HALF Of Cadillac's Retail Locations Will NOT Sell The ELR — Are YOU Buying This Back Story Or Is It A Bluff?

If GM killed the Volt and did an ELR and an ELS (sedan) and the Volt price point, Cadillac would have a home run.

So if each of the remaining 530 Cadillac dealerships sell just one ELR per month for the rest of the year GM would meet its target.

The way a car dealership works, is they buy the vehicles from the manufacturer, and then resell them to consumers. The dealership owns the car until it's sold. I guess a lot of dealerships aren't confident that they'll be able to sell these cars to anyone except the exceptional special order buyer, someone who buys a car that isn't on the lot, or in effect, someone who buys a spot on the production line.

Bottom Line: Caddy dealers aren't as stupid as we might think. Half put their best on “won’t be a good seller.” We’ll see who’s right.

The local Chevrolet-Cadillac dealer is a certified Volt dealer. They gambled on the Volt and lost initially. The Volt sat and gathered dust. GM sells Volts with a massive amount of money to the dealer. If you're buying a Volt, ask for at least $10K off list. The cost to build the ELR is not dramatically more than a Volt because the ELR is what it is: a Volt coupe. They will probably sell for $25K off list price in reality. With the Volt and ELR, GM is buying its way into the market, but the design is inherently a Cruze mongrel with batteries bolted in.

COMMON SENSE. The reason why half of the dealerships won't offer an electric vehicle:
-Not in demand in every city on the country. Fort wayne, IN does not have a demand for electric vehicles. Major cities like Chicago have a demand due to the commute.
-It is a cost to the dealer principal to install charging stations, new tech equipment, upgrade outlets and install a 440 volt charger.

Such a stupid question to pose.

Dealers are opting out? How can this be true? I always thought a dealership has a mandatory allotment of vehicles it buys from their mfg.
As one comment said if one unit per dealership in a year the goals would be met. $75K price point in CA is Tesla vs the ELR. I have only seen a few Volts in PGH area so where are they selling?

No. Dealers DO NOT have a mandatory allotment because they are typically not owned by the manufacturer. There is a mandatory allotment to get the full amount of manufacturer-to-dealer kickbacks, but no dealer has a mandatory allotment. The local VW dealer for example does not carry the Toerag but will special order it. They also said no to the Phaeton back in the day. The Hyundai dealer said no the the Veracruz.

It's really a challenge to find anything mentally stimulating on the Internet any more. People trolling with comments is bad enough, but the number of sites that post troll articles is making the Internet just a dump of misinformation and ill-formed opinions.

Just my opinion but I think the ELR is one of the better looking cars out there. It's distinct and not following any existing design currently in vogue. I'm even more impressed by Cadillac's effort to truly differentiate their cars from the rest of GM over the last 10 years. My only concern is the price of the ELR as I think $75K is pretty steep. It would be a shame if the price prevents it from selling a sufficient volume to keep it going for 5 - 7 years.

$5 for a Starbucks macchiato is pretty steep too, and if you are a Dunkin Donuts or a gas station $0.89 coffee kinda guy you would not quite comprehend why so many people buy macchiatos. It's just a bit of milk foam and coffee, right?

What a fugly piece of sh#%.I would not buy this thing PERIOD.

I am not quite understanding the tone of this piece. There are places were such a vehicle wouldn't sell, and Cadillac isn't selling it in those places.

Big whoop.

Makes good business sense, actually.

I think the $75K sticker price is a marketing ploy. In reality, GM will offer gigantic discounts to move them - I'll be the average "out the door" is about $50K.

Let's be honest, at this low-volume, if GM gave 3,000 of them away for free, it wouldn't be a big hit to their bottom line.

The ELR is a tool to get the young/rich electric buyers into the showroom and the price point is an arbitrary number so people who might be inclined to buy a Tesla [but are bothered that there is not a "dealer" within 10 miles of their house] can have another option.

They will sell them, but at the market price - which will find equilibrium in a few months.

Further - by dealers saying they "are not carrying the ELR"..that just means they won't take an allocation from Cadilla that will sit on their lot until the buyer walks in. However, if somebody comes into their dealer in Kansas and wants an ELR - they will pick up the phone and "source" one from another dealer.

