Housewife's Car Review: 2017 Cadillac CTS 2.0T

I have a hobby. I volunteer as a bird watcher at the BioBlitz events at our region. Since the BioBlitz is an event that happens at the natural habitat of animals or plants, usually it’s organized in areas without public transit. Think about it – why would you build a bus route through the forest?

Therefore, to get to those events I usually rent a car. My request for a Hyundai Elantra ended up being the Cadillac CTS 2.0T, which was not a big surprise after the BMW, but definitely not the best choice for our situation.

The weather was lovely that day – the end of May was extremely high on precipitations and our bird count happened to be under a heavy rain with short breaks of sunny skies. Our appearance at the event was pretty impressive. We came to the forest on our Caddy, where we faced the first challenge immediately. The front bumper, which already had a few scratches from some previous renting experience, is too low to go somewhere where roads aren’t present. Also, parking on the curb of the road was a safety concern for such a low clearance car. Though while I was counting flora and fauna in the forest, my Caddy got used as a shelter by numerous snails.

Anyway, enough about me and let’s talk about the car itself. It’s a status car (does this term exist? I mean, I don’t know how else to describe a car for people with a certain lifestyle). It has a 2.0 L turbo engine with 268 horses.  A very powerful car, but it is pretty heavy (which could be good in some situations, but not so good in others.) Very stable and well controllable with AWD. I love AWD sedans! It feels nice on acceleration, and it’s sensitive to gas and brakes, considering the weight of the car. 

The seats are designed… erm… for people with a wider lower part of the body. It was like sitting in the armchair, which was a bit weird. Also it has a lot of space, but my habit of placing the left elbow on the window was leading me to a big disappointment because the window was too far to lay an elbow on it. More than enough room at the back seat.

  It has a leather interior with some wood-like parts. Looks really fancy.

The electronics in our Caddy beats even the BMW. It has a tire pressure display, all possible and impossible data being listed in the menu. 

I personally liked a ‘Teen Driver’ – by activating it you limit the maximum speed of the car. I see potential troubles with it (if you do not let your kid to go on highways and lock the speed at 60 km/h max), but it’s an interesting feature.

The volume controller for music is sliding side to side instead of a knob or a button. A glove box opens from push of the button on the dashboard. Surprising, but whatever.

Overall impression – not a proper car for an active and sporty person like me, also does not match with my laid-back lifestyle. You have to be a person, who does not like rush but gives preference to kind of slow flow lifestyle. Also, I can see older people or a person with a top manager position driving this car. Other than that it looks as a wrong piece of the puzzle.

Pros:

-          Luxury design; well, comfortable, fully loaded (almost overloaded)

            -     AWD

-          Powerful, strong and controllable

-          Not very common on the road, so catchy looking. Mine was a nice silver colour

-         A lot of room inside and in the trunk

-         Great choice for people who need a status car

Cons:

-          Premium gas with high fuel consumption

-          Expensive in maintenance

-          Too big for a daily commute

-          Not suitable for off-road, camping, or other than a smooth highway or city road.