We had an earlier thread where the issue of adjustable pedals vs power tilt and telescope steering wheel was discussed.

Now we see that the STS has power tilt and telescoping wheel and no adjustable pedals. I am glad to see the STS look more like a real Cadillac and would love to hear the justification for the differences.

My original comment was that if we had to have adjustable pedals why did they have to use the power tilt and telescope switch and remove that feature? There must have been another way to implement adjustable pedals and not throw the baby out with the bath water.

People talked about pedals being required to vary the spacing for short people from the steering wheel air bag. Well duhhh, does not a telescoping wheel do the same thing?

We had an earlier thread where the issue of adjustable pedals vs power tilt and telescope steering wheel was discussed.

Now we see that the STS has power tilt and telescoping wheel and no adjustable pedals. I am glad to see the STS look more like a real Cadillac and would love to hear the justification for the differences.

My original comment was that if we had to have adjustable pedals why did they have to use the power tilt and telescope switch and remove that feature? There must have been another way to implement adjustable pedals and not throw the baby out with the bath water.

People talked about pedals being required to vary the spacing for short people from the steering wheel air bag. Well duhhh, does not a telescoping wheel do the same thing?
No, it doesn't. Adjustable pedals allow individuals with short legs to comfortably and safely operate the pedals WITHOUT moving the torso closer than ~14" from the steering wheel (minimum safe clearance distance for the driver airbag). A telescoping/tilt steering wheel optimizes for an individual's arm length and reach. These are two completely and totally unrelated adjustment mechanisms that are both IMO equally important and useful--one should not preempt the other.

Just to give you real world examples:

1. My mom is about 5' tall. In virtually all production vehicles today, with the steering wheel fully retracted (not telescoped), it is NOT possible for her feet to reach and operate the pedals without moving the seat closer and encroaching on the steering wheel and its deadly airbag. IOW, she operates the vehicle at high risk to herself. Adjustable pedals were designed for drivers likes her.

2. A friend is very tall and has very long legs. His ideal leg and seating position moves the seat almost fully rearward. To comfortably reach the steering wheel, he needs to telescope and tilt it upward. Telescoping steering wheel is important to this type of driver.

I would say cost has more to do with no power tilt/telescoping wheel on both the SRX & CTS than anything else. This feature was not available on the Sigma platform until the STS. It is interesting that they eliminated the pedal adjustment on the STS, I was not aware of that.