Showing posts with label can. Show all posts
Showing posts with label can. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
The 2016 Cadillac CTS V Is the Best Sedan America Can Offer BusinessWeek
The 2016 Cadillac CTS V Is the Best Sedan America Can Offer BusinessWeek
When was the last time you heard an engine and knew it was a Cadillac coming down the road?
Not lately, I?d imagine. The Escalade and ATS aren?t exactly the roaring type.
The 2016 Cadillac CTS-V sedan, on the other hand, is. Coming up the driveway or around a bend, that supercharged 6.2-liter V8 sounds like a grizzly bear.
It shouldn?t be too surprising. The third-generation CTS-V shares the same angry engine as the Corvette Z06. It gets 640 horsepower on its 8-speed, automatic, rear-wheel driver, with a 60-mile-per-hour sprint time of 3.6 seconds and an honest-to-goodness top speed of 200mph.
Pushing up the highway last week outside New York, the CTS-V ravaged the road wherever I pointed it. Push the gas and it?ll bound forward, all four corners at once, and devour asphalt as if it?s storing protein for a long winter ahead. It feels big and square to drive; this is no sport coupe. The rear-wheel drive feels powerful, if a little heavy, in a way that could soon define a nouveau Detroit opulence. This would be a good thing.
In fact, those stats put the CTS-V on par with the best sedans from Europe?the $94,100 BMW M5, the $101, 700 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG, the $141,300 Porsche Panamera Turbo. While it neither performs as excellently as the Panamera nor looks as elegant as the Benz, it belongs right in the thick of the group as the best sedan America can offer.
What You Can Get
The CTS-V is the high-performance version of the CTS sedan, Cadillac?s foray into the luxury sedan market that has been dominated by the Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, and, to a lesser extent, Lexus and Jaguar. There were two additional body styles besides the sedan?a coupe and a wagon, currently unavailable?and the three constitute Cadillac?s current best hope at full brand revitalization after years of stagnation. (Its formerly-of-Audi boss and upcoming XT5 will have a lot to do with it, too.)
Plenty has been said about the CTS-V?s abilities on the track. (Yes it has launch control; no, it doesn?t have an option for manual transmission.) The steering could be a little more responsive, but the performance traction management, magnetic ride control, limited-slip differential, and massive Brembo brakes manage the car with ease. You?re not going to do any acrobatics with this car (symbolically speaking, that is), but it is straightforward and eager, with body roll almost nil. There is no guile under this hood.
The real question is whether you?re going to want to drive it around town. Are you under the age of 40? If you are, Cadillac is hoping?betting?the answer is yes.
The Looks and the Price
The sticker price will be the first obstacle you?ll face: MSRP on the 2016 model is $84,000, but that number will quickly jump to $90,000-plus once you add certain essentials ($2,300 performance seats, $900 19-inch wheels, $595 red brake calipers). Are you okay with that? It still costs less than its German competitors, but it?s by far the most expensive car Caddy sells. Its entry price beats even the Escalade and is surpassed only by the Platinum edition of that SUV.
Next up is the face. How do you feel about angles? The CTS-V has high-intensity headlamps shaped like long triangles at front; the rear is characterized by a small sport spoiler tilted up at a 45-degree angle and a bottom fender pointing slightly out in the center, like an arrow or the roof of a house. The Cadillac badge just above it has been blown up, sans wreath, more than in previous years?quite the enormous bit of Americana.
Look at the car straight-on, and you?ll see a narrow lattice front grille and long, horizontal air slats that sit between lines bulging up in the carbon fiber hood to accommodate the engine underneath. They form the shape of an H before shooting back past the dorsal fin toward the rear of the car. Steel quad tailpipes at the very back hint at the beautiful sound potential within. (While the angular side mirrors complement the effect, they don?t afford enough visibility.) The look is edgy like a razor, rather than curved, as with the more feline Panamera. CTS-V looks pleasingly modern and unique. You won?t mistake this for anything but a Cadillac. I like it.
Inside the Machine
Inside the car is a different matter. The 8-inch touchscreen and interchangeable instrument cluster certainly look cool, but there?s nothing like repeatedly pushing the inept ?touch? screen buttons on the center console?which demand increasingly more frantic bumps in order to take any action?to make you feel insane. Trying to adjust something so simple as the volume proves distracting at best and dangerous at worst. The standard-issue heads-up display, heated mirrors, and auto-dimming mirrors provide some small solace, as do the curbside and rear-view cameras that help with parking.
You?ll find that Bluetooth, Bose surround sound, wireless charging, dual-zone climate settings, passive entry, and remote vehicle start are all standard, as they should be for a car in this price range. Cadillac also includes 20-way heated and ventilated seats in the front, though it would be better if they were totally leather, not just ?trimmed.? I am not a fan of ?suede? microfiber inserts along the seats and headliner; they feel soft, as if they should be in something a little more sedate, not something with such a serious, aggressive exterior. Other interior dichotomies include the sport alloy pedals that look race-worthy and come standard and the suede microfiber-covered steering wheel and shifter that cost $300 extra and seem out of place.
