smk4565

I am surprised more people didn't want to pay $40k for what appears to be a Corolla Hybrid, oh wait, no I'm not. (and I know it is an Avensis, but people that the Toyota dealer don't). What a terrible car this was. The CT200h is just as bad. A hybrid ES350, errrr ES250h, is a no brainer. Then they'd be expanding appeal of an existing product rather than making a whole new car to get 3,000 sales a year. Problem with Lexus is that they build a boring car for old people. Lexus cashed in big on the baby boomers, but that current lineup has little appeal to Gen X and Gen Y. One thing that kept BMW strong for so long is they can appeal to young and old.

Disagree, The styling of recent Lincolns has been fairly cheap. The body panels yes, because they look like they came off a Ford. I sort of like the first MKZ more than the new, but I actually like the front end and grille on the MKS. The rest of the car sucks though. But I don't see design language/theme as what holds them back, being a $40,000 Ford Fusion is what holds them back.

The interior looks a bit too Chevy Malibu for me. I don't see this as any better than Lincoln interior that you can feel the Ford coming through. That interior is no better than the CTS, which came out 4 years ago. I smell some price overlap coming.

XTS will probably compete with those 3 cars, but 2 of them are sales duds, and the ES350 is on decline. And the LaCrosse doesn't really compete with those 3 cars. The LaCrosse competes with the Taurus, Avalon, Chrysler 300, maybe the Maxima. LaCrosse originally started under $27k, now it is near $30k so figure a $30-40k price spread. The ES350 starts at $37k and is closer in size to a Regal or CTS.

I am not so sure China will eat this up, for one it is huge, and secondly, they don't buy that many Cadillacs. Cadillac sold 2,000 cars in China last month, half of those were SUVs. Mercedes sold 16,500, BMW sold 18,000 and Audi sold 27,700. Although with those Audi sales, it does seem that the Chinese like bland, boring, FWD and AWD sedans with stubby trunks.

FWD = Booooooooo. They better not go down that road again. They need something smaller and cheaper than the XF, but that should be a rear drive car with a V6, and 4 and 6 cylinder diesel options. The XF 2.2 diesel gets 50 mpg, they don't need crap FWD to hit a CAFE target. And Jaguar sells so few cars, they probably don't even factor in. Hopefully this is just rumor.

I am not a fan of the high belt line look in general, it sort of works on the Chrysler 300. But to me the MKS is a tall, bulky car, the Buick LaCrosse looks very tall to me also, the dimensions just don't seem right. I think the XTS will be the same. And big sedans don't have to look bulky, the Jaguar XJ for example is a big car and it looks sporty, athletic and ready to pounce.

500 lbs lighter = WINNING

Boring. I actually think Lincolns look decent, the styling isn't the problem. The problem is that their cars aren't that good.

I posted this in the other XTS thread and will post it here, as it appears as Cadillac has laid down a bunt with this car. Looks huge and tall like a Lincoln MKS, and the grille looks a lot like the STS, which is a boring car. To me, they make an MKS with a Cadillac grille, this is lame. I am not a fan of this trend to make headlights go back halfway over the hood either, and multiple automakers seem to be doing that recently. Looks rather slab sided with a high belt line, aside from the one character line they put in it, trunk looks short and stubby, that car is sad.

Buick LaCrosse Joseph Abboud!!! I mean this is 2-tone leather, suede headliner, and a leather wrapped dash, but the wood still looks fake to me. It looks more upscale than the regular LaCrosse, and I think some people will spend the extra for the trim package. However it could also be pushing this car to say $45,000, seems like a lot for a LaCrosse, but if GM can get consumers to pay it, more power to them.

I like this, it looks more upscale and current than the original. What I don't like about the current Genesis Coupe is the Tiburon look and how the hood sort of slopes down and the grille is small. This looks to have a more upright front end and it has a bit of the Ford trapezoid and a little bit of Nissan/Infiniti vibe as well.

