Cadillac: "If the secret sauce is good cars, then what’s all that fuss about?"
Car & Driver magazine
December 15, 2014
Review: 2015 Cadillac ATS Coupe; 6-Speed manual transmission.
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2015 Cadillac ATS Coupe 2.0T Manual
This car should wear laurels.
If an automaker’s success really were just about the cars, as the industry shibboleth has it, Cadillac would be riding high. Take the object of this test, the new-for-2015 ATS coupe. It proved itself a worthy entry-luxury sports coupe by just about every measure imaginable, and it’s one of the most modest Cadillacs you can buy, packing a 2.0-liter turbo four with a six-speed manual gearbox in a compact two-door. Delightful to drive, well appointed, and properly built, it joins the CTS sedan (one of our 10Best Cars winners) as a world-class contender.
And yet, headline after headline is about how Cadillac is “struggling,” its sales volumes down, its leaders stirring new controversies with every pronouncement about how they’re going to “fix” things by moving the marketing team to New York, stripping the wreath from the crest on the badge, changing the naming scheme, pursuing an ambitious higher-price strategy, and investing heavily to expand the range of products. If the secret sauce is good cars, then what’s all that fuss about?
On the evidence of the ATS, Cadillac is making really good cars. Some great ones, even. Aside from its drivetrain, this example was no stripper: It arrived at the test track wearing the range-topping Premium trim, which lifts the MSRP from the base $38,990 to $48,090. Aside from the usual abundance of creature comforts and showy technologies that come with such a designation and another 91 Benjamins, the Premium trim brings GM’s Magnetic Ride Control variable suspension and a limited-slip differential, both useful contributors to the ATS’s superb handling and over-the-road performance.
And the coupe expands on the “fun to drive” elements we found most appealing in the sedan. It has a sweetly balanced, light and lively character with crisp turn-in response, a precise shifter that’s fun to use, brakes that are not only strong but reassuringly easy to modulate, and a controlled ride free of the excesses of roll, pitch, or head-toss.
Cadillac already builds cars as good as (or better than) those from German and Japanese luxury marques. Yes, it could stand for that accolade to spread across a wider range of its products, particularly in the crossover segment, but the past few years suggest that future models in the pipeline should do fine. And yet, there’s all that ill news in the wind. Success must not be only about the cars. If Cadillac has to pay more attention to dealers and marketing and brand-building, okay, so long as it keeps building cars like this ATS. Because making great cars is where it begins, and Cadillac has a strong running start.
