The New Cadillac GTS in Japan

In the July 2008 issue of Automobile magazine, there is an article about how the North American made Cadillac GTS handles in Japan's winter. The author takes a road trip to the northern part of Honshuu, the main island, after picking up the lastest North American import car from a dealership in Tokyo. The timing for the test drive / roadtrip would have been the week following the 2008 Superbowl after the crushing defeat of the Patriots at the hands of the wild card team, New York Giants whose quarterback is that "other Manning brother". Can you tell which team I was rooting for?

The article is hilarious. If you've never been to Japan and want to get a foreigner's first impression of how things, life, culture, food are perceived, then this is one of the most humourous ways to learn about it. This is my third visit to the land of the rising sun, but my first prolonged visit. One might even classify this as a 'stay'. So most things, events, perceptions, rituals about Japanese life won't surprise me at this point.

One of the best things about the article is that while you may start off in Tokyo, the writer/driver takes you, and his photographer friend, through the highways and smaller roadways of northern Honshuu, right up to Aomori prefecture and back. There are incidents with cops and flashing lights and racing with other high end cars (or rather more high end racing cars) and restaurants masquarading as inns, a situation with a love hotel, some nomenclature confusion about ken versus shi, and other normal and not-so-normal gaijin experiences.

In the midst of all these events and incidences, the author never fails to mention how the Cadillac GTS, and its onboard Japanese speaking NAV system, impresses or fails to impress him. The standard GTS comes with all weather tires. But it's apparent that the author wanted winter tires.

Cadillac obviously doesn't expect to sell a lot of these babies in Japan, since they don't put the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car and they are actually selling the version with the steering wheel on the left hand side. It's a wonder the NAV system even comes in Japanese. Or rather only in Japanese as the writer laments.

At the end of the day, the hero and his photographer friend manage to wreak a little havoc, disrupt a few love lives (perhaps for the good), get into a near run-in with the law, and see how a vehicle without all-wheel-drive operates in snowy, northern Japan in the middle of January.

Even if you don't read Automobile magazine on a regular basis, stop into one of the bookstores that have a list of English language magazines for sale and check out the article. It's funny. And you'll be glad you did. For those of you that love visuals, there are tonnes of photos.

For the record, my husband subscribes to the magazine and he leaves it lying about the apartment in strategic places so that I might read it or put it away. Usually, it's the latter.