Is Cadillac Undergoing A Much-needed Renaissance OR Will It Be More Of The Same Old, Same Old?

No. What Cadillac WAS undergoing was a renaissance. Maybe not in the direction some people would have liked (where's my Coup DeVille, and why isn't coffee a nickel anymore???), and maybe not as quickly as it needed to be (crossovers were coming by the bucketload, but sedans were still the bulk of their line up), but it was a slow needed (sometimes painful) march towards relevance.

It was distancing itself from the "discount" practices of yore, separating itself from the volume brand parent company, and striving to upgrade its hard and soft product, at least in vision and promises. It's impossible to tell whether it would have panned out, but a commitment to better customer service at dealers (rather than volume) was a step in the right direction, and Johan explain in a recent-ish interview that the interiors were not up to par and improvements were coming. The lineup was also being remolded with the CT5, upgraded CT6 (badly needed), and a halo car, plus some others.

The point is, they were making commitments to being a smart and modern, and most importantly, a true luxury brand, not just "Chevy Luxe" or grandpa-mobiles.

Now that the man in charge of that plan successfully pissed off too many GM board members, they've installed a dutiful foot soldier to take his place.

This means two things:

1 - Cadillac will continue to build Chevy parts-bin interiors and give up on the aspirational models that change perceptions about a brand. They'll keep building 75%-luxury cars; the cars that are almost there, but just bite the dust on the finishing and details most competitors seem to get right. The ride may be nice, but it's sloppy to drive. Maybe the interior looks good, but once you touch it, you realize it's cheap plastic. Or it might have a great new forward-looking feature or powertrain, but it's crammed in the body of a gussied up Buick LaCrosse. Forget trying to match an S-Class or 7-Series, they'd be lucky to hit the Kia K900.

2 - Cadillac will get the crossovers it wants, and it will get them more quickly than under Johan. And they will be fine. And Cadillac will do fine. People will eat them up because they're crossovers, and because they're "premium", and probably because they'll be the budget choice for shoppers who can't afford better in their respective segments. It will be great for the bottom line, and Cadillac will get by just fine. But it will cement their reputation as "discount luxury" for people who can't afford the the real thing. And Cadillac will never, ever, get noticed again by anyone...

They had the opportunity to commit to a long path out of the hole they themselves dug over several decades, and instead they decided "eh, we'll just do good enough". Cadillac will either die once all of its old customers do, or it will exist as a shell of its former self dutifully pumping out "nice" Chevy-based vehicles. From a financial standpoint, I really can't argue with that approach, if it works for them; but they'll neve

...but they'll never be respected on the same level as M-B or BMW or LR in their respective vehicle categories.

Good luck, God speed, Caddy.

I didn't realize there was a character limit.

It finishes like this:

They'll never be a true luxury brand again (including the prices and profit margins that come with it), and that's sad.

It is important to note that the things that were separate for Cadillac - the Alpha and Omega Platforms - and the V8 projects were ALL started before DeNysschen came to Cadillac. So far - the only two ALL DeNysschen vehicles were not based on those platforms - but on the other GM Crossover Platform that is Ubiquitous to all of them - NO MATTER - every manufacturer is going to move to Largely SCALABLE platforms for ALL of their cars - both VW and Toyota have already started- and eventually - taking VW in mind - They will have all of their product on either the large or small FWD or RWD platforms - regardless of make or cost.

It is in the execution that a Luxury car is made over a Chevy - and it is most certainly possible to make this work.

At least in the USA - STYLING sells cars - and a well styled car - even with faults does better than one without any flair (The original Ford Granada - which "looked" like a mercedes - was nothing special as a car - while the Nova was better - but the Granada Styling sold the car - and don't forget the Chrysler Cordoba as well)

The problem is not that - the problem is Cadillac decided to become a European Luxury Car competitor - and with the exception of the Largest class - the european cars are SMALLER than Americans are accustomed to. Both the ATS and CTS were competitive - good handling cars - that simply were too small in the rear seat for our market - even in China they need to bring out LONG version to sell cars. BUT THEN - in addition - DeNysschen essentially told the traditional Cadillac customer -THAT THEY WERE NO LONGER WELCOME. ANd they simply moved to other brands in droves. Cadillac offered no tradition AMERICAN Luxury car for a while. Meanwhile - Mercedes polled its customers - and to its surprise - they wanted MORE LUXURY over performance - they did that - and Mercedes rose to the top.

THe people at the top of GM realized that American simply were going to move to accept what DeNysschen wanted as the right things. And I expect we will see Luxury cars with greater scale. The ATS will move down to the CLA class - they will return the CTS to tweener status - larger than a 3 class but smaller than an E class - the CT6 is already a Tweener as well. BUT THEY STILL NEED STYLE - and that is coming too.

