Cadillac CTS-V 2016 – dhs 351,000

This is the kind of car I need to be driving when I am getting late for my restaurant reviews. It’s the latest from Cadillac, the CTS-V 2016 model. It’s not any sports car but a LUXURY sports car and the best performing car delivered by Cadillac. The 2016 CTS-V model is powered by a 6.2 L supercharged V8 engine generating an outstanding 640 hp with a torque of 855Nm and can touch 96 KM/H in just 3.7 seconds. At the top of the game, in a league of it’s own competing with the legendary Mercedes AMG E63 and BMW M5.

Thanks to Cadillac Arabia I got to test drive this beast for a few days. When I first saw the specs on paper I thought I might not be able to handle this power but the car is so well engineered that you could handle the powerful V8 engine with ease. The Brembo high-performance brake system where exceptional during our testing by being precise and giving total control of the braking force.

The exterior and interior design of the car is as amazing as it’s technical spec sheet. This car is having the optional carbon fiber Aero package on it(Front Splitter, Hood Extractor, Diffuser, Squirts and Rear wing). The V grille, hood and fender vents which is used to maximize airflow gives the car a bad boy look. I was amazed by the amount of attention this car was drawing from the crowd. More than me, it were the on lookers around us who were busy clicking pictures of this car. It was interesting to see how by passers would just stand to have a glimpse of the car and they would be quickly taking pictures using their mobile. I would like to share our experience  on Sheikh Zayed road where a sports coupe would come on our side, showed us a thumbs up and zoomed passed us. Wow, talk about acknowledgment. The car really meant something. For the first time, A car by itself was making us feel special in it.

The center console of Cadillac is made special with their 8 inch innovative touch screen called the CUE system(Cadillac User Interface). There are no buttons, the only buttons found are on the steering wheel. Otherwise, the CUE system is a complete touch panel like a tablet where you can zoom pinch etc. If you have an iphone then you’ve got good news as it integrates with the latest CarPlay from Apple. By the way, you can actually open the center console where you can store your smart phone and it’s also got a wireless charging mechanism. I haven’t tested the wireless charging though. Talking about navigation I must tell you that I wasn’t quite impressed with the navigator. Often I felt the google maps was a better bet than the Cadillac’s in built navigation system.

The interior was a marvel. The custom ergonomic seats from Recaro gave a nice sexy look to the interiors and was inline to the aggressive look of the exterior. It had a 20 way electronic adjustable seats which was visible in their cue(cadillac user experience) system. The seat could be adjusted for all kind of support to the body except my neck. I just felt my neck was hanging without much support in these sports seats. The thick steering wheel and gear had a great feel to hold, thanks to the suede microfiber on it. I was enjoying the grip and feel on this one than other typical leather steering. Of course you pay additional to get the suede microfiber instead of the default leather.

The instrument cluster was completely configurable the way you wanted. It was completely digital, there wasn’t any real speedometer needle. The information center is divided into 3 windows where the middle one would show your speed and other two windows you could set what you wanted.

Another welcome experience for the driver would be their color headup display that would show speed and navigation details on the windshield itself so you really don’t have to turn your attention away from the road. Hope you can see it in the above pictures. The driver awareness package comes with the following:

• Forward Collision Alert
• Lane Keep Assist
• Side Blindzone Alert
• IntelliBeam headlamps

The forward collision alert meant every time you approach a car very close, you would immediately get a red blink blink alert on your headup display warning you of a close object, specially when you are driving this car like a rocket, it’s kind of good to be alerted. There are 3 levels of proximity to the alert you could set. If you are racing in the city, then this sound would jumping into action every now and then. But there was no harm with this alert. The one driver awareness package that really worried me is their LANE KEEP ASSIST. Basically if it’s activated then everytime you change a lane without an indicator, the car would try to pull you back to the same lane. I felt this could be dangerous if you are making a sudden turn. The real problem is that the lane keep assist activation button gets activated by mistake since it’s on the drivers side of the cue system. Every time I play with the cue system, by mistake the Lane keep assist gets activated by unknowingly touching which really is a danger if the driver has not noticed the activation.

The Performance Data Recorder was a lovely piece of surprise found in this car. PDR basically records your drive with LIVE video and audio. The audio recorded is internal(cabin sound). The LIVE video gets recorded on your SD card. Depending on the size of your SD card you can record as many hours of your drive. 16gb SD card should be good enough for at least 3 hours of drive. You can play the videos instantly from the CUE system itself else you can also transfer the videos from the SD card to your PC. It saves as .mp4 and can be played with any compatible player. I was quite impressed with the clarity as well. It’s quite a cool feature to have.  PDR can also be set to start and auto stop the recording by sensing the track pattern. This is useful if you are doing a LAP race.

Every man has a dream of owning a sports car when he’s a kid. By the time he’s ready to buy such a car, he’s already a family man with more than 2 people in the car. But don’t worry this car has it all. It’s luxury, sporty, and it fits everybody. The trunk is also pretty deep and spacious. You can put the drive on touring mode, be a nice guy and drive relaxed. The day you feel like the batman you can simply change to sports mode(one of the 4 modes) and step on the accelerator.  There is a significant sound produced by this car specially when you are on sports mode. I love the roar of this car when you start the engine. I am really missing this car now 🙁

• The starting price of a Cadillac CTS-V 2016 is Dhs 315,000 AED
• The model which you are looking at is Dhs 351,000 AED. The additional packages that are added to this car would be Carbon Fiber Aero Package (Front Splitter, Hood Extractor, Diffuser, Squirts and Rear wing) , Recaro Performance Seats, Performance Data Recorder etc.
• A full tank should give you around 400 kms.

Click here to visit their official website. Click pictures below to see them in full screen view.