Staff Photographer
The Audi A4 3,2FSI Quattro and the Cadillac CT sqaure off.
An American and a German walk into a bar — in the case of the Audi and the Cadillac, the German is in a snappy business suit, the American in one of those shiny suits only gangsters in Martin Scorsese movies wear.
Unlikely rivals, perhaps — they’ve certainly travelled different paths to get here — but both have as much in common as not. Both are big V6 automatics with manual paddle shifts behind the wheel, both retail for more than R400 000, both have four doors and big boots and both offer premium sound systems and interior appointments.
Being the latecomer, we suspect the Cadillac will have to do most of the running, but Americans have been known to stick it to the Germans in the past … right? So, who will come out on top in this executive sedan shootout?
Styling
Starting with the CTS seems right because parking it in public has the same effect as leaving a suitcase unattended at the airport. People run away and then come back with others to attend to it.
All cleaved angles and butch machismo, it has “shoot first and ask questions later” written all over it. The hunkered-down bonnet and wide rear quarter give it presence, there is no doubting that, and the chrome detailing along the side strake and window pillars make it twinkle.
The A4, with S-line body kit (all options are listed in the graphic), is no shrinking violet in the looks department either. To steal thunder from the CTS it is chrome-trimmed along the window pillars as well and can go one better with its daytime running lights. But the rest is all tasteful executive German middle management.
The CTS (which, can you believe, stands for compact touring sedan in the United States) is in fact 150mm longer than the A4, which itself is the class leader against its German rivals, but you’d never tell just by looking at them side by side.
The A4 wears long, sleek and lower lines than those of the chunkier CTS and looks long enough to moonlight as a limo if needed. If you look at them next to each other for long enough, the bravado of the CTS begins to look ever so slightly wasteful compared to the poise of the A4.
Interior
It will take some doing for the CTS to beat the A4 here. Almost without ergonomic fault, the A4 is conventional, but with a muted sportiness lurking behind its controls. Audi’s MMI onboard system is intuitive and easy to navigate and the 14-speaker Bang & Olufsen sound system should be the first thing on your option list.
It needs to compete with the CTS’s standard 10-speaker Bose sound system, which is gutsy, to say the least. But that’s where doubt over the interiors ends. The CTS’s fascia, to me, looks like a teenager drew it in a free period at school one day and, not knowing when to stop, just kept adding and adding things – granted, with great enthusiasm.
Turtle shell on the steering wheel, stitched leather on the dash, a plastic clock in the middle, diagonal air vents on the sides, the audio control screen that ascends out in front: it’s all filled with a lot of pomp, but little circumstance. The LED light pipes that come on at night are impressive though.
But my personal favourite is the trip computer buttons. There are six – one with a picture of a road approaching a mountain, two with arrows, one with a tick and one with a ticked box and a non-ticked box. They are all totally unfathomable.
Performance
With both sporting twin tailpipes, you’d expect the two cars to be suitably sporty. But it’s the CTS’s 229kW and 374Nm that beat the A4 to 100kph. Being executive sedans, prospective buyers will want mid-range power and the CTS especially likes to dominate here.
Acceleration from 80kph to 120kph comes quicker in the CTS by a substantial margin and the CTS also has taller gearing (or perhaps more reluctant gearing) for fewer gear changes in automatic mode. This helps provide a more relaxing long-distance cruise than the more excitable gearbox in the A4.
Both vehicles have sport shift modes while in automatic, but subjectively there is little to separate the two here, with both taking just more than a second to drop two cogs and get back on the move after you mash your foot to the carpet. But when using the manual paddle shifts behind the wheel there’s no question that the A4’s shifts come quicker and smoother than the CTS’s.
Instant fuel consumption at a 120kph cruise was also a test we felt worth doing as a way to benchmark each engine’s efficiency. Unsurprisingly the A4’s smaller displacement V6 and lighter body won that test.
The performance figures favouring the CTS speak for themselves, but it still occupies an underdog persona you can’t help but like, taking all the punishment from its much-vaunted European counterpart and still sticking in there with nothing but pure heart and guts – a bit like Rocky on the steps of the Philadelphia library.
Dynamics
The standard servotronic steering on the A4 was developed in conjunction with Nasa and in urban driving it is incredibly light. Too light, in fact – this 3,2FSI Quattro should be a stone’s throw away from the feel of an S/RS 4, but there is no communication between the wheels and the driver at road level at all – for all it’s worth, you could be in a Clio.
It’s compounded even further when you step into the CTS and relish the heftier steering it has to offer at normal speeds. It’s better than the A4’s because of the CTS’s weight and, in all honesty, because it feels a bit less sophisticated. This leaves the CTS feeling at home at a cruise, as though you’re in the opening credits of The Sopranos: “Woke up this morning, got yourself a gun … ”
The ride on the CTS is also far more stable over imperfections in the road, thanks again to its weight and its smaller-diameter wheels. The A4, not fitted here with Audi Drive Select, which offers a comfort setting for the suspension, is surprisingly jarring over public roads.
Pros for both, but there is still more to investigate. The CTS, with its big engine sending power to the rear, promises big tail sliding – muscle car thrills – whereas the lighter, all-wheel-drive A4 promises dynamic grip and cornering speeds. So off to the track we go for the decider.
And right away, on the smooth tarmac of Killarney, the A4 Quattro comes into its own. At speed the Nasa steering does exactly what it says it does and tightens right up. It also manages to avoid the all-wheel-drive foible of understeering at speed. The A4 is actually extremely lively and delicate when forced to hustle, feeling fast, poised and handling quick changes in direction with great ease. It’s an absolute joy on a smooth surface and far outstrips expectations.
The CTS, on the other hand, does not stack up quite so well. Even with its 36kW power advantage to make up time on the straights, it gave away two seconds to the A4 around the track.
The CTS’s overall heft and chunky controls make bombing toward a corner feel alien in the extreme. On the brakes it pitches forward and in a turn it rolls like a heavyweight boxer into a punch. It’s reluctant to turn in, which could just be good front grip, but when you feel the time is right for some power the heavy V6 in front just pushes you wider still.
Fault must go to the chassis then – around a track it’s almost as if it says: “I don’t know, you figure it out!” With traction control off you should be able to get tail-happy and overcome the understeer, but the CTS turns the traction control back on if it thinks you’re taking liberties.
Disappointment, thy name is: “Can’t-power-slide-the-CTS!”
Verdict
This leaves us with a problem. With the CTS’s performance and price advantage, you’d expect it to be a no-brainer for someone looking to buy an executive sedan. But its over-the-top interior and exterior styling, dynamic failings and lack of real muscle car excitement shouldn’t be ignored.
If this were a poker game the CTS would have played its hand way too early, leaving the calculating A4 to play the clever game and take the pot outright.
That the CTS is a performance bargain (without any options fitted) is beyond doubt, but all of the A4’s slight failings can be remedied by ticking items from Audi’s options list. In the case of the CTS, not everything can be decided on heart and guts alone.