• The Detroit News, Friday, August 5, 2011 10:30 AM

The term "entry" has probably been anathema at Cadillac since the brand's ill-fated attempt at the lower-end with the Catera (it zigs) back in 1998 when Ron Zarrella ran the company. Well, okay, there was a worse Cadillac, the Cimarron, but we won't go there.

Cadillac is unrecognizable from those days, so the forthcoming ATS (which is the code name) is going to be a focused performance car meant to go directly at vehicles like Audi's A4, Bimmer's 3-Series, and Mercedes' C-Class lineup, a critical place now that luxury has to have a smaller sports sedan to bring in younger affluents who see luxury as a hands-on experience. Also required is a flagship, which Cadillac has also not had in a believable form but will also introduce to the U.S. The GM division will sell both the ATS and the larger XTS, which vies against BMW's 7-Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class, some time next year.

The company says the XTS will launch in the spring and replace the outgoing DTS, which ended production earlier this year at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck plant.

Read the whole story at The Detroit News »