Cadillac News: Cadillac To Replace Three Sedans With One

[Robert Hall]

...and Tesla calls the Model X rear doors 'falcon wing doors' because of the double hinging... I think they should have had the front doors work scissors style instead of conventional...

[A Horse With No Name]

Just figured I would point that out to the flat Earth truthers and the other fringe elements here that might not figure that out...

Just now, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

...and Tesla calls the Model X rear doors 'falcon wing doors' because of the double hinging... I think they should have had the front doors work scissors style instead of conventional...

That would be great!

[smk4565]

Cadillac is #7 in luxury sales in the American market.  They gotta do something.

[riviera74]

7 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

Cadillac is #7 in luxury sales in the American market.  They gotta do something.

Seventh?!  How did that happen?  How do they fix THAT problem?

[A Horse With No Name]

16 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

Cadillac is #7 in luxury sales in the American market.  They gotta do something.

In that we both agree.

8 minutes ago, riviera74 said:

Seventh?!  How did that happen?  How do they fix THAT problem?

Actually they do have some interesting and decent product, not sure why they don't do better.  That being said...I really like the Audi A4.

[smk4565]

27 minutes ago, riviera74 said:

Seventh?!  How did that happen?  How do they fix THAT problem?

It started when the 2004 STS was lack luster and of poor quality, the 2004 SRX looked too much like a station wagon and the XLR flop didn't help.  Then they brought out the XTS as a stop gap, made the SRX a lower priced fwd SUV instead of keeping the SRX a mid-size performance SUV and introducing a new model below it to have 2 crossovers (like everyone else did).  Then they brought ATS and CTS knives to a German gun fight, and they forgot to build a sports car like Audi, Mercedes, BMW, Acura and Lexus did.

To aide in all that, Johan DeNyschen left Audi and sales went up, then after he left Infiniti their sales went up, and he came to Cadillac and Cadillac's sales have declined.   How Cadillac can't outsell Acura and Infiniti in the USA is a mystery to me.

To fix it, they have to spend money they don't have.

[oldshurst442]

6 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

It started when the 2004 STS was lack luster and of poor quality, the 2004 SRX looked too much like a station wagon and the XLR flop didn't help.  Then they brought out the XTS as a stop gap, made the SRX a lower priced fwd SUV instead of keeping the SRX a mid-size performance SUV and introducing a new model below it to have 2 crossovers (like everyone else did).  Then they brought ATS and CTS knives to a German gun fight, and they forgot to build a sports car like Audi, Mercedes, BMW, Acura and Lexus did.

To aide in all that, Johan DeNyschen left Audi and sales went up, then after he left Infiniti their sales went up, and he came to Cadillac and Cadillac's sales have declined.   How Cadillac can't outsell Acura and Infiniti in the USA is a mystery to me.

To fix it, they have to spend money they don't have.

Or maybe tell Johan to take a hike...sales will increase by default as wherever Johan goes and leaves, the place he leaves improves the sales automatically...

Edited August 2, 2017 by oldshurst442

[smk4565]

3 minutes ago, oldshurst442 said:

Or maybe tell Johan to take a hike...sales will increase by default as wherever Johan goes and leaves, the place he leaves improves the sales automatically...

Johan is a marketing guy and Cadillac has awful marketing.   And why do you have a marketing guy in charge of your luxury-performance division?  Shouldn't they have an engineer or design guy (and by guy I mean person, male or female) in charge of Cadillac, so the product comes first?  

[oldshurst442]

37 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

Johan is a marketing guy and Cadillac has awful marketing.   And why do you have a marketing guy in charge of your luxury-performance division?  Shouldn't they have an engineer or design guy (and by guy I mean person, male or female) in charge of Cadillac, so the product comes first?  

Yeah. That would be a logical idea. I did not know Johan was a marketing guy. But the product is great! Before he joined...what you see is the product that was in place before he joined...

We really havent seen what HIS product will be like. Just one concept which is the Escala.

Even the name changes to CT5, CT6, XT5 and so forth are not of his tenure.

The marketing and HQ move to NYC is his and THAT was a good move.

The Dare Greatly campaign was his and it....sucked (or continues to suck) only because he is failing to....dare greatly...

Lets get this straight though. Marketing sucks before him and it continues to suck with him!

The products that Cadillac has out now ARE great. The interiors could be improved further, but they HAVE come a long way to where they were at the start of THIS decade (2010s).

In reality, lets give Johan some time.

The bankruptcy, the GM bureaucracy, the half a million CEO changes and shuffles, the ignition switch scandal, all have conspired AGAINST Cadillac to remain focused...

It seems that there is LASER focus ONLY on 1 model launch at a time at GM...for all divisions.

[A Horse With No Name]

1 hour ago, smk4565 said:

It started when the 2004 STS was lack luster and of poor quality, the 2004 SRX looked too much like a station wagon and the XLR flop didn't help.  Then they brought out the XTS as a stop gap, made the SRX a lower priced fwd SUV instead of keeping the SRX a mid-size performance SUV and introducing a new model below it to have 2 crossovers (like everyone else did).  Then they brought ATS and CTS knives to a German gun fight, and they forgot to build a sports car like Audi, Mercedes, BMW, Acura and Lexus did.

To aide in all that, Johan DeNyschen left Audi and sales went up, then after he left Infiniti their sales went up, and he came to Cadillac and Cadillac's sales have declined.   How Cadillac can't outsell Acura and Infiniti in the USA is a mystery to me.

