2012 Cadillac CTS Wagon Overview Change Vehicle

This 2012 Cadillac CTS Wagon review explains changes for the model year, provides a summary of the 2012 CTS Wagon, and includes Cadillac CTS Wagon safety, reliability, and fuel economy ratings.

Give Cadillac a round of applause for having the guts to sell a CTS station wagon in an American marketplace that overwhelmingly prefers crossover SUVs. Here’s why this car exists: The Cadillac CTS is a global product, and to be global, a car like this needs to be sold as a station wagon, just like the Audi A4 and A6, the BMW 3 and 5 Series, and the Mercedes-Benz C- and E-Class.

A new 3.6-liter V6 engine featuring direct fuel injection and making 318 horsepower is standard on the top trim levels, connected to a six-speed automatic transmission with available paddle shifters. The CTS Wagon also gains a new grille, standard Bluetooth hands-free connectivity, and three new colors called Black Diamond Tricoat, Mocha Steel, and Opulent Blue. Finally, a new Touring Package is available, adding a different grille treatment, unique wheels, chrome door handles, a suede steering wheel, Midnight Sapele wood trim, and other upgrades to Luxury and Premium models.

The 2012 Cadillac CTS Wagon is available in four different trim levels equipped with rear- or all-wheel drive: Standard, Luxury, Performance, and Premium. There is one additional model, the CTS-V Wagon, and this high-performance variant is covered in a separate review.

Standard equipment on the CTS Wagon includes a handful of items you might expect to find on a luxury-brand vehicle, including dual-zone automatic climate control, Bluetooth, a Bose premium sound system, leatherette upholstery, and a power liftgate. The CTS Wagon also comes with a free one-year subscription to OnStar telematics service, complete with Automatic Crash Response, Turn-by-Turn Navigation, and more. For an extra cost, your basic CTS Wagon can be upgraded with all-wheel drive, an Ultraview panoramic sunroof, a luggage rack, premium paint, and…well, that’s about it unless you dip into the Cadillac dealer’s bag of goodies. That means additional features you might want on your $40,000 station wagon are not available unless you upgrade to the Luxury trim level.

For about $3,000 extra, the CTS Luxury Wagon adds leather seats, real Sapele wood trim, a wood-and-leather steering wheel, and LED ambient cabin lighting. The driver’s seat is 10-way power adjustable with memory settings, while the front passenger’s seat features eight-way power adjustment. Both are heated. The CTS Luxury Wagon also includes adaptive high-intensity discharge headlights that swivel to illuminate around dark corners, rain-sensing wipers, a reversing camera, and remote vehicle starting, as well as a CD changer, a HomeLink universal remote, a cargo shade, and a pet-guard cargo net.

In addition to the UltraView power sunroof, premium paint, and all-wheel drive, the CTS Luxury Wagon can be equipped with a Touring Package that includes 18-inch Pearl Nickel alloy wheels, a sport suspension, performance brakes (AWD models), chrome door handles, a sport grille, sport pedals, a suede steering wheel and shift knob, and Midnight Sapele wood trim inside the cabin. Additionally, fog lights, a navigation system with a 40-gig hard drive and real-time traffic and weather reports, and a Bose 5.1 Surround Sound system with a USB port are offered on the CTS Luxury Wagon.

The CTS Premium Wagon adds a more powerful engine, a sport suspension, polished 18-inch aluminum wheels, and fog lights. It also includes the UltraView power sunroof, the Bose Surround Sound audio system, and the navigation system described above, plus Keyless Access entry and push-button ignition, heated and ventilated front seats, a power tilt-and-telescopic heated steering wheel, rear parking assist sensors, and a reversing camera. Add the CTS Touring Package to this model and you’ll get Recaro sport seats and a suede-covered steering wheel up front, 19-inch polished wheels with all-season or summer performance tires in contact with the pavement, a sport grille, sport pedals, and Midnight Sapele wood trim for the cabin.

The CTS Performance Wagon is designed for the driving enthusiast, and offers the greatest variety in terms of equipment. It is based on the standard model, adding the more powerful 3.6-liter V6 engine, 18-inch wheels, sport suspension, fog lights, Bose Surround Sound, a USB port, and a 10-gig music storage hard drive.

The list of options is a long one, including the extras from the standard and Luxury models plus two different wheel packages that can include polished alloys; a limited-slip differential; performance cooling, suspension, and braking systems; and paddle shifters for manual gear changes at the steering wheel. Additionally, there’s a Performance Luxury Package that includes Keyless Access entry and push-button ignition, navigation, rear parking assist, a reversing camera, a heated power tilt/telescopic steering wheel, heated and ventilated seats, rain-sensing wipers, a CD changer, ambient cabin lighting, a cargo shade and net, an alarm system, and a cabin odor filter.

