When I think Cadillac, my mental archive scrolls back to that crisp black and white image of Muhammad Ali, sitting next to his mother and looking over his shoulder from the driver’s seat of a new Cadillac. For many people then, the first stop upon arrival at success was probably a Cadillac dealership. Frank Sinatra had one; Elvis owned many over the years.
Cadillac’s new concept car, the Elmiraj, is beautiful, and it recalls that era. With clean lines, distinctly American styling and seating surfaces that look like giant insect skins reimagined in fine leather, it’s little wonder it already seems to have generated some excitement. After all, its classy looks scream “Cadillac!” in a way few Cadillacs have since the mid-’70s. Let’s hope that if there’s a production model, it isn't watered down too much.
At this point, you are probably thinking, “What about the XTS Vsport this guy was supposed to be writing about?” Well, I had a chance to see it in person last week at a Cadillac event in New York City. Unfortunately, after seeing the aristocratic Elmiraj up close, the XTS sedan, which shares a platform with the Chevrolet Impala, seemed somewhat more plebeian.
Not that it’s a bad car. It’s classy and clean. But I had to ask myself one thing about the XTS: Would a young Muhammad Ali buy one of these? Even though Cadillac gave the car a pretty exciting engine, I’d have to guess not.
I picked a black XTS Vsport from a line of red and black sedans. It was raining and the traffic was terrible, conditions that were not ideal to try out a car with a 410-horsepower twin-turbo 3.6-liter V-6. But thick traffic and bad weather were probably more realistic than, say, a track.
Nevertheless, the Caddy’s potent engine performed admirably when I needed to — somewhat impatiently — pull around slow-moving vehicles or escape New York City’s maddening, nonseparated left-turn lanes. The engine was quiet at cruising throttle, but when I opened it up, the two turbos added an aggressive rasp to the V-6’s quick pull. All-wheel drive made sure there was no wheelspin, even on wet pavement, when I applied forceful pressure to the accelerator pedal.
A stop-and-go drive with lots of sitting provided ample opportunity to really evaluate interior comfort. Sure, the instrument cluster, which reminded me of late-’90s video game graphics, was a bit on the busy side and not all that pleasant to look at. But the rest of the interior had a nice, simple aesthetic and good color balance between black and tan. The seats had just the right amount of firmness and support, and after sitting in the car for a few hours, I didn’t end up squirming around to find a comfortable position.
Since driving faster than 25 m.p.h. was, for the most part, out of the question, I flipped on the satellite radio and lost myself in a rerun of a late-’40s-vintage episode of the Burns and Allen show. In the show’s dialogue, George Burns expresses his concern about the rising cost of living. I found myself wondering what he would think about the car I was driving. According to Conceptcarz, a top-of-the-line 1948 Cadillac Series 75 Fleetwood started at $4,679 new; that’s $45,353 in 2013 dollars. The XTS Vsport starts at $63,020. That extra 18 grand didn’t seem to be picking up the gazes of deferential admiration I imagined Cadillac’s long, sleek, elegant Series 75 cars would have grabbed in the late ’40s.
George and Gracie signed off, so I switched to Siriusly Sinatra, extending my old-time Cadillac fantasy. Would Sinatra have wanted to drive this car, his Rat Pack buddies smoking cigarettes and drinking whiskey from interior-matched metal tumblers in the back seat? My gut said no. The car was comfortable and nice to look at, but it didn’t strike me as something that could really stand out from the thousands of dark, understated livery cars crisscrossing the streets of New York every day.
But the ride was quiet and not at all unpleasant. Sitting in traffic, which might have been uncomfortable in a car with a harsh ride or poor quality seats, did not seem to matter. The XTS Vsport’s suspension was a shiny spot on an otherwise dull drive. New York City’s roads are, generally, in terrible condition, but the car’s suspension soaked up bumps and lopsided pavement easily, without upsetting ride comfort or handling.
At the end of the day, I think the “sport” moniker the XTS Vsport wears may be a bit misleading. It’s a big, front-wheel-biased, all-wheel-drive sedan with a fairly powerful engine, and that adds some zip to the driving experience. Although it has paddle shifters that work pretty well under heavy acceleration, the car itself seems to straddle the line between luxury cruiser and mild sport sedan without landing squarely in either camp.
It goes without saying that a few hours spent driving around in the rain is by no means the final word on the XTS Vsport. And besides, maybe Jay-Z will buy one and I’ll change my mind about the car’s image. He bought a Jeep Wrangler, after all, so it’s not out of the question.
