I think.. you sir have hit the nail, right on the head. SUVS.. are equated with luxury.

Sedans and all else.. arent.

I wonder if.. GMs bankruptcy will settle that notion.

I never understood what I believe to be an odd situation.

The DTS was front drive.
The STS was rear drive.

And they both offered a massive wallowing vehicle to sit in (sofa) as they ride down the road.

Its amazing, Mr Karesh ya nail it on the head.
Then there is the debate about the entry level Caddy, the BLS. I had heard that this car FAILED in EUROPE because there isnt any value in a Cheap American car.

But I dont understand the point of the CTS now. This was THE entry car at 35. So is this moving up market, and getting larger? And why are sport versions of this car.. only done in the last gen front and rear clip?

Caddy.. as I believe is confused.

Ya got the CTS that brings in the-people-who-want-American-or-not-the-3-series.

And ya got the Slade and its brethen.. for the thugs who really need… (holds back THOSE comments), or the soccer moms who think its cool to drive around in a overpriced by 25g TAHOE.

And at this point..
There isnt much at all that doesnt make them like Saturn or Buick. They have dervatives.

Then again..
Buick is even WORSE shape.

There is no name recognition except for grandpa, and the designs.. arent polarizing. The names are made up and there isnt enough to hold up a fort. They are trying to go after Lexus, but with MUCH less. Worst part… Buick for China, could probably work here, if they spent a coupla bil on marketing.

Cadillac Desending…
This is how it starts.
Ya get the monster of a boat, up against something immovable.. and slice the right side a good 300′ into the ship…

And its all over.

Face it, at this point.. it leads me to just wonder whats the point of half to three quarters of what they sell.

While GM keeps pounding its chest about how important Cadillac is to its North American vehicle line, all current assumptions are off the table. The Feds have proven that over the last 6 weeks. If GM no longer has the resources or public acceptance to make Cadillac a full-line competitive luxury brand — and we all know it doesn’t — how is it any more than a frustrating and expensive diversion? BMW-Audi-Mercedes-Lexus intenders only look at one Cadillac, the CTS. Even that goes up in smoke in a Ch11 scenario. Then, let’s see, if CTS coupe and wagon fail, SRX is stillborn, Escalade dies off, and XLR, DTS, STS are all killed, plus no replacement for the Northstar engine can be developed, what is the point of Cadillac?

Really, GM’s only hope is to go back to bread and butter. If Chevy and Buick were to be GM’s only US brands, isn’t that a much saner structure? Face it, Buick is the only US GM brand that can function globally. China’s been lovin’ Buicks ever since those big shots rolled down the Shanghai docks in their stylish 1937 Centurys.It means something to them.

Buick’s brand image may be hoary but good product can change a lot. Here’s an opportunity to keep 2 sales channels with Buick getting the best mid-market GM stuff that doesn’t fit with Chevrolet. That could mean LaCrosse, Enclave and/or SRX, a rebadged CTS, and maybe Lucerne for the old folks and black car fleet buyers who still love the DTS. In this scenario, Chevrolet gets a minicar, Cruze, Malibu, Camaro, Corvette, Volt (heh, heh, heh) a rebadged G8 and the trucks. Look ma, no overlap!

Will they do it? Nah, I don’t think so.

The next question is whether GM can make money with 2,500- 3,000 U.S. dealers carrying just 2 1/2 brands and just 12-15% market share?

Well there ya go. :-)

Do they demand “significant discounts” or a decent price? Maybe the car companies are asking too much?

shaker- Exactly, for me anything less than a King Ranch F150 is “downmarket”

I apologize, my mistake.

If GM does shrink down to just Chevrolet (and a hallowed out Cadillac, which will probably then die too) I don’t see them lasting even ten years after this happens.

People have come to equate “luxury” with 6′6″ tall, 6000lb four-wheel drive vehicles with lighted, auto-retracting running boards, leather captain’s chairs and a gaping maw in the rear that can swallow up a fully-assembled gas grill purchased at Lowe’s.

