New Cadillac "Sport Wagon" Is Ugly

by Robert Farago

Published: August 15th, 2008

Granted, these are the new CTS' Sport Wagon's most offensive angles (courtesy GM PR). And beauty is in the eye of the lease holder (zero percenter?). But to my jaded eyes, the new Caddy is one aesthetically- challenged automobile. Needless to say, that means GM is launching it at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, and hyping its looks. "It’s a taut design that not only suggests sleekness, but delivers it,” Caddy Global (?) Design Director Clay Dean announced, in that usual artsy, syntax-bending sort of way.

“Indeed, the drama of the sedan is amplified in the CTS Sport Wagon, as the centerline cue that is part of the exterior and interior is more prominent and plays a stronger role in defining the design at the rear of the vehicle… The liftgate area, for example, is a confluence of angles and planes that typifies the vehicle’s design tension.” In short, the new CTS five-door is "a dramatic design that elevates and updates the classic wagon body style." I thought Lincoln was reaching higher? Well, at least the CTS-based Sport Wagon is reaching wider, with standard 19" wheels. Anyway, some of you have a major you-know-what for wagons and the CTS made our Top Ten list. So let's hope this design grows on you, but not like a fungus.

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Robert Farago

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2 of 79 comments

Lynn Ellsworth on Aug 16, 2008

Several years ago I read that all the cooling air a car needs comes from the intake opening below the bumber. That means the grills we push around are just decorations. I like wagons and most of this wagon looks OK to me except I wouldn't be able to stop thinking I looked silly pushing that huge grill around.

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Andy D on Aug 16, 2008

Caddys have always been garish. The car is aimed at people with more money than taste. There hasnt been a decent looking Caddy since they did away with the fins.

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