One of the very first vehicles that I ever drove in Canada was a Cadillac.

Oh yes, a white Eldorado Biarritz convertible, with a white roof and white interior, talk about a pose-mobile! No, I wasn't a stand-in driver for Boss Hog of the Dukes of Hazard fame, it actually belonged to a friend of mine.

Now when I say "friend of mine", what I actually mean is, he owned a local British pub in the Manitoba town which I lived in, and as he liked his beer even more than I do, I often had to jump behind the bar, serve his customers, call "last orders", then lock up and drive him home! (Mind you, when I wasn't doing that, he did let me drink there for free. For a youngster, that was the deal of the century!!!).

Of course, he was much older than me. I was 19-20 or so, and he was over sixty. Well, back in those days one had to produce a pension book before they would actually sell you a Cadillac! At least that's how it seemed to me!

Of course, the years roll by and things change. We now have computerized fridges, hospitals that perform open-heart surgery on a day release basis, and someone even went and invented something called Viagra!

Oh, how things have changed for the older folk of today, but what must be the single biggest surprise for them is the average age of today's Cadillac driver.

The famous North American luxury car manufacturer, who was once famed for building floating gin palaces that took up half a city block, has transformed itself into one of the coolest vehicle manufacturers on the planet. In fact, very little resemblance to the old-school Cadillac's is to be seen in the current line-up, and some look as if they've stepped straight out of the future.

The 2008 CTS is just one of such vehicles. First introduced in 2002 as a 2003 model, its sharp distinctive lines were a major departure for the company, and I'm sure that several customers took a double-take when they first saw it.

It perhaps also gave some of the other brands a few grey hairs, as it placed the Cadillac brand squarely into their market segment.

I'm not joking here. I'm talking about companies like BMW, Audi, Jaguar, and several of the high-end Japanese manufacturers who, never in their wildest dreams, expected to be in sports sedan competition with a company like Cadillac!

Well, now they are, and with the 08 CTS starting at under $40,000, I'd say that they deserve to be a little nervous.