smk4565

I'd like to see an aluminum chassis and some carbon fiber body panels. Try to make it lighter than the XJ. Please don't make a 5,000 lb hybrid V8 like the Lexus LS600h, no one wants that.

I would think that Allison transmissions would be too heavy for a passenger car. Mercedes is working on a 7 or 9 speed to mate with the V12 to replace the 5 speed ZF unit.

I hope Cadillac builds a flagship car and it's the best car in the world. I'd love to see Cadillac get back to being the standard of the world, and not become another Lincoln. All I am saying is I am not going to get my hopes up until I see the car. We've seen numerous attempts by other car companies to dethrone the S-class over the past 25 years and all came up short. Cadillac may be no different than all the others, hopefully they get it right.

Cadillac has not been going up market lately, they have gone down, the SRX is $10,000 less than the model it replaces. The XTS is a DTS on a LaCrosse platform, yawn. Cadillac built high dollar cars in the 1930s, but that is a long time ago, today no Cadillac sedan carries a base price of $50,000 or more, and the only two priced over $40,000 are set to end production in a year.

And what V8 is out powering the AMG V12's 738 lb-ft of torque? And it is 738 only because that is the max the transmission can handle, Mercedes has a new transmission in the works and plans to increase torque to 850 lb-ft. Note also that a car like this has to be very quiet, and something like a ZR-1 engine is not quiet. And it doesn't matter the power output, a V12 is still a V12 and that gives you status and people will pay for that. This price point is all about status, and you can't find status on the stat sheet, that is what Cadillac's biggest challenge will be. Look at the Rolls-Royce Phantom for example, on a stat sheet, it doesn't stack up well to any other uber sedan, yet in status, it crushes them all.

I'd like to see Cadillac do it, I've been saying for years they need to go up market and forget about the old geezers and forget about volume leaders and make high dollar, high profit cars. But this is territory GM has never been in, and isn't yet equipped to build cars for. Does Cadillac realize twin-turbo V12s is pretty much the norm in this class? They don't have one. Do they realize it takes 120 hours to make the headliner for a Bentley? I'd love to see Cadillac do it and put American cars back on the map, but I am not going to get my hopes up. This is the brand that made the XTS.

Right, because Europe wants pushrod V8s, and that builds street cred there. Europeans will laugh at it, and say Cadillac took the engine out of a Chevy pickup truck. That is some pretty ambitious pricing as well, nearing the price of an S600. If they are going after the S600, Cadillac better bring it like they have never brought it before. The R&D budget to make a car like this is huge, I am skeptical of GM giving Cadillac that much money for a low volume product.

GM almost always finds areas to cost cut and design the car on a budget because they have a low price in mind from the start. This Mercedes commercial says it all, it isn't about putting a big engine and chrome wheels on a standard car and calling it a performance sedan, it is about doing everything well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTluiXWxE3o&feature=related

Cadillac has to remember by the ATS comes out, there will be a new 3-series, and a new C-class shortly there after. Plus Jaguar is coming into this segment and the small Jaguar will be based on the XK's aluminum chassis. Jaguar has turbo V6 gas and diesel engines planned. M3 has a turbo straight six planned. So that is what the ATS is up against.

The Northstar is super old though, if they put money into it or came up with a new DOHC V8 it would be a different story. When the Northstar came out in 1992 it was making 300 hp. The LT1 5.7 liter of the day was making 250-260 hp, except for the Corvette that got a 300 hp version in the early 90s. The pushrod just doesn't fit Cadillac, and it won't sell in Europe. Cadillac will always be a North American brand unless they build a world car. Cadillac still builds cars with a 60s muscle car mentality. And the new M5 has 570-600 hp out of a 4.4 liter DOHC, and the Ferrari 458 Italia makes 550 hp out of a naturally aspirated V8. CTS-V could fit a modern DOHC V8 I'm sure, GM just doesn't have one, so it gets the LS engine by default.

Ask that to all the people that buy an F150 Ecoboost this year instead of a Ram or Silverado with big ol' fashion displacement.

I've seen it before, the old CTS and Grand Prix had that orange color too. I don't know if they still offer it, I rarely ever see it.

The last time a compact Cadillac had a pushrod was.....

A Northstar fits in the STS, it would probably fit in a CTS. Heck, Mercedes gets a V12 into an SL roadster, I don't see why a small DOHC V8 wouldn't fit in the CTS. And max displacement doesn't have much to do with it, it is about refinement, noise and vibration. The pushrod 4 died, the pushrod V6 is hanging on by a thread in the Impala and soon to be deceased Lucerne, by 2012, the pushrod V6 should be dead too. DOHC is better in 4's, better in 6's, better in 8's. If you took the 10 fastest pushrod powered cars and put them against the 10 fastest DOHC cars, I'll take the DOHC team any day of the week. Give me the Veyron, McLaren F1, Koenigsegg, Jag XJ220, Enzo, Murcielago, Zonda, 911 Turbo, etc compared to the Corvette ZR1, Viper, Camaro SS, CTS-V, Challenger and 300C.

If Cadillac were smart (and that is a big IF) they should make the ATS-V a twin-supercharged V6 (I'd prefer 3.6 - 4.0 liter V8, but that ain't gonna happen) combined to a lithium-polymer battery hybrid system with an 8-speed automatic. No one else builds that, and 28 mpg combined is probably doable out of such a powertrain, and it would make enough horsepower to propel the car from 0-60 in 4.5 seconds or less. Cadillac should build a "green" performance sedan, and get it first before everyone else does it and they are late to the party, again. That is where the market is going to go.

