Auto News 5

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!!!"

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.