What's Wrong With This Picture: Re-Coupe-ing The Investment Edition
I was wandering the GM Heritage Center with Jaguar designer Ian Callum (yes, a write-up of that interview is coming), when a Cadillac PR man took me aside and offered to have me flown down to Los Angeles to “check out” this new CTS Coupe. My initial reaction was surprise that the offer was made at all. My second was to explain that I couldn’t possibly accept airfare. TTAC has a strict disclosure policy, and our Best and Brightest would doubtless take a dim view of any coverage made possible by an OEM picking up an airfare tab. Especially if I actually like the car, I explained, such a disclosure would create understandable skepticism. Paying TTAC’s way will always be self-defeating. Still, I thought, LA isn’t that far. I remained tempted to make the trip on the TTAC tab, right up to the point where I realized that by “check out,” Cadillac did not mean “drive.” An invite arrived, clarifying that this was an “opportunity to see the car before the LA Show and to visit with Bryan Nesbitt, general manager of Cadillac and Clay Dean, director of design for Cadillac.” No thanks. I saw the CTS Coupe before the LA Auto Show… in a Cadillac advertisement. Thanks for the invitation, Cadillac… but TTAC needs to drive something to drag itself away from the keyboard.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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Am I the only one who thinks the CTS coupe looks like a VW Corrado with vertical head and tail lamps and a blingy grille?
TTAC's Alex Dykes will be in town covering the LA Auto Show for us anyway, and I've forwarded Cadillac's invitation on to him. I simply can't justify flying myself down to LA for a non-driving press event, given TTAC's limited budget.
As for the airfare issue, I would accept it (with full disclosure, of course) if it meant a driving experience to report on. Accepting a handout in order to report on a conversation about styling (especially when it's an existing design minus two doors) simply wouldn't improve TTAC's credibility... and credibility is all we have.
I agree with you Ed. I'd accept if there was a driving portion involved. It gives me something both tangible and intagible to report on and, as always, the truth would revealed. But since this is just another version of the CTS (a good car notwithstanding) I'll pass.
It needs to be named CTC, Eldorado II Junior, or Corrado-Big-Butt.