2006 Cadillac DTS Test Drive

Sexy Devil

Old-school, sinister, comfortable and sexy. Why can't Detroit build more cars like this?

Those lines kick off Michigan R&B singer Dick Siegel's 1980 album Snap! The song is "Downsize Blues," in which Siegel bemoans the shrinking of Cadillacs that began in 1975.

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Big-bodied, big-engined gas guzzlers had been the business of General Motors' Cadillac subsidiary for decades, but the energy crises of the 1970s forced the brand to downsize. The Cadillac Seville — introduced in 1975 — was a compact sedan, which was smaller than other Cadillacs. Going into the 1980s, Cadillac had shortened its DeVille and Fleetwood Brougham models. And in 1981, Cadillac introduced the forgettable sub-compact Cimarron, which was the company's smallest-engined car since before 1910, and its first four-cylinder since 1914.

"The Cadillac Division did not seem too happy about adding this small car to its range and promoted it as the 'Cimarron by Cadillac,'" writes Nick Georgano in The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile (2000). "The Cadillac name did not appear anywhere on the car."

These days, Cadillac's passenger cars continue to forsake their history as elegant boulevard cruisers. Compact and zippy modern Cadillacs, such as the CTS sedan and XLR convertible, are more like European or Japanese cars than old-school Cadillacs. One of Cadillac's newest passenger cars, the BLS sedan, will be sold in Europe but not the U.S., because it's too small for American tastes. Like the Cimarron, the BLS uses a four-cylinder engine.

It's not that we don't like the new Cadillacs. When you consider the Escalade model line, the excellent STS sedan and SRX sport utility vehicle, Cadillac probably has the most consistently good lineup of any Detroit automaker. It's just that we miss the long and sinister Cadillacs of old.

Enter the 2006 Cadillac DTS sedan, which is not so much an overhaul of the DeVille line as a face-lifted version. Still, it is big and swanky and commands respect. It is exactly the type of Cadillac that Siegel sings about missing in his song — the Cadillac that is "sharp and shiny" and "so aristocratic," with "seats so long, wide and plush" and "plenty of legroom for me and my friends."

Cadillac, like other luxury automakers, has dived into the trend of building sportier, more energetic rear-wheel-drive sedans. But as a large front-wheel-drive luxury sedan, the DTS is a remnant of another era. It's built more for comfort than speed and redesigned for 2006 to make you feel like you are living large. President George W. Bush rides around in a DTS limousine; he was, in fact, the first customer for the new DTS. It's easy to feel powerful when you drive this car.