First and foremost, let’s deal with the teutonic elephant in the room. The BMW 3 Series has ruled the small luxury sedan market almost from its creation. This is the champion, the king, the yard stick. Every new lux sedan is compared to it, and almost always found wanting. I’m telling you right now, the new Cadillac ATS meets it’s German rival head-on and matches it blow for blow. While I won’t declare a victor between them, for my money the Caddy has heaps more style and personality both inside and out.

And inside and out this car is a delight. Styling is always subjective, but if you don’t like how this car looks you’re wrong. That’s fact. From the cool light of the LEDs to the sharp creases of the body, the ATS oozes modernity. Inside you’re greeted with an interior that is equal parts luxury and anti-German – gray on gray on black is banished for blonde leather and walnut wood. There’s color here, and character; haven’t seen that in this segment for a while…

From style to substance, let’s move to how the metal drives. She’s a heavy machine at 3411 (although its the lightest in it’s class of porkers), but she moves when you want her to. Thank 272hp from the 2.0T that came in my test car. The turbo does have some mild lag though, just when I thought modern cars were doing away with that evil sensation. I can readily attest to this rear wheel drive(!) Caddy’s  ability, and even willingness, to carve a mountain road. Let’s just say I sufficiently bothered a 90’s Porsche 911 up the sinewy Angeles Crest Highway to make him pull over and let me buy. And he was trying. Imagine traveling back in time to the 90s, and telling a Porsche owner that in 25 years a Cadillac would be giving him a run for his money. Utterly unthinkable at the time of Fleetwoods and DeVilles.

Finally, there’s the luxury this car just exudes. Interior, exterior, anterior, posterior – doesn’t matter. The whole vehicle screams “I’ve got disposable income!” like only it’s rival’s have before. Chalk it up to the fact that I receive so many new cars to review, but I’d rather give credit where credit is due. At one point during my week with the ATS, I walked straight up to a 3 series and tried to open the door because I thought it was the Caddy. I just had to stop and smile for a moment at that one. So they’ve done it. They’ve created a machine that toe-to-toe competes for the BMW 3 Series’ crown. Congratulations General Motors, you’ve made a believer out of me. Now get me an ATS-V to test!

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For starters, simply put, it’s a great looking car. It’s a coupe so it has that sort of bubbly cockpit we’ve come to expect from them, but it doesn’t forget that it has evolved from a long line of well, long Cadillacs. You know, those Caddys of our grandfathers that appeared to be half a city block long. Well, the ATS isn’t nearly that long but the line from the front wheel back and the solid silver line above the windows invoke length reminiscent of the car’s older relatives.

The luxury that has become synonymous with Cadillac through the years is evident on the inside wear wood is real wood, leather real leather, and carbon fiber, you guessed it, real carbon fiber. In fact, the combination of materials in the interior is as near perfect as possible and certainly allows for the ATS Coupe to hold its own against the seasoned vets in this category: Mercedes, BMW and Audi. The only place where the ATS Coupe falters on the inside is in the ease of use of the entertainment console. Granted this is something you inevitably get used to, but off the bat working the touch screen to control the navigation and radio was nowhere near as easy as some of the cars competitors. Additionally, the touch system used for the climate control takes some getting used to verse traditional buttons and I found myself often hitting things I didn’t mean to.

Available in two engines, a 2.0L turbo and a 3.6L V-6, I was fortunate to drive both, the 2-litre in the AWD and the 3.6-litre in the rear wheel drive. While I found the driving experience to be quite similar I did prefer the 3.6 for its acceleration on the highway. The 20 lb.-ft more of torque gave the 2.0 nice acceleration but the 49 less horsepower made it a bit sluggish hitting the gas at speed. Considering I do more accelerating to pass on the road than I do gunning it from a dead stop this is something of importance to me. Handling and braking between the two were nearly identical and spectacular, in part due to the standard Brembo brakes, but also because Cadillac just has it dialed in.

As I still struggle to see Cadillac as a young persons car the way that I do others in the same class as the ATS Coupe, the engineers have done their job in creating a coupe to compete in this segment. It’s now in the hands of the marketing department to see if they can sway public perception in their favor and away from past stereotypes.

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