I thought I'd share my experience with driving the 2008 Caddy CTS recently. I was killing time between client meetings and since the wife gave the go ahead to search for a new daily driver for her this year, I took the opportunity to check out the car at Roy Foss. Unfortunately, the sales rep with me didn't know much about the car.

I test drove the Automatic AWD, 304 hp DI 3.6 V6, non-sport performance suspension, and from what I can tell, full options list for creature comforts model. I was surprised to see that the base MSRP of the CTS was 38k, the model I drove was priced at 49k.

Exterior: A very handsome vehicle. Paint quality was good, some orange peel. The colour choices were very nice. The lines of the car in person is much more impressive than on pictures. The car has a great stance, it looks like GM did a good job with the wheel gap and spacing. The front of the car has a lots of detail, in line with cars a more expensive. The rear is a little bland, but the 235 tires gave it a nice presence. I was shocked to find out that there is a factory option to have the car come with summer only Pilot Sports. I'm not in favour of the chromed rims, but I believe that can be a deleted option. I would say it is a car I'd be proud to walk up to and get in. The panel gaps and fit and finish were great. A large improvement over the outgoing model.

Interior: I think this is where the car really shines. The fit and finish was excellent. I did not notice any glaring gaps or ill-fitting pieces. The plastics had a very high quality feel to them. I like GM's lighter coloured thread stitching of the soft plastics and leather. The instrument cluster was beautiful to look at. I thought it was similar to that of the Acura TL's instrument cluster, with bright colours and a great glow to it, but done much classier. The toys and creature comforts in the car is excellent (ipod integration, heated/ac seats, electric everything, memory seats and mirrors that automatically adjust with the smart key fob, etc) The very large sunroof was a nice added touch. The sunroof was the at least 2.5 times the length of our car's. I found the seats supportive. The switches and movement of the electric mirrors, steering wheel, seats felt and sounded extremely high quality. The back seat as large as the back seats of the G35 sedan, if not a bit more roomier. The car doors closed with a solid, satisfying thud.

Driving: The car was quiet. The brakes didn't feel that strong, but I'm not sure if it was because it was wet and cold out and the car didn't have the performance package. The brakes definitely stronger than my Avalon and my Continental. The ride quality was good, you could hear all the bumps, but not feel any of them. The body roll and lean was not very pronounced. The car felt very settled. It tracked straight under hard acceleration and braking. The car gives you confidence to drive it hard.

I found the around parkinglot speed steering feel very light. I felt steering feel could be improved, or somehow the speed sensitive steering assist could be recalibrated. Perhaps it was the AWD, but I just didn't like how the vehicle moved around in slow turns and parking lots. It felt foreign and not intuitive. I did notice that it seemed to have a really tight turning circle, but that could be my perception. The car seems bigger than it really is. Rear visibility and blind spot visibility was decent. The funky shaped side mirrors took some getting used too.

The motor was silky smooth, no real vibration or harshness. I felt it pulled at all RPM's very hard. The exhaust note was almost too muted for my liking.

The transmission, in automatic mode seemed extremely smooth. GM always had great automatic trannies. Manual mode is similar to the manual mode in our cars, with the same lag time between shifts. I'm pretty sure the tranny matches revs when downshifting, since the gear transitions were smooth.

I wanted to test drive the 6MT with the performance package, but apparently it is a rare combination to have on the lot. I was very impressed with the car. I believe anyone considering a vehicle between 40-60k should do themselves a favour and test drive this car. I also learned the Caddy has free maintenance, Onstar for the first year, a pretty comprehensive warranty.

Overall, I think my wife will like this car a lot. We'll see. She's been hampering for a 4 door car that's bigger than the coupe. (The 'talk' about having kids will start... very soon I believe since she's been wanting to see the nieces and nephews a lot lately).

The new 08 CTS is a very nice car, and I RARELY use those words to describe a domestic vehicle.

wow, great write-up. i didn't even know that car was available in awd.

i found your comment on the summer tires funny. i've noticed all higher end vehicles coming with summer tires standard as well. just before i ordered my bmw i was going to get the awd version. but later found that it came with smaller rims, no performance suspension and the tires were summer performance only ! what gives? so i settled on the cab instead figuring i had to buy winter rubber regardless.

sorry for the ramble... anyways, it's nice to see a new competitor. makes everyone else push that much harder for our dollars.. i especially like that stereo with the hard drive in the new cadi. i don't think anyone else offers to pause and playback radio. pretty neat.

Nice writeup link, some good info there. I shopped the previous-gen CTS before buying my G and while I think I would have been satisfied with it as a DD, it just didn't measure up to the G. The 2008 seems to be a big step up.

I'm curious about that 6-speed auto tranny, I believe it's the same one as in the Saturn Aura XR (same 3.6 engine, though not DI in the Aura). What I found unsatisfying about that transmission was that it seemed to want to find too high a gear and would really lug when just driving it in traffic. Did you find that, or have they perhaps tuned/valved/whatever it differently?

Great write up link. I haven't gotten around to test driving one yet, but I am planning on it. GM did a fantastic job with the new CTS.

hmmm... I didn't find that at all, but what I did notice is that there is a larger than normal 'dead' area when you first press down on the accelerator pedal from a slow speed or dead stop. It sure helps with smooth driving in every day traffic conditions, but now where near the throttle response that the G gives.

I did learn that the tranny aggressively adapts to the driving style, so the car I drove might have always been babied on test drives, being chaperoned by a rep, hence the smooth but slower throttle response and slight hesitation to downshift.

Good review link. Best of luck with your choices. The intuition with your wife is probably right.