2018 Cadillac CT6 Platinum AWD

March 1, 2018

Bill Visnic

I’m on the fence about the CT6’s merits as a flagship sedan. Its plutocrat-grade back-seat has heat, massage and deep recline on the outboard positions, although the generally over-the-top accomodations seem like they’re in place for China rather than this market. And there’s no question the cabin’s got stretch-out space.

But I can’t develop anything close to a working relationship with the still-maddening Cadillac User Experience (CUE) HMI system and its hapless touchpad, the HVAC was occasionally noisy and a passenger on a 2-hour trip claimed the rear seat was drafty. Although the 404-hp (301 kW) twin-turbo V6 doesn’t take long to prove there’s really not much need for a V8, its pairing with the Hydra-Matic 8-speed automatic transmission could be lashy when abruptly chopping the throttle.

The CT6’s seminal feature is Super Cruise. It was “available,” according to the gauge-cluster readout, on certain stretches of a divided highway on which we did a healthy roundtrip. It mostly worked as promised, allowing continuous hands-off driving while on cruise control at just less than 80 mph.

I found it all but useless. If there’s any kind of traffic density and only two same-direction lanes available, you must constantly override SC to pass slower vehicles. If you leave the throttle to the adaptive cruise-control’s tawdry ministrations, the frustration is compounded by all adaptive cruises’ chief failure: backing off way, way too early when approaching a slower vehicle.

Super Cruise works—and that’s an accomplishment. But in its current state of development, the expectations I apply when I hear the term “cruise” can’t be taken too literally.