March9
A new prototype for Cadillac’s facelifted STS has been spotted by spy photographers, revealing a new chromed fender vent, among other new styling cues. The STS’s new blingy feature will join similar applications on the Escalade and the upcoming CTS.
The fender vent was brought into vogue by BMW, and has since become an expected styling cue among nearly all luxury brands. The fact that it has also trickled down to such cars as the Ford Taurus and Focus apparently hasn’t yet dampened the enthusiasm for its use among the design community.
A camouflaging bra covered the nose of this prototype, but the grille appears to be consistent with other revised STS prototypes photographed earlier. The new grille treatment–inspired by the Cadillac Sixteen, the new CTS and the latest Escalade–results in a cleaner face for Caddy’s five-series-fighter.
A recent photo released by GM to members of the press showed the revamped 2008 STS interior.
not bad the fender vent look like a buick fender almost
The fender port looks terrible, and not in keeping with this model. It might look good on the Escalade, but not the STS.
This styling works very well for me on a CTS. The proportions seem right. On a larger vehicle something seems odd with it - it doesn’t convey the sporty angularity that is does on the smaller CTS.
Hmmm…hardly any changes. At all.
they need to not make it look exactly like a big cts. the vents can go in order to keep this sleek and original.
Not much of a fan with Caddy’s styling cues. The trapezoidal hole on the side doesn’t make things better.
The sts is far too dull and subtle to be a real Cadillac. If I’m going to drop 70k on an automobile I want something that proclaims and conveys its cost, power and luxury.
looks good, although the vents need to be a little more discreet
The sts is a joke, I don’t want to hear anything about this car until they redesign it as well as the CTS.
I’d rather have an ‘07 nissan altima given the chance
^If I had the choice and both were free
^^don’t read too much into the above statements
Put the disguise back.
Little early in the game to make any substantial comments IMHO.
In any case I have my doubts about the potential of or if GM really wants this car to compete seriously with say the E55amg and its ilk.
any chance this update also includes more power? it seems to be the 255 hp v6 STS will be a hard sell next to the 300hp CTS. If they include the new 300hp in the STS the v8 will have to offer considerably more power (25 to 35 more?) to have any real advantage over the direct injection v6. outside of that I like this minor refresh, the STS hasn’t been out long so it doesnt need many changes.
Chrome in unneccessary places really makes a car look ****ty. Take those damn vents off and patch the whole. Props to the photogropher for showing the sts in the mirror, objects always seems closer than they appear.
Lose the fender vent it just doesn’t work with this car other than that not bad.
————–>man, IT AINT NUTHIN WRONG WIT THAT BLASTED FENDER VENT!!!! seriously folks, it looks perfectly fine, if not luxurious. What’chall gone do next, criticise the 997turbo’s vent for being too big??….disjudgemental car folks jeez…..
“Chrome in unneccessary places really makes a car look ****ty. ”
Oh but they have to keep the bling factor to keep their regular buyers interested. I wonder why they didn’t offer factory upgrade spinning wheels as well.
Looks like a step backwards to me. The “older” models looked aggressive, this design is too docile or washed out, IMO.
whereas the upcoming cts’ side vents look meticulously engineered and crafted, these seem tacked-on and not so well thought out. kind of hoping they’re ‘dummy’ vents for testing
i dont like the vent, looks stupid and awkward. should have put a slit if anything.
if the vent was inset it would look nice but these really protrude. bizarre considering their attention to detail on the new cts and the interiors
I don’t know, the vent looks tacked on, that is just added in. Such details need to flow out of the surrounding car since the engine isn’t made part of the aesthetic design of the cars general appearance.
its big, but it sure aint clever
The more I look at it, and the more you review actual existing Cadillacs the vent is likely a ruse. The vent would be integrated/flush with the fender versus being tacked-on, which this one is. Since this is a mule with the new front end that resembles the new CTS, it is hard to tell what the fenders might have in the production model. I do see where Cadillac is trying be a series lineup based on similarities, like BMW, and Mercedes have done. The STS was always a special model Cadillac, and somehow needs to get back to that distinction. The CTS revived Cadillac, and now the G8 will threaten the CTS model, through stealing away the younger buyers who were attracted to the CTS. GM is borrowing from one division to prop-up the ailing division of Pontiac versus reducing their divisions such as closing down Pontiac.
