Cadillac's CTS Coupe Concept is a Bright Sign of Hope for GM:

GM is back. It's official. And if you need proof look no further than the North American International Auto Show and the surprise debut of the Cadillac CTS Coupe concept. As a fan of American ingenuity and a hopeless optimist for the American auto industry, I found myself feeling very patriotic as I laid my eyes on the CTS Coupe for the first time. Forget what you may have read elsewhere, the CTS Coupe was the surprise revelation of the ever-important Detroit show and without doubt the Best of Show.

This car represents a return to form for not only Cadillac, but for GM as a whole. It's as if they're saying, "We get it again, and we're gonna show the world." With a constantly improving product lineup, and with talk of cutting down on the overall number of models offered (finally someone gets it), there are real signs of hope for GM's survival. But let's not paint such a big picture here. Instead, let's focus on the CTS Coupe not as the shot across the bow that it is in a macro sense, but as the beautiful and elegant coupe that it is in simple terms.

What is most impressive about the CTS Coupe is that it isn't just another coupe. Let me explain. The luxury coupe segment has forever been owned by the BMW 3 series coupe. And what other manufacturers all too often seem to do is simply copy the BMW formula. That formula is simple: 1) Start with the four-door sedan. 2) Eliminate two of those doors. 3) Give it a slightly swoopier roofline while keeping the standard three-box shape, and call it a coupe. Ok, fair enough. But what we end up with is exactly that, a two-door version of the four-door. There's nothing wrong with that approach, except that most of these coupes seem too similar to their less-sexy (and usually less expensive) four-door brethren. The CTS Coupe on the other hand is attempting to change the game a bit by adopting a fastback roofline that differentiates it from the four-door CTS much more dramatically. It's certainly a risky proposition, as American consumers seem to have a built-in distain for luxury fastbacks, whether or not they are hatchbacks (the CTS has a small trunk lid relative to other coupes in this segment). But there's no arguing that the shape brings something fresh and new to the automotive landscape.

The end result is a fresh take on the luxury coupe, not another 3-series wannabe. And it is in this refreshingly bold design that we can see flashes of promise at not only Cadillac, but at GM as well. The CTS Coupe concept is reminiscent of Cadillac's distant past successes in the coupe realm (think first through fourth generation Coupe de Ville) not in aesthetics, but in it's vision as an American take on the luxury coupe. That's the sign that says, more than anything else, that Cadillac is back. Now let's just hope that they don't lose the plot on their way from the concept studio to the production line.