2013 Cadillac ATS

Information Specification Image Review 2013 Cadillac ATS
It's the eve of the Detroit Auto Show, and Cadillac officially kicked things off tonight by unveiling its 2013 ATS sedan at Detroit's College for Creative Studies. Why CCS? Many of the college's graduates go on to work in areas of automotive design, and as Ed Welburn, General Motors' Vice President of Global Design, told us, over 170 CCS graduates currently work within the larger GM design team, 20 of which directly worked on the ATS project. After getting our first impressions of the ATS in the flesh, we must indeed applaud those designers.

The ATS rides on an all-new rear-wheel-drive platform, and the end result is car that's about eight inches shorter in length than the larger CTS sedan. Cadillac's Art & Science design language has been updated for the smaller sedan, with angular lines and flat surfaces found throughout the four-door's styling. Sure, Cadillac is quite proud of the way the ATS looks, but what's most important about this car is its performance. After all, the ATS will go head-to-head with the likes of the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4, so on the road, it has to be good.

The new ATS sports Cadillac's latest Arts & Science styling with sharp creases and flowing lines. The headlights are jewel-like, while the taillight feature light pipes that complement the integrated LED rear spoiler. Dual chrome exhaust tips peek out from below the bumper, with the center-mounted backup light mounted between them.

Inside, Cadillac will offer real wood, aluminum, or carbon-fiber trim that will complement leather seats and a soft-touch dashboard. The available CUE infotainment system features a capacitive touch-sensitive center stack with an 8-inch touch screen up top. All the touch-sensitive buttons feature haptic feedback, so you know when you've touched a button, and a 5.7-inch color LCD resides inside the gauge cluster.

With that out of the way, we can get back to the ATS. Like its bigger brother, the ATS will ride on a new rear-wheel-drive platform dubbed Alpha. (The current CTS uses Sigma bones.) We expect that the ATS will offer a mix of four-cylinder and V-6 engines, some turbocharged, and manual transmissions should be available across the board. All-wheel drive will be on the order sheet, too. We’re most excited, naturally, for the ATS-V, which we’ve heard should pack a twin-turbocharged V-6 thumping out around 380 hp.

Some time after the ATS arrives, we expect Cadillac to introduce an ATS-based convertible with a cloth roof (rather than a folding hardtop), different styling, and a new name. It’s meant to fit between the ATS and the larger, more-expensive CTS, much in the way the Audi A5 cabrio slots between the A4 on which it’s based and the A6.

It’s possible that the Cadillac ATS will debut as early as this August at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance—a Detroit debut in January makes some sense, too—and General Motors says that the car will go on sale in the summer of 2012.source:autoblog.com,thecarconnection.com,caranddriver.com