G.W
10-02-2012, 02:38 PM
The 2013 Cadillac ATS sedan mounts a largely effective challenge to BMW's 3-series, but the ATS's dreadful noise at low RPMs scuttles the advantage. Dan Neil has a review on The News Hub. (Photo: General Motors)
http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OD-AT553_CADILL_D_20120926175728.jpg
Dan Neil/The Wall Street Journal
The new Cadillac ATS compact luxury sedan
In targeting the BMW 3-series, the development team for the new Cadillac ATS compact luxury sedan hit the Bavarian legend in all of its most tender spots. First, as anyone who has driven BMWs over time will tell you, the 3-series isn't quite as involving from the driver's seat as it used to be. I'm sorry, it's true. The cars have grown larger and heavier, with less feedback in the wheel and slightly more relaxed reflexes, a consequence of a campaign to dial up the refinement to win over more conquest sales and, the company freely admits, more women.
The development engineers who built the new Cadillac ATS—rear- or all-wheel-drive on GM's new Alpha platform architecture; five-passengers and four doors (watch this space for coupe, convertible and wagon variants); 3,400 pounds in base trim; three engines (2.0-liter, 270-horsepower turbo four/2.5-liter, 202-hp four/3.6-liter, 321-hp V6); six-speed automatic or manual; three trim levels ranging from $34,000 to $52,000—were less concerned about broadening an audience than about capturing one in the first place.
Photos: 2013 Cadillac ATS: Almost but Not Quite
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-UT365_cadats_D_20120927162508.jpg
Dan Neil/The Wall Street Journal
Click to view slideshow
To do that, they went in the other direction, dialing up the sporting orneriness, and rather splendidly, too. The ATS's most notable dynamic quality is the sharp, almost twitchy responsiveness of its electric-power-assist steering. Grab a big handful of steering angle (with the ATS's racy, small-diameter steering wheel) and the car will give you a surprisingly strong yank in that direction. This thing changes direction like a Jack Russell terrier. Yes, the ATS feels a little busier at the wheel at highway speeds, and that won't appeal to everybody. Indeed, that seems to be the very point Cadillac is underlining.
Once turned in, the ATS's tensed, tarpaulin-tight suspension and 50/50 weight distribution (abetted, in the case of our test car, with adaptive magnetic dampers) helps the ATS shoulder through corners with minimal body roll and with significant Teutonic grip. Cadillac spent a lot of time flogging the ATS around Germany's 14-mile Nürburgring test course, and the character of that track—with its multitude of midspeed, constant-radius turns—has shaped the car in recognizable ways. Nowhere is this car better than midcorner, in third gear and about 3,000 rpm, around 60 miles per hour, with lots of steering input and steady throttle, with the mechanical limited-slip rear end helping it to carve a perfect, tire-squawking parabola.
Interactive: Car 360
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-UT865_ATSCar_D_20120928182433.jpg
Dan Neil/The Wall Street Journal
2013 Cadillac ATS
Gradually and very progressively, the ATS—at least the one shod with our test car's 18-inch summer tires—surrenders front grip and pushes wide. When you breathe the throttle, the front tucks in and the rear steps out with a few degrees of sweet, pivoting, progressive oversteer. In some corners, the ATS feels more like a Lotus than a BMW.
The ATS's ride does not have the fluid suppleness of the 3-series', and certainly nothing like the BMW's management of noise and vibration. The acoustics of the ATS's optional 3.6-liter, direct-injection V6 (267 pound-feet of torque) are particularly heinous. And yet, insofar as the ATS chassis guys privileged cornering poise and sporting feel over ride compliance, favoring emotion over the numb averaging that afflicts a lot of cars' handling, I second that emotion.
