2020 Cadillac CT4: New Entry-Luxury Sedan Aimed at Younger Buyers
Cadillac dropped its compact executive 4-door (later, a two-door) sedan, ATS, after a seven-year run, in 2019. Taking over the compact luxury sports sedan spot in the Cadillac line-up is the all-new 2020 Cadillac CT4, which is marketed as an entry-luxury sports sedan to attract first-time luxury, and younger buyers to the Cadillac brand.
Sharing its platform with the abandoned ATS, CT4 is its own design and personality, with two turbo engine choices, and up to 325 horsepower. Though that is quite a drop from ATS’s uppermost engine power choice of 464hp, CT4’s handling, performance and style are enough for it to earn its own rep, accolades and following.
CT4 enters the Cadillac sedan portfolio set to appeal to a new generation of sport-luxury customers through an immersive new social media campaign. Featuring a luxury-sports design, and bold 11-color color-and-trim palette, customers can customize to fit their personalities. Additionally, CT4’s sporty performance, RWD and AWD configurations, and high-technologies including Super Cruise -- the world’s first true hands-free driver assistance feature for more than 200,000 miles of compatible highways in the U.S. and Canada -- inject new ideas and function to the Cadillac line-up.
Available in four trims with specific cosmetic and power differences, CT4 offers special wheel options and is luxury loaded with leather-appointed seating, Automatic Emergency Braking, Forward Collision Alert, Front Pedestrian Braking, Safety Alert Seat and LED Reflective Windshield Collision Alert. Additionally, CT4 is outfitted with Cadillac User experience with Personalization and embedded Navigation, 8-inch-diagonal high-definition color-touchscreen driver information display, dual-microphone, Cloud3-based natural voice recognition, dual-display driver information center, 15-watt wireless charging and lots more.
The CT4’s sleek profile leverages the natural, long dash-to-front-axle proportional advantage of its rear-drive platform and, along with its wide stance, expresses presence, confidence and performance. Bright exterior accents, along with unique grilles (with premium hot foil-stampings on the grille elements) and fascias, distinguish the CT4 Luxury and Premium Luxury models. The Sport and V-Series models are differentiated by darker accents and performance-inspired details, including unique grilles, fascias, rocker extensions, rear spoiler and exclusive performance design wheels.
The sporty entry-luxury sedan measures 187.2 inches long, 71.5 inches wide and 56 inches high on a 109.3-inch wheelbase, weighing in at 3461 lbs. for the Luxury series in RWD, and 3616 for the V-Series in RWD.
CT4’s driver-focused and connected cabin is ergonomically optimized with intuitive controls to enhance driver confidence with a high-tech sense of tactility. Additionally, sophisticated use of metal accents throughout enhances the décor and technology-driven ambiance.
Inside, CT4 provides a surprisingly tight 38.3 inches of front headroom with only 36.5 inches for row two, 42.4 inches of front legroom with only 33.4 inches for back seaters and 55.2 inches of front shoulder room with 53.9 inches for row two.
Turbo power CT4 delivers power through two engine options. A 2.0-liter Twin-Scroll Turbocharged I-4 DOHC with Active Fuel Management, direct injection and auto stop/start, is mated to an eight-speed automatic with Electronic Precision Shift to provide 237hp and 259 lb-ft of torque. Option two is a 2.7-liter Dual-Volute Turbocharged I-4 DOHC with Active Fuel Management, direct injection and auto. stop/start. The CT4's dual-volute turbo (a volute is a spiral-shaped object) and ten-speed automatic transmission with Electronic Precision Shift provides 310hp and 327 lb-ft, and is augmented for the CT4-V Series to supply 350hp and 380 lb-ft.
