EPA testing for the hotly anticipated 2013 Cadillac ATS has concluded, and the final numbers are in. The best numbers can be found with the sedan’s base naturally aspirated 2.5-liter inline-four engine with 202 horsepower and 191 lb-ft of torque combined with a six-speed automatic transmission. Those who commit to this powertrain will observe a return of a rated 22/33 mpg (city/highway), with a combined figure of 26 mpg.
For comparison, that highway number is parallel with the 2013 BMW 328i. However the 328i’s base 2.0L turbo provides a more adamant 240 horsepower, but requires pricey premium fuel to do so. The 211-horse Audi A4 base model returns 32 mpg on the highway at best, but that’s with the undesired front-wheel-drive setup and also requires premium. Other four-cylinder rivals, like the base 201-horse Mercedes-Benz C-Class returns 31 mpg on the highway.
Final numbers for the 2.0L turbo and range topping 3.6L V6 engine variants of the ATS are not yet on the fueleconomy.gov website at the time of this writing, but you can bet that when they are, we’ll share them with you all.
Comments
If I hear one more person say that a compact car is a “penalty box”, imma gonna box their ears.
All that’s left is how well the ATS can get off the lots, any forthcoming body styles, and of course the V.
yes, penalty box……a smaller car is what it is….doesn’t make it bad….
A combined 26 mpg is paltry when compared to a Chevy Volt. Stop and think how much money you’ll lay down for an ATS, and then how much money will fly out of your pockets for gas and all those smelly, inconvenient gas stops.
Me? I’ll fuel my luxury compact in my own garage with American-made fuel, then convert to solar and fuel it with sun rays.
Sure if you purely compared this dino-juice compact with it’s direct dino-juice rivals, GM came out with relatively impressive comparitive mileage numbers. But let’s get real folks, the ATS has been in development for years and by now, it’s numbers are depressingly low compared with another GM product, the Volt. We ca buy a Volt for non-ELR numbers, and how much more luxe can you get than electric smoothness and quiet w/o the option of being EV-stranded?
Volt is out , and it really makes cars like this obsolete. ATS like a slow train that finally reached the station a few days late and a dollar short.
A car that weakens our nation, forces us to spend billions to defend and obtain foreign crude and makes the air more polluted for our kids to breathe is not cool, or a good buy in anyone’s book.
Calling the ATS a day late or short of anything is going overboard, and drowning miserably.
The ATS uses gas… fine. Your real beef to pick is with much more mainstream cars. Say… why doesn’t the much more popular Cruze use U.S.-made electricity? Or how about the best-selling car on the planet – the Corolla? The stars haven’t aligned yet for this planet to eradicate fossil fuels of any kind.
Now, I’m with you about decreasing our dependence on crude, but the ATS won’t sell in nearly high enough volume to make a dent by going electric, or for ATS sales to be replaced by Volt sales (hypothetically).
What we have here are two very real realities. Here’s another: the Volt seems to be ahead of its time given it sells no more than 2,000-3,000 units a month (if that). This doesn’t say anything negative about the car except that a colossal change in thinking needs to occur among the populous at large to eliminate gas… and it hasn’t yet taken place. But the ATS is not the culprit.
Without commenting on anything you said, the simple truth is, cars like the ATS and all the other “dino-juice” burning vehicles paid for every single aspect of the Volt. The Volt doesn’t make money, this generation never will recover any of the development costs, none of the future Volts will. It is going to take Voltec platform sharing to even get close.
Cut the self-righteous bullshit. You remind me of this women:
You’re acting exactly the same.
ROFLMAO!! The electricity that you are charging your volt with was probably bought from Canada!! And that electric plant polluted more air than what you saved from being polluted in year the first time you had to charge your volt by plugging it into wall out let. Do not to forget about the batteries, what are you going to do when you have to replace them? I bet you don’t throw them in you waste basket…. to top that off… I wouldn’t be caught dead in something that ugly.
BMW uses the 8 speed transmission so that it achieves that mileage.
BMW uses an 8speed, GM built? Also BMW has no throttle plate, cuts pumping losses.
If the BMW only made 200bhp it might achive 35mpg?
2.5 liter ATS sounds like a great road trip car, even with bottom of the range power, the handling will make you want to take the back roads, anyway.
The fact is, the fact that the Caddy achieves this mileage with REGULAR gas vs. premium in the Bimmer is huge. Well done, Caddy.
@ Alex Luft:
I’ll agree with you that 1,800 Volts sold per month ( higher than Corvette or Spark ) will not bring the costs of overcoming that battery pack ( economies of scale ) into the midrange, Cruze category any time soon.The ATS likely will sell significantly more units per month than Volt for the next 3 – 5 years.
That said, it’s not “overboard” to state the ATS is a day late and a dollar short. Remember the Cimarron? GM Cadillac division has had decades – yes decades to try to produce a BMW 3 Series challenger. Each time they’ve fallen far short of the other manufacturers who’ve attempted to unseat the 3 Series. While imminent test comparisons may prove the ATS has come close to the 3 series benchmarks of handling, performance and efficiency – many others have come close to these goals and have sold some Lexus, Audis, Infinitis and Mercedes, just not as many as BMW has the 3.
