2012 Cadillac Cars. The flagship luxury brand of General Motors, Cadillac’s renaissance is generally traced back to the introduction of the rear-drive CTS in 2002 targeted directly at the BMW 3 Series. But before then, in 1999, it was the Escalade that put Cadillac in the spotlight right when the luxury SUV segment was taking off. The second-generation CTS brought about Coupe and SportWagon variants. The SRX crossover is another volume model for the brand. A flagship luxury sedan, known as the XTS, arrives in 2012 to replace the SLS and DTS.
Formed from the remnants of the Henry Ford Company, Cadillac is named after Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, a French explorer who founded the city of Detroit. The company was bought by GM in 1909. Known as ‘The Standard of the World” Cadillac was the first to bring to market a car with an electric ignition in 1912 and the first to use a V16 in 1930. The post-war boom of the 1950s was a golden area for the brand with growing sales, growing size and those iconic tailfins.
In 2004 Cadillac launched its V performance brand to rival BMW’s M and Mercedes’ AMG. With a focus on performance and in motorsports, the second generation CTS-V finally topped the Germans, with the 556-hp sedan being the first 4-door to run a sub 8 minute lap on Germany’s famed Nurburgring.