It will be a renaissance if:

1. Cadillac returns to NAMES

2. Cadillac's entry into a segment is larger than the norm and more luxurious.

3. Cadillac realizes it needs to have its cars look iconically Cadillac. They need a stylistic event like the 1976 Seville was.

4. Cadillac realizes that it will have to buy market segment. This means being priced advantageously BELOW the German competition by 15%

The entry-level Cadillac should be an FWD sedan priced like a CLA and sized like a Lexus ES.

Ditch the CT5. Put the CT6 down into the 5 Series/E Class segment.

Largely agree, however...

There should be no "entry-level" Cadillac, it's either one, or it's a Chevy. There has to be a clear distinction or folks would always second-guess getting one.

Can't have Buick and Cadillac, ditch the Buick brand in the US, as they did with Oldsmobile.

Cadillac should not be just the car, it should be the full experience, from buying to servicing to trading for a new one. Perhaps subscriptions would work best. Pick up and drop off customer cars at their home/work and give them a proper loaner. Have warranty and service covered, no nickle and diming. Have an ownership advisor as a single point of contact. Details matter and responsiveness matters, don't give customers reasons to be unhappy as minor as they could be.

Embrace electrification. Going to a crummy gas station with the rest of the plebeians, breathing in fumes, listening to an engine, being jerked by a slushbox, or being left in the dust at the stoplight by a Bolt EV is not a luxury experience.

Indeed. The Cadillac dealer experience is desperately inferior to what you would expect at Lexus or Mercedes. Cadillac dealers need to be stand-alone with tremendous attention to how a customer feels.

I've pondered the idea of a premium car dealer having NO cars parked out front. To then have a large indoor space that allows the cars to be examined or--where weather permits--an outside patio experience as well.

If a customer is looking at a silver Elmiraj and wishes to see the blue one, the car is brought from stock to a special viewing area where the customer is coddled and the product is brought to them.

This is one of the reasons I've said that Corvette should be a brand because it could be co-branded with Cadillac in premium dealerships.

I kinda see Cadillac as the "People's Luxury Brand".

Maybe reducing pricing could work. Idk. Will critics/customers say, "I got it cheap, but it's so much more than the price. A real steal on par with say Lexus/BMW/M-B"? Probably not - they'll find the most minute feature & completely decimate the overall vehicle experience.

A better dealer experience is always a good way to increase awareness & positive perceptions. It's just frustrating for dealers to have wasted their time on customers who know they cant afford the high-end vehicles buy insist on getting the high-end service regardless, & then complain when it becomes clear that they haven't intended to make a purchase anyway. It's what happens when you get Chevy Malibu customers looking at new Escalades.

Agree and disagree.

I completely agree they need to up their luxury game. Do it for real, or don't do it at all. Stop cost cutting, stop saying "good enough". Benchmark who you have to, but just get it done correctly for once.

Mercedes has this on lockdown currently. BMW and Audi are catching up, but they aren't there yet. Lexus does well too, but other than that, the rest of the field are also-rans in this aspect.

I don't necessarily agree with returning to names. I could take either nomenclature one way or the other. As far as alphanumerics are concerned, if you get too complicated, you become BMW's alphabet soup. On the other hand, quick, which one is bigger the Hyundai Tuscon or the Hyundai Santa Fe? Alphanumerics avoid that problem. I think most people who don't like it feel that way because it's different from what they're used to, and it's a convenient visible thing to complain about it. But it's not the fulcrum upon which the fate of an entire automotive company turns.

I don't agree on pricing though. If your product isn't good enough, then sure, price it lower. The (I believe) last minute repositioning and repricing of the CT6 from S/7 level to "tweener" was a good example of this. However, if your product is truly as good, you SHOULDN'T charge any less for it. That cheapens the brand image, past a few hundred dollars here or there.

"Discount luxury" or "people's luxury" is an oxymoron. One of the driving aspects of luxury is that not everyone can afford it. If you're the "people's luxury" or "bargain premium" or "upscale at a great deal", then you're Buick, Acura, or (increasingly) Mazda. True luxury is a tricky mental and personality/perception-driven game that's very fickle and hard to master. But as soon as you start offering "deals" for "everyman", you're done, go home and figure out how to become a middle-range brand.

^^THAT^^^ DO THAT

But if you go for that crowd, you have to knock it out of the park and in to the next town over, multiple times.

If you do it right, you become Rolls Royce, Bentley, the S-Class, and maybe the 7-Series and Aston Martin, depending on who you ask.

If you do it wrong, you become the DTS, the Lincoln Towncar, and the Buick LeSabre.

Right now, I don't think Cadillac has the balls to do it right. Better to not try at all, in the state they're in.

Once they wake up and figure out how to execute at that level, I have a check waiting for them.

