Most folks are likely to accept the Cadillac CT5 as a luxury sedan and leave it at that. However, people with a passion for dividing the auto market into segments prefer to assign a label to the CT5. And while they agree on that, there is considerable controversy about what that label ought to be.
The GM Authority view – as expressed by executive editor Alex Luft in a video (below) – is that the Cadillac CT5 is a D-segment vehicle, and therefore not a successor to the Cadillac CTS, which was an E-segment vehicle.
| C Segment | D Segment | E Segment | F Segment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMW | 2 Series | 3 Series / 4 Series | 5 Series / 6 Series | 7 Series / 8 Series |
| Mercedes-Benz | A-Class / CLA-Class | C-Class | E-Class | S-Class |
| Audi | A3 | A4 / A5 | A6 / A7 | A8 |
| Lexus | HS* / CT* | IS / ES | GS* | LS / LC |
| Infiniti | - | Q50 / Q60 | Q70* | - |
| Genesis | - | G70 | G80 | G90 |
| Cadillac (2019) | - | ATS | CTS / CT6 / XTS | - |
| Cadillac (2020) | CT4 | CT5 | CT6* | - |
- * Model discontinued
Instead, the true successor to the CTS was the Cadillac CT6, which would still be with us if it hadn’t been discontinued several years ahead of schedule. That means that today, there is no E-segment sedan in the Cadillac range, at least in North America (the CT6 is still on sale in China).
So then, the CT5 is Cadillac’s D-segment entry, and is therefore is actually a successor to the Cadillac ATS. That said, it’s understandable that people should think that the Cadillac CT5 was an E-segment vehicle. As our comparison of the Cadillac CT5-V with its immediate rivals showed, it is larger than all of them. That, however, was part of a deliberate strategy. Here’s how it all came to be.
GM launched the Cadillac ATS Sedan in North America to fight the typical D-segment stalwarts like the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class. After offering the regular-length ATS in China for a brief period of time (and with limited amounts of success), GM introduced the long-wheelbase Cadillac ATS-L, where wealthy customers like to be driven around in cars (rather than driving them), thereby necessitating a healthy amount of rear seat legroom. Having learned from the two-car strategy, GM decided to go in a different direction with the replacement of the ATS and ATS-L.
Rather than continue making the same car in different sizes for North America and China, GM decided to make a single, ‘right-sized‘ global replacement for the ATS and ATS-L, one that has class-leading rear legroom (though its other interior dimensions are smaller than those of the direct D-segment competition).
The benefits of the strategy of a single car with a vast amount of space is two-fold: customers in China are satisfied for having a spacious rear seat, while North American buyers will certainly not complain about the added space.
Further supporting the notion that the CT5 is a D-segment vehicle is the price positioning: the 2021 Cadillac CT5 is priced to start in the United States at $38,190, including $1,195 destination charge. If it were competing in the E segment, it would start $10,000-15,000 higher.
For more detail on this, check out Alex Luft’s explanation in the video below.
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Comments
Oh yeah, ya sure? Pssst. Secret time! The CT4 is the ATS… just look at the side windows. EXACT.SAME.PARTS.
CT5 replaces the ATS-L… *plausible* but make no mistake what the numbers tell you, it replaces the CTS.
The CT4 used the same platform as the ATS, sure. But the segment has changed. CT4 competes in C segment whereas ATS was D segment.
The same goes for CT5. It’s a D segment car.
There is no way the CT5 replaced the CTS. No. Way.
Any news on changes for 2022 model year (Colors/equipment) ?
……or do we have to wait until June 2022 for a “First Look”?
Who’s drinking the Kool-Aid? I’m not.
A vehicle segment is defined by sizing; not pricing.
CT4 does a horrible job of disguising itself as anything but a re-skinned ATS that is now an undersized D-segment vehicle that didn’t keep pace.
So the CT5 is indeed a CTS replacement. It’s that GM/Cadillac went the cheap cost cutting route de-contenting (no dual climate zones in rear, no rear heated seats,…) the vehicle to compete downmarket. And the CT6 from the get-go was to be positioned as a full size F segment vehicle.
