Cadillac To No Longer Distance Itself From GM - Is This A Big Mistake?

Even if it wanted to Cadillac could not really distance itself from General Motors anymore than AUDI could distance itself from Volkswagen.

Cadillac did not need to move to New York - it could have been on a separate floor of one of the GM buildings in Detroit and operated separately - the NYC move was a useless expense. Obviously - Mr. DeNysschen simply did not want the company hierarchy to be in the same US State - but the idea that it did anything else is laughable.

Cadillac - for years - had its own main powerplant - and when it was shared - it was ONLY with the top of the line of Oldsmobile - even when Cadillac was in Detroit. Cadillac also sat on a Platform designed for IT - and only the Olds 98 and Buick Electra/Park avenue used it as well.

THere NEVER was an Automatic Transmission from GM specifically for Cadillac - The original Hydramatic was designed for Olds and Cadillac. The THM 400 - the very best - was used by Rolls Royce - as well as for most of the Large Block GM cars and trucks for more than a decade. Cadillac also used lots of other GM bin parts because they were the best of the time - including their Air Conditioner Compressors (Also used by Mercedes and Rolls).

Cadillac produced some of the finest cars - when it was closer to GM - than TODAY. ANd today - even the crossovers Cadillac produces use GM platforms that are not used by Cadillac Cars. THe much valued V-series Cadillacs of today - some use Chevrolet based Small Block engines!

The real Mistake GM made - is not to do what MERCEDES later did - Mercedes actually did a comprehensive Poll of their customers - and customers of other Luxury Brands - and through the polling - found that they wanted MORE Luxury in the basic cars. SO Mercedes decided to more the "performance" types to a separate category - ie AMG - and produced exceptional Luxury cars in the S class and E class. IT certainly was a HUGE mistake to not only abandon then current Cadillac customers - but actually come out in PUBLIC and say they were not wanted - as Denysschen. AND they actually went to Lexus and never came back.

What youre saying is not solving the issue...even before DeNyquil came to power, Cadillac was garbage. Thats when you got the garbage DTS and other cars that arent inspiring. Also, the other issue with Caddy is that they do not spend money on tech beyond that of other luxury makes, or even those who make economy cars. Caddy being closer to GM will make them worse unless they can differentiate their interiors from that of a Buick . And thats the problem, anything you find in a Caddy can also exclusively be found in a Buick and even some Chevys...and thats a problem. There is no push to make Caddy exclusively different than their other GM makes. There is no way you can tell a VW, Porsche or Audi are all corporate siblings, where as with Caddy and GM, you can, and thats why nobody buys em

It's not a bad idea to go the luxury route (if you're going to be premium, you have to go either luxury or sport), but if you're going to do that, you need to do it 1,000%, because luxury apparently just isn't as appealing to people who aren't about to die (for the most part).

Rolls-Royce is an example of this done well. They don't give two cents about sport; they have one mission and they go to the ends of the earth to execute it. Wake me up when Cadillac has the big brass ones to do that, hardly likely with the GM beancounters telling them to use the plastic window switches from a Malibu to save 0.5 cents.

Even a brand like Mercedes though still has SOME element of sport, though they are considered the "Luxury" luxury German brand. That's because if you design and engineer a car to a high standard, good handling and power tends to come naturally out of that exercise. And as a customer, if I shell out a lot of money for a car, I may not be taking it to the track, but I still want to prove my superiority to a Camry driven by a teenager trying to pass me.

Delicatewatkins -

Yes - Cadillac was/is a mess re- the US market - because with Denysschen - who said this publicly - that they had to be EUROPEAN - and actually told its older American buyer that they did not WANT them anymore. Imagine a loyal Cadillac customer being PUBLICALLY told to stop buying their cars!!! And even if they were not started on his watch - most of the current Cadillac models were heavily influenced by THAT decision. (YOu cannot say he had no involvement). If DeNysschen was truly the head of Cadillac - there were many things he could have done to alleviate the problems - including creating longer versions of the cars with more rear seat room - the major problem with the CTS and ATS.