My 310-hp 2.7-liter plant was rated at 23mpg/city and 32mpg/highway with 4WD, and I averaged 25.5mpg during my heavy-footed tests. Around town, the ride was smooth, maneuverable and attentive in turns and acceleration. On the highway, passing was effortless, road inadequacies were leveled out, and on curves and the autocross, CT4 was nimble, responsive and powerful. In track tests, my test ride finished off a hand-timed zero-to-60mph sprint in 5.1 seconds, though sub-4s can be achieved, and my quarter-mile was a steady 13.6 seconds (hand-timed).
The 2020 Cadillac CT4 is available in four trims, in either Rear-Wheel-Drive or All-Wheel-Drive configurations and with two engine choices. The base Luxury trim starts at $33,990 (including Destination charges) in RWD – only available with a 2.0-liter turbo engine; Premium Luxury starts at $38,490 in the 2.0-liter turbo and $40,990 with the 2.7-liter turbo; Sport starts at $39,590 with the 2.0-turbo; and the V-Series, comes with the 2.7-liter turbo, starting at $45,490.
My 2020 CT4-Premium Luxury was the 2.7-liter model and added AWD for $3200 (sticker started at $44,190). Evergreen Metallic exterior paint added $625, and was accented by a Jet Black interior with Jet Black accents, Leather-appointed seating with mini-perforated inserts; Navigation and 14-speaker Bose Premium audio added $1700; Climate Package added $1200 for automatic heated steering wheel and 4-way power driver and front passenger lumbar and heated / ventilated seats; Driver Assist added $1200 for Advanced Adaptive Cruise Control, Enhanced Automatic Emergency Braking and Reverse Automatic Braking; Technology Package added an 8-inch diagonal color reconfigurable gauge cluster, Head-Up Display and Cabin Air Ionize for $1150; and the Driver Awareness Plus Package added Following Distance Indicator, Lane Change Alert with Side Blind Zone Alert, Lane Keep Assist with Lane Departure Warning, Rear Cross Traffic Alert and IntelliBeam auto high beam assist for $800. Destination charges were $995, for a sticker-as-tested of $49,665 – with some bundling discounts.
> Visit www.CarlisleEvents.com for more on the automotive hobby.
Mike Blake, former editor of KIT CAR magazine, joined Carlisle Events as senior automotive journalist in 2004. He's been a "car guy" since the 1960s and has been writing professionally for about 30 years. </I>
Sharing its platform with the abandoned ATS, CT4 is its own design and personality, with two turbo engine choices, and up to 325 horsepower. Though that is quite a drop from ATS’s uppermost engine power choice of 464hp, CT4’s handling, performance and style are enough for it to earn its own rep, accolades and following.
CT4 enters the Cadillac sedan portfolio set to appeal to a new generation of sport-luxury customers through an immersive new social media campaign. Featuring a luxury-sports design, and bold 11-color color-and-trim palette, customers can customize to fit their personalities. Additionally, CT4’s sporty performance, RWD and AWD configurations, and high-technologies including Super Cruise -- the world’s first true hands-free driver assistance feature for more than 200,000 miles of compatible highways in the U.S. and Canada -- inject new ideas and function to the Cadillac line-up.
Available in four trims with specific cosmetic and power differences, CT4 offers special wheel options and is luxury loaded with leather-appointed seating, Automatic Emergency Braking, Forward Collision Alert, Front Pedestrian Braking, Safety Alert Seat and LED Reflective Windshield Collision Alert. Additionally, CT4 is outfitted with Cadillac User experience with Personalization and embedded Navigation, 8-inch-diagonal high-definition color-touchscreen driver information display, dual-microphone, Cloud3-based natural voice recognition, dual-display driver information center, 15-watt wireless charging and lots more.
The CT4’s sleek profile leverages the natural, long dash-to-front-axle proportional advantage of its rear-drive platform and, along with its wide stance, expresses presence, confidence and performance. Bright exterior accents, along with unique grilles (with premium hot foil-stampings on the grille elements) and fascias, distinguish the CT4 Luxury and Premium Luxury models. The Sport and V-Series models are differentiated by darker accents and performance-inspired details, including unique grilles, fascias, rocker extensions, rear spoiler and exclusive performance design wheels.
