It’s no secret that before the introduction of the CTS, Cadillac was the embodiment of old-school luxury. This was mostly due to the fact that the Caddys of yore had very little sporting intentions, even though they did feature some impressive and groundbreaking powertrain technology… on occasion.

Yet since the majority of luxury cars live in the sport compact segment — and since Cadillac was devoid of such a vehicle since its inception — the brand has been missing out on compact buyers — most of whom are young. We already know that the Cadillac ATS looks to change all that, especially since not having a car in the sport compact luxury space meant that “we haven’t been cool”, said Cadillac marketing chief Don Butler.

Perhaps more important is the fact that the ATS was one of the first products developed by the New General Motors, which allowed it to be created differently than some of the other products offered by the company. “The old GM way of doing things would have been to take a look in the parts bin and see what we could piece together,” said Butler. But this wasn’t the case with the ATS. “This isn’t a CTS with parts taken off it to make it lighter.”

And good measure, because from everything we’ve heard about the next-gen CTS, it will be an ATS, with parts put on it to make it longer… and heavier.

http://gmauthority.com/blog/2012/08/ats-will-make-cadillac-cool-again/