CultureMap Auto Awards

Car of the Year: Cadillac gets lean and mean, shattering those old people only myths

Editor's Note: In the first annual CultureMap Auto Awards, automotive writers Nic Phillips and Kevin McCauley bestow honors in 10 categories for the top 2012 cars and trucks and explain why they're deserving of a good hard look. With so many great cars on the market it's nearly impossible to choose just one, so CultureMap's pick for Car of the Year is the most significant all-around new car:

Car of the Year: 2013 Cadillac ATS

Target the benchmark, bring something unique to the mix, now hope people will give it a chance. That's what Cadillac did in 2002 when it introduced the CTS indicating the direction the storied brand would be taking to shake its old-people-only image. It's been largely successful in doing that — our fanatical support of the super hot V-series is no secret — but the CTS suffered from being just that, LARGE.

While priced like a BMW 3-series it's more 5-series in dimensions and, V-series aside, is dynamically not quite up to the BMW or Audi competition.

ATS changes all that proving that America "really can do it" — build a compact luxury sedan that bests Germany's current offering. Dimensionally ATS within an inch of the BMW 3-series, nearly an exact copy, except in the all important weight and style categories where the Cadillac takes the lead looking better and weighing less. Dynamically the ATS is a match for the 3-series with nimble handling and a suspension properly sorted to hold the vehicle to the road without crashing over the bumps.

Whether in 4-cylinder turbo or naturally aspirated V6 form, the ATS has more horsepower and a decidedly American exhaust note.

The interior doesn't disappoint blending "art and science" styling with a decidedly sporting character that has more personality than any other sport compact today. The Cadillac User Experience (CUE) tablet-like display dominates the dash and its multi-touch interface coupled with a full color screen in the instrument cluster go a long way in making passengers feel like they are in the most modern car on the road.

What's one greatest shortcoming of the ATS? Probably the perception of the Cadillac brand not being completely cleared of the aged clouds of the past for the younger, luxury sport sedan buyers. "Why would I drive a Cadillac when everyone I know drives a 3-series, A4, C-class?"

Get over it, buck the trend, support an American brand doing the right thing and get in the ATS — it's the real deal.

Did CultureMap make the right choice for Car of the Year? Let us know — and make your own case for another contender if you disagree — in the comments section below.

2013 Cadillac ATS - CultureMap 2012 Car of the Year

Photo by Kevin McCauley

2013 Cadillac ATS - CultureMap 2012 Car of the Year

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Jobs report

Texas clocks in as No. 7 best state to find a job, new report says

Photo by The Jopwell Collection on Unsplash

It's easier to find a job in Texas than in nearly any other state.

If you’re hunting for a job in Texas amid a tough employment market, you stand a better chance of landing it here than you might in other states.

A new ranking by personal finance website WalletHub of the best states for jobs puts Texas at No. 7. The Lone Star State lands at No. 2 in the economic environment category and No. 18 in the job market category.

Massachusetts tops the list, and West Virginia appears at the bottom.

To determine the most attractive states for employment, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 34 key indicators of economic health and job market strength. Ranking factors included employment growth, median annual income, and average commute time.

“Living in one of the best states for jobs can provide stable conditions for the long term, helping you ride out the fluctuations that the economy will experience in the future,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo says.

In September, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas led the U.S. in job creation with the addition of 195,600 jobs over the past 12 months.

While Abbott proclaimed Texas is “America’s jobs leader,” the state’s level of job creation has recently slowed. In June, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas noted that the state’s year-to-date job growth rate had dipped to 1.8 percent, and that even slower job growth was expected in the second half of this year.

The August unemployment rate in Texas stood at 4.1 percent, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Throughout 2025, the monthly rate in Texas has been either four percent or 4.1 percent.

By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate in August was 4.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2025, the monthly rate for the U.S. has ranged from 4 percent to 4.3 percent.

Here’s a rundown of the August unemployment rates in Texas’ four biggest metro areas:

Austin — 3.9 percent
Dallas-Fort Worth — 4.4 percent
San Antonio — 4.4 percent
Houston — 5 percent

Unemployment rates have remained steady this year despite layoffs and hiring freezes driven by economic uncertainty. However, the number of U.S. workers who’ve been without a job for at least 27 weeks has risen by 385,000 this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in August. That month, long-term unemployed workers accounted for about one-fourth of all unemployed workers.

An August survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed a record-low 44.9 percent of Americans were confident about finding a job if they lost their current one.

This story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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