2013 Cadillac ATS 3.6L Premium
http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OD-AT554_CADILL_D_20120926175838.jpg
Dan Neil/The Wall Street Journal
Base price: $46,695
Price as tested: $49,165
Powertrain: Naturally aspirated, direct-injection 3.6-liter V6 with variable valve timing; six-speed automatic transmission with manual shift mode and paddle shifter; rear-wheel drive with mechanical limited-slip differential
Horsepower/torque: 321 hp at 6,800 rpm/267 pound-feet at 4,900 rpm
Length/weight: 182.8 inches/3,500 pounds
Wheelbase: 109.3 inches
0-60 mph: 5.4 seconds
EPA fuel economy: 19/28 mpg, city/highway
Cargo capacity: 10.2 cubic feet
The 3-series' other vulnerability is also a consequence of its incumbency: It is safe, almost rote, in the styling department. You can read the 3-series' conservative exterior design a number of ways. This is the most massive of BMW's mass-market cars, representing 30% of the company's sales volume world-wide. The car's global reach has, over time, imposed a rather bland internationalism on the styling, in order to appear to many markets and sensibilities, particularly China's.
Cadillac's ATS doesn't have any such territory to defend, and as a consequence the ATS's design could be bolder, more expressive, more interesting. As 100 out of 100 surveyed will tell you, if you park an ATS next to the comparable 3-series, the BMW simply wilts, visually.
The ATS isn't and couldn't be as radically sharp-edged and prismatic as Cadillac's CTS coupe (about 8.5 inches longer, overall, than the ATS). The ATS's glass section, the greenhouse, is proportionally larger than that of the turret-topped CTS, which is good for outward visibility but sacrifices the bigger car's heavy-lidded malevolence.
There's also a certain quality of incompleteness to the ATS design. Even with the optional 18-inch summer tires gripped in the wheel wells, the car looks slightly under-tired. The rocker panels—the area below the doors—seem to cry out for ground-hugging aero skirting. These areas, like open promises, will get fulfilled about a year from now when Cadillac debuts the ATS-V, the high-performance variant with a twin-turbo six (or maybe a Corvette V8?) on board. That should be fun.
More of Dan Neil on Cadillac
Cadillac XTS Sedan Needs a Slow Hand
Cadillac's Insane, Unnecessary, Awesome Wagon
Cadillac Sculpts One Sharp Coupe—On the Outside
If I were styling the ATS-V, the first thing I would do is delete or disguise the car's front-bumper cover dividing the upper grille and the lower. It looks like the car has duct tape across its mouth. Getting the face of a car brand right is an enormously tricky process. With the ATS, Cadillac is almost there.
Clearly, there's no shortage of nerve at Cadillac, and for evidence you need only look at the ATS's CUE infotainment interface, a large, full-color touch screen above a piano-black panel of capacitive switches set in the middle of the dash. This is my second dance with the CUE system and, as I predicted, it's getting easier to use with practice. And yet, it's still not easy, and sometimes downright annoying. The LCD display in the instrument panel, with the speedo and tach, is also a little alienating, as it fans through multiple and occasionally redundant displays of data coming from the navigation, audio, mileage and trip systems.
“Close to the BMW 3-series, that is. But the 3.6-liter ATS's major flaw—practically a black hole that devours the rest of the car—is its low-speed, low-rpm powertrain noise.”
The 3-series interior, particularly in the higher trim levels, has a more classic sophistication and is assembled out of better, finer materials. Also, BMW's infotainment and mapping graphics—in particular those in the heads-up display—are about as good as you can find on the market. On the other hand, because the LCD screen is optional equipment in the BMW, and to avoid the expense of offering two very different consoles (one with and one without a fixed LCD screen), BMW sticks the LCD screen on top of the dash, like a half-buried iPad. It's a glaring, bean-counting error. The ATS's avionics-style presentation is altogether cooler and more integrated.
So the ATS is a little more venturesome in design than the BMW 3-series and, surprisingly, a little more fun to helm. Does that make it a better car? Well, no.
The ATS's major flaw—and it's practically a black hole that devours the rest of the car—is the 3.6-liter's low-speed, low-rpm powertrain noise. Wow. That sounds terrible! The injectors rattle like a sewing machine that's lost a cog. As soon as you pick up the throttle and the revs rise above around four grand, the induction, valve-train and exhaust notes come together in a rising, melodic chirr, and at full throttle, shuffling up through the gears, the powertrain sounds amazing (0-60 mph in 5.4 seconds). But in a parking lot, it sounds like my old Chevette. Ai.
