Autoblog

The new Cadillac CTS has been snatching up awards and garnering praise since its launch last year, and now its got another trophy to place on its shelf. After the IIHS wrapped up its battery of batterings, the CTS joined the Institute's list of Top Safety Picks for 2008. Cadillac's entry-level sports sedan is sitting at the table with the Volvo S80, Saab 9-3, Audi A4 and A6 as another vehicle to receive the highest rating issued by the Institute after enduring front, side and rear crash tests, along with being equipped with electronic stability control.

The IIHS' full press release is posted after the jump.

The editors of Motor Trend have tallied up the votes and crowned the Cadillac CTS their 2008 Car of the Year, GM's first since the Corvette won a full decade ago. The CTS beat an 18-car field including the Honda Accord, Audi TT, Subaru WRX, Chevrolet Malibu, Mitsubishi Lancer, Mercedes-Benz C-Class and others. MT was smitten with the Caddy's balanced handling, smooth-revving V6, exterior and interior design, and attention to detail. Our man Damon would certainly agree, who gave the CTS a thumbs up after piloting it around the Milford Proving Grounds. You can read Motor Trend's thoughts on the CTS here, or read their full evaluation of all the cars here.

Photo Copyright ©2007 Alex Núñez / Weblogs, Inc.

[Source: Motor Trend]

Our friends over at the Kicking Tires blog decided to take a gander at how well a few of the new 2008 models did their first month on the market, and it turns out really, really well. Though automakers don't break down what percentage of a particular car's monthly sales were of the 2007 or 2008 model, Kicking Tires compared the September sales numbers to the prior month when the redesigned '08s weren't available. The 2008 Cadillac CTS, for instance, sold 3,887 units in August and a whopping 6,416 units in September. That's a 65% increase in units sold month over month and a 73.5% increase in the average number of units sold per day versus the prior year. Clearly the car's positive reviews are reaching the eyes and ears of prospective buyers, which is a good thing for Cadillac overall. Besides the Escalade, which sells in smaller numbers, the CTS was the only Cadillac that increased its sales last month.

Kicking Tires also took a look at the 2008 Mercedes-Benz C-Class and 2008 Honda Accord, both of which debuted redesigned models in the marketplace last month. The same thing happened. The Merc's sales shot up 42.8% compared to last September and the Accord, which has also enjoyed positive reviews, was up 37.3% versus last year. Curiously, however, the Honda Accord sold even better two months ago when only 2007 models were available. In August of 2007, the average number of only 2007 Honda Accords sold per day was up 37.3% versus just 31.2% in September 2007 when the 2008 models were added. Either way, sales were still up compared to last year, so Honda should be pleased. Not every automaker can say that about its bread-and-butter midsize sedan.

[Source: Kicking Tires]

click above image for new live shots of the 2008 Cadillac CTS

While Damon was lucky enough to get an early shot at driving the brand-new 2008 Cadillac CTS on Laguna Seca last month, the rest of us had to wait until GM showed off its 2008 collection at the Milford Proving ground this week. We'll be bring you more First Drives from the GM event in the coming days, but let's start with our favorite GM product for 2008, the Cadillac CTS.

Customers in North America get to choose from two variants of the 3.6L V6 available in the CTS, one with port fuel injection and the other with direct injection (both models have variable valve timing). All four of the cars on-hand at Milford had the direct injected engine sending its 304 HP to either all four wheels or the rear axle only. The effort that Cadillac engineers and technicians put into designing and developing the CTS was certainly not in vain. That much should be evident by anyone who takes the new CTS for a test drive. Our latest driving impressions of Caddy's new sport sedan, including VIDEO, can be found after the jump.

Click the image above for over 20 high-res images

While the exterior styling of the new CTS has garnered its fair share of praise, it's not until you step inside and realize that Cadillac's design renaissance is not an aberration. Swathed in acres of high-quality material, the textures, colors and layout is provocative enough to get your attention, but subdued in a way that doesn't distract from the task at hand.

Click here to read Part 1 on exterior styling and driving impressions.

