If you’re in the market for a big, used luxury car with a big engine, you’re probably going to look at BMW or Mercedes first, and if you’re worried about reliability, maybe Lexus. Odds are, the idea to look at a heavily depreciated Cadillac wouldn’t even cross your mind unless you had a thing for the CTS-V back in the day. The STS-V, like this 2007 that’s for sale on Cars & Bids, on the other hand, has been largely forgotten, and that means you can get a heck of a deal on one of the best sleepers built in the last 25 years.
That’s because the STS-V hides a supercharged V8 under the hood that makes 469 horsepower and 439 pound-feet of torque. You could find cars with more torque at the time, but it was still the most powerful car that Cadillac had ever produced. When MotorTrend tested it back in the day, it hit 60 mph in 5.3 seconds and ran a 13.9-second quarter-mile, which really isn’t bad for a rear-wheel-drive luxury sedan that’s nearly 20 years old and stuck with an automatic transmission.
Will you be hunting M5s and E55 AMGs behind the wheel of the STS-V? Probably not. Despite the powertrain, chassis improvements and big brakes, it was no M5. And yet, what you do get is the promise of complete anonymity. The Light Platinum paint, Ebony interior, chrome accents and Cadillac badge all work together to ensure absolutely no one notices you’re driving anything interesting unless some actually knows what you’re driving. Even the dual chrome exhaust tips don’t look particularly sporty.
How many performance cars with more than 400 hp could you actually drive without anyone noticing? The list isn’t long, but if that’s your thing, it’s hard to think of a better choice than the STS-V. Especially if you can get it for less than $10,000.
