Car of the Moment-II

I drove over to the Cadillac dealer today and got lost in the brash, American, flashy, chromed style of it all.  I love Cadillacs.  I love the way they look.  I love the way they float down the road.  I love the space, the acres of leather lining the interior, the raw, technical sound of the Northstar V8s that powered most every Cadillac from the last 20 years.  I love the wreath and crest that either stands proudly on the hood or sits boldly in the grille.  I don't know why, I just love the cars.

As I meandered down the rows of cars, trying on a few driver's seats as I passed, I imagined what I'd do if I had the $60,000 required to get into a nice, classy car.  Would I spend it on a Cadillac?  I pondered and mused this for awhile, until I reached the end of the row.  There, brooding in sangria red, I knew I'd found my answer.

The 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon.  The only American station wagon on the marketplace right now, and it also just happens to have a 6.2-liter supercharged V8 yanked from the Corvette ZR-1, along with its 6-speed manual gearbox.  A proper, honest-to-goodness manual transmission.  In a station wagon that has 556 horsepower.  The mind boggles at the possibility of pulling up to a Ferrari F430 and blowing it off the line, all while toting home a weekend's worth of topsoil and lumber.

You can't tell from the tiny pictures, but Crystal Red is so right on this car.  It's almost like red chrome.  It's deep, lustrous, metallic, and bright, but far from the arrest-me-red found on everyone's Corvette.  Combined with the wire-mesh grille and subdued brightwork around the windows, it's a look that oozes style.  This is no Teutonic restraint.  This is no English grace.  This is no Japanese logic.  This is American elegance: a whole lotta badass with a healthy dose of panache thrown in.

I also guarantee that this car will appreciate in value.  In 10 years, when America's aversion to wagons will have made the species long extinct, every red-blooded gearhead will want the only station wagon with a manual transmission and enough power to curve spacetime ever to be produced.  Buy early, you won't regret it.

BMWs are passé; everyone has one.  Lexus makes cars for the uncreative.  Mercedes? Yawn.  Cadillac is the emotional choice, and shouldn't every purchase be emotional on some level?

For your viewing pleasure, the Cadillac's only adversary, Kate Walsh:

Gosh, I could spend a week talking about that ad campaign alone.  A couple women I could go straight for (cough Sofia Vergara cough) and, um, Martin Henderson.  Cough.

Photos courtesy of General Motors.  Videos courtesy of Modernista Boston.