4-cylinder Cadillac compact sedan to come to the U.S. in 2010

Cadillac’s General Manager Jim Taylor recently confirmed that the next generation BLS sedan, which currently is available only in Europe will make it also be available to US customers in 2010. So far, Cadillac hasn’t decided on a name for the car, which will be placed right under the CTS in the range and it also hasn’t decided whether to offer the car with a V6 unit besides the 4-cylinder engine.

“There is a big debate as to whether it is four only. I think that is a bridge too far,” Jim Taylor said, quoted by Automotive News. “There is a piece of the team who is thinking, ‘Well, with this whole fuel economy and gas thing, we ought to go all the way, say, to fours.’ We are resisting that at this stage.”

The current BLS is not very successful in Europe, first of all because it’s built on the outdated Saab 9-3 platform and because Cadillac suffers from poor brand image compared to its German rivals, the BMW 3 Series or the Audi A4. The upcoming BLS will probably be based on a rear-wheel-drive shortened version of the Zeta platform and will be available in Europe too.