More to Come From ATS Platform, Model Line, Cadillac Hints

CHICAGO – The new ATS, Cadillac’s entry-level sedan? For now, perhaps.

“The (compact) ATS sedan is not as small as we could go at Cadillac,” says Dave Leone, vehicle-line executive for the new small luxury car.

The model is 7.7 ins. (19.6 cm) shorter than the midsize Cadillac CTS and goes on sale later this summer as a ’13 model.

“The ATS is only the first entry,” Leone says. “The ATS platform is scalable, so we could go smaller or larger.

“We're watching and listening to consumers as we lay out our plans for the future and determine what is the right thing to do,” he adds. “But we can go in either direction. While we are only focusing on a sedan now, it could go coupe and convertible, too.

“And it would make a nice ATS-V also,” Leone notes in a reference to the high-performance rendition of the midsize CTS-V offered by Cadillac.

Previous efforts to market a small Caddy failed – namely, the Chevrolet Cavalier-based Cimarron.

But Leone calls the ATS “a legitimate entry in the largest segment in the industry, the small, entry-level luxury market, and a car that's all new from the ground up and doesn't share a single component with another car other than the V-6 engine.”