Start with what the Cadillac DTS is: a 4-door sedan / 4-door limousine with 4.6 L Northstar LD8 V8, built from 2005 to 2011, in the decade of stability control, dual-clutch gearboxes and the first serious hybrids. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Bryan Nesbitt.
Where it came from
The Cadillac DTS (an initialism of DeVille Touring Sedan) is a full-size car that was built by the American company Cadillac from 2005 until May 2011. It is a four-door sedan that comes in five- or six-seat variants. The DTS debuted at the 2005 Chicago Auto Show and was manufactured at GM's Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly factory.
It uses GM's G-platform for front-engine, front-wheel-drive automobiles. The DTS was a mildly revised iteration of the eighth-generation Deville, using the brand's new naming convention, set by the CTS and STS. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, noted reviewer Warren Brown called the DTS "a large, exceptionally comfortable front-wheel-drive luxury sedan."
Under the skin
The engine is 4.6 L Northstar LD8 V8; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 4009 lb. Drive goes through a 4-speed 4T80 automatic. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 115.6 in (SWB) / 123.6 in (LWB). These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
In the Cadillac line-up the Cadillac DTS has a clear place: it replaced the Cadillac DeVille; it handed the line to the Cadillac XTS; the factory was Hamtramck, Michigan. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Aston Martin Vantage, the Bugatti Veyron, the Audi Q7. Nearby in the Cadillac catalogue sit the Cadillac 353 and the Cadillac ATS.
Owning one today
Buying one now means $17,700–$25,400 for a typical example, and running it — fuel and maintenance at its age — costs about $5,147–$6,772 a year. Insurance sits around $1,860–$2,850 a year. The figures are class-level estimates from the federal record, with the formula on the methodology page; the model-year pages carry complaints, recalls and repair costs year by year.