2010 Cadillac SRX4 - Road Test

As GM wobbled toward bankruptcy, the company’s boosters often cited Cadillac as proof that at least one division knew the secret for success. But stroll through a Cadillac showroom. The DTS isn’t even on your Uncle Marvin’s radar. The pretty but aging STS has been nudged onto the berm by at least five luxo-sports sedans, none from America. The angular XLR, a marketing spinoff from the Corvette shop, has been euthanized. There are a couple of embarrassingly immense Escalades. And then there’s the CTS—in truth, the lone vehicle that carries the division’s reputation on its back. And so it was with huge anticipation that we welcomed this all-new SRX, a crossover we’ve loved since the day it was introduced in, uh,wow, 2004.

In the Detroit Three’s universe, new models usually arrive bigger and heavier. Not this time, Cadillac promised. In fact, the SRX has been yanked from the $50K, V-8 luxo-ute niche, where it was nonetheless strong, finishing second to an Acura MDX in a C/D comparo in 2007. Problem is, the SRX now parachutes into the killer $40K-crossover class, where it faces, among other all-stars, Audi’s stunning Q5 3.2 Quattro (the winner of July’s “New Arrivals for Summer” comparo), not to mention the beyond-dominant sales king in the segment, the Lexus RX350, itself recently refurbished unto the zenith of plushness.

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Cadillac DTS to be replaced by XTS, which will be built in Canada alongside new Buick Regal

The days of Cadillac's big DTS sedan are numbered as the plant that builds it will soon be shut down and re-tooled. The Detroit Hamtramck assembly plant that builds the DTS and Buick Lucerne will switch over to building the Chevy Volt in 2010 and the current products are both long in the tooth.
The National Post is reporting that the new Cadillac flagship will be dubbed XTS and will be produced at the Oshawa assembly plant. It will be built alongside an updated Chevrolet Impala, the new Camaro and the Buick Regal. The DTS is a front-wheel drive car, but the XTS is expected to the share the Epsilon II platform with the Regal and the new Impala. As such, it will likely get all-wheel-drive at least as an option. For its part, the Regal will likely be a re-badged version of the Opel Insignia. The report goes on to say that Oshawa will produce a hybrid version of one of those offerings - a gas-electric Regal model is a reasonable bet.
Earlier reports had pegged the next Cadillac sedan as a model that would supplant both the DTS and the slow-selling STS, and although the NatPost article does not speak to this, it is reasonable to assume that the new XTS will result in the phase-out of both model lines. The new model line was reportedly put on hold back in August of last year, but it apparently has once again been given the go-ahead.
The XTS is scheduled to be launched in December 2011, with the new Impala coming in early 2013.