I'm not saying make it expensive just for the sake of doing it, I am saying don't design the car on a shoe-string budget knowing you are going to sell at bargain basement prices. A loaded V6 ATS should be nearing $45,000, a loaded LaCrosse is near $40k, a loaded CTS about $50k. The ATS interior/features should be on par with the current CTS and the CTS has to move upward some. My worry is you want the ATS-V to basically take the drive train out of the Corvette, and sell it for less than a Corvette. The Corvette interior is already stripped down, the ATS can't be cheaper than that thing.

For every pushrod fan, why is there not a 3900 pushrod V6 in the Regal, instead of a 2.0 Turbo. If the pushrod is so light, easy to package, fuel efficient, powerful, etc, why is it gone from mainstream GM sedans except for the very dated Lucerne and Impala? The pushrod's days are numbered.

Reviews I have seen of the Equus do state how the dash materials are not on the same level of a Benz or BMW, and how handling is not as good as a 7-series, but the features list on the Equus is very impressive and unmatched at that price. I don't see heated/cooled/messaging/reclining seats and a refrigerator in any Cadillac. And Hyundai's competition is not Mercedes, it is Chevy, Ford, Honda and Toyota. Hyundai has the Equus on sale here to make a statement so they can sell more Sonatas and Tuscons. The difference between the SRX and the Cayenne or X5, is the BMW and Porsche are rear drive and offer 500 hp, not the engine out of an Equinox. DTS will be gone, but the XTS is the same car. It may have awd, but it is a car for seniors. And perhaps even worse, is the DTS had a platform made for big/premium sedans and the Northstar V8 (both of which are now dated) that gave it some exclusivity from the rest of GM sedans in the 2000-2010 era. Now the XTS is basically the platform/engine you get in a Malibu or LaCrosse. This is why the Acura RL and Lincoln MKS are sales duds, we all know it's an Accord or Taurus for $45,000.

Two good points are made here. Cadillac and "entry level" is the first. Cadillac is an entry level luxury brand. If the ATS-v is $45,000 it will be full of compromises, just like a Chrysler 300C is. Performance cred is the next point, how much do you have when your top 2 volume cars are a soccer-mom crossover and a land barge for senior citizens. This is why Lexus has no performance credibility, and went out and made the LF-A in hopes to find some. And Lexus still has no performance cred. Cadillac has to figure out what it wants to be, if they are a performance-luxury brand go all out at it. If they want to build big, soft riding cars like they did in the past, then fine, do that and build snooze-mobiles to meet or exceed Lexus. But you can't do both and not know what to do and change your mind every 5 years as to what you are.

BMW sold more M models in 2008 and 2009 than they did at any point in the past, the M3 is expensive but they still sell them at a good rate. Also, an E36 M3 had 240 hp and dd 0-60 in 5.6 seconds, a 335i has 300 hp and 0-60 in 4.9 seconds. So a mid-line 3-series today out performs an M3 of a few years ago. If $60k is the wrong price point, what about the Corvette then? The Corvette bases at $50k, and an LT3 or Gran Sport can easily hit over $60,000. That car is comparable to an M3 in performance, but doesn't have a back seat and has a bargain basement interior. So an ATS-V with Corvette level power and far better interior should sell for $10-15,000 less than a Corvette? You also bring up Cadillac's biggest problem. You mention that if a CTS-V was $75-80,0000 it would not sell. Yet Mercedes and BMW can charge $90,000 for their sedans that are slower than a CTS-V. Cadillac is a SECOND TIER luxury brand for this very reason. Cadillac cuts corners all over the place on their cars (the "old GM" influence) they build an inferior product, and they sell it for an inferior price. What annoys me most about Cadillac is they act like and claim to be a tier one brand, but they aren't. Cadillac is no better than Acura, Lincoln, Volvo or the Luxury Hyundais.

Thinking like that is why Cadillac is a bargain basement luxury brand. Lack of guts to go after the Germans, in price, not horsepower.

As far as the ATS-V getting the Corvette engine, I think that is what they will do since it is easiest and cheapest. However, is a car with essentially the same engine in a $35,000 Camaro going to sell for $65,000? Probably not. The new Dodge Challenger is getting a 6.4 liter pushrod with 475 hp, that doesn't seem like the sort of market Cadillac should be going after.

Rumor is that the next generation CTS will be on Alpha (long version) and that the CTS will get a 4-cylinder as the base engine. V6 will become optional. Sigma goes back to 2002, and Zeta seems too heavy to go forward with, so I think those platforms are toast. I don't see why Buick needs an Alpha car, it would likely be smaller than a Regal, but more expensive than a LaCrosse? Way too much overlap with other GM products.

Well Mercedes has a new 4.7 liter DOHC turbo V8 that makes 435 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque while offering a claimed 22% fuel economy gain over the outgoing 5.5 liter. The GM V8 may be competitive, but the ceiling is much higher on a DOHC engine. That is why pushrod 4 and 6 cylinders died off, there comes a point when pushrod can't compete anymore because DOHC advances faster.

The engines seem likely, GM often doesn't release an all new engine on an all new model. So I'd expect the 2.0 Turbo 4 out of the Regal/Solstice, the CTS's current 3.6 V6 and a Camaro/Corvette 6.2 V8. I don't think the weights will be that low though, 3500 lbs is ambitious for a GM product. Which means I don't see 32 mpg highway happening either, the 2.0T in the Solstice (a small, light car) got 26 mpg, although it does get 30 mpg highway in the Regal. I think 30 is tops in the ATS, more likely 29 mpg.