Auto journalists, like all journalists, shouldn’t be biased. And yet before we test a brand new car it’s hard not to have a good idea of what it will be like already.

Driving past versions of the car, or even other cars by the same automaker, give a point of reference.

For that reason, the Cadillac ATS is an anomaly. There was little to inform our preconceived notions and what there was couldn’t have been more divergent. Take the Cadillac brand. Resurgent, and the only true American luxury automaker, it’s failed to catch on with buyers like, say, Lexus has. A car like the CTS-V proved to be a genuine performance competitor to the BMW M5, but was it Caddy’s one-hit-wonder?

Looking at the big picture of General Motors doesn’t paint a promising picture either. With its own hits, misses and a legacy of compromise that has lived on despite a major Chapter 11 shakeup, the ‘C word’ could kill a car that’s pitted to take on what some would argue is the world’s best: the BMW 3 Series.

And yet, Cadillac hyped the ATS to do just that. Would they be so brazen with nothing to back it up?