DRIVEN: Caddy CT6 The Most Audi Like Cadillac Yet?

The CT6 is a great effort, BUT if they had made it a CTS replacement at a CTS price, they would have something notable to battle the new E Series.

Buyers already are confused. The names: CTS and CT6. They assume the CT6 means it is a V6 CTS. Styling? Nothing new to see.

The CT6 is a great car hampered by an utterly DUMB name and played out Art and Science styling.

If they had called it "Seville" that alone would have generated foot traffic.

This is a great car, but it will be a sales failure.

Not something to be proud. Audi is a POS. Aim for benz or lexus...or even genesis

Cadillac's naming conventions are terrible.

Either a brand has names or it has alpha-numeric.

The Escalade will always be an Escalade - why then create the XT5 rather that give it another lyrical name, like Escalante?

People were used to the CTS name - adding the ATS made logical sense, but then why jump all the way to XTS for the "Uber-service/Retiree" special?

Concatenating numbers to the old naming procedure just created a big mess. XT5 / CT6? WTF?

DeNyschen did the same thing at Infiniti and what resulted was a hodge-podge of names and a similar mess.

Good car + terrible name + confusing marketing/positioning = NO SALES

Calling the CTS "the most Audi-like Cadillac" is like calling zucchini the most steak-like vegetable.

Mind you, I might be biased. I drive an Audi Q5 (though I don't care for most of the rest of Audi's products, so I don't see myself as an "Audi Fan"). From where I sit, comparing the Caddy to Audi is sort of like comparing a Telecaster to a Stratocaster -- there's a world of difference to someone who knows and loves their Tele or Strat. To an outsider, however, they're both electric guitars, so what's the diff?

Perhaps it's Audi like in the sheer boredom with which people behold it.

So, I was watching a review the other day, comparing the CT6 to the S550. The reviewer mentioned that, after going through a car wash with the CT6, when he made a turn, water came gushing out of the glove box.

Sounds like an improperly sealed windshield. How is that even possible today? Cadillacs generally have good build quality. I've not seen any leaky Caddys locally, but yikes.

MD - looks like Audi has a niche market then with already ~700,000 boring people (in 2016) buying their cars.
But wait, most Lexus cars are even more boring than Audis and they're fighting to be the sales champ in the US.
I'm with mre30, Caddy needs to decide on a naming convention and stick with it.
It's taken people a couple of years to get used to naming of Nissans line up. IMO Caddys' is worse.

I have not had any build quality complaints with my CT6 - no water coming out of the Glove box. I doubt that is windshield related though - it is more likely to be from the air intakes for the air/heat unit. The car had a flat tire - which the dealer replaced when I bought the car - but I don't consider that a build problem.
I did not buy my CT6 because of its name - and I doubt people buy these alphanumeric nonsense - they buy the car itself. I do agree that if it had a romantic name - like Seville - they could market it better as an individual car - but At least they did not call it a DeNysschen. But Cadillac has history in some really good names that they should use - rather than reduce the names to CHILDRENS books.
I have already outlined what I feel to be the proper way to market the Current Cadillac Line-up. I would price the ATS against the entry A3-CLA - where is could easily compete - and price the CTS against the 3/A4/C class. Then I would leave the CT^ as it is but market it against a 5series/A6/E class - where it would actually compete against smaller cars and be a good choice for the USA.

However -regardless of how they market the car - it is still the largest Cadillac sedan with more interior room than an XTS - and it will sell to people that will also buy the Lincoln Continental - Americans who are looking for a large Luxury Vehicle. THere is pent up demand for that. ANd these two are likely to be the new faces of the Limousine market too.

It really makes no difference what Cadillac calls their current offerings though - until they get rid of DeNysschen - and his desire to compete with the Germans by making smaller more nimble - ie NOT Cadillac - cars - they will not sell worth anything. Cadillac has only one vehicle that really deserves to be called a Cadillac - the Escalade. ANd he does not get involved in that one thankfully. Maybe we should rename him GM-CA1 and see how he would like that!