CadillacCtsWagon

Put your checkbook away. As desirable as a CTS wagon in hot-rod V trim is, it's not here yet. The CTS Sport Wagon was developed as a way to offer the European market a configuration that's sure to sell, and it's headed to North America by the end of next year. When the Caddy wagon finally gets here, it will have the excellent 3.6-liter V6 providing power. Wagons aren't great sellers here, though, so the CTS Sport Wagon will likely be a niche model, dashing most of our hope that Cadillac will put its hottest powertrain in the two-box car just like BMW, Mercedes and Audi do.

Click above for high-res gallery of the Cadillac Sport Wagon

Please note the spelling, this a Cadillac and not a VW, therefore it's "Sport Wagon" rather than "SportWagen". What we have here is the result of a fission reaction on the Cadillac SRX. Seeing that the current "neither fish nor fowl" SRX crossover wasn't cutting it in the marketplace, General Motors' "Art and Science" brand has split its only CUV into two distinct vehicles. The old SRX was based on the CTS' Sigma platform but looked too car-like to be considered an SUV. At the same time it rode too high to be a car. Buyers who might have liked the wagon utility of the old SRX but are enamored with the style of the new CTS can now opt for the CTS Sport Wagon.

Click above for a high-res gallery of the Cadillac CTS Wagon.

Cadillac's product onslaught will continue with another iteration of the CTS that takes aim at the Kraut-wagons from Mercedes and BMW. The CTS wagon will debut in 2009 and will be sold worldwide, and it's expected that the CTS coupe will debut later that year.

For three weeks in a row, now, we've brought you a new Autoblog Podcast courtesy of the B-Team. Here's episode #96 of the Autoblog Podcast, where Chris Shunk, Sam Abuelsamid, and Dan Roth kibbitz over some morsels of recent news. There's the requisite trip to the Autoblog Garage to start things off, then we move into actual discussion points like the CTS Wagon, a gasp of life on the Ford Ranger front, the massive confusion around Cerberus and Chrysler, and Hyundai's nose-thumbing at Toyota's hybrid technology. Remember to send in questions, comments, and suggestions for ways to mark the passing of upcoming episode #100 to podcast at autoblog dawt com.

Click above for high-res gallery of Cadillac CTS Wagon spy shots