Realistically talking GM should merge Saturn and Pontiac into one brand effectively renaming the best cars (opel and holdens) into Pontiac and changing saturn sales into Pontiac.
uhh what ^
Okay, so we have a side vent. The face, the tail, what’s there? And they gotta be careful: the new CTS looks way too close to the current STS. THey need to differentiate, so we’ll see what happens.
The contention over the Vent has more to do with the fact that it does not look like it belongs there. Even if it were a fully manufactured fender with vent, it still looks wrong. That doesn’t mean that it is the final design, but I doubt this is far off.
Also my biggest beef over the CTS and STS is that they look so much alike you can’t tell the difference unless you are up close or a CTS and a STS are sitting next to each other. Trying to match up design “languages” is one thing but even Mercedes-Benz and BMW had the sense to differentiate their cars enough to be instantly identifiable for each other in their respective line-ups.
Somehow I doubt that anyone who wants a Cadillac will suddenly go for a Pontiac. Just as someone who wants a Lexus would drop that for a Toyota, or Audi for a VW, or Infinti for a Nissan (not withstanding the GT-R) and so on. If someone were going to buy a Pontiac they likely weren’t going to buy a Cadillac anyway.
Pontiac isn’t going anywhere.
As to burrowing form another division… I said it before: You CAN NOT sell Holdens or OPELs in America because no one (that is, not enough people to matter) knows those brands. So you make reasonable changes and just re-brand a Holden as a Pontiac or an Opel and A Saturn, brands people in this country know. Besides the Holden and Opel badges are just plain boring and ugly respectively.
If there is another division on the chopping block, one would honestly think Buick is next to go.
Besides, in the few short years, the fact that GM has become so fluid in its transformation that we can have such speculation about the company’s direction says a great deal about the expectations we all have for GM. But that is not sanction to try to dictate what we should expect… as most would want the utterly unreasonable, like a 500hp compact with AWD and state of the art suspensions, drive train, and so on for only $25K or that overseas divisions of a company be sold in place of division that have been part of the American auto scene for over half a century, at least.
The CTS’ draw was that it was a smart looking automobile for a reasonable price that attracted the younger, and smart buyers. Now, with the G8 they will simply go a different path. The new CTS, for me, simply got a bit too “old man.” Instead of keeping its spartan, but effect design. In other words, GM simply slipped back into their habits—and those ways have meant the steady decline of GM. Buick is doing well in China, and could close down in the States. Pontiac has been floundering for eons and the G8 will attract, but the younger buyer could care less about the past marquee’s history, other than what the automobile has to offer. GM should prune its divisions down to the following: GMC, Cadillac, and Chevrolet. They do not need the other divisions in today’s world—at least not in the States.
Your view of the new CTS is one opinion. I saw the CTS a new and exciting but that excitment has worn off and younger buyers who CAN afford a CTS may not be so drawn to the “Boy racer with more dollars than sense” appeal ,that you perceive, as they pay off the first CTS and are looking to buy a new car.
Try to remember that this and all auto companies spend ungodly amounts of time and money to learn what does and doesn’t work. They aren’t going to push a car to be built for tens or even hundreds of thousands of prospective buyers that only appeals to a slim fraction. You may not like the New CTS or STS (I don’t know you so I won’t assign anything concrete to you) but the work GM put into deciding where to take the CTS and the STS said go with a more mature and less “boy toy” look… and I like it.. more art than cold technology.
Frankly I find the new CTS more mature but not “old man” mature. Fresh and attractively curved without being soft.
As for Pontiac’s condition, I think you should speak for yourself, period. Do some looking and conversing, not just talking, and you might learn a view very interesting things about anything. including the history of the brand. If you don’t care then you don’t care. But based on your statement one could easily assume you really haven’t grown up with with anything made before 1980 at the latest. Hardly eons. This was also a period where if it wasn’t a “wow” car, it sucked no matter who made it except, for the most part, the Europeans. Remember Toyota and Nissan (Datsun back then) where just really starting to get traction in the USA.
