Tech

Dan says:

With the ATS, as with any other new Cadillac products, talk of tech pretty much boils down to one thing: the Cadillac User Experience interface, or “CUE”.

It’s a touch-and-talk setup: you can make use of the touchscreen or touch-sensitive console for your climate and infotainment needs, use the steering wheel buttons and gauge cluster readouts for audio and more, or try to decipher the voice command code phrases and particular intonations that this talking computer understands. Your experience with it really depends on how comfortable you are with touchscreens, and how much patience you have. I give Caddy credit for providing nice, big ‘buttons’ that are arrayed in a mostly logical manner.

However, while some tactile feedback is provided, it remains as difficult now as it’s ever been to determine whether an input has been received or not. Too often, I found myself sitting there, prodding the screen like a crazy person trying to get my destination entered into the navi system. Never before have I been so happy that so much of this can be avoided with voice commands. Takes a little while to learn those, though.

The Lexus takes a completely different tack, but one that breaks with the traditional knob and button setup almost as much as CUE does.

Instead of a touch screen or console panel, with the RC, you get a touchpad that works like a mouse would; the “cursor” on screen snaps to whichever button’s closest, and you click the pad, much like you would on an Apple laptop. It’s not bad, and it manages to reduce clutter while at the same time being fairly easy to use. It also has some decent haptic feedback that lets your finger know when it is locked on a menu item.

Our RC 350 tester’s $7,200 Executive Package, meanwhile, provides a power tilt & telescoping steering wheel (very nice; the Caddy’s is a manual set-up), 17-speaker Mark Levinson audio, lane departure alert, and dynamic cruise with pre-collision warning.

Performance

On paper, it’s almost a wash; both cars get naturally aspirated V6 engines, with the Cadillac’s 3.6 making 321 hp and 275 lb-ft of torque, the Lexus’s 3.5 good for 307 and 276. Both have all-wheel-drive systems mated to automatic transmissions with six speeds, although if you spec your RC with RWD, you get an eight-speed unit. Finally, both are around the same size, with the Lexus sitting a little narrower, but a little longer than the Caddy.

And, of course, both sit firmly in the junior executive segment, a spot normally reserved for the Germans. So there we go; back into uncharted waters again.

Just by looking at them, however, it’s hard to determine, really, which the better performer should be. The Lexus, with its big, straked bumper inlets? Or what about the ATS Coupe, whose stance looks so serious from behind? Both are pretty purposeful, and each manufacturer should be proud of what they’ve accomplished in this regard.

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