The sporty entry-luxury sedan measures 187.2 inches long, 71.5 inches wide and 56 inches high on a 109.3-inch wheelbase, weighing in at 3461 lbs. for the Luxury series in RWD, and 3616 for the V-Series in RWD.
CT4’s driver-focused and connected cabin is ergonomically optimized with intuitive controls to enhance driver confidence with a high-tech sense of tactility. Additionally, sophisticated use of metal accents throughout enhances the décor and technology-driven ambiance.
Inside, CT4 provides a surprisingly tight 38.3 inches of front headroom with only 36.5 inches for row two, 42.4 inches of front legroom with only 33.4 inches for back seaters and 55.2 inches of front shoulder room with 53.9 inches for row two.
Turbo power CT4 delivers power through two engine options. A 2.0-liter Twin-Scroll Turbocharged I-4 DOHC with Active Fuel Management, direct injection and auto stop/start, is mated to an eight-speed automatic with Electronic Precision Shift to provide 237hp and 259 lb-ft of torque. Option two is a 2.7-liter Dual-Volute Turbocharged I-4 DOHC with Active Fuel Management, direct injection and auto. stop/start. The CT4's dual-volute turbo (a volute is a spiral-shaped object) and ten-speed automatic transmission with Electronic Precision Shift provides 310hp and 327 lb-ft, and is augmented for the CT4-V Series to supply 350hp and 380 lb-ft.
My 310-hp 2.7-liter plant was rated at 23mpg/city and 32mpg/highway with 4WD, and I averaged 25.5mpg during my heavy-footed tests. Around town, the ride was smooth, maneuverable and attentive in turns and acceleration. On the highway, passing was effortless, road inadequacies were leveled out, and on curves and the autocross, CT4 was nimble, responsive and powerful. In track tests, my test ride finished off a hand-timed zero-to-60mph sprint in 5.1 seconds, though sub-4s can be achieved, and my quarter-mile was a steady 13.6 seconds (hand-timed).
The 2020 Cadillac CT4 is available in four trims, in either Rear-Wheel-Drive or All-Wheel-Drive configurations and with two engine choices. The base Luxury trim starts at $33,990 (including Destination charges) in RWD – only available with a 2.0-liter turbo engine; Premium Luxury starts at $38,490 in the 2.0-liter turbo and $40,990 with the 2.7-liter turbo; Sport starts at $39,590 with the 2.0-turbo; and the V-Series, comes with the 2.7-liter turbo, starting at $45,490.
My 2020 CT4-Premium Luxury was the 2.7-liter model and added AWD for $3200 (sticker started at $44,190). Evergreen Metallic exterior paint added $625, and was accented by a Jet Black interior with Jet Black accents, Leather-appointed seating with mini-perforated inserts; Navigation and 14-speaker Bose Premium audio added $1700; Climate Package added $1200 for automatic heated steering wheel and 4-way power driver and front passenger lumbar and heated / ventilated seats; Driver Assist added $1200 for Advanced Adaptive Cruise Control, Enhanced Automatic Emergency Braking and Reverse Automatic Braking; Technology Package added an 8-inch diagonal color reconfigurable gauge cluster, Head-Up Display and Cabin Air Ionize for $1150; and the Driver Awareness Plus Package added Following Distance Indicator, Lane Change Alert with Side Blind Zone Alert, Lane Keep Assist with Lane Departure Warning, Rear Cross Traffic Alert and IntelliBeam auto high beam assist for $800. Destination charges were $995, for a sticker-as-tested of $49,665 – with some bundling discounts.
> Visit www.CarlisleEvents.com for more on the automotive hobby.
Mike Blake, former editor of KIT CAR magazine, joined Carlisle Events as senior automotive journalist in 2004. He's been a "car guy" since the 1960s and has been writing professionally for about 30 years. </I>
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