2014 Cadillac Ats Performance Rwd on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Cadillac CT5-V comes in under $50,000

Cadillac CT5-V pricing is out, giving us a fuller picture of the CT5 lineup from a pricing perspective. We still haven’t driven CadillacÂ’s new sedan, but we now know that a CT5-V with rear-wheel drive will set you back $48,690, including the $995 destination charge. If you want all-wheel drive, thatÂ’ll be $51,290, a $2,600 upcharge. ThereÂ’s a small tidbit of powertrain news available today, as well. When Cadillac first announced the CT5-V, it said the 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 would make 355 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque. Since then, Cadillac has upped the final figures to 360 horsepower and 405 pound-feet of torque. The difference is only 5 horsepower and 5 pound-feet of torque, but still worth noting. We also got pricing information on the CT5 with the lower-spec 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6. This engine is only available on the Premium Luxury trim and it starts at $45,190 with rear-wheel drive. The all-wheel drive version costs $48,280. Cadillac opened up the CT5Â’s configurator with all the different variants on it today, too. We built a CT5-V with all the option boxes checked and saw the price balloon to more than $67,000. This sedan can get expensive if you let it. Compared to the BMW M340i or Audi S4, the Cadillac's base price is still cheaper. If you want to keep it in the Cadillac family, the smaller CT4-V starts at $45,490, coming in $3,200 less than the CT5-V. Cadillac says the CT5 will begin shipping to dealers in the first quarter and the CT4 will arrive in the second quarter.

Cadillac CTS wins 2014 Motor Trend Car of the Year [w/video]

For the second time, the Cadillac CTS has been named Motor Trend's Car of the Year. After winning the COTY crown for 2008, the new-for-2014 CTS outdid the other two finalists for Car of the Year honors, the Mazda3 and its corporate cousin, the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.
What's notable about the Caddy's victory, though, is how it simply brushed off its competition. Both the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and BMW 5 Series failed to make the finalist's bracket, leaving the CTS to claim victory. "It had to beat [Mercedes and BMW] on style, on performance, on comfort, and on quality. It has," Motor Trend said in its COTY recap for the CTS.
The team at Motor Trend praised the CTS chassis, calling it "fantastic," and citing weight advantage the Caddy has over the competition. There was also praise heaped on the car's engines, with the 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder getting nods of approval from the MT team. The team also raved about the VSport model and its twin-turbocharged V6, magnetic shocks and other performance accoutrements.

Best and Worst GM Cars

Oh yes, because we just love receiving angry letters from devoted Pontiac Grand Am enthusiasts, we have decided to go there. Based on a heated group Slack conversation, the topic came up about the best and worst GM cars. First of all time, and then those currently on sale, and then just mostly a rambling discussion of Oldsmobiles our parents and grandparents owned (or engineered). Eventually, three of us made the video above. Like it? Maybe we can make more. Many awesome GM cars are definitely going unmentioned here, so please let us know your bests and worsts in the comments below. Mostly, it's important to note that this post largely exists as a vehicle for delivering the above video that dives far deeper into GM's greatest hits and biggest flops, specifically those from the 1980s and 1990s. What you'll find below is a collection of our editors identifying a best current and best-of-all-time choice, plus a worst current and worst-of-all-time choice. Comprehensive it is not, but again, comments. -Senior Editor James Riswick Best Current GM Vehicle Chevrolet Corvette We were flying by the seats of our pants a bit in this first outing and my notes were similarly extemporaneous. When it came time to tie it all together on camera, I failed spectacularly. Thank the maker for text, because this gives me the opportunity to perhaps slightly better explain my convoluted reasoning. I chose the C8 Corvette because it's simply overwhelmingly good, and it's merely the baseline from which this generation of Corvette will be expanded.  While the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing (more on that in a minute) is an amazing snapshot of GM's current performance standing and its little sibling so enraptured me that I went out and bought one, their existence is fleeting. Corvette will live on; forced-induction Cadillac sport sedans, not so much. So while all three are amazing machines when viewed in a vacuum, the Corvette stands above them as both a reflection of GM's current performance credentials and a signpost of what is to come. So, given the choice between the C8 and the 5V-Blackwing right now, I'd choose the C8. In 10 years, when the Blackwing is no longer in production and Corvette is in its 9th generation? Well, that might be a different story. Now, just pretend I said something even remotely that coherent when we get to the part of the video where I try to make an argument for the 5-V Blackwing as best GM car I've ever driven. Or just laugh at me while I ramble incoherently.