My father was a huge fan of station wagons. With four kids, family trips long and short were just made easier with a wagon. We had some behemoths, like our 1961 or 1962 Chevrolet Bel Air (Impala?) wagon below carrying us from Baltimore to Kentucky to see family. (That’s a two year old Chuck checking his pockets for keys.) My favorite was the Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser with the skylight roof window. We had some mid-sized Rambler wagons, and for some odd reason a tiny, two-door Opel Kadett wagon. Cruel parenting to squeeze three kids in the back of a two-door anything (the fourth kid, often me, rode on the front hump.) But my father never, ever had a Cadillac. And he never had a wagon this fast.
The wagon version of the Cadillac with a Corvette motor (that’s what CTS-V stands for?) is a rare Cadillac indeed, with only 1,767 units manufactured during its 2010-2014 lifespan. The manual transmission CTS-V wagon is an even more extinct unicorn, at only 514 with a stick. Last CTS-V wagon of any kind I saw was two years ago this month, and Hans and I swapped texts and a photo but I never posted and the CarMax link is long gone. Sigh. This one will NOT get away. Ironically, I had this one saved about the same time Hans texted me again!
This is an 11 year old Cadillac and (to me) the lines of the wagon are still unique, almost fresh. The wagon has a real sleeper, secret family hauler race car quality about it. No diffusers or special vents. The mesh grille looks purposeful, as does the muscular bump in the front hood. But you have to squint to see the V badges.
The body may look sleek, but the innards not so much. The pop up infotainment display looks clunky compared to an Audi A8’s slender screen. The thick steering wheel and Recaro seats ($3,400 option) should help with high-speed maneuvers, though. CarMax lists the car as “Loaded” with 9/10 on features, and yet it has only heated and air conditioned seats, panoramic sunroof, navigation, Bose and Bluetooth, a rear view camera, and remote start. My 2010 Mercedes S-class had so much more, but then again it sold new for maybe three times what this Cadillac did. So not sure how it’s “loaded”.
The cargo space is merely adequate at 25 and 58 cubic feet with second row up and down, respectively, and understand that’s less than a similar E63 wagon. But for those of us who think we need an SUV to “haul stuff” (even though we rarely do) the Cadillac wagon is a nice alternative.
My father also had a 1959 Chevrolet Kingswood wagon with the rear-facing third row seat, blue and used like this one, and it was the bomb to roll down the highway staring down Think there are still Volvos, Mercedes, Teslas, and even Ford Taurus wagons out there with these cool rear facing seats.
Enough beating around the bush. The best reason to buy a Cadillac CTS-V is the huge 6.2 liter, supercharged V-8 motor rated at 556 horsepower. With the six-speed automatic, the Cadillac hits 60 mph in 4.7 seconds. I’m sure it sounds badass through it all.
The reason to get THIS 11 year old Cadillac CTS-V wagon is because it has only 11,000 miles on it. (If my arithmetic skills serve me right that’s….1,000 miles a year?) Find this 2012 Cadillac CTS-V here. It was reserved in Irvine, California and is now on its way to Oxnard for another test drive. It’s selling for $69,998, sadly that’s more than it sold for new. MaxCare? Why not, and run this wagon hard until it breaks. And someday I may have to pick up a wagon myself in memory of my Dad.
Stock No: 24619391 VIN: 1G6DV8EPXC0156237
