For 2014, we saw two luxury car manufacturers reinvent its high-volume cars. On one side of the world, Lexus repurposed its popular IS sedan to better compete in the compact luxury segment. Although the mechanical specs remain similar, the car is longer, more aggressive, and comes with a bigger price tag. On the other side of the world, Cadillac did something similar with the all-new CTS.

This CTS stopped sitting at the kiddie table with the A4, 3-series, and C-Class. Instead, it’s raw and unadulterated, technologically advanced and has a futuristic approach on design. 

Sitting in a Jaguar, one can already feel their grey hairs start to come in. Sure, Jaguars have really nice interiors, but they just feel a bit outdated – and the technology, although present, isn’t built for the smartphone generation. It’s simplistic, but not futuristic. The CTS isn’t game-changing, but it’s definitely much more evolved than the Jaguar and some of the other players. 

Our test model was the CTS Premium Collection, equipped with all-wheel-drive. Here are the mechanical specs of our test model:

On the base model, you can expect the following specs:

LIKES

Bold design

The CTS is one of a kind – it doesn’t need fancy badges or hood ornaments to stand out. It stands out simply because of the way it looks. It’s still boxy, but you wouldn’t recognize it any other way. 

The front of the car is just breathtaking with a long hood that cascades into the big embossed grille. The headlights are tucked in to emphasize that grille, while adding dimension to the car from the front quarters.

The headlight clusters are jeweled with LEDs just like most luxury cars, but what makes the CTS stand out is that the LEDs are vertically stacked – similar to a Ferrari 458. The LEDs don’t stop there. They continue into the bumper and turn into chrome stripes that outline the lower air ducts.

Decent performance

The 3.6-litre engine was able to deliver sufficient power and decent acceleration. There is a slight delay in response (measured in milliseconds) from the gas pedal, but the noise produced by the engine makes it all worth it. 

In manual mode, you can explore the true fun nature of the CTS with the use of paddle shifters. As you try to downshift during deceleration, the engine makes a beautiful purring sound as the transmission tries to adapt to the shift.

The base model comes with a 2.0-litre turbo engine, but we recommend testing this engine out to see if it’s a worthy performer. Sure the performance may be decent, but don’t expect to be blown away as the CTS is now a bigger, heavier car. Performance junkies can opt for the V-Sport model that has a 3.6-litre engine with twin turbos that generate around 420 horsepower.

DISLIKES

Trunk space

Although the CTS is now a bigger car, its trunk space remains fairly comparable to the outgoing model. The CTS offers 13.7 cubic feet of cargo room – just 0.1 cubic feet more than the outgoing 2013 model. In comparison, the Jaguar XF offers a generous 17.7 cubic feet while the BMW 550i offers 14 cubic feet. Although it’s not significantly less than the 550i, it would have been nice to see Cadillac add more junk to the trunk.

Sleek mirrors

The side-view mirrors look sleek from the outside and host the turn signals and the blind spot detection indicators (on higher trim levels). Unfortunately, its sleek design reduces the vertical field of view, making it hard to see the ground around your car. Fortunately, this isn’t an issue when parking as the base model comes with rear sensors to detect objects as you back into a parking spot. The rear vision camera is standard on all variants except the base model.