Confirmed: The Cadillac ATS Is Getting All-Wheel Drive

[BigAls87Z28]

Cadillac's own YouTube video shows off an all-wheel drive variant
December 5th, 2011
www.gminsidenews.com
by: Alex Villani

Mary Barra, GM's Queen of Cars announced last week that Cadillac will debut the highly anticipated entry level sports sedan ATS at next months North American International Auto Show. Cadillac has been hinting at this vehicle for some time, starting with Bob Lutz showing off a peek at the headlight, to GM inadvertently putting up a skeleton of the car on the home page, to shadowy silhouette teaser shots. This is all part of GM and Cadillac trying to get the attention of prospective buyers by stringing them along. The final piece is Cadillac's series on YouTube titled "The Journey" which gives you a behind-the-scenes look at ATS's development by hand-picked chassis engineers doing major testing around Germany as well as the fabled Nurburgring. The videos show the car tearing up parts of the Autobahn, hammering the treacherous turns of the 'Ring, and the countless hours of electronic diagnostics and chassis tuning that is being done to make sure the vehicle is dialed in to do battle with the best from Bavaria, namely the BMW 3 series.

In the second episode, ATS's lead development engineer Chris Berube announced that the team has two weeks to nail down the details on the chassis tuning, getting it ready for final certification back home. The video goes on showing clips of engineers pouring over every part of the car, looking at data on laptops, playing with different chin spoilers, swapping out different tires, and talking about tweaking the steering inputs. You see some ATSs on the highway, dealing with traffic, making sure it has the ability to remain stable while traveling at high rates of speed and dealing with normal-road conditions. It isn't till the 1:50 mark do you get a glimpse of an ATS that seems to be lifted slightly off the ground and all of a sudden the front wheels start to spin.

Yes boys and girls, this is an all-wheel drive ATS being tested along side other powertrain variants, including one with a manual trans and one with an auto. In one scene, you see up to three ATS mules sitting in GM's paddock being worked on. On top of the AWD treat offered up in this video, you can also see several parts of the aluminum-intensive front and mostly stamped steel rear suspension as well as some shots of the interior at various parts throughout the video. We are not sure if the AWD variant will be announced or shown in Detroit, but I would bet on it. Do you see anything else? Please post up and share with the rest of us.

Other Links to ATS Info
Is This The Cadillac ATS On GM's Website?

[Nelson Kyle K]

So the next Impala will have AWD too then, but no RWD where's the love man?

[Syclone478]

SX3 spotted that front wheel turning last month. (Not sure what happened to the "perma link" option but here is a link to the page where he mentions it about the fifth comment down: ATS the Journey, part II)

I haven't been this excited about a car introduction in a long time. The '13 Malibu had me anticipating but, while it is impressive, it seems like it needs something. I really hope ATS has a much greater wow factor relative to its peers. It sounds like its going to have a pretty comprehensive choice of configurations.

[BigAls87Z28]

Ahh, so he did. I saw it a few weeks ago, but I wanted to make sure that what I was seeing was in fact AWD, and not some sort of crazy chassis testing equipment.

[chevypowa670]

SX3 spotted that front wheel turning last month. (Not sure what happened to the "perma link" option but here is a link to the page where he mentions it about the fifth comment down: ATS the Journey, part II)

I haven't been this excited about a car introduction in a long time. The '13 Malibu had me anticipating but, while it is impressive, it seems like it needs something. I really hope ATS has a much greater wow factor relative to its peers. It sounds like its going to have a pretty comprehensive choice of configurations.

Yea I was going to say, I thought I saw someone mention this earlier.

Nice to see its pretty much confirmed, can't freakin wait to see this car.

[Cadman]

V coupe... That's all I'm waiting for!

[john1168]

Well, I'm glad AWD will be offered. I'm sure you'll be able to get a RWD only option... I hope. I'd like a V series sedan with RWD myself.

[Envoy4Life]

I remember mbukukanyau pointing that out in one of the ATS threads but a few people said that had nothing to do with AWD. Nice catch!

[knack0125]

Awesome that they are offering AWD as an option on this car. With all this work they are putting into it, it ought to do excellent when it hits production.

So the next Impala will have AWD too then, but no RWD where's the love man?

This car is far smaller then impala, it slots below the CTS. AWD would be a nice option on Impala whenever they decide to redo it.

[PearlsRider]

I thought this would be an obvious thing considering it's competition from Lexus, BMW, Benz, Infiniti, and Audi. Hell, even the 9-3 has had AWD for several years, why wouldn't Cadillac under the NEW GM have it?

Kudos for finding this Al. The ATS, altho if 3series to G37 size, is to small for me, will be a hit, and Cadillac, including the XTS sales will be back in the 20K sales per month range I think. The real news will be what is done to the CTS and optional engines for each model moving forward, including even the Escalade and XTS. I can't see where a Diesel option for it, and the TTurbo option for the XTS, would be a bad idea.

[blaksabb]

So the next Impala will have AWD too then, but no RWD where's the love man?

What does Impala have to do with this news?

[rueben44]

If I don't buy a Buick then I am hoping this will be my first NEW Cadillac. A nice mid-level coupe w/ auto trans would be sweet.

[Dr. Show-Me]

What is the news here? We have known for a long time that the ATS would have awd as an option. That they are testing awd in Germany shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Why wouldn't the awd version have the same level of development as the rwd version?

[Diggerdan11]

This news makes me happy. The only way i would get and ATS is if it was AWD. Im going to be looking into getting a new vehicle around 2014 and unless the ATS really impresses me I will most likely go with a 335xi

[JuMPy]

Where is the ATS slated to be built?