So, not perfect, but again, compelling, daring and, here and there, outrageous. I like those words better than the musty old "Standard of the World" anyway. Cadillac is not the standard anymore. It's the challenger. And the ATS is, well, challenging.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444180004578016373838944226.html?m od=WSJ_LifeStyle_Lifestyle_6
http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OD-AT553_CADILL_D_20120926175728.jpg
Dan Neil/The Wall Street Journal
The new Cadillac ATS compact luxury sedan
In targeting the BMW 3-series, the development team for the new Cadillac ATS compact luxury sedan hit the Bavarian legend in all of its most tender spots. First, as anyone who has driven BMWs over time will tell you, the 3-series isn't quite as involving from the driver's seat as it used to be. I'm sorry, it's true. The cars have grown larger and heavier, with less feedback in the wheel and slightly more relaxed reflexes, a consequence of a campaign to dial up the refinement to win over more conquest sales and, the company freely admits, more women.
The development engineers who built the new Cadillac ATS—rear- or all-wheel-drive on GM's new Alpha platform architecture; five-passengers and four doors (watch this space for coupe, convertible and wagon variants); 3,400 pounds in base trim; three engines (2.0-liter, 270-horsepower turbo four/2.5-liter, 202-hp four/3.6-liter, 321-hp V6); six-speed automatic or manual; three trim levels ranging from $34,000 to $52,000—were less concerned about broadening an audience than about capturing one in the first place.
Photos: 2013 Cadillac ATS: Almost but Not Quite
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-UT365_cadats_D_20120927162508.jpg
Dan Neil/The Wall Street Journal
Click to view slideshow
To do that, they went in the other direction, dialing up the sporting orneriness, and rather splendidly, too. The ATS's most notable dynamic quality is the sharp, almost twitchy responsiveness of its electric-power-assist steering. Grab a big handful of steering angle (with the ATS's racy, small-diameter steering wheel) and the car will give you a surprisingly strong yank in that direction. This thing changes direction like a Jack Russell terrier. Yes, the ATS feels a little busier at the wheel at highway speeds, and that won't appeal to everybody. Indeed, that seems to be the very point Cadillac is underlining.
Once turned in, the ATS's tensed, tarpaulin-tight suspension and 50/50 weight distribution (abetted, in the case of our test car, with adaptive magnetic dampers) helps the ATS shoulder through corners with minimal body roll and with significant Teutonic grip. Cadillac spent a lot of time flogging the ATS around Germany's 14-mile Nürburgring test course, and the character of that track—with its multitude of midspeed, constant-radius turns—has shaped the car in recognizable ways. Nowhere is this car better than midcorner, in third gear and about 3,000 rpm, around 60 miles per hour, with lots of steering input and steady throttle, with the mechanical limited-slip rear end helping it to carve a perfect, tire-squawking parabola.
Interactive: Car 360
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-UT865_ATSCar_D_20120928182433.jpg
Dan Neil/The Wall Street Journal
2013 Cadillac ATS
Gradually and very progressively, the ATS—at least the one shod with our test car's 18-inch summer tires—surrenders front grip and pushes wide. When you breathe the throttle, the front tucks in and the rear steps out with a few degrees of sweet, pivoting, progressive oversteer. In some corners, the ATS feels more like a Lotus than a BMW.
The ATS's ride does not have the fluid suppleness of the 3-series', and certainly nothing like the BMW's management of noise and vibration. The acoustics of the ATS's optional 3.6-liter, direct-injection V6 (267 pound-feet of torque) are particularly heinous. And yet, insofar as the ATS chassis guys privileged cornering poise and sporting feel over ride compliance, favoring emotion over the numb averaging that afflicts a lot of cars' handling, I second that emotion.
2013 Cadillac ATS 3.6L Premium
http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OD-AT554_CADILL_D_20120926175838.jpg
Dan Neil/The Wall Street Journal
Base price: $46,695
Price as tested: $49,165
Powertrain: Naturally aspirated, direct-injection 3.6-liter V6 with variable valve timing; six-speed automatic transmission with manual shift mode and paddle shifter; rear-wheel drive with mechanical limited-slip differential
Horsepower/torque: 321 hp at 6,800 rpm/267 pound-feet at 4,900 rpm
Length/weight: 182.8 inches/3,500 pounds
Wheelbase: 109.3 inches
0-60 mph: 5.4 seconds
EPA fuel economy: 19/28 mpg, city/highway
Cargo capacity: 10.2 cubic feet
The 3-series' other vulnerability is also a consequence of its incumbency: It is safe, almost rote, in the styling department. You can read the 3-series' conservative exterior design a number of ways. This is the most massive of BMW's mass-market cars, representing 30% of the company's sales volume world-wide. The car's global reach has, over time, imposed a rather bland internationalism on the styling, in order to appear to many markets and sensibilities, particularly China's.
