2010 Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon First Drive

If ever there were a car designed to test the marketing mettle of the New GM, this is it. In a sneak peek a few years back, Cadillac said the CTS Sport Wagon was designed to lead its assault on the European market, where BMW 5 Series Tourings and Mercedes-Benz E-Class wagons sell like luxury crossovers. Cadillac expected to sell just 4000 per year in the U.S., mostly to GM's own employees, like Bob Lutz, and the well-heeled enthusiast friends of automotive journalists.

Finances have since put the brakes on the European foray. No more diesel program. No more right-hand-drive CTS. The Sport Wagon has to sell here on its own merits, which are considerable.

Styling alone should make it a sales breakout. Cadillac has transformed perhaps the best-looking modern luxury sedan into the best-looking shooting brake. Its roof extends to a very fast D-pillar and power tailgate. The "finlike" taillamps are exaggerated into vertical light pipes that run nearly to the cargo roof rails. As with the CTS sedan, the Sport Wagon's tail ends in that signature Cadillac vee. It's not the most efficient use of station-wagon space. It's the sleek kind of styling that has defined the luxury wagons from BMW, Audi, and Alfa Romeo.

And unlike those nine-passenger Ford Country Squires and Buick Estate Wagons of the target market's youth, the CTS Sport Wagon's rear window doesn't provide an exemplary outward view. Modern wagons need rollover protection, so a thick rear header intrudes into the cargo area, making the optional nav system's rear camera screen quite helpful. Like the German competition, the CTS' cargo area is a nicely finished combo of sumptuous carpeting and a chrome cargo-management system.

Motivating 200 pounds more than the sedan, the optional 3.6-liter direct-injection V-6 provides plenty of power. It's hard to break the rear tires loose at launch, but the mid- to upper-rev ranges are strong. There's no reason to expect anything better than adequate power from the new 270-horsepower, 223 pound-foot 3.0-liter gas direct-injection V-6, which replaces the port-injected 3.6 as the base CTS engine. Both engines come standard with GM's six-speed automatic. The six-speed manual offered standard in the CTS sedan (which, by the way, has been redesignated Sport Sedan) is not available in the wagon.