I’m always on the look-out for features in cars that impress me and make me think it must be new and novel. In a few cases, I’ve come to realize the feature has been around a little while, but that doesn’t negate the fact that it’s worth investigating.
For me, the Cadillac CT4 is a surprisingly sleek and nimble sedan, in an age when sedans are hard to come by. Most of us seem to prefer crossovers these days and trucks — probably because of the storage and handling on winter roads in my area, but also for the cargo capacity and for hauling our boats and campers. The CT4 can’t do any of those things, but it hugs the corner when you drive and has plenty of tech features to boot.
One of my favorites is the customizable driver display, which is called the Display Theme. You can switch between Tour and Sport modes. In Sport mode, you see the RPM indicator and the redline markers in a more pronounced way with the speed showing in the center as a digital read-out. In Tour mode, you see a throwback to the days when a speedometer was a mechanical device. (The speed is shown in an analog way and as a digital readout.)
It’s fun to switch between them depending on how you want to drive. In Tour mode, the display is a bit more spacious with room for settings on the right to explore and the time and temp on the left. In Sport mode, the red indicator is a bit more compact and there’s room to see the MPG rating and PSI for oil.
During my week-long test, I switched between them often just to match my current driving mode. I imagined that Cadillac is possibly going to add more custom modes in future versions of the CT4, such as economy mode (which would show more info about range and how you are driving plus energy usage) or perhaps a simplified mode that just shows your speed and not much else.
Switching modes is also quite easy, after going through the menus and selecting the Display Theme option. I would have preferred an even easier way to switch, such as a toggle on the steering column.
In Sport mode, it was handy to be able to see the RPM level since I tend to push the vehicle a little and punch it off the starting block (also known as a stop-sign). In Tour mode, this is not as important to see especially in my case as I drove around a downtown area.
Future versions might even sense how you are driving over time and offer to switch to that display view. If the CT4 senses you are driving faster and punching the accelerator, it might suggest using Sport mode. If you are driving carefully and trying to conserve fuel, it might offer to show the economy display mode (which does not currently exist).
Overall, I like the digital read-outs and the design, since it helped me drive in the mode I wanted to use and keep an eye on the settings I was most interested in seeing. Did I actually redline the CT4 during my testing period? Only me and the on-board computer know that for sure.