Cadillac's ATS doesn't have any such territory to defend, and as a consequence the ATS's design could be bolder, more expressive, more interesting. As 100 out of 100 surveyed will tell you, if you park an ATS next to the comparable 3-series, the BMW simply wilts, visually.
The ATS isn't and couldn't be as radically sharp-edged and prismatic as Cadillac's CTS coupe (about 8.5 inches longer, overall, than the ATS). The ATS's glass section, the greenhouse, is proportionally larger than that of the turret-topped CTS, which is good for outward visibility but sacrifices the bigger car's heavy-lidded malevolence.
There's also a certain quality of incompleteness to the ATS design. Even with the optional 18-inch summer tires gripped in the wheel wells, the car looks slightly under-tired. The rocker panels—the area below the doors—seem to cry out for ground-hugging aero skirting. These areas, like open promises, will get fulfilled about a year from now when Cadillac debuts the ATS-V, the high-performance variant with a twin-turbo six (or maybe a Corvette V8?) on board. That should be fun.
More of Dan Neil on Cadillac
Cadillac XTS Sedan Needs a Slow Hand
Cadillac's Insane, Unnecessary, Awesome Wagon
Cadillac Sculpts One Sharp Coupe—On the Outside
If I were styling the ATS-V, the first thing I would do is delete or disguise the car's front-bumper cover dividing the upper grille and the lower. It looks like the car has duct tape across its mouth. Getting the face of a car brand right is an enormously tricky process. With the ATS, Cadillac is almost there.
Clearly, there's no shortage of nerve at Cadillac, and for evidence you need only look at the ATS's CUE infotainment interface, a large, full-color touch screen above a piano-black panel of capacitive switches set in the middle of the dash. This is my second dance with the CUE system and, as I predicted, it's getting easier to use with practice. And yet, it's still not easy, and sometimes downright annoying. The LCD display in the instrument panel, with the speedo and tach, is also a little alienating, as it fans through multiple and occasionally redundant displays of data coming from the navigation, audio, mileage and trip systems.
“Close to the BMW 3-series, that is. But the 3.6-liter ATS's major flaw—practically a black hole that devours the rest of the car—is its low-speed, low-rpm powertrain noise.”
The 3-series interior, particularly in the higher trim levels, has a more classic sophistication and is assembled out of better, finer materials. Also, BMW's infotainment and mapping graphics—in particular those in the heads-up display—are about as good as you can find on the market. On the other hand, because the LCD screen is optional equipment in the BMW, and to avoid the expense of offering two very different consoles (one with and one without a fixed LCD screen), BMW sticks the LCD screen on top of the dash, like a half-buried iPad. It's a glaring, bean-counting error. The ATS's avionics-style presentation is altogether cooler and more integrated.
So the ATS is a little more venturesome in design than the BMW 3-series and, surprisingly, a little more fun to helm. Does that make it a better car? Well, no.
The ATS's major flaw—and it's practically a black hole that devours the rest of the car—is the 3.6-liter's low-speed, low-rpm powertrain noise. Wow. That sounds terrible! The injectors rattle like a sewing machine that's lost a cog. As soon as you pick up the throttle and the revs rise above around four grand, the induction, valve-train and exhaust notes come together in a rising, melodic chirr, and at full throttle, shuffling up through the gears, the powertrain sounds amazing (0-60 mph in 5.4 seconds). But in a parking lot, it sounds like my old Chevette. Ai.
So, not perfect, but again, compelling, daring and, here and there, outrageous. I like those words better than the musty old "Standard of the World" anyway. Cadillac is not the standard anymore. It's the challenger. And the ATS is, well, challenging.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444180004578016373838944226.html?m od=WSJ_LifeStyle_Lifestyle_6
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