2016 Car of the Year runner-up: The luxury-redefining Cadillac CT6

The history of the premium sedan is one of national values on display.

American four-doors were always supposed to be plush and easygoing, rolling living rooms. The Germans went for performance, in the case of BMW's ultimate driving machine, or durable opulence for Mercedes. Lexus transferred beloved Japanese reliability to the luxury realm. Others, like Volvo and Peugeot, sought to project Swedish and French ideas and capture different types of affluent customers.

That's all changing now, as automakers strive to appeal to a broader world and move into markets where American-ness or German-ness don't resonate as effectively as they once did.

Nowhere is this more evident that with Cadillac. The brand moved its sales and marketing operations from Detroit to New York in 2015, to be closer to the pulse of the global luxury market, and as new models are launched, General Motors' top brand is shifting away from the edgy, "art and science" designs that characterized it for over a decade.

We had the chance to experience Example A of the new "Dare Greatly" era at Caddy: the CT6 flagship sedan, which was first rolled out at the 2015 New York Auto Show. The $82,000 car (as tested) was delivered to us at night, so we could check out its new night vision technology. Over the next few days, we drove it around suburban New Jersey and on the mean streets of its new home, NYC.

Here's what we thought:

Photos by Hollis Johnson.