CTS: Answering Your Interior Questions

By Eric Clough | Director of Design, Cadillac Interiors

Thank you to all who responded about the new CTS interior. I appreciate the feedback and enthusiasm. I’d like to answer a few of your questions and topics that have been posted here on FastLane.

Radio and screen
The radio is usable with the navigation screen retracted. In fact, the only time the full screen is necessary is for nav use.

Wood
The Sapele wood is a species of African mahogany and is nursery grown for consistency, sustainability and to avoid rainforest depletion.

Serviceability
One of the most challenging requirements we have designing interiors is ease of assembly and service. As was noted, cars in general are easier to assemble and disassemble than ever before. We try to eliminate as many screws as possible, since every one is labor and time intensive and prone to marring the surrounding surface during installation. Unlike aircraft, which are largely fabricated (machined and bolted together), cars have the luxury of higher production volume which affords more sophisticated tooling and manufacturing techniques so we can hide the fasteners, reduce the errors and improve the quality at the same time.

Park brake location
Not having a handbrake in the center console was a conscious decision to enable dual cup holders and air ducting to reach the rear passenger outlets. An electric park brake will be in the car starting in model year 2009, located just behind the shifter. It was unfortunately not fully developed in time for this launch, but along with the obvious interior space-saving benefit, will also be lighter than the mechanical system it replaces.

French Stitching
French stitching is a type of seam that has a line of stitching on both sides of the seam. The excess material from each piece being joined is folded back under and secured by the lines of stitching. This keeps the seam flat and greatly improves the quality of the surface because the excess can’t wobble back and forth underneath.

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Awesome! Not having an electronic parking brake would have been incredibly stupid when many other lesser vehicles have one.

Any word on whether the electronic parking brake will offer a hill-hold feature? It's incredibly useful for parking on a hill, especially with manual transmission cars.

Still sounds lame. I'll take the elegant simplicity of the hand brake in my BMW.

My 1983 Subaru GL 5 speed had a hill-holder feature...loved it! Push in clutch pedal, then push brake pedal and the hill-holder would engage. My dad's 1986 Subaru XT Turbo 4wd had it too.

and thus ended the 180 spin into reverse... sad day for motoring everywhere.

Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is an "electronic parking brake?" I would be happy if Cadillac went back to the "Automatic parking brake release" (as in my 1971 Eldorado Convertible--it simply releases automatically as the gear selector is placed in gear).

It was a little bit disappointing to see the manual parking brake location on the 2008 CTS, similar to on my 2003 CTS, somewhat too close to the hood release lever. However, that won't stop me from getting a 2008 CTS--a GREAT car!

Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is an "electronic parking brake?" I would be happy if Cadillac went back to the "Automatic parking brake release" (as in my 1971 Eldorado Convertible--it simply releases automatically as the gear selector is placed in gear).

It was a little bit disappointing to see the manual parking brake location on the 2008 CTS, similar to on my 2003 CTS, somewhat too close to the hood release lever. However, that won't stop me from getting a 2008 CTS--a GREAT car!

Pretty sure they mean no cable running from the handle/pedal to the brake caliper in the rear, but just a by-wire setup for it. I would think it may well have the auto-release like you're talking about, or it could easily be added for a later model year if they didn't think of it.

I hope there'll be an E-brake of the conventional sort in the CTS-V though.

This car is a winner in every way. And kudos to GM for getting the new CTS as the car the nutjob new neighbors use on Desperate Housewives.

So if the battery is dead the parking break doesn't work?

not sure if i like that...

So if the battery is dead the parking break doesn't work?

not sure if i like that...

maybe they made it as a fail safe type... if power goes out it'll automatically engage.

maybe they made it as a fail safe type... if power goes out it'll automatically engage.

Well that sucks too. What if your any reason you have to push your car? For example, the CTS is parked behind your other car.

Pretty sure they mean no cable running from the handle/pedal to the brake caliper in the rear, but just a by-wire setup for it. I would think it may well have the auto-release like you're talking about, or it could easily be added for a later model year if they didn't think of it.

The article tells everyone that they will not put a handle because it will break up the beautiful design. They are going to put some type of button. Further more I would stop speculating about how the system will not work in hypothetical situations when you really do not know how it will work in full at all.

Well that sucks too. What if your any reason you have to push your car? For example, the CTS is parked behind your other car.

well .. unless they make a switch that can make it both ways.. wait.. if it's parked behind your other car, you'd hope it'd be on,... well if it was on a hill at all. lol

otherwise... jack, wheel dollies, unjack, push. lol

I'm sure there is some sort of safeguard if power supply gets low.

Doesn't Jaguar use it in the S-type? How does that system work?