2016 Cadillac CT6 launches the $12 billion Cadillac comeback

It's wrong to call Cadillac's attempt to break into the top echelon of European luxury brands "Sisyphean." In the Greek myth, the tricky king cursed to roll a boulder up a hill forever finds it slipping away just as it reaches the crest. In its case, Cadillac has kept the rock rolling — it's just the hill that's grown steeper.

Proof of that arrived tonight in the shape of the 2016 Cadillac CT6, a new flagship sedan for General Motors' luxury arm and the tip of a $12 billion flurry of eight models arriving by 2020. Billed as the most advanced vehicle ever bolted — or in its case, laser-welded and glued together — by GM, the new sedan will sport up to 400 hp and new technology like four-wheel steering and a 34-speaker stereo system.

In a realm where Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi dominate, Cadillac has main some gains, but not as much as GM has hoped. Staring from the original CTS sedan unveiled in 2002, a car meant to atone for engineering crimes like the Cimarron, Cadillac has steadily built a stable of dynamically accomplished sedans and popular full-size SUVs. What it hasn't built is an audience; sales in 2014 were down 6.5 percent to in a growing market, as those German automakers threw a parade of new models at American buyers. More importantly, Cadillac's efforts to charge near-German prices rather than the discount many buyers demanded ran into static from dealers.

The CT6 represents the first model under new Cadillac chief Johan de Nysschen aimed at reversing some of those trends. Built on a whole new chassis, the CT6 has the wheelbase of a large luxury sedan — like the BMW 750i — but the overall size, and more importantly weight, of a midsize car like the Mercedes-Benz E-Class. Between all aluminum body panels and a part-aluminum chassis, the CT6 weighs less than 3,700 lbs., or roughly 200 lbs. less than it would have if made traditionally.