Years from now, the year 2003 will be remembered as the beginning of the comeback for Cadillac, carried on the broad edgy shoulders of the rear-wheel-drive CTS. The 2003 CTS almost had it all, but the engine wasn't strong enough to fill the promise of the superb new chassis, and the competition from BMW and Audi demanded more than 220 horsepower. The 2004 CTS responds with two punches, a left jab (255-horsepower V6) and right cross (400-horsepower V8).
2004 also brings some needed softness into the interior, and tweaks the suspension to balance that additional horsepower on the road. The handling of the '03 CTS was widely praised, and now it's even better.

The CTS comes standard with the 3.2-liter V6 engine introduced last year ($30,365). It offers a choice of five-speed Getrag manual or five-speed automatic transmission at no extra cost. Standard equipment includes 16-inch alloy wheels with all-season tires, leather upholstery,side-impact airbags and side air curtains front and rear, dual-zone climate control, driver power seat, driver information center, seven-speaker sound system, and one year of OnStar road assistance service. Also standard are traction control and ABS with brake proportioning, which balances the braking front and rear.
The new 3.6-liter V6 engine is optional ($1700); it also offers both transmissions. The Sport Package ($1875) takes the suspension tuning a big step further with monotube shocks, brake pads with more anti-fade heat resistance, 17-inch alloy wheels with 255/50R17 tires, load-leveling rear suspension, and StabiliTrak, an electronic stability control system. The Luxury Package ($2800) includes things like a sunroof, heater power seats, Bose sound system and XM Satellite Radio.

The new CTS-V ($49,995) is in another league altogether. Its 5.7-liter V8 engine comes from the Corvette, and it delivers 400 horsepower and 395 pounds-feet of torque, mated to the potent and smooth Getrag six-speed gearbox; it's fitted with 18-inch wheels, very grippy tires, Brembo brakes, and other high-performance tweaks.

The CTS is the first production car in Cadillac's new design vocabulary that started several years ago with the Evoq show car. Cadillac calls this new style Art & Science, and it relies on a festival of wedges, sharp junctions and angles. "Edgy" is the adjective that is frequently and aptly applied.

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It looks slightly different from every angle, with all points of view interesting. From the front, it looks imposing, with a strong confident eggcrate grille sweepingupward like a wing, and horizontal sharp headlamps stacked with two beams inside. An all-business air dam features simple rectangular foglights and a long narrow intake near the skirt.
The sharp edges of the nose vanish from a side view, but they reappear on top of the tall, wide taillamps which travel vertically at the car's rear corners and extend horizontally on the short, high deck. The view from the rear is marred by the indentation cut widely around the license plate, housing the backup lights in a sea of sparkling white plastic. The seven-spoke alloy wheels look especially sharp in the mirror finish, mostly because of their sportier centers. The new dual exhaust pipes look cool too.

The CTS interior isn't like anything else on the market today. It's very angular, for the sake of style, although in '04 it's been softened here and there. There is a very European presentation of the instrumentation, meaning clear gauges. The CTS is sold in Europe. Done up in several high-tech textures, the dashboard and instrument panel are rendered in muted shades of gray with excellent, highly readable graphics. Almost everywhere the texture is dimpled like a golf ball, which we didn't particularly like and wondered if the texture would gather dust.
The center stack, where most of the adjusting is done, juts out proudly and prominently from the rest of the dash, with the elaborate GPS navigation system at the top center location. Climate controls are at the bottom, controlled by amber-lighted pictograms like other Cadillacs. The three-spoke steering wheel contains buttons for the sound system and cruise control, and is deliciously padded in leather for all but the part of the rim between about 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock, a Cadillac trademark that we wish could be ordered away. The wood is lovely, but with gripping two materials with your hands, sometimes at the same time, is not ideal; the wood is colder, harder and more slippery than the leather.

The leather seats are excellent, comfortable for all-day driving with good bolstering to hold your torso in place through the sharp corners. There's good support for the driver's right leg; where the right shin touches it feels padded, but it's only soft and hollow. There's a good dead pedal for the left foot.

The CTS offers more interior room than some of its European competition. A quite tall driver or passenger will be comfortable in front, and only slightly cramped in the rear. There is a convenient pass-thru tunnel between the rear seats, to the trunk. The door pockets are not very deep. The small triangular speakers for the optional Bose system are mounted on the A pillar, and look cool.