Car Spot: 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Wagon

Much more than just a grocery-getter …

As a kid, we had one car and one station wagon. Both AMC’s of course. If you drove down any street in America you would see the same scene repeated in many garages. Then the minivans came and station wagons were no more. Well almost no more. A few manufacturers kept making them, some faster than a sports sedan like my spot this week, a 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Wagon.

This one is another example of a god among car guys, Bob Lutz, who while GM Vice Chairman in 2009 expressed openness to the idea of building a performance wagon, stating that if demand warranted it, there was no reason why they couldn’t produce a V-Series wagon. At the 2010 New York Auto Show General Motors showed the public a five-door sport wagon variant of the CTS-V. Sharing many features with the CTS-V sedan and coupe, the CTS-V wagon boasted a powerful 6.2-liter supercharged V8 factory rated at 556 horsepower and 551 pound-feet of torque engine based on the LS9 V8 from the Corvette ZR1 and paired with a six-speed manual or automatic transmission. Also on the list of standard equipment were Magnetic Ride Control, Brembo brakes, 19-inch aluminum wheels, with performance tires, and a distinctive dual-airflow grille. This grocery-getter had a 0-60 time in 4.0 seconds, the CTS-V wagon also showed off its performance capabilities with a quarter-mile time of 11.97 seconds at just under 117 mph. Top speed? It’s a whopping 185 mph!

The CTS wagon was not considered a success in sales and was discontinued when the 3rd generation CTS was released in 2014. Out of the roughly 2,000 CTS-V Wagons produced, only about 514 of them were equipped with a manual transmission, making the CTS-V Wagon a future collectible based on its unique body style, powerful engine, and stick shift setup.

When the model debuted in 2011, it was based just under $63K, $88K in 24 dollars, and today according to Hagerty in #1 Concours condition will go for just over $56K. Prices almost double for the following years to $101K with the highly sought-after six-speed manual transmission bumping up that number. It represents the end of an era, the final battle cry for the street-fighting, tire-smoking old-school wagon combined with SUV-like practicality, stand-out luxury, rear-wheel drive fun, and low-slung handling into one unique package.

Thanks for stopping by and reading about this fun grocery-getter spot. Come back next Friday for another one along with some of its history. Have a great weekend.