To fix it, they have to spend money they don't have.

This is actually quite rational and rather clearly thought out...I pretty much agree with this.

Acura sells to people who want a premium brand but also want an appliance I think.  Seems to be the mindset here in Ohio where they are everywhere.

1 hour ago, smk4565 said:

Johan is a marketing guy and Cadillac has awful marketing.   And why do you have a marketing guy in charge of your luxury-performance division?  Shouldn't they have an engineer or design guy (and by guy I mean person, male or female) in charge of Cadillac, so the product comes first?  

A rational question...!

[riviera74]

Solving the Johan question..... I have no idea how to solve the marketing issues with Cadillac, or GM more generally.  The concept that "the product sells itself" does NOT apply to automobiles at all, unless they are truly special.  Cadillac does NOT Quite have something truly special.  And I mean special to the point where MB and BMW and Lexus are losing a lot of sales to Cadillac.

If anybody has any real solutions for the Cadillac sales/marketing issues, they need to hear those and execute good ideas now.

[balthazar]

3 hours ago, riviera74 said:

Seventh?!  How did that happen?  How do they fix THAT problem?

Don't fall for it.

Cadillac is a luxury brand- massive, multi-million vehicle sales is not the brand's mission.

I suspect they're going to keep doing what they've largely been doing; building competitive luxury product, at ever-increasing ATPs, and raking in a few billion in profits per year. A nice gig.

[daves87rs]

16 hours ago, oldshurst442 said:

On Tesla and on the iPhone

• Apple was laughed at not having a physical keyboard...so much so that there was still defiance and some tried to offer a physical keyboard with their touch screen
• Apple was laughed at for even having a touch screen in the first place
• Apple was laughed at for controlling the touch screen with your fingers in funky ways reminiscent of a fantasy futuristic Tom Cruise movie
• Apple was laughed at for trying to push connectivity and calling it "smart phone"
• Apple was laughed at for iTunes and people paying for "apps"
• From selling ZERO phones...to becoming a MAJOR player displacing the inventor of the satellite phone Motorola and the darling leader of the 1990s Nokia and dismantling the early 2000s technology filled leader Blackberry
• Apple was also laughed at for creating a "bigger iPhone" and saying that tablets will replace laptops...laptops did not die yet but are not as healthy as before as tablets have pushed their way to be an actual viable computer platform alternative

Tesla made it possible to sell the idea that EVs ARE the future that people actually want to own and COUNTRIES all over the world are waiting impatiently for the tech to be on par with oil driven vehicles...

Some COUNTRIES of the world have set a time and date and HAVE BANNED internal combustion engines. In 15-20 years, only alternative energy cars will be able to be bought in these countries...will it be EVs? WHo knows??? Tesla started this wave!!!

 Not trendy...TREND SETTING

BIG DIFFERENCE. I suggest you folk stop  verbally beating up on Tesla or Apple...

Apple was supposed to die sometime in the 1980s by haters and 'experts' alike.

Tesla may not survive as building and selling cars is a very expensive and task requiring BILLIONS every year and automotive consumers are the most fickle, most demanding, most hardest to make them stay loyal as the competition is the FIERCEST in any domain...being as it may, Tesla already has changed the course of automobile history for the future even if Tesla  ceases to exist 4:00 PM Eastern time today and it is currently 8:00 AM Eastern time as I type this...

 

Oh, I'm not beating up Telsa....believe or not, I actually want to see them succeed.. but their is a PROVEN way to build autos that they fail to follow. And don't get me started on how they treat their suppliers.....

And the difference is, he is no steve jobs.....and things can change pretty quick in the auto world. And his ego might burn him hard in the auto industry.

 

And since we mention trends, I remember a little thing called the EV1 that started this whole plug in car thing....

[oldshurst442]

1 minute ago, daves87rs said:

he is no steve jobs

Paypal

Tesla

[daves87rs]

1 minute ago, oldshurst442 said:

Paypal

Tesla

Well, if he can do more, that's cool...

Time will tell......

3 hours ago, smk4565 said:

Johan is a marketing guy and Cadillac has awful marketing.   And why do you have a marketing guy in charge of your luxury-performance division?  Shouldn't they have an engineer or design guy (and by guy I mean person, male or female) in charge of Cadillac, so the product comes first?  

 

Scary how much we agree (sometimes)-but marketing is why Caddy is struggling so hard.  You need a car guy-and someone who has passion. Johan has neither. 

Product is solid- but a see product out their that sells pretty well just based on marketing......

That said- helps to have more product to market!

[oldshurst442]

12 minutes ago, daves87rs said:

Well, if he can do more, that's cool...

Time will tell......

He has got a lot of fantasy projects going on. Sinking money on fairy tales really. Unlike Jobs whose ideas were swift and effective...so yeah.I agree, he is no Steve Jobs.

17 minutes ago, daves87rs said:

And since we mention trends, I remember a little thing called the EV1 that started this whole plug in car thing....

Just let me be douchey and allow me to counter with this pic

All in good nature just for discussion's sake.

[trinacriabob]

I'd like to see them go off alpha-numeric names.  Since they've done that, I've sort of lost interest in their product line.

I was at the last auto show and do not like their flagship sedan (or DTS equivalent) much at all.  It had some ungainly aspects to it.

[balthazar]

I've seen a number of CT6s rolling around out & about, and they regained an aspirational big Cadillac sedan swagger that has been missing for decades, IMO. Based on the styling, I'd own one, and there's not much in the modern car world I can say that about.