Cadillac Cachet Cloaks a Beast

Driven

MY 21-YEAR-OLD stepdaughter, May, is sitting alone in the generous backseat of the 2007 Cadillac STS-V. I’ve just picked her up from El Indio, along with her sister, and we’re headed out for a demo ride. After sliding across the roomy seat, May sums it up immediately: “Gee, it just looks like a normal car to me. Is it really that fast?”

I suppose to someone under 25, a 4,400-pound car with four doors, silver paint and a roomy 116.4-inch wheelbase does look like just “a normal car.” But for those of us who’ve been around long enough to remember Cadillacs from back in the 1970s and the fiercely dominant Corvettes that roared around for years, ruling the muscle-car world, the STS-V combination of both is what we call a “sleeper” car.

That’s because this version of Cadillac’s full-size luxury sedan is a four-door beast that blows the doors off most cars its size. People won’t realize this “normal car” has the heart of a lion unless they read car magazines and recognize the subtle exterior cues——or are left in the dust at a traffic signal. The STS-V has all the comfort of its cousin, the STS. The differences are performance-related, and they’re huge.

The STS base price is $42,250. It has a 4.6-liter V-8 engine with 320 horsepower and 315 pounds of torque. The grille is chrome; the steering wheel is wood and leather; the wheels are 17 inches; the car weighs 4,000 pounds, and it’s equipped with the ride-enhancing Magnetic Ride Control.

The STS-V has a base price of $74,870. It sports the iconic Northstar 4.4-liter supercharged engine with 469 horses and 439 pounds of torque. The V has 18-inch wheels on the front, 19-inch on the rear, Brembo brakes, sport suspension, an aluminum- and-leather steering wheel, a mesh grille and distinctive “V” supercharged badges on the exterior. The result is a thrilling combination of grown-up refinement and juvenile lustiness. But it comes at a cost: 14 miles per gallon in city driving, 21 on the freeway.

Cadillac is widely known for the success of the Escalade——a popular SUV that inspired the bling image for Cadillac in the late ’90s——a segment previously dominated by the Lincoln Navigator and later the Hummer H2. But the full-size luxury sedan market is where Cadillac has worked hard and been challenged by tough competition. The smaller-wheelbase CTS sedan captured newbies, and the front-wheel-drive DTS has remained popular with older Caddy drivers loyal to the brand, but the STS is where Cadillac needed to make an even bigger impact.

The STS accomplishes that in the luxury sedan segment——catering to people who want all the comforts of their living room packaged with competent technology, a refined ride, beautiful appointments and plenty of horsepower. However, the German brands have upped the ante in recent years with larger-displacement engines and higher horsepower numbers——the one area where American brands once dominated with muscle cars. Now the serious battle for market share has begun. With the STS-V, Cadillac proves it has all the panache and power to compete.

I’m explaining all this to the girls as I shift the six-speed automatic transmission into manual mode, stomp on the accelerator and blow past a BMW 7-series floating slowly eastbound on I-8. The girls squeal their approval, and I feel a little sheepish acting like a teenager in “a normal car” that will do 0-60 in 4.8 seconds and the quarter-mile in 13.4. But I think this is what Cadillac had in mind when it bridged the gap between luxury and performance and gave its largest four-door sedan the heart of a beast.

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