Cadillac BLS Wagon

Our verdict

Cadillac’s BLS Wagon really isn’t a bad thing – it looks fine and drives perfectly acceptably. But you’d be willfull to go for one of these over a more rounded European car – especially as it’s not actually that big as an estate car.

Comfort

Soft-ish suspension means that the BLS is pretty good comfort-wise. The seats are fine, the wind noise is fine, the tyre roar is, er, fine. You get the picture.

Performance

You can have a 1.9-litre diesel with either 148 or 178bhp, and either are pretty good, but nothing compared to the new generation of turbodiesels. There’s also a 2.0-litre petrol with a turbocharger that comes in a couple of flavours too; 173bhp and 210bhp. The 178bhp diesel and the smaller petrol get identical performance figures; both hit 62mph in 8.7 seconds and 137mph top speed. The top motor is a 2.8-litre V6 with 255bhp that gives 0-62mph in 6.7 and a top-end of 155mph – but in a front-drive barge, who really wants to?

Cool

At least the BLS is a bit different. And if you’re existing in the murky, grey-on-grey world of door-to-door drug sales and fuelled exclusively on ‘Welcome Break’ chicken ceasar wraps and cheap coffee, you might as well take everything you can get. At least you can say you drive a Caddy.

Quality

Built by Saab, so the build quality is up to European standards, but nothing special here. Boredom will strike early and hard. In fact, it’s hard to keep away…

Handling

The BLS is based on the Saab 9-3. Which was based on the Vectra. Which was a Cavalier with some tweaks. Not exactly cutting-edge then, but with the advantage of being refined over some time so that it should be reliable. It’s a touch soft and understeer pops up pretty early, but it’s not embarrassing.

Practicality

The problem with the BLS Wagon is that it isn’t actually that big. Seats up you’re looking at 419-litres of space (something like a BMW 3-Series has 520-litres), and seats folded you’re looking at 1273-litres. A Mondeo has 1685-litres seats down, which makes it look daft.

Running costs

All the petrol engines have relatively poor economy and the insurance groups are stunningly, stupidly high – all group 15 and up. Best is the smaller diesel, worst is the mid-20mpg V6. It’s not a good look.