By Chris Haak
Let’s say you really like your job. It pays well, the commute isn’t too long, you like the people you work with, the company is stable, you have a supportive boss, and you’re doing meaningful work. If I told you that you could have the same job, but with 82 percent more pay, would you take it? What if that 82 percent pay raise required another six years of education and some professional certification, and carried a higher tax bracket? Would you still take that job – which would have all of the good stuff your current job has, but more money?
That’s basically what someone like me, the owner of a 2008 Cadillac CTS with the 3.6 liter direct-injection V6 encounters when pondering the CTS-V. Instead of 82 percent more salary, the V dangles 82 percent more horsepower (556 instead of 304). Instead of six more years of education and professional certification, it carries a $15,775 price premium over a “regular” CTS coupe, plus a $1,300 gas guzzler tax. Completing the metaphor, the higher tax bracket would be the abysmal fuel economy of the CTS-V (12 city/18 highway rather than 18 city/27 highway in the 3.6 liter V6 car) which you’ll pay every time you hit the gas pump and fill its tank with premium unleaded But boy, is that 82 percent more money – I mean, horsepower – ever something to behold.
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