WHile I agree that the Cadillac has indeed had a bunch of misses - look at them. THe ALPHA platform today is only used by Chevrolet - much modified - for the Camaro - it was designed to be a Premium Cadillac Platform. The Omega platform IS indeed Cadillac specific so far as well. Both Platforms have superior engineering - and boast excellent handling characteristics - as well as being lightweight for their position - especially the Omega. Clearly - the cars that were developed on those platforms suffered from Europe ITIS - where cars are indeed smaller than here.

THe problem - Cadillacs major markets were China and the USA - and the cars should have been developed for these two markets in mind. In business - you do not tell your customers to GO AWAY - you ADD new ones - give the CUSTOMER what they want - DeNysschen also publically said that the public would HAVE TO buy the cars he thinks are correct - they didn't. ANd note - the first two vehicles completely developed under DeNysschen - two crossovers (The XT4 and the 3 seat large likely to be XT6) - are actually on other GM from wheel drive platforms - not the Cadillac Platforms (Which is another mistake - at least on the big one).

Matt and I have said for years - that the Cadillacs are not Compelling Styling as well. THOSE designs were done for Cadillac alone - no other GM cars used Arts and SCience Styling. It has run its course and needs to be replaced with REGAL ELEGANCE.

The proper way to create the brand image Cadillac wanted to create was to build overall superior cars to the competition. They are not doing that. You cannot rely on incredibly capable chassis and V-Powered cars to carry the torch for a luxury brand.

Agreed x1000.

New-fangled architecture & engines are nice. But those components are largely unseen. Cadillac has to improve on the visual expects of the luxury sedan, coupe, SUV, etc. M-B went all-in with that & it's benefited the brand hugely. But M-B also realized that in order to solidify their overall brand perception, they needed to succeed at making "credible" ultra-luxury products. So making increasingly better Merc-AMG & then Merc-Maybach coaches is how they do what they do today for the entire lineup.

exactly this....

cmon, nobody aint buying a Caddy for even less, when you can find cars at the price with still more than what a Caddy offers. Way more from Lexus, Infiniti, Acura, Honda, Jaguar, etc

Who here would even consider buying a Cadillac? I presume I'm in their target market, I have 4 cars, and I haven't set foot in a Cadillac showroom since I went with my grandfather to pick up his new DeVille in 1973.

I would only consider a "V" Series car. Maybe the Escalade.

You may be Cadillac's traditional customer, but I'm more likely their target i.e. monied millennials. They target neither well at all. My wife likes Cadillacs because her father has always had at least one.

Cadillac at a distance produced stasis and malaise.

Cadillac should be INTEGRAL to GM and should be the place from which leading-edge engineering emerges. Much like Porsche/Audi do at VW. The Dieselgate debacle proved how intertwined Porsche/Audi were with VW.

If anything, I'd move to make it seem that Cadillac is an engineering giant within the GM scheme.

What sells cars is butts in seats. Cadillac needs to have a more aggressive marketing program, get people to actually drive the cars. Both BMW and Mercedes organize frequent autocross events, whereas Cadillac is nowhere to be found except on soulless commercials and boring magazine ads, both easily ignored.

Cadillacs are wrong sized and wrong priced. Cadillacs are not visually compelling. The Emiraj and Escala are but they aren't in production.

If car sales were strong for the today's market, Cadillac could effectively sell 2-3 separate lines of vehicles.

1 - Luxury, luxury-sport (V-series, V-sport, RWD & AWD)
2 - Luxury, larger American sizing, soft-riding (FWD, AWD option)
3 - Entry-luxury, midsize & small. sporty. available options for more luxury. (FWD)

Cadillac's perception issue isn't going away. But how do you build/create for the future, while keeping your huge consumer base happy with old products.