2005 Cadillac STS SAE100 Concept

Cadillac Test Vehicle Brings New Meaning to the Term "Fully Loaded"

General Motors Corp. rolled out a modified Cadillac STS on Monday, April 11 at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) centenary

General Motors Corp. rolled out a specially modified Cadillac STS on Monday, April 11. (Photo: General Motors of Canada)

celebrations during its 2005 SAE World Congress at Detroit's Cobo Hall, which could be a harbinger of things to come in the premium vehicle segment.

After all, other than standard luxury fare such as leather seats and trim, wood and metal accents, automatic dual-zone climate control and powerful drivetrains, features which are starting to become standard and optional equipment on flagship models of entry-level brands such as the popular Chrysler 300C, new Toyota Avalon and upcoming Hyundai Azera, premium carmakers such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Cadillac have to stretch their creative engineering muscle to titillate their well-healed clientele.

For this reason General Motors' oldest and best known premium division has

General Motors' has equipped its rolling test lab vehicle, dubbed STS SAE100, with options that bring new meaning to the term "fully loaded." (Photo: General Motors of Canada)

equipped its rolling test lab vehicle, dubbed STS SAE100, with options that bring new meaning to the term "fully loaded." Would seats that vibrate in order to trigger a driver's attention be of interest to you? How about cupholders that keep drinks hot or cold?

The latter item is already available in Nissan's least expensive SUV, the X-Trail, simply managed by feeding a heat/air conditioning vent through the two cupholders on each outside corner of the dash. But vibrating seats sound more relaxing than alarming, unless they're accompanied by the odd electric jolt to shock a driver back to reality.

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