Click the image above for over 50 high-res pics.

It's easy to write off a new model when clever ad campaigns and the PR machine work overtime to convince you that it's God's gift to tarmac. In the case of the new CTS, a hard sell is completely unnecessary. Eschewing the hype and the art-and-science drivel, you're left with a striking exterior and the driving dynamics to match. Surprised? We were. And after a day of merciless flogging though the undulating hills of the Pacific coast, followed by a two-hour all-out assault on Laguna Seca, we came away with a newfound respect for not only Caddy's 2008 sports sedan, but the automaker as a whole.

It looks like Cadillac will be the first company to offer the new Gracenote music library database in a car. Buyers of the new 2008 CTS will be able to get the system when the car goes on sale in August. Gracenote points out this will be the first time the MusicID database and Playlist products have been paired with an in-car entertainment system for the North American market. Sounds like a technicality, but it's a pretty sweet system.

What this means is that you can load all of your CDs into the system, have them copied, and then during playback the unit accesses a huge database to add track info. Things like album, artist and track names are a given, but the Gracenote system adds additional proprietary data like genre, artist type, era and region of origin. And then your personal collection can be searched and custom playlists developed using the data. How very iPod. Similar systems exist, but none are quite like Gracenote, and none have been factory available in the States until now.

[Source: just-auto - sub. req.]

Believe it or not, we're actually impressed with General Motors for diving head first into the choppy waters of blogging. The GM FastLane blog, for instance, is used on a regular basis by top-level execs, including the always interesting orator Bob Lutz, to inform, correct and promote GM's wares to the online community.

Recently a new blog was launched by the General called the Cadillac Drivers' Blog. We've gone through all the posts that have been published since the site quietly went live on January 31st, and they're an interesting read from the perspective of Cadillac engineers charged with testing the luxury marque's prototypes out on the open road.

The inspiration for the site appears to have come from the very spy photographers these engineers are tasked with avoiding at all costs. The lengths to which spy photogs will go to catch a glimpse of what these engineers are doing made them think, "Why not let people see a bit more of what we're doing?" Why not indeed. Currently the posts focus on testing for the 2008 Cadillac CTS, both in the suffocating heat of Death Valley and the arctic cold of Michigan's upper peninsula and the Kinross facility in northern Sweden. Who knows why the Cadillac Drivers' Blog was launched, but credit must be given to the engineers who author it who seem to enjoy escorting us readers into their world.

[Source: Cadillac Drivers' Blog]

Hans Lehmann and The Car Connection have the best pictures (and renderings) of the Cadillac CTS yet. The shots were snapped while the car whizzed around the racetrack, showing that the vehicle will likely be on the General's RWD Sigma platform and take its styling cues from the Cadillac Escalade with its big grille and buggy headlights.

Look for the next CTS in late 2007.

[Source: The Car Connection]

Several readers have emailed us with a link to this forum thread at GM Inside News, which features a new spy shot of the '08 Cadillac CTS interior. The photo, apparently shot while the car was testing at the Nurburgring, is of the same interior that Bob Lutz showed Steve Kroft a mock-up of during the now-famous 60 Minutes segment (click to view promo with RealPlayer) that sent enthusiasts and bloggers into a tizzy back in April.

The leather-covered dash and snazzy center stack are clearly visible, and it's clear that what we're seeing is likely the most well-executed GM interior yet. Over the last couple of years, we have seen immense strides in that department by the General. The Pontiac G6 and Solstice, the Saturn Aura, Sky and Outlook, the Buick Enclave concept and the Tahoe, Yukon, and Escalade have really set the stage and raised expectations. When this CTS finally makes its formal first appearance, its interior will probably be in a class all its own.

Between the undisguised looks at the front end and interior provided by Lutz and the numerous spy photos which are appearing in different outlets on a regular basis, the level of anticipation surrounding the CTS replacement continues to steadily build. And based on what we've seen so far, it looks like The General's doing its best to simply blow us away come next year's auto show season.

[Source: GM Inside News Forums]