2015 Cadillac ATS Review: Luxury In The Details And The Function, Too
Scotty Reiss
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A luxury car should be beautiful, but it’s not luxury if you don’t look good, too.
I only ask for three things in a luxury car: comfortable journey; time in the car is fun; and it makes me look good.
That third part is most important: A luxury car has to look good, and make me look good, especially when driving around someplace as beautiful as Miami. A recent trip to South Beach and downtown Miami was spent in the 2015 Cadillac ATS, which met all the criteria: in it, we fit perfectly into the ultra fashionable landscape.
2015 Cadillac ATS complements our Love, Alex hot pink calf and python handbag
Cadillac is on a design journey; the car brand once known for being so big it announced itself when it arrived, and for sporting fins that practically left vapor trail, the brand has slimmed its models down in both size and statement. Cadillacs are more about the experience inside the car than the impression one makes arriving in one (though based on the comments we got from people while we drove the ATS, one makes an impression with this car, too).
The ATS is Cadillac’s sport sedan, the smaller of the brand’s sedans, and it has a sporty feel on the road. Its smaller size makes it easy to manage, especially in downtown Miami’s construction-clogged streets and on South Beach’s traffic-jammed roadways.
2015 Cadillac ATS and Louis Vuitton: Don’t they look look nice together?
Perfect for hot climates and cool destinations
The ATS is perfect for a city like Miami, and here’s why: when you’re sitting in traffic, or you decide to pull into a shopping mall parking lot to get a little work done before your next meeting, the car is there to help you out. Its voice operated functions are easy to use to make a call or navigate to your destination (or, you can use OnStar, which is free for the first year), and when you’re moving, the driver information system makes toggling between functions easy to do, even in heavy traffic.
When parked (or in the passenger seat) the ATS is even more accommodating.
During our trip we found ourselves parked for a conference call and a subsequent work session. I simply scooted my seat back, flipped open my laptop and connected to the Cadillac’s WiFi hotspot. BIG YAY. I was able to complete my meeting, make notes, send follow up emails, then plot out my afternoon agenda, map my route and get going.
All without the stress that usually accommodates these gaps in a work day, and without having to drop into a Starbucks and spend $4 on a coffee, so I don’t feel guilty about using their WiFi.
But here’s the real payoff of a luxury car: when you arrive at your appointment— no doubt a fashionable Art Deco hotel where beautiful people are milling about, air kissing one another and glistening in the dewy air— you step from your car looking as fresh and chic as everyone around you. The cars seats cradle you so your skirt never seems to wrinkle; its air conditioning keeps you cool without ruining your perfectly hot-ironed curls or causing your makeup to sweat off.
Here are the things we just loved about the Cadillac ATS:
The exterior lines of the car:
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- The ATS’s rear view: a sublime nod to its past
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- The front grille: notice the redesigned, more refined Cadillac marque
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- Headlights are sleekly integrated into the front hoodlines
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- The sleeker silhouette of the ATS’s front end
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- The rear of the ATS’s chevron-accented rear end
The drive experience is designed to allow as much or as little control as you like:
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- The pushbutton start on the ATS
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- To control the drive experience, customize your drive mode and even turn off traction control
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- Here you can see the effects of each drive mode setting
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- The ATS allows you to drive in automatic (when in D) or manual: (pull the shifter to the left to the +/- sign, which will light up
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- This paddle shifter lets you up shift for more control
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- This paddle shifter lets you down shift to control the car’s power
Possibly my favorite feature: The Heads Up Display, which projects key information onto the windshield right in the driver’s line of sight (no one else in the car can see this)
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- The Heads Up Display (L-R) HUD positions the display; INFO lets you choose what is displayed, and +/- adjusts brightness
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- Of the HUD options: Navigation display with next turn instructions
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- HUD displays current speed
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- HUD also illustrates your current speed
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- Just in case, the speed limit where you are can be displayed
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- You can also choose to display entertainment information
Driver information is key these days; the ATS allows multiple ways, in addition to the Heads Up Display, to display what you want or need to see:
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- The view from the driver’s seat of the 2015 Cadillac ATS
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- Buttons on the steering wheel allow you to scroll through information to display under the speedometer
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- Display includes entertainment
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- Display can also show Bluetooth connection information
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- The touch screen displays navigation and lots of other information
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- The controls below the touch screen are touch sensitive too–no knobs or buttons
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- The rear view camera is positioned on the trunk, right above the license plate
The Cadillac User Experience, or CUE, allows many functions, including accessing and connecting to WifF and pairing with your phone:
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- Functions such as phone sync and WiFi are accessed through the touch screen; once the phone is synced, it can be accessed via buttons on the steering wheel
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- The WiFi hotspot is accessed through the OnStar app on the touch screen; the display gives you the network name and password
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- The WiFi hotspot will show up as a network on your phone or device
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- When WiFi is activated, you will see the network on your device
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- To pair your phone, choose the phone icon on the touch screen, then follow the instructions on your phone and the touch screen
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- The system lets you know when you’ve succeeded
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- When your phone has been paired, you can access it via the talk button on the steering wheel (and hang up with the button that pictures a phone with a line through it)
What We Loved
- Head Up Display–among the best we’ve seen
- Adaptive cruise, maybe the best feature on any new car
- Smart key keyless entry and starter
- Remote starter
- Heated and cooled seats
- Touch sensitive media and climate controls
- Touch screen with rear view camera
- Sporty drive experience
- Comfortable leather seats
- Built in WiFi
- Hands free Bluetooth
What You Need To Know
- Pricing starts at about $33,000; the model we tested was about $47,000
- 4 year/50,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty
- 6 year/70,000 roadside assistance
- 4 year/50,000 mile premiums care maintenance included
- 1 year OnStar included
- Fuel economy 18 city/28 highway
- Uses regular fuel
Disclosure: Cadillac provided the ATS for my test drive; opinions expressed here are all my own.