In a velvet painting of Elvis sort of way...yes...I can agree with you. As real art, I will take the flower car. Well I wasn't thinking from a car art point of view, but if I had to turn a car into a boat to cruise along the 3 rivers of Pittsburgh, I can think of no car better than a nautical motif Town Car.

Looks huge and tall like a Lincoln MKS, and the grille looks a lot like the STS, which is a boring car. To me, they make an MKS with a Cadillac grille, this is lame. I am not a fan of this trend to make headlights go back halfway over the hood either, and multiple automakers seem to be doing that recently. Looks rather slab sided with a high belt line, aside from the one character line they put in it, trunk looks short and stubby, that car is sad.

In the past on Top Gear when they have made amphibious cars it is always a VW camper van or pick up, but no car is closer to a boat than an 80s Town Car. Imagine a white Town Car with black landau roof, red paddle boat wheels and twin decorative black smoke stacks cruising down the Mississippi. Fantastic.

If they want a high tech luxury car shouldn't they be buying an S-class? And even a Focus or Veloster has Nav, voice commands, traffic and weather updates, bluetooth, etc. The Focus even has self park. A lot of this electronic stuff that is on iPad's and smart phones is in basic cars now. And I agree with Cubical, in that the 70+ crowd buying this car doesn't like electronics anyway.

Those 80's Town Car conversions are excellent. I always thought if I were on Top Gear and had to make an amphibious car, it would be an 80's Town Car in white with a Mississippi paddle boat theme.

Modern as in looking futuristic or as in will still look good 20 years from now? I think the Hyundai Veloster looks pretty modern.

The MKZ interior looks as good or maybe better than the MKS. Might as well save money and buy that over the MKS. And I agree that the MKS is too tall, the car (and Taurus) are just huge in all dimensions.

But will the XTS have a front bench for the highly desirable 6-passenger seating? In all seriousness though, I am not a fan of the switchgear below the Nav screen, it looks a bit too Ford Edge/Lincoln MKX for me. And the narrow, horizontal center air vent is a retro cue in an otherwise modern interior. But some may like that. To me the XTS interior is a bit boring, but the real key will be what the production build quality is.

Right, GM already builds the Lacrosse, that is their plush, quiet, full size sedan, why do they need another one? The purpose of keeping Buick around was to be that softer mid-luxury brand to compete with the Avalon, ES350, Lincolns, etc. Then Cadillac could be performance luxury. The CTS is just as quiet as a LaCrosse, so is the 3-series for that matter. Anything the XTS does in terms of quietness and ride, I think would be better on a rear drive platform. And if they want a nicer LaCrosse, then make a Park Avenue and sell it as a Buick. Cadillac should be going for Standard of the World, not fancy Buick.

But XTS will still body roll, a RWD car would ride smoother, and corner flatter. And I don't see why the CTS couldn't be more quiet than an XTS, drivetrain and platform don't have much to do with that. There are some pretty quiet rear drive cars out there.

New grille, new lights, more power, adaptive suspension, and the same problem. It is still a FWD Taurus for $45,000. It still won't sell.

I agree with Moltar's post. The 5-series, 7-series, and Ghost may have similarities but it is still 3 different wheelbases (technically 5 since the 7-series and Ghost have 2 lenghts) and different track width. The Ghost and 7-series share 20% of parts. But all 3 have rear drive which is what the luxury sedan segment is. If the Impala/LaCrosse/XTS all end up on the same platform with the same 3.6 liter v6, same transmission and the Cadillac just gets magnetic ride control (optional I assume), I don't see how you make the luxury car all that different than the standard car in driving dynamics. So then it becomes based on interior and features and you have why the Acura RL doesn't sell. It isn't worth the extra $25,000 for an Accord with a better interior and AWD. My belief is that the XTS will be in the $45-55,000 range to cover where the DTS/STS sit now, so it will be about $5,000 more than an MKS, and $10,000 more than a CTS (unless the CTS price goes up). Is the XTS really going to be $10,000 better than a CTS when it is a LaCrosse underneath, I don't think so. And it doesn't build reputation or brand image, it just maintains status quo of Cadillac being an old man's car.

Jeer. A bad car made crazy.