This backtracking approach of ‘it’s not really purple but a different hue of blue’ that’s being told and sold is unconvincing.
Audi sells A4 and A6 extended wheelbase versions in China. For that matter, Cadillac should have just sold the ATS & CTS in China and called it a day.
Cadillac is a mismanaged mess. It’ll be interesting to see if the brand stays the course with the upcoming EV models.
Hence the sizing makes the CT5 an in-betweener.
It’s larger than D segment cars but is priced like them. Like they say in the article, it’s all about replacing the ATS-L first.
The E segment is shrinking. Cadillac does not want to compete there. No koolaid drinking needed. Just some common sense.
The CT5 come within no less than 2 inches in all dimensions of a 5 series, E Class or A6 and place it solidly in the E segment. Thus it’s not a so-called ‘tweener by any measure.
Your comment that E segment is shrinking isn’t supported by the sales data. A review indicates that D segment sells more volume than E segment yet E segment sales for majority of manufacturers have increased and not decreased. Other manufacturers see opportunity and continue to compete and enter into said segments with updated or new models. Yet GM/Cadillac retreats to usual playbook move of cost-cutting.
The E Segment is shrinking? The Mercedes E Class, Audi A6&A7, the Lexus GS, the Infinity Q70, the Genesis G80 HAVE ALL SHRUNK???
You sounded like a knowledgeable GM employee till you said that. I’ve always maintained that Cad replaced the STS with the CTS. Within 3 years after cancelling the STS, the too tall and too skinny CTS grew to exact STS proportions. By 2014 it was exactly an STS. I do agree with the last guy that answered your post. Cadillac has not known what it’s doing for quite a while. I’m still trying to figure out why the smaller XT4 is easier to get in and out of than the larger XT5! And before I go, wasn’t it extremely stupid to make the ELR a 2door with a backseat only a child could fit in? No wonder they couldn’t give them away. I’ve been tempted, but even $25k is a little steep for such an uncomfortable car.
@Ron,
I think @Kate Kasach was more so referring to the sales volume of the segment; not the size of the vehicles.
Cadillac’s strategy as far as sedans goes is an empty paper bag. I’ll keep my XTS until a suitable replacement comes along.
The real test of Cadillac’s story… If someone drives a BMW 535 into the dealership looking for a new car, do they turn him/her away saying they don’t have an equivalent car, or do they explain that the CT5 is just as big and is less money thanks to GM’s larger scales of production?
From 1941 Fleetwood 60-S (my high school car) to El-Do’s, DeVilles, to DTS to XTS…. and now we’ll take care of our last XTS until we can’t drive anymore, unless Cadillac wakes up and re-focuses on a large sedan. Bentley, Rolls, Jag, M-Benz, even the Koreans understand the market for a large sedan. Our second Cad got chucked, the XT5, for a “mellow” GMC Terrain Denali, so much better to drive even though it was a generation back from the current Caddy’s. Cadillac management has lost sight of what their brand traditionally stood for. What a shame.
a single car with a vast amount of space
If you’re well under 6 feet, not overweight, and don’t have much luggage. The (boring, overused) sloping roofline kills the rear headroom, and the front isn’t much better.
It’s simply criminal that Cadillac–or GM–doesn’t offer a roomy, comfortable sedan.
What is this D-segment , E-segment coding, why you try to be edgy when already we have an established, much more explicit segmentation which are Premium and Luxury. This is America, GM an American manufacturer and does not sell cars in Europe so stop trying to import Euros’s lame ideas. Like their crap alphanumeric naming scheme their segmentation also crap. If you like to emulate Euros that much Just call whole thing BS-segment.
I owned 2 ATS and now a CT4V. CT4 replaces ATS.
CT5 replaces CTS at 2″ shorter.
CT5 at 194″ doesn’t replace a 183″ ATS.