You all have good points. It is frustrating to be a Cadillac fan. The minute a plan starts taking shape, they change direction. I nearly bought a 2014 ATS, but the interior seemed just okay (the trim piece on top of the steering column was two cheap plastic bits that are always visible to the driver - a small detail, but one all the top competitors get right) and the room inside was very tight compared to the MB300 I wound up buying.
Another big opportunity missed was rolling out the CT6 with a 4 cylinder and the energy spent touting it. It may be fine, but American luxury is big, long hoods, V8s. They should have lead with this as it speaks to their heritage. Even if it would be 10 percent of sales, it is the image it projects.

I remember MB executives describing what they believed American luxury meant to them, long hoods, V8s roomy and then a few years later out came the C300.

The CT6's horrible stumble of an introduction is fixable.

Rename it Elmiraj.
Give it a V8 in BASE form.
Make the base price $45K well equipped.
Make the Elmiraj V $10K higher at base

I think your price level is too low, but I see your point. Have the V-6 at about 50, TT V-6 55 and V-8 at 60 +. They should have introduced the V-8 first and alone and soon thereafter the V-6s. I like your idea for the naming scheme.

Cadillac needs to be well below in price and well above in features to compete. The CT6 has a massive discount so a $45K base is somewhat close to what a base CT6 goes for after the please-take-it-off-our-hands discount.

I actually think Lincoln and Cadillac are over pricing so that the big discount seems like a big discount.

"Cadillac needs to be well below in price and well above in features to compete."

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I'm sure GM's board will eat this brilliant plan up!

It's definitely a better strategy than anything you've proposed.

I may be the only one here who actually has a current Cadillac - a CT6.
I have said before - and will say again- it is a wonderful car as a Luxury car - and one would not expect a car of that size to be as nimble as it is - because of its low weight.

However - it does not LOOK LIKE A CADILLAC. The arts and crafts look was designed for the European style - and the smaller cars - and it makes the CT6 look smaller than it is (It is actually quite large). Cadillac needs an in you face styling - like ROLLS (or maybe the Mulsanne even though it is too conservative - that makes the cars actually look LARGER than they are. When Cadillac competed with the noise level of a Rolls (at least in their commercials) - they chose the TOP luxury brand - something BMW NEVER was.

Now - when you look at the most recent Cadillacs - the Original CTS was a Tweener - larger than a 3/c class - and sold well because it seemed to be a bargain with competitive pricing. Cadillac needs to go back to that - as a part of its TOTAL statement. (And they are aparently going to do so).

The ATS should be redone as a CLA competitor - but with the Alpha2 platform which is wonderful - and it will be a tweener above the CLA - and PRICE it in the low $30,000 range like the CLA. AS a RWD it will be superior and should have more interior room.

THe CTS should be priced as a 3/c series competitor - but in size - return to being a tweener with more roon (In fact the current car would do that one)

THe CT6 should be priced as a 5/E competitor (It already sells in that space at the dealers anyway) - where it is the clear winner.

AND then - Cadillac needs a really BIG car - the Escala is not it. (The hatchback alone would doom it). I hope they produce the Escala with a regular trunk.

BUT MOST IMPORTANT - Cadillac MUST HAVE a set of crossovers based on their RWD Luxury Platforms - not on the regular GM ones that offer nothing special. It will take a few years for that though.

AND indeed - as a ROLLS competitor - the American Standard for the world should have NAMES for their cars - and not compete down market with numbers.

How do you view the CT6 as a vehicle and its position in the market, as a true owner, rather than just another internet commentator?

I looked at one and found it wanting, and ultimately went with a 7-Series. I may not have been comparing two true competitors though, it's hard to tell with the CT6. It's almost as big as the 7, and it's the largest of three core sedan models, just like the 7.

But I found hard scratchy plastic on the lower parts of the doors and the center console tunnel. The leather felt cheap and hard, the window switches and ancillary gear were all plastic and from a Chevy (steering wheel stalks excepted, I liked those), the carpet felt cheap, the rest of the buttons were all plastic too, and even that plastic felt lower quality than the rare instances of plastic found in a 7-Series. There were also fit and finish issues on the center console where the lid opens, but I think the refresh addresses that.

Those were my main complaints with it. The ride and handling I can't complain about, because that's to taste and based on a conscious engineering decision regarding the desired character of the car. I found it too harsh and not isolating enough.

Against the S/7, I thought it fell flat on its face and was deeply disappointed, since I had followed its development for years. However, it was priced much lower, so it may not have been an appropriate comparison.

I worry about it entering the E/5 space though. The latest versions of those cars are baby S/7s, and they're really really nice inside, if you pick the right interior packages. Truthfully, I'm not sure the CT6 is the clear winner against them either, in terms of luxury and quality. Yes, in terms of space, but this puts the CT6 in a weird position with lower quality and pricing, but a larger size; I struggle with determining the value proposition and market positioning for it personally.

As long as Cadillac is built as a rebadged dolled up Chevy, it will remain a second tier automobile.