2013 Cadillac ATS sedan
Cadillac can’t afford to sit out on the small-car craze sweeping through luxury automakers. Buyers shopping for a badge rather than a car look right past Cadillac’s $33,990 ATS to the Mercedes-Benz CLA-class and the Audi A3, both of which start under $31,000. This compact class, relatively new in the U.S., is the fastest-growing segment globally in the luxury-car business.
In an interview with Car and Driver, Cadillac marketing chief Uwe Ellinghaus all but confirmed that the company is working on a new small sedan to shore up the brand’s bottom end. Specific details on the sub-ATS sedan are scarce right now, but Ellinghaus did reveal one key detail that could set the Caddy apart from the competition. Cadillac’s top leadership is in agreement that they don’t want to follow the German luxury brands by building new cars on a front-wheel-drive platform.
“Our future is rear-wheel drive and, of course, all-wheel drive where appropriate,” Ellinghaus said. “My personal crusade is to spare us a hell of a lot of dilution of our emerging brand image by moving to front-wheel drive for potential smaller cars. As you know, the entire competition is moving to front-wheel drive for their entry-level cars. I am under a hell of a lot of pressure, as are [Cadillac chief engineer] Dave Leone and [executive director of Cadillac design] Andrew Smith, because front-wheel drive offers these package and cost advantages. If we are just after the lowest price point possible to enter the category, we would have to go front-wheel drive tomorrow. That said, what is the reason to buy a Cadillac in that segment in a couple of years’ time when all the German competitors will have front-wheel drive? It is that we are maybe—if we are lucky—the only ones left with rear-wheel drive.”
But Cadillac needs sales more than it needs conviction right now. A more expensive, less spacious rear-drive car could prove to be a tough sell in the price-sensitive compact-luxury category. And in a market that often doesn’t value driving dynamics, exclusivity might not be enough to prop up a rear-wheel-drive car. Back in 2010, BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer laid the groundwork for today’s transverse-engine BMWs by revealing that 80 percent of 1-series owners believed that the front wheels drove their cars. Cadillac’s chief marketing officer is well aware of that reality—he worked at BMW at the time—but neither does he see clueless car buyers as a problem.
“You will tell me that people don’t care about front- or rear-wheel drive, and I am with you,” Ellinghaus said. “They often don’t even know whether they have front- or rear-wheel drive. The issue is that only rear-wheel drive offers you the proportions for a better-looking and better-driving car that people indeed recognize. But they are not aware that the reason why they find this car appealing and like the driving characteristics more is based on the drivetrain principle, rear-wheel drive.”
Rear-Wheel-Drive Aesthetic
The long hood and short overhangs of rear-drive aesthetics become trickier to execute as a car shrinks. To protect those proportions, Ellinghaus suggests that the next-generation ATS will grow in length, bringing much-needed legroom and making room for a baby brother. The Cadillac team is also mulling over the idea of billing the sub-ATS entry as a two-plus-two rather than a traditional sedan. The car would still feature four doors but with tight rear seats designed for occasional, limited-distance trips.
The small Cadillac will almost certainly be based on GM’s Alpha architecture, which underpins the ATS and the CTS and will be used for the next-generation Chevrolet Camaro. With a smart mix of steel and aluminum, the Alpha platform has helped GM break its habit of building the heaviest cars in the industry. The ATS and CTS are among the lightest vehicles in their respective classes. When the ATS was first being planned in 2006–2007, then-product-chief Bob Lutz advocated an even smaller, lighter ATS that would have been four-cylinder-only, but he was persuaded by others to make the production car large enough to accommodate the 3.6-liter V-6 it has today.
Powertrain details on the sub-ATS sedan are pure speculation at this point. The 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder would make for a natural fit at the top of the range, although a smaller and less-powerful engine would help bring the base price closer to that of the CLA-class and the A3. Ellinghaus has no love for the normally aspirated 2.5-liter four-cylinder that currently serves as Cadillac’s entry engine, and we suspect a replacement is in the works.
- First Drive: 2015 Cadillac ATS Coupe
- Comparison Test: 2012 BMW 328i vs. 2013 Cadillac ATS
- Cadillac ATS Research: Prices, Photos, Specs, Reviews, and More
Don’t expect to see an auto-show debut any time soon. Cadillac has a busy 2015 calendar with launches of the ATS-V, the CTS-V, the LTS flagship, and a new SRX. Once that work is done, though, Cadillac’s entire lineup will be fresh, opening the opportunity to fill gaps in the product portfolio. It may be 2017 before the small car goes on sale, but we expect that the new model will make its first appearance sometime in 2016. The name of the new car also remains a mystery. Ruling out ATS, CTS, LTS, and XTS leaves 22 letters of the alphabet, assuming the company will stick with its _TS theme. Your guess is as good as ours.
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