Cadillac STS and STS-V
The Heart Of The Brand
Forget the Escalade. It’s a candy-coated truck. Forget the CTS. It’s a downmarket
dalliance. The XLR? Too Key West. The SRX? Too Wal-Mart. No, if you’re looking for
the Cadillac, the one wherein the heart of the brand resides, you want
the STS. It’s the distillation of what Cadillac stands for today, the torchbearer
in direct succession to the Detroit-iron luxo-liners of decades past. An argument
might be made for the DTS, but as good as it is, it’s a front drive cruiser in a
rear-drive market. No, the STS is Cadillac’s touchstone.
And it’s way better than you think.
Where To Begin?
Cadillac is covering its bases with the STS. The line starts with a 255 bhp V6 for
around $42,000. While it’s a smooth and affordable car, it doesn’t really feel like
enough Cadillac. We think eight cylinders is minimum for a Caddy, so we’ll
start with the lovely 320-hp Northstar V8. This fine engine can be had in rear-
or all-wheel drive configurations. While the AWD package may be nice for snow belt
states, it adds weight and complexity, and drinks fuel more energetically. With
the plethora of traction and stability control systems available on the rear-drive
car, we question the ultimate utility of all-wheel-drive in this class. From a dynamic
standpoint, we’ll stick to two driven wheels, and save the weight and fuel.
Quick and Quiet
Outfitted thus, you have a Caddy that’ll do sixty in a hair under six seconds. That
brisk thrust, driven out back through an outstanding 5-speed manumatic transmission,
is about the only time you’ll hear the Northstar at work, so diligently has Cadillac
snubbed the noise in this thing. It’s almost Lexus-like in its silence at operating
speeds, achieved with thick helpings of foam, rubber, laminate-layer steel and other
sound-deadening slatherings throughout the cabin. And the cabin deserves some praise
here, too. Cadillac has apparently learned that elegance and sophistication aren’t
achieved with Las Vegas-style excess. The cockpit is clean and simple, if a bit
unimaginative in form. Still, we like the straightforward approach. Plastics could
be better in color and texture, but they’re vastly superior to the previous generation.
The real wood trim throughout is an authentic luxury touch, the controls are obvious
in their functions, and the instruments have the same no-nonsense clarity as their
European and Japanese counterparts. Nothing groundbreaking, but nothing cheap, either.
Well done, here.
Solid Ride Credentials
Nor is there anything cheap about the STS ride quality. GM’s luxury division did
the job right on this new rear-drive Sigma platform, creating a taut structure from
which to hang some very cool and very relevant suspension technology. Chief among
these is the Magnetic Ride Control system. This tech won a bunch of awards a few
years ago, and it should have. The magneto-rheological fluid in these Delphi-sourced
dampers can vary compliance on the fly, based on the electric current the computer
sends through them from a whole little army of sensors. A neat trick, and it works,
keeping the STS’s tendons tight and lithe across almost any perturbations, without
transmitting any bone-jarring bangs into the cabin. It’s a fluid ride (sorry) that
feels like a match for almost anything the Europeans (who are pretty much still
in charge of this ride-handling thing) can deliver. Very well done, here.
Extremely Well-Done: The V.
Want to cook some meat? Launch the STS-V like you mean it, and you’ll have enough
smoke to age a herd of Herefords. Unlike the CTS-V, which is motivated by a version
of the Corvette’s pushrod V8, the STS-V stays truly upmarket with a 4.4 liter version
of the twin-cam Northstar. Only this one’s got some whipped cream on top, in the
form of an Eaton Roots-type supercharger. The force-fed air charge, chilled by a
series of intercoolers before it reaches the cylinders, results in 469 bhp and 439
pound-feet of twist. That makes the STS-V the most powerful Caddy you can buy. It
also makes 60 mph wink past in about four-and-a-half seconds on a good day, through
a new 6-speed automatic with manual control. 4.5 seconds…for a Cadillac? Well okay,
that’s one definition of luxury we can live with.
The STS-V starts around – hang on – $77,000. Yes, it’s a bunch of Cadillac and a
bunch of performance for those dollars. But the STS-V’s declared competition, namely
the Mercedes E55 AMG and the BMW M5, are swaggering around the same neighborhood,
and they have moves the V-car can’t match. In ultimate performance, they’re still
ruling the school. But Cadillac isn’t backing away from the big boys. And that –
all by itself – is something we thought we’d never say about Cadillac. The STS and
STS-V are worthy of pride.
GET IT:
…as a worthy celebration of the sport and luxury standard that started Cadillac.
DON’T GET IT:
…if you’re waiting for a true Euro-beater from GM. It hasn’t arrived. Yet…
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