Those Segments are too hung up on the entry level price. De-contenting a CT6 down to the ATS
base price would make it replace the ATS, using the Segment logic.
Segment comparisons need to be more of a size + function than base price.
Maybe say CT5 Lux is one segment and CT5V is in another, if you have to have segments.
Car shoppers don’t go shopping for a segment, they want a certain car/SUV, then get bigger or smaller
as they see what fits them.
Drove both CT4 with the 2.7 and CT5 with the 3.0 CT4 felt cramped and I’m 5’8” on a good day. CT5 is plenty of room for my family of 4 for a fun cruise. I would never put 5 in it. The CT5 is in my garage.
I’ve noticed a lot of comments around the CT5 articles so to me I think they have a winner. I personally love mine, I didn’t bother driving the 2.0 after coming off of a 17 Malibu with the 2.0 prior to being detuned in later years. I wanted something more sporty. I won’t beat a Stinger but I don’t need to it’s wonderful around roundabouts and still has plenty of juice. Those pops are so satisfying.
Well, the marketing folks are working really hard to convince everyone this in-betweener is different from the last in-betweener. Looking at the engine choices in the ATS-V vs CT4-V and CTS-V vs. CT5-5. seems to confirm what everyone knows.
I’ll keep my CTS VSport for a while then see who is making something worth considering.
Let’s take a broader look here…. ah there’s the forest you’re all missing for the trees: Cadillac is still chasing and making excuses. It should be all the other lux car-makers emulating Caddy, but no, the ol’ “Standard of the World” motto is so far in the rearview mirror now, that the Euro’s don’t really care that Cad exists. Sad. Priority 1 ought to be bring back CT6 to north America, then a Rolls Phantom – sized sedan that makes Escalade look weak, (Celestiq better fill that position, or I give up). And the coming electrics (electriqs?) absolutely have to be atrocious, jaw-dropping, mind-blowing best of the best. Ya know, the Evoq concept was 22 years ago. 22 years of promising a return to greatness yet perpetually coming up short. Put up or shut up, Cadillac.
Great comments from Rob White. Really sums up corporate management (not leadership as it should have been) at Cadillac and most of General Motors. It has been way too long that bean counters and those that have no idea what the Cadillac owner wants have been in charge. Thanks Rob.
The original placement of the CTS was to compete in the D-segment but offer more space and a better value than the 3-Series C-Class etc. The first and second-generation CTS had an excellent formula; when the third generation tried to jump into the E-segment, it flopped. Previous CTS buyers couldn’t stomach the $10,000 jump for a car that was marginally longer, a fully loaded 3.6 AWD topped out over $70K! If anything, the CT5 replaces the CTS and brings it back to its proper form, offering more value and space in the D-segment.
I ask a lot of questions before buying a car but which marketing segment a car falls into isn’t one of them.
And I’d surmise other would-be buyers do the same.
They more so look at the general size of vehicles and decide to shop from that perspective. I.e., I’d know if I wanted a mid-size vehicle in the 5 series/A6/E Class category, I wouldn’t consider a 3 series/A4/C Class.. I’d just say ‘nah, I want something bigger’. 🤣
The Cadillac celestiq will fix Cadillac’s image as a luxury brand, the ultium platform will allow more sophisticated technology and luxury, if it has 600-1,000hp then it will be a cherry on top. They should leave the ct5, ct4, xt5, xt4, and the Xt6 alone and work on there electric future.
The CT5 is a nice vehicle, but I personally just don’t think it has the same level of visual class as the BMW 540, Audi A6, or others like the CTS and CT6 did. I mean before, you could comfortably leave BMW or Audi and go to Cadillac and still look just as good. Hopefully Cadillac rethinks this move and keeps the true “American business class” sedan going.
Nice vehicle is not good enough for a cadillac, Cadillac should be standard of the world, Cadillac ct5 can’t even be the standard of the class so how in the earth would it be appropriate for the ct5 to be called a Cadillac, Chevy ct5 is a much better suited brand for the ct5