Cadillac is kind of hurting right now. Like the crash dieter who just binged after spending years reorganizing their habits for a healthier lifestyle, GM's luxury brand is having a hard time justifying the cost of its recent reinvention. The agile bargains bearing CTS and ATS badges simply aren't selling as hot as the General was hoping they would, and even the go-fast V variants are lagging behind sales of the hugely appealing BMW M and Mercedes-AMG lineups.

In hopes of appealing to the lovers of speed who have chubby wallets, Cadillac has just sprinkled some more gearhead bait onto its V-ified Caddies. Of course that enticement comes in the form of the sixth element on the periodic table baked to perfection. Behold, the Carbon Black Sport Package. Introduced for both the 2017 ATS and CTS, the package provides visual enhancements to all ATS and CTS models, sedans and coupes, slowpokes and V models alike. For the ATS, the package adds swathes of black everywhere, including the grille, door handles, side window moldings, wheels, and carbon fiber interior trim. The package adds a V-series spoiler (in black of course) as well as black Recaro seats up front.

The CTS gets all of these extras save for the door handles, window moldings, and the Recaro seats ( an optional extra). V models of each car will get additional goodies thanks to the Carbon Fiber Package. These include aerodynamic upgrades like a rear diffuser, a more hardcore front splitter, a taller rear spoiler in carbon fiber for the CTS-V and body color in the ATS-V, and a hood vent trim. Problematically, opting for the Carbon Black Sport Package actually cuts down paint options to four on the ATS, five on the ATS-V, and four on both the CTS and CTS-V. Still worse is that the packages are not the revamp that Cadillac needs to pick up sales. Instead of investing money here, it needs to delineate itself from the competition instead of trying to mimic it.