Cadillac has drawn the line. If you want a CT4-V Blackwing, you have until April 20th to place an order. After that, the best compact sports sedan wearing a wreath and crest — arguably the best compact sports sedan wearing any badge — disappears from the configurator forever.
Cadillac Vice President John Roth confirmed that the entire CT4 lineup reaches end of production by June 2026. The Blackwing, with its twin-turbo 3.6-liter V6 making 472 horsepower, its available six-speed manual, and its razor-sharp dynamics built on GM’s Alpha 2 platform — the same bones that underpinned the Chevrolet Camaro — goes with it.
There are roughly 1,680 CT4 models sitting on dealer lots across the country right now. If you want a specific build, particularly a manual-equipped Blackwing, the math gets ugly fast. Custom orders must be submitted before that April 20th cutoff.
Car & Driver has named the CT4-V Blackwing to its 10Best list every year since 2022, calling it “a real all-rounder” that is “athletic yet cultured.” That kind of sustained praise for any car is rare. For a Cadillac, it borders on miraculous.
The thing hits 60 mph in four seconds, carves corners with genuine precision, and still works as a daily commuter with heated seats and a civilized ride. It is, by almost every measure, a perfectly balanced performance sedan. And Cadillac is killing it to make room for what comes next.
The replacement CT5 is expected to be a larger sedan that tilts hard toward luxury rather than track capability. Cadillac’s broader roadmap leans heavily on electric SUVs and land yachts — the brand introduced the IQ Escalade this year at 228.5 inches long and a starting price north of $130,400. The three-row Vistiq is joining the lineup, and the company is targeting an all-electric portfolio by 2030.
We’re building the best Cadillacs we’ve ever built,” Roth said.
That’s one way to frame it. Another way: Cadillac finally built a sports sedan that earned universal respect from the most demanding automotive critics on the planet, then pulled the plug because the margins on six-figure SUVs are fatter.
This is the same pattern playing out across the American auto industry. Smaller, more affordable, more engaging cars keep getting axed in favor of larger, more expensive machines that fewer people can actually buy. The logic works only if you squint at the sales charts and ignore the millions of buyers priced out of new-car showrooms entirely.
When a $20,000 car doesn’t exist anymore, the $130,000 truck looks popular by default.
Cadillac’s bet is that wealthy buyers will keep writing checks for electric Escalades and oversized luxury crossovers. Maybe they will. The brand has certainly found a lane where Chinese competitors aren’t building 19-foot-long electric trucks — at least not yet.
But the CT4-V Blackwing represented something Cadillac spent decades trying and failing to build: a genuine performance car that could stand next to a BMW M3 or Mercedes-AMG C 63 and not flinch. It took them years to earn that credibility. They’re walking away from it in weeks.
April 20th. That’s the date. If you’ve been waiting, the waiting is over — one way or another.
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