I don’t know about anyone else, but I love a good sleeper car. It’s always hilarious to slap other drivers in the face with power and performance from an otherwise innocuous car. More than a few automakers have given us factory sleepers before, and two sleeper models from Cadillac are getting too cheap to ignore now that they’re getting on in years. In fact, you can nab one for less than the cost of a brand-new Honda Accord.
In the mid-2010s, Cadillac still found itself wanting to emulate German brands. It had its BMW 3 and 5 Series fighters in the CTS and ATS as well as the performance game on lock with the excellent V versions of both of those cars. However, the brand needed something for those who didn’t want to go full-on V but also didn’t want to go the plain Cadillac luxury route with the standard cars. So Cadillac went and created the V-Sport trim.
In context, one would assume that V-Sport played in the same arena as other all-show-no go trims like BMW’s M Sport, Audi’s S-Line and Mercedes AMG Line. But this was one of the rare instances where GM did us a solid and did things right. V-Sport cars were actually performance models. Cadillac only ever did two models up in V-Sport trim: the CTS and XTS full-size sedan.
The XTS V-Sport was the more sedate of the two, but still nothing to shake a stick at. Cadillac threw in the twin-turbo 3.6-liter V6 that made 410 horsepower. It paired that engine with other bits like an all-wheel drive system with torque vectoring and a limited-slip differential, a six-speed automatic and GM’s Magnetic Ride Control System. The result was a large luxury sedan that could hit 60 mph in just over five seconds. But that performance cost you at the pump with V8 fuel economy of 16 mpg city/23 mpg highway. And it wasn’t cheap at $73,340 fully loaded.
The CTS-V Sport was the drivers’ car. Just under $62,000 (fully loaded the CTS-V Sport was nearly $76,000) got you the same twin-turbo 3.6-liter V6 with 420 hp and 430 lb-ft of torque, adaptive magnetorheological shocks, Brembo brakes and an electronic limited-slip rear diff. All this added up to performance that was the same or bested the first generation 5.7-liter V8-powered CTS-V. The CTS-V Sport could hit 60 mph in just 4.5 seconds. And unlike the XTS V-Sport, it did this with just rear-wheel drive.
Now the models are a bit older, these things are some of the best kept performance secrets on the market. While low mileage example sof both can cost close to or well over $30,000, if you can deal with higher mileages, you can find both models for cheap.
This 2014 CTS-V Sport with just over 62,000 miles on it is just $22,998 in Florida. That’s a lot of car if you’re wanting something with a bit more oomph than a used Civic or Corolla.
The XTS V-Sport is always cheaper than the CTS from what I’ve seen. That works out for buyers of course. This example in Mississippi is just $20,995 though it has 85,519 miles on it. But if you’re looking for something that’s fast, comfortable and can fly way under the radar, you should have been driving a V-Sport Cadillac yesterday.