de Nysschen Warns Cadillac Dealers They Need To Step Up To The Plate - Where Do They Need To Improve Most?

the all new Chevy/Cadillac store here in Sacramento reminds me of the relationship between and buildings of Toyota/Scion, not a good thing... I would certainly not want a Chevy type salesman assisting me with a Cadillac either

Cadillac has to separate itself from its GM brethren: dealerships, product, sales technique.

Relocate dealerships away from GM, Ford and Dodge(by at least one - two miles) and next door to Audi, BMW, MB, etc.

Design better looking and feeling cars. Look at the ATS/CTS as the first steps of a journey and not the last few steps.

Decide who/what you are? Selling rebadged GM product like the Esclades and Volts are not going to cut it!

Define what you are! Are you American luxury, sporty luxury, middle of the road luxury, what are and defines the product you will sell?

You will not survive if your goal is simply to replicate the Germans or Japanese marques because they will always make their cars better than you!

Look at the ATS. Obviously a move to sell in Europe.

Cadillac most likely has to act like they are European, because guess what, the Americans themselves see "American" as "garbage".

So what should Cadillac do? Just do what the Germans are doing.

Meaning, the Americans, can never be the standard, of anything. Because the standard already has been set by the Europeans. So, not a chance, Caddy has no choice but to just "follow". A sad truth, but what can we do

I completely agree that Cadillac has to define its market

If it has plans to be a german little sports car maker - then it should move to Germany - and forget trying to sell little cars in the Ameican and Chinese market.

But - if they truly want to be a LUXURY car manufacturer in the USA and China (Currently their largest market) - they have to respond with cars that address the "desires" of that market. That would mean - a least one line of cars that has the room and amenities Amricans want in their cars - with the rear seat room - chauffeur driven Chinese want in their cars. They can sell the tiny ATS/CTS as a separate line of sports cars - like AMG - but they need larger luxurious cars - and they need to address the styling - arts and science is now getting date - maybe going upscale more Bentley/Rolls like.

But the claims that they are need a specific location - or have to be designed in a specific location is nonsense. If they have the cars we want - we will buy them - and it they do not - we won't. Returning to names for the Luxury line would make sense - but if the car is right - the model designation is pretty much meaningless. I would not buy a car just for its "name" - and would not avoid it for a Alpha - numeric designation.

As long as Cadillac continue to offer SMALLER (claimed more athletic) cars - they are selling to the wrong market - move to germany and sell them there - where they actually sell.

Everything MorePower said.... and Cadillac should really focus on being American, pure American luxury. We don't need yet another car company TRYING to be like Mercedes or BMW.

BINGO which is why returning to NAMES would be a good thing.

Cadillac first has to stop selling re badged Chevrolet cars as Caddy's. The public can tell the difference as will not buy them. Shame on GM.

Cadillac should take a revenge on Lexus,

remember how Toyota trained their salesmen to talk shit about German cars? But in reality Lexus took sales from Cadillac and Lincoln and always talking unfound fantasy shit about Germans made their car sales higher in the last 2 and half decades

Don't try to be Euro, that' a lot of work and GM can never be up there, just topple Toyota's Lexus, be armed with everything possible and go for their ass

What, beat Lexus reliability? With Cadillac?

Basically you are not really helping Cadillac, because the American manufacturers don't know how to build reliable vehicles.

And obviously they do not have the sex appeal that the European luxury brands possess.

So, basically, the only thing really matters here is price. Caddy needs to lower the price, like only 5000 dollar difference between Chevy and Caddy and such. It needs to be competitive, so that Cadillac can beat at least Hyundai.

Hard to believe a Cadillac franchise is still in business selling less than 10 cars a month. Clearly that dealership isn't needed, he needs to focus on GMC or Chevy.

Without sounding like "Father Time," pre and post-WWII advertising and dealer practices by luxury marques like Cadillac and Lincoln (and those you only see in automobile museums) set the standard (pun intended) for the European, British, and Japanese auto makers. I'm not suggesting that car salesman make house calls, brochures in hand, new model parked out front (they did until the early 60s by appointment), but "aspirational brands" require more than "creative financing" (read "subprime" loans) to maintain their cache. Packard's "Ask the Man who owns one" deliberately avoid the off-Madison Avenue, lowest common denominator appeal of "Anybody can own one." The dealership experience begins with a sense of awe and imbues a sense of accomplishment. For years scaling the "value chain" in automotive terms was almost a "right of passage" in this country. The automobile should say something about you and the dealer should embody all that is special and unique about the product line.