Finally a Rear-Wheel Drive Contender Worthy of the Streets of Seville
I picked up the 2005 Cadillac STS on a typically rainy day in November. Just to quickly prove to myself that GM wasn't trying to
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| For Cadillac to continue its three lettered theme, started with the CTS, the Seville has been renamed the STS for 2005. (Photo: Rob Rothwell, Canadian Auto Press) |
hoodwink us into believing that the STS is not mobilized by its rear wheels, I switched off its traction control system and punched the throttle. Instantly, 320 horsepower was expelled through the tires out back, breaking them free and setting the hefty sedan into an easily managed power drift. Yes, GM has finally got its Seville right! Seville? OK, Cadillac's 2005 version is called the STS after the alpha designation given to the previous Seville's
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| Thankfully, the STS design is softer and far more fluid than its granite slab CTS cousin. (Photo: Rob Rothwell, Canadian Auto Press) |
sportiest trim level, and maybe I'm not ready to let go of a name that has been around since the mid-'70s. But it's necessary for Cadillac to continue its three lettered theme, started with the CTS, followed up by the XLR and XRS, and now the STS. The completely new sedan rides on GM's highly praised Sigma platform, which has been refined over the period of two years since debuting beneath the edgy sheet metal of Cadillac's performance-oriented CTS. Upon seeing the STS first hand, as opposed to photographs, I breathed a sigh of relief. Although the new model bears a family resemblance to the CTS, it doesn't look as though it has been chiseled from a slab of granite. Rather, the STS design is softer and far more fluid.
