Grown up CTS with the small engine.
The US auto press is really trying to get behind the good products coming out of Detroit and there's nothing wrong with that:
I’ve said it before: Those who think the default choices in the midsize luxury class are the BMW 5-series, Mercedes-Benz E-class and Audi A6 are doing themselves a disservice and need to take a new CTS for a spin. It drives well enough to compete with those Germans head to head.
Also, this:Most buyers will neither notice nor care: They’ll choose a four-cylinder CTS because it’s a fine-driving, powerful, fuel-efficient luxury sedan with a gorgeous interior, crisp exterior lines and tons of rear legroom. Our Cadillac tester was also one of the easiest cars to live with I’ve had in a long time -- it’s a difficult-to-define blend of comfort, ease-of-use, size and overall driving performance that makes a particular vehicle feel like an old friend mere minutes after first settling in behind the wheel. Out of 200-odd cars and trucks I drive every year, maybe 10 get it this right; I recall the ATS 2.0T left the same impression, so there’s something about a four-cylinder Cadillac that suits this 40-something car writer just fine.
Ever more complicated CANBUS/network type stuff is the issue here. There's a lot of real-time things happening on a common bus and sometimes weird stuff can happen. Overall I don't think anything truly disastrous has happened but the industry needs to keep on top of this. The issues I associate with Germans, really, isn't electrical gremlins (well, VW I do), but excessive mechanical complexity.Unfortunately, our CTS exhibited another trait I associate with German cars: Electrical gremlins. On day three of my stint with the car, I remote-started it; when I got in a few minutes later and pressed the seat-heater button, nothing happened. That’s when I noticed the message on CUE stating, “Communications error with climate control system.” Sure enough, the entire HVAC system, including rear defroster, was disabled. CUE offered some additional, slightly humorous advice: “This problem may fix itself. Restarting the car may also fix the problem.” I waited a moment to be sure the problem wasn’t going to, in fact, fix itself, and then restarted the car to no avail. Eventually I found the cockpit fusebox behind a trim panel and pulled the HVAC system fuses. That did the trick, and the issue didn’t reoccur the rest of the day. Still, with the holidays looming and not wanting to tell to the in-laws to “hang tight while I pull this fuse” on a brand-new $55K luxury car, I swapped the CTS for an Audi A5.