by a choice of turbo four or atmospheric six, potentially to be transmitted through GM's new nine-speed automatic.