Welburn: Next Generation Cadillac CTS To Round Off Most Edges Seen In Current Design
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There have been plenty of spy photos of the 2014 third-generation Cadillac CTS that have been taken so far. But it’s always hard to tell just how a production model of anything will look until its rotating under the intense lights on the floor of an auto show. So to give us more of a hint, GM design chief Ed Welburn leaned into the ear of Automotive News and claimed that the new CTS will have ”more sophisticated, more premium” design properties to it, on top it being larger than the model on the road today.
Elaborating, Welburn meant that the upcoming CTS will favor more contours over the love-them-or-hate-them edges seen on today’s CTS. Equally important is advanced design director Clay Dean’s mentioning of the all-new CTS featuring less chrome than the outgoing CTS. That’s probably because of the smaller grille design, but we’ll still have to wait until next year to see the new CTS, possibly during the 2013 North American International Auto Show in January.
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This is something that Cadillac needs to be careful with. The CTS is probably the car that has done the most to create Cadillac’s currently (mostly positive) image. One could argue that the Escallade a few years back did the same, but I think when people currently think about Cadillac, they think about the CTS.
The current design has aged well and, especially in CTS-V trim, still looks amazing. Cadillac is taking a huge risk with this redesign. Granted, the redesign has to happen, but not only are they redesigning the car, they are also changing its size. This will either have to be the “next great thing” from Cadillac, or if they mess with the design in the wrong way, they may hurt their image as well.
I think they’ll be successful, but it must be tough to be in their current position.
For me, the CTS is the car that saved Cadillac from it’s own ignorance; the right car for the right time.
While the ATS is set the plunge Cadillac back into the white-hot compact lux segment, I can’t help but feel that the 3rd gen CTS won’t be getting “as much love” as the ATS has. The ATS has been groomed from start to finish to peck away at the 3, and the ATS-V will only do more vis-à-vis the M3.
But with the CTS finally throwing away every last misleading auto journalist piece that called it a compact car for the last 10 years, I worry about what light consumers will see the CTS in now that it “officially” is a mid-size luxury car. Specifically, I worry about the consumers that will give the CTS a look….and just that.
I worry that the CTS might suffer from being a harder sell to people already use to the E and 5; people who aren’t going to break from their habit as easily as those in the compact segment.
My reasoning is that consumers in the mid lux segment will generally have more money to drop on a car than those in the compact lux segment. Neither consumers should be disapointed with inferior products, but I get the impression that the mid lux consumers are very difficult to impress.
Caddy design needs to stay distinctive & not to fall into the euro concept trap. Caddy should be all American & be proud of it!
I guess what Mr. Welburn is telling us is that the next Gen CTS is going to look like a slightly bigger ATS with an altered grill ,If any car needs to stand out in the caddy lineup it’s the CTS I mean the car literally brought caddy from flat line to a steady heart beat the CTS has to be SPECIAL
Less chrome is a good thing IMO. Call me weird, but whenever I see a vehicle with a lot of chromework, it just makes me think ‘ugh’.
I own an 09 CTS V and I love everything about the car except one thing that’s the fuel tank size 18 gallons is not large enough for a car that sucks gas like this one. I am literally filling up every two days. So be sure that the 2014 has at least a 22 gallon tank