Still with me? Good. Here?s a further obstacle for you, one that has more to do with convenience than with cash. The car gets 14 miles per gallon in the city. Aside from the cost to your wallet (including the $1,000 federal gas-guzzler toll) and to the environment, that means you?ll be taking frequent stops to replenish fuel. I hate having to stop for gas?just get me in the car, and let?s go?and I suspect you feel the same. This is 2016, very nearly.
There is no excuse for producing such a thirsty turkey
How to Use It
I will note that while that a 14mpg rating lags behind the E63 AMG and even the $79,400 Corvette, it does no worse than the M5 and Panamera Turbo, and it beats the $89,000 Dodge Viper by 2mpg. It certainly beats anything even nearly comparable from the U.S. in terms of performance and practicality.
This is a real American sport sedan that will work admirably as a daily driver while more than keeping up with the Euro whips on the track. And so far, so good: Steve Martin, head of product communications at Cadillac, told me recently that sales of the CTS-V this year have ?far exceeded? initial expectations and that ?every single? one the company is building right now has someone?s name on it.
?It doesn?t look like that will change any time soon,? he said.
Indeed. If you can stomach the interior inconveniences and you want to get in early on something verging on American greatness, this is the one for you.
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Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Thereƒ??s One Thing Volkswagen Can Do to Stop the Bleeding BusinessWeek
Thereƒ??s One Thing Volkswagen Can Do to Stop the Bleeding BusinessWeek
Beat Tesla.
First we learned Volkswagen sold 11 million diesel cars specifically designed to conceal deadly NOx emissions. Now we?re told another 800,000 have been coughing up faulty readings of carbon dioxide?the very thing more than 80 world leaders are addressing at climate talks in Paris this month.
It?s hard to imagine a more damaging scandal. This is a company that built its modern brand on efficiency, engineering and warm fuzzy feelings (think flower vases built into VW bugs and commercials of dear friends driving under the spell of Nick Drake?s Pink Moon).
Deception, pollution, and lung cancer: These do not inspire warm and fuzzy feelings.
Since the scandal erupted, Volkswagen has lost almost half its market value, and prices for its cars are dropping. To avoid losing a generation of enthusiasts, there are three things the company must do to tow itself from the muck:
Come clean. If there are more problems out there, Volkswagen needs to find and disclose them immediately. A long, slow trickle is worse than a big confession.
Fix the problems. Customers bought Volkswagens thinking they were zippy, fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly vehicles. Fix the cars to be just that, or offer refunds.
Beat Tesla.
While Volkswagens engineers were writing software code to dupe the world into thinking diesel could be a clean-burning fuel, Tesla was building the battery-powered car of the future. Forget emissions cheating?electric cars don?t even have tailpipes. Tesla has a multi-billion-dollar head start, but this is Volkswagen, the biggest automaker in the world. VW could crush it.
A few weeks ago, Volkswagen issued a press release pledging to make efficiency a higher priority in the wake of the scandal, with a focus on electric cars and hybrids. But it?s mostly incremental stuff: a new modular platform to create electric drivetrain versions of popular cars, and a high-performance next-generation Phaeton aimed at the affluent Tesla crowd.
This is still playing catch-up, which nearly every other carmaker (plus Google and Apple) is doing as well. It?s not enough.
So far, none of the biggest carmakers have gone all in on electric cars. BMW has received a lot of favorable comparisons to Tesla in the past year, but let?s be real: The hybrid BMW i8 is a work of engineering art, but the plug is practically useless, offering an electric range of about 20 miles before the fossil fuels kick in. The i3, while more affordable than the current lineup of Teslas, has a range of about 80 miles per charge, less than a Nissan Leaf.
There is simply no electric car on the market today that is remotely close to the top-of-the-line Tesla:
- Range: almost 300 miles
- Punch: 0 to 60 miles per hour in 2.8 seconds
- Features: industry-leading "auto pilot" thats constantly improving
- Release date for the more affordable, $30,000 Model 3: 2017
VW could be a Tesla killer (or at least a respected rival) if it really put its mind to it. It has two big advantages: money and scale. Tesla is spending about $1.7 billion this year to build its business, and Wall Street hates it. Not an earnings call goes by that analysts don?t fume over how much cash the company is burning. But by VW standards, that?s a small price to pay. Volkswagen spent almost 8 times that much on research and development alone last year and has about $30 billion in cash.
Tesla?s biggest problem is scaling up its operations. The company?s new Model X has a waiting list that stretches into the second half of next year, and its emerging battery business is booked until 2017. With the more affordable Model 3, to be unveiled in March and go on sale in 2017, CEO Elon Musk hopes to go from 50,000 sales in 2015 to 500,000 in 2020. Many analysts dont think thats possible. Volkswagen, by comparison, already sells 10 million cars a year. Scale is not a problem.
Volkswagen has been humbled to a stock valuation of about $58 billion, or 7.5 times its estimated 2015 earnings. Upstart Tesla has a market cap of $30 billion without turning a profit. Tesla gets a lot of good will from customers and investors, because it?s putting it all on the line to make the future of cars arrive sooner.
No major automaker has done the same, though a smattering of more-competitive electric cars is slated for the next three years. If Volkswagen really wanted to, it could still be first to sell a 300-mile-range all-electric car for under $30,000. The only way to make up for the past is to commit to the future.
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