It’s as if this BMW-fighting thing has gone on long enough. And it’s speaks loudly of “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”. Why match the BMW class leader when there is tech at hand today to outflank, outsmart and literally beat up the Bavarian turn carver. It’s kind of sad to just watch Cadillac and others take pot-shots at this one vehicle and miss, or barely scathe it. ATS has literally been in the pipeline since late 2005. Why so long to put out a 3 Series competitor? Why not use the abundant tech at hand today to leapfrog 3 Series? BMW’s icon touches the right buttons for the buyer who wants entry into the luxury league with handfuls of performance baked in, for a sane price. Instead of a 3 Series clone, why not place an electric boost solution in it’s path? Le Mans 2012 played out as a hybrid electric boosted car won the entire race. The epic battle was between two different major manufacturers ( Audi and Toyota ) with two different takes on hybrid boost giving to a revolutionary first win for a hybrid in the iconic race. Electric means performance nowadays, as illustrated by Porsche’s 918 supercar and 911 e-boosted racecars.
Cadillac shouldn’t be always attempting to catch up. If Cadillac wants to make an impression and find economic gain in the world – they might try and leverage such breakthroghs as Voltec technology to raise the stakes for the likes of BMW. BMW hired away Frank Weber, Volt’s lead engineer who is now working hard to bring the i3 and i8 PHEVs into the world. It’s sad to see GM lagging and countering rather than leading the pace as they have every ability to do if they so wanted.
@Andrew:
Comparing me to some smut-mouthed overweight green-snob Prius driver is really out of whack.
The Volt doesn’t make money. GM loses money on each unit it sells. This also was the case for the first generation Toyota Prius. Prius cost Toyota bundles and they lost bundles on every unit sold. Today, just to let you know – the Prius line of HSD vehicles is the third highest selling line of cars in the world. Over 3.5 million units sold. Sometimes one has to take risk and suffer initial profit loss to score big in the long term. Voltec tech by GM completely outclassed Toyota’s HSD ( Hybrid Synergy Drive ) and it’s Volt has capabilities no Prius ( even the Plug-In Prius ) can touch. I’m proud Americans invented something so superior and am aware such development isn’t cheap.
The “simple truth” as you refer – is actually you do not have your facts straight, and nobody here is a self-righteous greenie nutjob.
Note: It’s funny you lead your post with “not commenting on anything you said” – then commenting on what I said! LOL
I’m not overweight, I don’t use expletives and on-sleeve emotions to lash out at folks. In your video, some guy with a diesel truck was idling and smoking, smelling up the place. That will incite anger from folks if you’ve ever inhaled non-“clean diesel” exhaust, and that woman was out of line since all she probably had to do was move. Also, the maker of the video admitted that his truck got lousy mileage ( read his vid description ).
Did I directly shut down anything you said specifically, no, therefore I didn’t make comment on what you said. I justified the life of the Volt and how it even has a life.
@notnks:
When you’re done rolling on the floor laughing why don’t you try to get your facts straight?
My Volt gets charged at work and my home with American-made hydro power. I live in Washington State where over 80% of our power comes from clean hydroelectric dams. Nearly 8% of our current power comes from solar – and Washington State exports it’s clean power to many states – mainly California.
If you went the “dirty power argument” route – meaning that most states in our Union use a great deal of electricity from dirty coal-fired powerplants, you’d STILL be wrong.
This argument has been disproven again and again so check your facts. Clean coal would be a vast improvement, but even with “dirty” coal – the power leaves the plant in wires, and travels to substations and homes much cleaner than crude oil leaves a country clear across the world, and protected by countless amounts of nuclear and diesel fuel ( our military ) – makes it’s way across the planet in a diesel-powered supertanker which pollutes in one day, the same amount of toxins belched by 280,000 cars. When this crude oil reaches our Gulf Coast, it needs to be processed ( refined ) into gasoline which requires tons of energy and refineries belch out pollutants by the tons per day. Then this refined petrol goes into diesel trucks whose pollutants have been proven to be four times more harmful to breathe than common auto exhaust. These trucks criss-cross the country driving thousands of miles burning tons of fuel in the process. It’s called “Well-to-wheel” emissions and if you add up the numbers, coal plant to local powerstation American-made fuel is still many times cleaner and cheaper than any oil you pump into your dino-mobile.
My Volt costs $1.13 for me to fill up at home with clean American hydro power. I commonly go 45-50 miles on a charge. Most weeks I charge every other day. How does that compare in cost to what you spend to drive to work?
Your next point is also a common anti-EV exclamation: “What about those *&^% batteries?!” I’ll tell you what – GM has plans for every single Volt battery. It takes a lot of kwh to propel a modern car at modern speeds. It takes much less to power a home or a workplace. The lithium ion batteries of Volts will have a second life after the roads and byways. GM has engineered the lifespan of the Volt packs to do second duty as battery banks for home backup and solar storage in the secondary market. Prior Prius’ and Honda Insight batteries have been NIMH. The batteries are bought back by Toyota and Honda and have been up to 70% recyclable.
To “top it off” as you post – aesthetics are always subjective. We all have different tastes. The majority of folks agree with me that the Volt is a very attractive automobile. Made in USA.
Before you shoot off your mouth. Check true facts.
* Not to mention F1’s KERS system.