This is inline with my theory that this whole exercise is a big, real-time, focus group so GM can see who shows up at the Cadillac dealers interested in a Cadillac plug-in electric car in the $50,000+ range.

Chevy dealers do the same with the Vette -- not all dealers have them in their inventory -- this is normal...

Why are the conversations with Cadillac ALWAYS something negative. Yes, this is the Volt Platform only because the VOLT was first. I doubt this car was an afterthought to the VOLT and is only here because they wanted more mileage from the platform? If they need mileage from a platform they absolutely need to use the Corvette again, but THAT SL competitor needs to be stunning and have what it takes vs the old XLR. Yes its being adapted to a new vehicle and yes its controversial. I wish they'd put a lower sticker on this too, it reminds me a bit of the Allante. They come out with a competitor to the SL Benz and have a sticker nearly its equal.

That said I think the ELR will have buyers in California and with East Coast Liberals who call themselves green but only at parties, not in lifestyle. Will Hollywood hypocrites buy it, I'll wager many will, its the most well equipped luxury hybrid power-train coupe you can purchase. That said the platform though not a big commercial success is significant, and it hasn't broken or been recalled countless times like some previous GM cars. Lets face it, folks buying Tesla have $ and the folks that buy this will too. Though Tesla will never be able to survive long term without a partner, electric cars are not fully viable, yet.

My hope for Cadillac would have been (IS) an Elmiraj that was insane in beauty, power and handling, but that's not here yet. Something that not only equals but best's the competition. Cadillac is still rebuilding and its got to have daily drivers that the masses want that can fuel future projects which its doing and they are formidable. I see the ELR as a very unique car that will have a very limited market as are all electric/hybrid cars are but has an opportunity. In a country this big, with this population can they sell 5000 of these.... i hope so.

It's articles like this that make me frustrated with this site.

#1 Agent00R, with all due respect to you and your opinion, unless you are a GM exec and you have all the facts about the Volt, its sales numbers and customer satisfaction stats, I personally don't think it's fair or accurate for you to declare the Volt a success or failure.

#2 Like any company, including luxury brands, platforms and technology are shared. To say that the ELR is just a 're-skinned Volt' is not all true and by no means an insult to the ELR. Hate it or love it, the Volt appeals to those who want that kind of vehicle for its overall purpose and their particular lifestyles. The technology both cars offer is relevant today and pretty remarkable overall.

#3 The ELR was never intended to sell in large numbers. Has anyone ever heard of alternatives? Choices, perhaps? That's what the ELR offers in its price point, a choice. Sure there are other electric or electric/hybrid cars in the price range, but not everyone wants a sedan...some people like coupes. It's also about size. So what I can afford a Tesla or Panamera E-Hybrid. Maybe, I like the Caddy and I want a sporty electric/hybrid coupe.

#4 I grew up in a small, rural town. I'm pretty sure the local Cadillac dealer near there will not be selling the ELR either. Personally, it doesn't make sense, as the market there won't support enough consumers that can afford an ELR. I'm sure any Caddy dealers who either chose to not sell the ELR, or Cadillac disallowed them to sell it, it's because of market conditions. Just like the new Corvette, all Chevy dealers won't carry them. This is not unusual.

What people like wcbrown and xjug1987a, as well as myself, among others are referring to is the constant negativity thrown at domestic makes, like Cadillac, by writers at AutoSpies.

Agent00R is only the latest purveyor of this nonsense.

In fact, it's the same attitude toward unions. No matter the (documented) benefits that they have brought to the average working person, anytime they are referred to here it's to highlight some particular bit of outrageousness, as if that's all that unions do.

I don't know if the negativity is for purposes of click-bait or what, but I am going to keep my eyes out for an auto web site that does something seemingly as radical as write (relatively) unbiased accounts about cars that don't happen to be foreign.

And it's not even about liking foreign cars, it's the way that auto makers like Cadillac and GM (a popular punching bag for AutoSpies, especially when Government had a controlling interest) are attacked, sometimes seemingly just because they're American.

It gets old to constantly read about writers inserting their often biased and wrong-headed views into areas that only peripherally have to do with cars.

Or even worse, to be negative for little more reason than to be negative.