2014 Cadillac CTS-V Wagon

This car, Lot 51, sold for $58,300, including buyer’s premium, at the Motostalgia McPherson Collection Auction in Waxahachie, TX, on October 14, 2017.

Cadillac took aim at its next generation of buyers in 2003 with the release of the entirely new CTS line. For gearheads whose only exposure to Cadillac had been bloated, malaise-weary DeVilles and Eldorados, the CTS was a wakeup call.

Except for the ill-fated Cimarron of the early 1980s, the CTS was the first Cadillac in 50 years to offer a manual transmission. Cadillac even advertised the CTS with the punchy, attitude-drenched “Rock and Roll” Led Zeppelin tune, leaving no doubt that the target buyer was no longer the Lawrence Welk generation.

The high-performance CTS-V followed in 2004 with a 5.7-liter LS6 V8 engine good for 400 horsepower, and a Borg-Warner T56 6-speed transmission.

Both the LS6 and the transmission had been borrowed from the Corvette Z06, and the CTS-V would hit 60 mph in just 4.6 seconds. Cadillac dotted the exclamation point by taking the CTS-V racing in the Pirelli World Challenge series, winning manufacturer’s championships in 2005, 2007, 2012 and 2013.

Not your grampa’s caddy

Cadillac redesigned the CTS line for 2009 with a new chassis platform and drivetrain. Additional models, including a coupe and a wagon, hit the market in 2011. 2014 was the final year of the second-generation CTS-V, and all bodies came equipped with a 6.2-liter supercharged LSA V8 engine rated at 556 horsepower and 551 foot-pounds of torque.

Buyers had a choice between the T56 6-speed manual transmission and a 6-speed automatic with paddle shifters on the steering wheel. All CTS-V models were rear-wheel drive with a limited-slip differential, and the wagons could do 0–60 in 4 seconds flat and break into the high 11s in the quarter-mile.

Of the 2,139 CTS-V Sport Wagons produced between 2011 and 2014, about 700 were equipped with manuals, the rest automatics.

So if you want to pull your own gears, it should be easy to find a stick. In fact, build statistics show that the take rate for manuals on the coupes and sedans was only half the percentage taken on wagons, although many more coupes and sedans were made overall.

Those wagon buyers were serious about their performance.

Dripping with modern technology

The second-generation CTS-V line also got some fantastic suspension and braking improvements. The front suspension was a dual-control-arm design, while the rear used an independent multi-link design. Six-pot front calipers grabbed 380-mm brake rotors, and four-pot calipers were used in the rear.

CTS-V buyers also got GM’s nifty Magnetic Ride shocks, which allow the driver (or the car’s computer) to adjust their resistance. This is great technology for a combination track/road car because the push of a button takes you from silky smooth to being able to distinguish between driving over a nickel or a dime.

Inside the CTS-V, you got plenty of good Cadillac luxury with the right touches to make sure you know you’re in the hot rod. Brushed aluminum and piano-black trim was standard, with wood as an option. You got 10-way heated power-adjustable front seats as standard, with an option for 16-way adjustable heated Recaro seats. The fronts used nice leather with suede inserts. Heated rear seats were also available. Your driving tunes soundtrack was played through 10 Bose speakers, and you got voice-activated navigation as standard equipment.

A super-clean wagon

If you’re a car person in this world, you’ve got an opinion about wagons. Most people either love them or hate them — there’s very little middle ground. So this subject car will either make your heart skip a beat — or not. But if you like wagons, there’s a whole lot to love in this car.

The auction listing doesn’t state mileage, but the car looks well kept.

The MSRP for a CTS-V wagon in 2014 was $63,600, and this example sold for $58,300. That’s good money, as the last few CTS-V wagons across the block garnered bids around $30,000. But three have sold in the $50,000 range in the past year, so while this is a high-water mark for the wagon, it’s a reasonable purchase for the buyer and a solid price for the seller.

Future Collectibility

The 2011–14 Cadillac CTS-V wagon has all the elements to be a desirable collector car:

• It’s rare — but not too rare.
• It has excellent performance.
• Prices are within reach of most collectors.

Cadillac has continued the CTS-V line — but not with a wagon body. If you want a modern performance wagon, the CTS-V has a better story than any of the European cars, and you also get that nifty laurel wreath around the Cadillac logo. ♦

(Introductory description courtesy of Motostalgia.)