Jun 14, 2023
A red 2024 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing is shown parked in a garage near an Cadillac dealer serving Owatonna.

If you’ve been thinking about diving into buying a Cadillac or looking to spruce up your travel accommodations by adding a luxury sedan to your fleet of vehicles that you’ve been collecting (or expanding) over the years, two very popular options from Cadillac are the CT4 and CT5. They’re gorgeous sedans of the compact and midsize variety, but which 2024 model do you go with? Well, before you can decide what you’re going to purchase from a Cadillac dealer serving Owatonna, like Snell Cadillac, you might first want to get a breakdown of what each model has to offer.

When it comes to the 2024 Cadillac CT4 and Cadillac CT5, they offer some very distinctive features for different kinds of car shoppers. But what separates these two exceptional sedans? Why would you want to go with one over the other? And what are the benefits that each one has that makes them worthwhile? Well, we’ll break down the differences between the two 2024 model year sedans available from Cadillac, and you can decide which one best appeals to you after you get a full breakdown of what their features are like and where they excel in their respective market segments.

What Is the Cadillac CT4?

To better understand the differences between the CT4 and the CT5, it’s first important to understand what these vehicles are so the differences make more sense. When it comes to the Cadillac CT4, it’s a successor to the compact luxury sedan, the Cadillac ATS. The CT4 fulfills the role of being a compact luxury sedan that also comes in the performance variant known as the CT4 V-Series. The silhouette of the CT4 embodies more of a sedan notchback but with elements of a fastback that hearkens toward the sports-performance market segment, which adds a lot of appeal to the CT4. It rides on a 109-inch wheelbase and seats up to five people across two rows, with two captain chairs and a split bench in the second row.

A close-up shows the engine in a 2024 Cadillac CT5.

What Is the Cadillac CT5?

The Cadillac CT5 is the larger sibling of the CT4, and it is the successor to the highly popular midsize Cadillac CTS, which was the face of the Cadillac sedan brand since the early aughts. The CT5, however, embraces more of a midsize luxury-sports sedan role, as opposed to the more classical executive luxury-sedan role that the CTS embodied. This is most evident with the overall design of the CT5, which has an aerodynamic fastback silhouette instead of the notchback design of its predecessor, the CTS. The CT5 also seats five people across two rows but sits on a 116-inch wheelbase, offering more space and a larger frame than the CT4.

What Does the 2024 CT4 Have to Offer?

The 2024 Cadillac CT4 has a head-turning design and is available in multiple variants, including the CT4-V sports series and the CT4-V Blackwing Edition. These alternative models are designed for those who want a high-performance version of the CT4. The standard 2024 CT4 comes with a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline 4-cylinder that produces 237 hp at 258 lb-ft of torque and is paired with an 8-speed automatic. An alternative 2.7-liter turbocharged inline 4-cylinder is also available that offers 310 hp at 350 lb-ft of torque and is paired with a 10-speed automatic transmission.

The CT4 features up to 10.7 cu.ft. of cargo volume, the SMART driver assist system that comes with all sorts of standard driver safety assists, and Alexa Built-In for smart voice recognition, advanced navigation, wireless phone charging, and integrated smartphone support via an 8-inch HD touchscreen. The CT4 is available across five different models, including the Luxury, Premium Luxury, Sport, V-Series, and the V-Series Blackwing. You can get the CT4 in rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, and the Super Cruise feature is available on the higher-end trims.

What Does the 2024 CT5 Have to Offer?

For luxury midsize supremacy, the 2024 CT5 hits all its strides with flying colors. The CT5 is available with two different powertrains, much like the CT4. However, in addition to the 2.0-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder, an alternative 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V6 is available, giving you 335 hp at 405 lb-ft of torque. Both powertrains are married to a 10-speed automatic transmission.

The CT5 features up to 11.9 cu.ft. of cargo volume, comes with the SMART system for active driver assistance, and the available Cadillac User Experience for its infotainment suite, featuring Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration, wireless charging, and the Alexa Built-In system for navigation, voice recognition, and connectivity support. The Super Cruise feature is also available on higher-tier trims, and you get a 10-inch HD color touchscreen across the lineup.

A grey 2024 Cadillac CT4-V is shown at dusk.

Which 2024 Cadillac CT Model Should You Go With?

If you’re still unsure which model will best fit your driving needs, it’s sometimes best to assess which features you consider a priority. For instance, if you want a compact sedan with high-performance capabilities that is lightweight, zippy, and responsive, the CT4 hits the mark perfectly. You get a decent amount of interior space, great powertrain options, and if you want to scale up more towards the sport-performance categories, you have the CT4 V-Series and V-Series Blackwing to choose from.

However, if you want extra cargo capacity, a bit more interior room, and some more impressive infotainment features that come with higher performance scalability, there is the CT5. If you’re up for the price difference, you will have access to a slightly larger HD touchscreen, more cargo capacity behind the rear seats, and access to the twin-turbo V6, which gives you a lot more horsepower and torque to utilize either on the streets, the highway, or on the race track if that interests you.

Of course, the CT5 is slightly larger than the CT4, meaning it’s less nimble in handling by comparison, but only by a smidgen. For instance, the turning circle of the CT4 is 37.1 ft in rear-wheel drive, whereas the CT5 in rear-wheel drive is 39 ft by comparison. This means you get slightly more turning precision out of the CT4. However, if you like large wheels on your sedan, the CT4 only scales up to 19-inch alloy multi-spoke wheels, whereas the CT5 scales up to 20-inch multi-spoke alloy wheels available in the Diamond Sky Special Edition format, so that’s another thing to consider as well.

The differences aren’t huge, but they are distinctive enough to appeal to different kinds of sedan car shoppers. That’s the most important part about all of this: It’s not so much that one is better than the other, but more so that one appeals to those looking for something slightly smaller and sportier, and one appeals to those looking for something a little roomier with a bit more performance scaling.

Your budget, driving preferences, and the creature comforts that best appeal to you will determine which CT models are worth your investment. CT4 if you want a smaller sportier vehicle, and the CT5 if you want a midsize sedan with a lot of luxury appeal. If you need help further deciding, reach out to us at Snell Cadillac, and we’ll be more than happy to provide you with a test drive of both vehicles so you can make a more informed decision based on first-hand experience.