THE CADILLAC ATS VS JAGUAR XE

When you go about comparing the Cadillac ATS to the Jaguar XE, you quickly realize you're in the middle of an Old Vs. New fight. The luxury of old stands before new competitors, but will it pass the test and defend its title? Let's take each car individually and see...

It's only polite to start things off with the contender and let the defending Champion of luxury to go last, so let's talk about the ATS.

Cadillac's small luxury-sedan looks every bit like a 2019 car should look like on the outside. Sharp lines that give it a subdued aggressive demeanor make the ATS look modern-sleek. As soon as you step inside though, the good vibes turn great. You'll find an impeccable interior where only high-end quality materials are used to give out a lavish look and feel. You almost feel spoiled as you sit down in the perfectly chiseled driver's seat and look at the impeccable craftsmanship of the dash.

It also helps that Caddy took the opportunity of a generous building budget for the ATS to garnish even the most basic of models with a ton of standard features. In a market segment where manufacturers strive to outdo each other in terms of luxury Cadillac took no chances and managed to deliver as much as possible at ATS's price level so you'll find that even the entry-level model is fitted with an 8-inch touchscreen, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, a Wifi hotspot, numerous USB ports, and an excellent Bose sound system.

Having secured the "luxury" bracket of its classification, the ATS then excels at powertrains. Three options are available that start with the 4-cylinder 272 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque producing standard-engine, continue with the naturally aspirated 3.6-liter V-6 and end with the massively powerful twin-turbocharged V6 engine that cranks out 464 horsepower. All of the three make for a great driving experience as the ATS is agile and nimble even with its base-engine. The absolute joy of driving this model comes if you order the ATS-V though that's going to be fitted with the twin-turbo V6. It makes the car one of the best options in its, and at the risk of spoiling the article's ending, it blows the Jaguar XE out of the water.

Speak of the devil... the old-school cool brand, Jaguar, has had some difficult times lately trying to stay relevant in the modern age. It won some battles with a few of its models, but it also lost quite a few and today is a case of the former, unfortunately. The XE looks dusty even when it's brand new, the outside has too much of that below-the-radar look almost all British cars seem to go for. You feel no joy seeing it, and things get worse when you get inside. The XE has to have one of, is not the most boring interiors in its market segment. It feels as if it was designed for last century's royalty, an aesthetic relic that's embarrassing to watch today. This is when you look at the car without comparing it with another one. If you bring the impeccable and lively ATS into the mix, the Jaguar XE looks even duller. There's simply no contest here even though you get a standard 10-inch touchscreen display as compared to the 8-inch for the ATS.

Engine choices are also bleak in comparison to the American car. Here you would have expected the difference though as it is obvious that Cadillac has put a lot of emphasis on power. The only point where you can compare the driving experience between the two cars is the Jaguar's top-of-the-range supercharged V6 that can reach 60 mph from a standstill in as little as 4.9 seconds, but for that performance you'd have to shed some serious cash, making the purchase not justifiable in the end.

To sum up, comparing the XE with the ATS, you feel like it's a contest between a has-been and an up-and-coming young athlete. Jaguar certainly has some models on the market today that make the brand legacy proud, but XE is not one of them. A dusty, forgotten look in and out plus an unimpressive list of features and mediocre engine choices keep the XE well below the ATS for the moment. With some love and care things might change, but for the moment the new outperforms the old by an embarrassing margin.