Style Uber Alles: Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon poses at Pebble
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At today's launch of Cadillac's first ever factory station wagon on the 18th green at Pebble Beach, the point was made that just 10 years earlier the Evoq concept car made its debut here, launching the Art & Science design ethic that has been largely responsible for Cadillac's recent resurgence.
The new CTS Sport Wagon is also mostly about style, and in the flesh it's a style worth compromising a few cubic feet of carry-space for. The steeply raked and fat D-pillar and unique wheels make for a striking profile and the tall pointy taillamps (each with a light-pipe and 26 LEDs) terminating in the chromed finlets are unmistakably Cadillac.
Overall cargo volume trails the competitive set (Audi A6/BMW 535/Mercedes E-Class), with a seats-down volume of 54.0 cu ft (versus 58.6/58.3/58.9). And to maximize the usefulness of the available space, all wagons will get extruded-aluminum tracks with four standard tie-down loops that can be moved around on the tracks, and other attachments are in the works. A cargo-restraint net that can be installed behind the front or rear seats also is standard. And those sleek, low-profile, ultra-low-wind-resistance luggage rack bars on the roof will host a number of attachment kits for various items (skis, bikes, etc.), all designed by Cadillac to look as slick as the wagon, and all available through Cadillac dealers.
The CTS Sport Wagon makes its official show debut this fall in Paris and goes on sale in the first half of 2009 in the U.S., and eventually in all markets that Cadillac sells in (Europe, Asia, Australia, and soon South America).
Those other markets will get a diesel, but according to Vehicle Line Exec Randy Schwarz, no development work is going on to make that engine U.S. compliant. He would admit, however, that relative to that engine, the CTS-V's would be a breeze to install in the Sport Wagon. It's not in the plan, but those are words we can pin our hopes on. A 556-hp wagon sounds pretty good to us.
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