A 3.0-liter V6 is standard on the base and Luxury versions of the CTS Wagon, paired with a six-speed automatic transmission that drives the rear or all four wheels. It makes 270 horsepower at 7,000 rpm and 223 pound-feet of torque at 5,700 rpm, and we mention the power and torque peaks only to illustrate that they are rather high, which means you’ll need to rev the engine hard to access all the oomph. According to the EPA, this version of the CTS Wagon will get 18 mpg in the city and 27 mpg on the highway with rear-wheel drive. With the optional AWD system, expected to see 18-city/26-highway.

The CTS Premium and Performance Wagons are equipped with a new, direct-injected, 3.6-liter V6 engine for 2012. Thanks to 318 horsepower at 6,800 rpm and 275 pound-feet of torque at 4,900 rpm, this version of the CTS Wagon is plenty energetic. A six-speed automatic transmission is standard, paddle shifters are optional, and this new V6 is predicted to get 18 mpg in the city and 26 mpg on the highway with rear- and all-wheel drive.

In standard format, the CTS Wagon offers little more than the basics in terms of safety features: six airbags, four-wheel vented-disc antilock brakes, and a traction and stability control system are included in the base price. That said, the CTS does come with one free year of OnStar Automatic Crash Response, which automatically summons help after an airbag deployment, as well as Emergency Services and Crisis Assist, which put the CTS Wagon’s occupants into contact with a live operator to get help for emergencies in progress. Upgrading to the Luxury, Premium, or Performance models provides access to additional safety technologies like a reversing camera, rain-sensing wipers, adaptive HID headlights, and rear park assist sensors.

The availability of those additional features is certainly heartening, but for a luxury car that straddles the line of demarcation between entry-level and mid-luxury, and which can be equipped with a sticker price in the mid-50s, we’re baffled by the inability to get a blind-spot information system, an adaptive cruise control system, a collision warning system, a lane departure warning system, a collision mitigation braking system, a wide-view reversing camera, a cross-traffic alert system, a 360-degree overhead view, a parking assist system, or other technologies that are currently trickling down as far as the compact car class. Clearly, the 2012 CTS Wagon offers little in the way of advanced technology.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) offers little in the way of guidance regarding the CTS Wagon’s crashworthiness, providing nothing more than a 4-Star rollover resistance rating. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has not performed tests on the CTS Wagon, and the results for the CTS Sedan cannot be applied here due to differences in structural engineering and weight.

When it comes to reliability predictions, there is broad disparity between two leading market research organizations. J.D. Power and Associates thought the 2011 CTS would provide much better than average dependability over time, while Consumer Reports gives the CTS a below average reliability prediction.

Cadillac Shield should help alleviate concerns brought on by that Consumer Reports rating. This warranty and maintenance program covers the CTS Wagon for four years or 50,000 miles in terms of a bumper-to-bumper warranty and free scheduled maintenance for selected items, and includes roadside assistance for the duration of the five-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty.

The Cadillac CTS Wagon is graced with near perfect weight distribution. With rear-wheel drive, it has 51-percent of its mass over the front wheels and 49-percent over the rears. Get AWD, and that balance shifts to 52-front/48-rear.

Cargo space is one reason to buy a station wagon. With the CTS, there’s 25.4 cubic-feet of room behind the rear seat. Fold the back seat and there’s 58 cu-ft of maximum cargo volume. Just in case you decide to tow something, know that the CTS Wagon is rated for a 1,000-lb. trailer and nothing more.

The CTS Wagon with all-wheel drive and the base engine weighs a hefty 4,204 pounds. Get the stronger 3.6-liter V6 engine and the weight balloons to 4,305 pounds.

The Cadillac CTS Wagon is built in Lansing, Michigan.

As fans of the station wagon, we’re glad the Cadillac CTS Wagon exists. Better still, for people who like to drive, Cadillac sees fit to not only offer it in a performance-tuned model with the V6 engine but also in hot-rodded CTS-V trim. Add handsomely angular design, comfortable front seats, available all-wheel drive, that impressive reliability prediction from J.D. Power, and Cadillac Shield warranty protection, and the CTS Wagon is a hidden gem in the luxury marketplace. But there’s definitely room for improvement here.

By Christian Wardlaw