At $37,890 The 2020 Cadillac CT5 Hopes To Compete With The Europeans By Being Dirt Cheap

The Cadillac CT5 has a big job ahead of it as the successor to CTS, the nameplate that arguably brought GM's flagship brand into the modern era. But as good as the CTS was, it didn't sell well enough, and now it's time for the CT5 to try to fix that issue. Luckily, the new sedan has an ace up its sleeve: a dirt cheap starting price.

The 2020 Cadillac CT5 will come in three trims: Luxury, Premium Luxury, and Sport. In rear-drive guise, those will start at $37,890, $41,690, and $42,690, respectively. For the lowest and highest trims, all-wheel drive adds another $2,600, while the Premium Luxury trim requires $3,090 to send power to all four wheels.

All three trims come standard with a 237 horsepower, 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four mated to a 10-speed automatic. Premium Luxury adds some nice features like leather seats over the base Luxury model, and the Sport trim gets performance brakes and sporty appearance bits. Here's a look at the differences in the three CT5 variants:

In its press release, Cadillac mentions that the CT5 is bigger than the BMW 3 Series, Mercedes C-Class, and Audi A4. And indeed, looking at the dimensions, the Cadillac actually seems to be closer to the size of a 5 Series than to that of a 3er.

In any case, the CT5's base price is much, much lower than either of those two. The new BMW 3 series—which makes 255 HP from its 2.0-liter turbo engine mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission—starts at $41,245. The larger 5 Series, which makes 248 HP in its base 530i trim, starts at $54,395, and it's less than an inch longer, only an inch taller, and actually over a half an inch narrower than the Caddy.

The four-cylinder turbo 255-HP Mercedes C-Class and 188-HP Audi A4 that Cadillac mentions as its competitors are more expensive at $42,395 and $40,195, respectively. And while we're on the topic of "things that are more expensive than a base CT5," there's the outgoing 268 HP four-cylinder CTS, which was nearly two inches longer, but commanded a price of $47,990.

Heck, even the outgoing 272 HP four-cylinder 2019 ATS, which was significantly smaller (nearly a full 10 inches shorter) started at $39,990, so the CT5 truly does seem to be bringing Cadillac's sedan lineup downmarket. And that seems like a smart move for Cadillac—a brand that still has a lot of convincing to do.