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Flagship Sedan Gets an Updated Look and New Technology
Among General Motors‘ many New York auto show introductions this month was a facelift for the top Cadillac sedan, the STS, due on sale midsummer 2007. A new face, a new engine, and new technologies highlight the Cadillac‘s changes.

In 2003, Cadillac showed a stunning large sedan concept called the Sixteen, so named for its V16 engine, and since then there has been talk of bringing the ultrasedan to market. While never-ending rumors have not yet been enough to make it into a real product, Sixteen is claimed as inspiration for Cadillac’s latest grilles, including the 2008 STS and 2007 Escalade.
The STS face gets new stacked headlights, a new lower front fascia, and narrower side marker lamps. Cadillac was not able to resist the urge to add vents to the sides of the front fenders on the STS, this time called “side air extractors.” Changes at the sides and rear of the STS were minimal, included are chrome-plated door handles and new lower rocker moldings along the side and a body-color rear fascia and new polished, aluminum exhaust tips.
The STS’s interior was already quite a nice place to be, so interior changes for 2008MY are minor. There is a new steering wheel with Sapele Pomelle wood trim, an available heated steering wheel, and a new wood trim with metallic surrounds for the center stack.

Appropriately, Cadillac adds new technology on its flagship sedan, though they could have introduced these systems with the all-new 2008 CTS revealed in January. The revised STS can be ordered with a lane-departure warning system as well as a blind-spot alert system. The lane-departure system uses a camera in the rearview mirror to read the lines in the road, while the blind-spot alert is a radar-based system. StabiliTrak has been updated to include active front steering (helps turn front wheels into the skid when rear wheels lose traction). A new steering motor assembly works with the computer-driven electronic controls to measure wheel slip at each wheel independently during acceleration, braking, and on low-traction road surfaces. There’s also a new performance handling package for some models, with eighteen-inch wheels and summer-only tires.

The base STS gets more power for 2008, with GM applying direct-injection to the 3.6L DOHC 24v V6 and mating it to a six-speed automatic transmission. The change means an increase in output to 298HP. Even at 255HP, the V6 offered enough power to make the base STS a comfortable drive, so the extra power will make the base STS that much more desirable, especially as looking to direct injection and the six-speed autobox also means there will not be a fuel economy penalty for the extra power. The available options list has grown for the V6 models as well, and you will now be able to order it with IntelliBeam headlights and the head-up display.