I don't know if you remember but I advised a co-worker of mine to go check out the '08 CTS as he was shopping around for a replacement for his '06 Jaguar S type 4.0 that was coming off lease this year. He was a little puzzled at first that I'd recommend a Caddy as he wasn't sure that this was the credible game player in the mid-size sport lux sedan segment I was making it out to be. So he came back after the first test drive completely unimpressed, but I told him that it's still a good car. He scoffed at it.
Looking forward to the successor for the Jag S-type, the XF he was pretty excited only to go to his local Jag dealer and discover a car that truly wasn't all it was cracked up to be (especially when you consider the value for the dollar quotient, doesn't exist) and piss poor customer service from the same dealer he leased his last two Jags from. It was time to reconsider the options and in doing so he revisited the CTS; drove it again, checked out the features even more closely and walked a way quite impressed and very interested. So much so he ended up ordering a fully spec'd out CTS 3.6 DI with everything short of AWD (this is SoCal) and ended up at a price the Jag could never beat. Talk about value!? Well he got it!
Come this past Saturday he took delivery of his custom ordered straight from the factory CTS. I went down to check it out today and boy did I fall in love all over again with the car! Finely stitched leather interior with top shelf materials (not quite Audi spec, but close), beautiful exterior design, balanced proportions, this list goes on. Most cool was the navigation system that lets you rip CD's onto it's hard drive and DVD player capability. He asked if I wanted to drive it and of course I didn't turn down the opportunity. With FE3 suspension (the stiffest setup available) the car hugs the asphalt with the accelerator under the gun. The steering is ultra responsive, precise and progressive in feel as you speed things up. The interior is truly a great place to spend time, home away from home on the highway.
A hard car to fault the CTS is, a car any American would be proud to own. It's a car that has helped reestablish the Cadillac brand and make it relevant in today's competitive luxury car market, so much so it's swooned away buyers from other more prestigious makes (such as in this case), when you've accomplished something like that you know it's more than a "job well done". Cadillac is once again on it's way to becoming the standard of the world, and with a car this good it would be to GM's advantage and favor to keep building RWD performance vehicles, it's something they do very well. Coolest thing of all (and by no means to sound cocky) is that my co-worker said he probably would never have gotten the car if I hadn't told him to check it out.
