1997 Cadillac Catera Test Drive
With the Catera, Cadillac aimed to bring a new generation of customers into its showrooms. Jointly developed by Opel, and Cadillac, the Catera shared the same platform as the respected Omega. This multinational product underwent many subtle changes to satisfy American rather than Germans. Available only as a sedan it competed with the BMW 5-series, Mercedes E Class, Audi A6, and GM’s own Oldsmobile Aurora. Although the Catera looked generic it did earn a perfect safety score, at least for 1997. What the Catera represented was the beginning of change for the brand. Consider the logo, as one of the six black ducks, known as merlettes was red and swimming in the opposite direction. Did the Catera have what it took? Obviously not, at least in terms of the sales numbers as this one termer eventually was replaced with the much improved CTS.
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I never cared for Caddy but I did like this one
Yup, these cars were comfy 😀
Heard a bit of a joke about these cars.
You remember that larger Caddy’s were sometimes called the Seville STS for Seville Touring Sedan, or Deville DTS for Deville Touring Sedan and such.
One article I read commented it was a good thing Caddy didn’t do this for the Catera. Think about it. That would make it a Catara CTS, or without the spacing, Cataracts. For a company that was trying to shed it’s image as just an old guy’s car company, naming a car after an operable form of blindness common to old folks would be BAAAAD! LOL!
Okay, I thought the Catera was a 3 Series, A4 competitor. Since the Seville took on the 5 series, E class, and Deville S class and 7 Series. Unless I’m wrong…