Now that Cadillac has been designated a core brand for the new General Motors, expect to see a rush of new vehicles bearing the traditional wreath-and-crest.

Eventually, Cadillac wants to have a line of cars that matches Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi, with models that come in small, medium, and large sizes. That would give Cadillac a range that faces off against Mercedes’ C-, E-, and S-class, or BMW’s 3-, 5-,and 7-series.

For now, Cadillac only has the CTS in the center of its lineup. The larger Cadillac STS has been an underperformer; ditto for the smaller Saab-based Cadillac sold in Europe.

But Cadillac isn’t waiting for the new cars to arrive. A pair of more utilitarian Cadillacs, both new to the brand, will show up at dealers this summer.

The old SRX nameplate has been grafted onto a new vehicle, a mid-size crossover SUV that shares its platform with an upcoming Saab. The sticker on my test vehicle was $37,735.

But there is no mistaking the identification of the brand, given the thick layering of Cadillac styling cues — chrome and chrome-finished trim inside and out, flashy fender vents, and so on.

In fact, the Cadillac stylists may have overdone it. The SRX wears as much bling as an extended-length Escalade but has far less space in which to display it.

The base 260-horsepower 3.0 V-6, which the SRX shares with the Chevy Equinox, doesn’t do much to give the vehicle a distinctive personality either, providing only adequate power and atmospherics — and adequate fuel economy: 18 mpg city/25 mpg highway.

By comparison, the Sport Wagon seems perfectly comfortable in its Cadillac finery. For my money, this is the sharpest looking CTS variant. The sharp angles of the roof rack and the rear window complement the jutting front grill.

This is also a Cadillac that can get out of its own way. The standard engine is a 3.6 liter, 304-hp, V-6 that provides plenty of oomph.

Surprisingly, the close fit of the Sport Wagon body sacrifices little in the way of cargo room to the SRX. It has 25 cubic feet of space behind the rear seat and 121 cubic feet overall, vs. 29 cu. ft. and 129 cu. ft. overall for the crossover.

I did miss a start-stop button on the CTS; because the platform is older, it still has the ignition switch mounted on the steering column.

Pricing is unavailable at this time, But the CTS Sport Wagon is my favorite of the Cadillac carryalls — and my favorite Cadillac overall — in almost every way.

All but alone in the wreckage left by the automotive depression, the population of small crossover SUVs bearing upscale brands has been exploding.

In the past several months, Mercedes, Audi, and Volvo have all added new small SUVs to their lineups. They are chasing the Lexus RX350, the segment’s longtime leader, which has just been redesigned to fend off the new competition. Small crossovers represent a profitable niche; Lexus sold 7,500 RXs last month.

I’ve driven all three of these vehicles in the past several months, as well as the non-premium Toyota RAV4, and while they all have their strong points and special flavor, my favorite is the Audi Q. It combines sportiness, luxury, and all-round driveability in a good-looking package that I expect will age with grace.

The Audi’s biggest drawbacks, in my view, are its small cargo area, and its price — $48,275 for my test car with three special equipment packages. While that’s not out of line with the competition, it is certainly substantial for a vehicle built on the bones of the compact A4, only with a higher stance and a hatchback.

On the other hand, I definitely enjoyed the typically classy Audi interior, the three-dimensional map display on the navigation plus package ($3,000 option) as well as the panoramic sunroof that exposed the entire passenger compartment to daylight ($4,300 option for the premium plus package). Audi ambiance has been raised to a new level.

As for the additional $2,950 to pay for Audi drive select, that feature may be one of today’s novelties that turns into tomorrow’s necessities. Drive select allows the driver to choose settings for the car’s important functions.

I’ve never been a big fan of adjustable suspensions that deliver minimal changes, but drive select combines suspension control with steering, transmission, and steering –- and you can feel the differences at every setting.

In comfort mode, you get Audi’s equivalent of Buick ride performance. Switch to dynamic, and you are behind the wheel of an S4. The throttle kicks down and the shift points come more quickly. You can pretend you are driving a performance model without shelling out the extra bucks and get extra pleasure from navigating twisty roads.

Innovations like this one that improve the performance of crossovers could boost their appeal to the enthusiasts who usually shun them.

And it helps explain why Audi sales are holding up better than competitors’ as it gains market share in an otherwise dismal auto market.

How did Bob Lutz let the Camaro out of the design studio?

I can claim only a shrunken six feet in height, and my close-cut and thinning hair is the opposite of Conan O’Brien’s pompadour, yet the top of my head scraped the roof of the sunroof-equipped Camaro. Lutz, General Motors’ legendary, and now retired, head of product development, is about four inches taller than I am, and his posture is much more erect. How does he squeeze into the driver’s seat?

Okay, I’ve gotten seated in the car, and adjusted the seat — which is the same sensation as sitting in a well. I feel like I’m scraping the pavement, the beltline easily rises to my shoulder, and my view forward includes more instrument panel than windshield.

Some of that’s good. The chunky gauges on the instrument panel are retro-themed but readable, and the surrounding pebble-grained plastic is well-done for this class of vehicle.  I turn the steering-column mounted ignition key and pull back the shift lever with a hefty yank. You would never confuse the unyielding feel with a Lexus, but the stiff action is to be expected from a vehicle that attempts to recapture the ambiance of an original from 40 years ago.

Underway, the 3.6 liter, V6 engine makes all the right noises in producing 304 horsepower and launching the Camaro to 60 miles per hour in 6.1 seconds. This is a heavy car for its size — 3719 pounds — and wouldn’t be my first choice to navigate the twisty country paths of Connecticut’s Litchfield County, but it does just fine on the open road.

GM revived the Camaro in response to the sustained success of the Ford Mustang, and it arrives on the market a year after Chrysler’s similarly-inspired Dodge Challenger. It is no coincidence that the two laggards in this product segment have both entered bankruptcy court.

The Camaro makes its debut just as the Obama Administration has imposed strict new fuel economy standards for 2016. The Camaro is no slacker in this category by today’s standards. The V-6 is rated at 18 mpg city/ 29 mpg highway, and I recorded 26 mpg over several hundred miles of driviing.

What the future holds is something else. The whole pony car concept — big engine in a low-slung coupe body — seems dated and I can’t imagine a General Motors (GM) now largely owned by the U.S. government renewing this car at the end of its life cycle.

With an as-tested price of $31,485, the 2010 Camaro could appeal to those who owned an original and want to relive the experience, or to those who wanted an original but couldn’t afford one. Its attraction for the rest of us is limited.

And it would be non-existent for younger drivers. A 15-year-old enthusiast of my acquaintance all but sneered when he discovered what car I was driving. “Mr. Taylor,” he said, “I’m not into Camaros.”