Cadillac Design Boss Says Lincoln Is No Longer A Competitor - What Do You Think?

Benz and Bimmer say the same thing about Cadillac...Cadillac makes ONE DECENT car every 8 years and thinks they are "The Standard of the World"-Stop It

Cadillac is competitive with BMW, Merc, and Audi! And, uuhhmm, news flash! Based on awards and segment sales, what you said is a flat out LIE! #GetYourLife, Car4Life!

Id say thats accurate. Only traditional older buyers based on nostalgia would cross shop them both.

Car4life: Cadillac makes a couple cars that are decent. The ATS blows the current C-Class into the weeds, and gives the 3 a serious run for the money and bests it in multiple capacities, as it does the dated A4. Motor Trend named the new CTS Car of the Year, and Car & Driver picks it over both the refreshed E350 and 5 Series. The dated SRX out sells a number of German SUV’s and the Escalade is the best-selling premium SUV, regardless of whether you like them or now. Does Cadillac build premium cars, well if compared to the Europeans, there is no question.

Mercedes, BMW & European car companies have made great handling cars that can go 100mph all day, because their towns are tight and required great handling this wasn’t their greater minds or they’re some kind of “higher culture” that brought these qualities, necessity did, have you ever driven in Europe? Their build quality (to go 100mph all day) was required in order to navigate the autobahn's.

Along time ago the Germans gave up building anything other than "premium" cars because their labor cost are so high. To stay in business they HAD to build cars that could sell for high prices, especially due to the labor situations in Germany & Europe. (Building plants in other countries allows them to make even more $$) Are their cars seriously better engineered... anyone that knows anything knows they're not. They have some advantages and a genuine pedigree and legacy, racing included but they’re really not significantly better cars.

Clearly Cadillac lost its way for a lot of reasons including financial restraints and pathetic UAW supplied labor there is no dispute and in the last 25 yrs or so, were never vehicles to spend serious money on. Couple mistakes not doubt (Cimarron/Allante’) however, American companies can and are building world class cars, Cadillac's are leading the way. I've (I'm 52) had an Audi A6 Quattro (loved it) and 5 - Mercedes (3 E's, 560SL, GLK) & my wife has had 3, 3 Series cars. We got an ATS 3.6 this year and completely love it, it’s a world class car regardless of your perspective or prejudice. It’s probably the best car I’ve ever owned and runs rings around all the other cars I looked at prior to purchase. Will the Germans buy it.. no, they're snobs. Will the Europeans in general, doubtful for the same reasons but who cares their economies are in Socialistic created recession. Will Asian mkts and China in general, yes, absolutely and they are and Americans are also buying them, in record conquest sales. Does the Star and the BMW logo mean a lot, sure it does, they’re great brands, and great companies, Mercedes in particular. You’ve got to admire what the Quandt Family has done with their family business BMW. http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-10-10/bmws-quandt-family-faces-its-nazi-pastbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice

Standard of the World WAS accurate a long time ago, there is no reason other than financial

Standard of the World WAS accurate a long time ago, there is no reason other than financial and commitment that it cannot regain this title. Clearly it needs to be earned. But snobbery does not prevent the facts from being the facts. Product, product, product plus: positioning and marketing will accomplish this. Lincoln only markets jazzed up Fords. Good as Fords are, they’re not in the same league the new Cadillac’s for the reasons people buy premium automobiles.

Short and simple: Cadillac is right, they deserve to be compared to BMW and Mercedes Benz specially in the U.S.
They have worked hard in the past few years and it shows in their new lineup.
Lincoln on the other hand is a dying brand. It is almost pathetic.

I bought a 2014 Audi A6 less than 2 weeks ago. The runner-up in my opinion was the new 2014 Cadillac CTS. (I'm 6'4" tall with an arthritic right knee - the Caddy was just too cramped for me. The Audi's greater front-seat room and overall refinement cinched the deal. However, if I weren't so tall and arthritic, I just might have bought the Cadillac.) The BMW 5-Series, Mercedes E-Class, and Jaguar XF weren't even close, and the Infiniti Q70 wasn't available when I placed the order three months ago.

Cadillac has really made great advances in the last few years with their new ATS and CST models, and can now be considered a true competitor to the European and Japanese luxury sport sedans. Who knows, in the next 5-6 years maybe I will buy a new Cadillac, the first new American car I will have purchased in my lifetime. (I'm 61, by the way.)

I'm afraid the Cadillac executive is right about the current status of Lincoln - not competitive with the current offerings from Cadillac, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Infiniti, etc. The current Lincoln models are little more than gussied-up Fords, and until that situation changes the Lincoln marque will remain noncompetitive.

Lincoln can compete with Cadillac, just now now. Just as Cadillac had to upend everything that they were doing before, Lincoln needs to do the same.

i think lincoln might be cross shopped with buick - but as far as luxury cars go, cadillac is way ahead of lincoln.

I think, as is always the case, it took GM three times as long as the rest of the world to figure out what the obvious. This is why Caddy is always playing catch-up and seldom leads the pack (sure, it leads in one thing, but not in overall quality, performance, design, luxury, handling, etc.). I like the CTS myself, but Caddy manages to hamstring itself at every turn through problems with quality, fit and finish, amenities, etc.

He's right. Lincoln is the new Mercury.