Auto News 5

Those with good memories for bad advertising will remember the tagline, "The Caddy that zigs," which was used to introduce the Cadillac Catera. Even if that were a good tagline, it could not be applied to the new XTS. The XTS stands apart from Cadillac's other sedan offerings, all of which are nimble, rear-wheel-drive, Euro-style, driving machines. Instead of a Caddy that zigs, the XTS is the Caddy that's big.

When I drove the SLS AMG roadster in the South of France during a media event last fall, I was enchanted by its performance, its exclusivity, and its sumptuous cabin, but I was also alarmed by its width. It was all my co-driver and I could do to thread the SLS through the narrow streets of Monaco and along twisty ribbons of asphalt that cling to the mountains high above the Mediterranean without clipping a sideview mirror. Here in wide-open Michigan, I had no such qualms, although I was reminded of my French SLS roadster experience when I pulled into the drive-through lane at my credit union in Ann Arbor. Happily, the SLS fit fine, and while I waited for the teller to process my transaction, I chatted with a young man who pulled into the adjacent drive-through lane and excitedly gushed to me that "This is, like, my favorite car in the whole world!!!"