But most importantly, all any of us can say is just conjecture and opinion, and really means nothing. GM makes decisions for GM, we do not. We as individuals make decision for ourselves, as much as possible. But as I said before, someone likely to by a Cadillac is not very likely to buy a Pontiac and vice versa.
Further GM can skew the decision making process. If a V6 CTS costs as much as a V8 G8, why WOULD you buy the Caddy? GM has been wanting to move Cadillac upscale since the 1990s. By offering less costly products Cadillac can move up and stop being a “poor man’s” luxury car company. People who can not or do not want to foot the bill of a Caddy will buy a Pontiac or Chevy depending on how low they want to go.
Cadillac has done a great deal to prove themselves and they are only getting better. It is time that Cadillac move up. But GM, it seems, will not leave more modestly funded people behind wishing for a buff RWD car but would have to buy a luxury car to do so, which has been the case for quite a number of instances for a couple of decades now. That’s where Pontiac comes in.
You want RWD and a V8, get ready to loss wood trim, computer generated dashboards, fine leather seating, and most of those luxury bits and gadgets we want but will never use or ever miss if we never have them. Performance for the masses. Just the way it was meant to be. Meanwhile, the “soccer moms” or those who don’t want to be excited can buy a Chevy with FWD and a less powerful V6. Nothing wrong there. Transportation for the masses aside for the aforementioned exemptions.
The Corvette, come back in ten years and we’ll discuss it.
Enough rambling though, GM’s biggest problem was that they had not clear mission for their divisions. Lacking vision for the long run, Oldsmobile got canned. This has led to the idea that GM can just drop a division like an old pair of sneakers. It’s more like chopping off a finger with a dull cleaver. It’s absurdly painful and there is a LOT of bleeding.
GM has be working hard to solidify and up hold missions for each division. This will help make and maintain the relevance of each division.. something, more than any other, Buick is in danger of losing in the US, as you have pointed out.
The final decision as to what to do is GM’s. I realize your statements are opinion, but I felt I had to respond to some of the sweeping and rather, for want of a better word, ignorant and self serving fan-boy statements you have made.
Blakkarr,
The first-generation CTS was appealing because of its size, and design (done by the Sigma team who Lutz does not like). Lutz has destroyed the second-generation CTS with his brand of styling cues. The new STS was born of the CTS, completely bassackwards. Not only that it has abysmal sales. A new facelift will not help sagging sales.
Does anyone really care that Oldsmobile went the way of the dinosaur? Not really, it produced only one memorable car, and only in and for its era: 442.
The Pontiac era was in the mid to late sixties when a GTO was a GTO, and not now when the lineup is as forgettable as most other GM automobiles.
Buick will dye—again—but China likes them. The Lucerne cuts into the Cadillac DTS market, and the Lacrosse can be replaced with something in the Chevrolet line.
Saturn: Mixed bag with mixed results. Drop it and integrate the successful models into Chevrolet.
Corvette: The one remaining GM automobile that can actually be considered in the world-class category. GM keeps getting this one right, only missing refinement clues (i.e. interior).
Here’s the biggest difference between American automobiles and BMW (for instance). Let’s take the 3 series. There are uber-wealthy who drive a 3 series, and there are many other slices of social/economic levels of owners who drive a 3 series too. Why? Simply put it is a world-class automobile revered by its owners for many reasons. This is where GM automobiles fall short. But, this falling short is world of difference from other automobile lineages.
Buick comment: dye = die. My bad.
Wow! I’m impressed Whoopee. In just two, count ‘em, two lines of text you have managed to present yourself as a shallow, ignorant, and elitist jackass! Congrats!
In other news, I think the STS needs a sharper less curved look to stand out more from the rest of the field. But with the new CTS coming out soon, it needs more power, a better interior etc to separate it from its stablemate as well.
dont forget racist also. there are too many of them still around.
….have owned a few STS Cads,last one a ‘94,my ‘06 took a while getting used to,feels lighter,better on gas,but overall a nice sleek ride,maybe “ratwire” inset vents would look better,but those bling-things gottogo…