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<\/p>\n<\/div>For four\u00a0years, the Cadillac CT6 has been the brand\u2019s show-horse. From New York to Detroit to Los Angeles, the flagship has introduced\u00a0the latest in Cadillac\u00a0technology, electronics, engines, even nomenclature. Yet, in a sign of how quickly sedans have fallen from grace in the U.S.\u00a0\u2013 and how Cadillac has struggled to gain market traction\u00a0\u2014 the CT6 will take its final bow at this year\u2019s auto show.<\/p>\n
When the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant idles indefinitely\u00a0this summer, the CT6 will cease\u00a0production and relinquish its halo.<\/p>\n
While Cadillac continues to try to reinvent itself as a cutting-edge luxury maker worthy of\u00a0 taking\u00a0on the Teutonic trinity of Mercedes, BMW\u00a0and Audi, the loss of the CT6 leaves a void. Its passing not only buries the brand\u2019s most ambitious automobile, but also, ironically, passes the flag to its oldest ship \u2014\u00a0the Chevy pickup-based Escalade SUV.<\/p>\n
Cadillac will take the\u00a0first step to fill the void in Detroit on Sunday with the introduction of another three-row sport utility, the XT6 \u2014\u00a0the first three-row ute based on a unibody\u00a0 from the brand.\u00a0But the front-wheel drive based XT6 reportedly will be built on the same bones\u00a0as the Chevy Traverse and Buick Enclave, a far cry from the CT6\u2019s sophistication.<\/p>\n
It’s not clear yet what kind of technology the XT6 will include when it reveals at the Winter Garden Theater in Detroit on Sunday, but Cadillac has said it will start expanding the hands-free driving technology across the lineup in 2020.<\/p>\n
It is hard to underestimate the role the CT6 played in Cadillac\u2019s reinvention.<\/p>\n
The sleek sedan was unveiled ahead of the 2015\u00a0New York\u00a0Auto Show just six months after Cadillac moved its headquarters to the Big Apple. The CT6 was introduced at Cadillac House in the city’s Soho\u00a0neighborhood.<\/p>\n
At the time, its highly-touted president Johan de Nysschen, ex-captain of Audi\u2019s U.S.\u00a0success story, proclaimed: \u201cThe CT6 is nothing less than an entirely new approach to premium luxury \u2014 and an approach only Cadillac can offer. It is a bold endeavor that reignites a passion for driving in large luxury vehicles. In short, it is prestige luxury re-imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was also Cadillac re-imagined.<\/p>\n
The lightweight, rear-wheel drive based Caddy was an engineering\u00a0tour de force<\/em>. Its aluminum-intensive “Omega” architecture was a study in materials engineering as it combined high-strength steel and aluminum. It used\u00a0laser welding and jet fighter-like steel adhesives. Despite being a size segment above\u00a0Cadillac\u2019s mid-size CTS, it\u00a0tipped the scales at the same 3,700 pounds. Its\u00a0tear-drop LED headlights were a new look. As\u00a0were\u00a0its all-new V-6 engines.<\/p>\n Body shops had to be Cadillac-certified to handle the space-age materials repairs. The list of new gadgets pioneered by the CT6 was exhausting. Among them:<\/p>\n The flagship sedan also reset Cadillac’s three-letter\u00a0nomenclature, replacing it with the alphanumeric CT6,\u00a0which would be followed by smaller CT5, CT4, etc., sedans. (Along the same lines, SUVs would be designated XT6, XT5, and so on.)<\/p>\n The innovation kept coming.<\/p>\n\n