Thanks to Klout, I got a chance to test drive the 2013 Cadillac ATS for a few days.
First impressions, the exterior has some great lines and has that Cadillac look that is consistent across their multiple lines of vehicles. Interior, some nice seats up front but not a lot of back seat room for passages. While it has seat belts for three you would be hard pressed to find any adults that could stand it for long trips. The kids were very cramped.
The model I received seemed to be fully loaded with everything you would expect from a luxury vehicle. Some of my favorite were the heated seats, the backup camera and exit assist that moves the seat away from the steering wheel when you park. The exterior lighting on door handles and below the driver and front passenger doors was really nice.
I did like the haptic feed back of the touch controls on the console. Cadillac does need to look at a recent cell phone to see what people expect from a touch device.
My almost three year old phone has better resolution and is more responsive than the ATS’s touch screen. Animations between menus took longer than they should. The last thing you want to be when changing lanes is waiting for an animation to cycle. Now the ATS does come with voice control that would solve lots of the issues with physically going to the console. I had pretty good results for the most part. I could play podcasts and music off my iPhone an really liked that album art both on the console and on the dash.
The calls I placed over bluetooth were loud and clear in the cabin.
Needless to say the ATS was a serious upgrade from the family minivan and wish I could have had it I bit longer.
