In the CTS, when you don't need it, it goes almost completely away. Most of the time, a couple of inches of the screen are visible near the top of the dashboard. That's enough to expose the touch-screen radio preset buttons.
If you want to see more, press a button below, and the screen rises to its full size above the dash. You can see all the information about the music you're listening to, or you can see the navigation map or input a destination. Hit "Info" and you can see traffic and weather information, including the local forecast. The system uses an intuitive touch screen rather than making you fiddle with a separate knob.
It's nice, but there are a couple of annoyances. For one thing, when the screen is down, it sits deep inside a mail-slot sized hole in the dash. I found it hard to squeeze my fingers down low enough inside there to get the touch-screen preset buttons to work. Also, if you press the "Nav" button while the screen is down, it says you need to raise the screen first. Why doesn't it just raise the screen automatically?
Finally, everything's tied to the stereo. To use navigation, I have to turn on the radio first. There might be a technological connection between the two but, from the driver's perspective, there's no logical one.