Any “sedan” is TOTALLY “down-market” compared to that, and it will be some time before anyone will pay a premium for a “less capable” vehicle.

In my preteen years, I saw my grandmother’s dead Cadillac eternally rotting in our driveway. Broken. Failed. Not worth fixing. What a statement on many levels.

In my teen years, I saw the ghetto crowd and Hollywood turn Cadillac into their ‘ultimate pimp car.’ What a brand statement. There’s nothing like your halo product being latched onto by the lowest level of society (thanks to nuclear depreciation). What an un-ignorable, rolling, visual statement to family money squandered. Of WTF?

The first Escalade on the GMT400 platform was a great idea, but the concept of a large luxury SUV was first strongly rejected by GM Clowns, until they saw Ford kicking their ass with the Navigator.

The 2003 CTS’s styling utterly turned me off, and still does. Styling in the theme of “crack whore,” opposite of elegant, comes to mind.

The 2004 XLR. I drove one once, it sucked. It fails the ‘would I have more fun driving a GTI test.’ 50% overpriced. It separates the stupid rich, from the really stupid, really rich.

The Cadillac Sixteen? It’s the high water mark of Bob Lutz’s senility, his lack of magic, and his lack of leadership. With the right eyes, you can see the wave crest and roll back. A rare case of a GM car 10 years too early (to celebrate), instead of the usual ‘10 years to late,’ assuming the eternal GM Resurgence actually happened, you know, and not just on a GM Powerpoint presentation.

The Cadillac V-Series are worthy machines, but God, they are bought by the crowd that doesn’t even rotate their tires, let alone corner at 0.90g. Leased! What a vote of confidence!

In truth, the one year old DTS at $25k is my favorite Cadillac. I like it because it’s the last big car. It’s the only niche in the high-dollar market. GM will abandon it, of course. In its last year, of course. It will be at the top of the J.D. Power category, that year, of course. Per usual for GM, of course.

Back to 2009. GM has no credentials to offer a luxury brand anymore. Their hybrids are a joke, and in the eyes of the public, they can’t even compete with the Civic/Corolla, Camry/Accord.

American enthusiasts never rejoiced, they were very skeptical at best. “Cadillac,” means nothing positive to me.

As far as Cadillac going downmarket, it would need to simultaneously go up market to the same degree. Think BMW 7 series vs. 3 series.

On a purely personal note, I would get rid of the plague of letter-named models, and go back to DeVille, Seville, etc. It’s classier. Thats the point, right?

Being that the LS engine has always been making similar if not more power than the fancy Caddy motor, GM was probably wise to stop developing it given their lack of cash all around.

A DOHC V8 making close to 100 hp/l without forced induction that can scream like something from Italy would be nice though. Efficiency and size be damned.

Frankly, I don’t see any point to such products, anyway. Good products don’t need halos to support them.

Although I am a “halo apologist”, I do not propose Cadillac make any halos. I think they should make unique cars with appeal and image as the main goal- solely for the benefit of Cadillac. Then GM should market them as “This is a Cadillac”, not “This is the new Cadillac- it’s the same thing as BMW or Lexus makes.”

GM cannot afford products for the sake of image. Frankly, I don’t see any point to such products, anyway. Good products don’t need halos to support them. They also don’t need to be rationalized as halos.

akear,

The CTS, Malibu, and Corvette developed on Lutz’s watch are good cars. His pet projects, most notably the GTO, G8, and Solstice, have fared less well.

Hmmm, he didn’t have a vested interest in calling Pontiac a “damaged brand,” did he? Puts the blame on past history rather than the current products.

It’s not “you guys.” Each article here is the work of the person whose name is on it. RF regularly prints stuff with my name on it that he personally doesn’t agree with, and I don’t agree with everything everyone else writes here, either.

That said, note that I say “will” not “should.” This piece isn’t my opinion of what GM should do, it’s my prediction of what GM will do, based on what they’ve been doing.

If anyone is hanging GM from a ceiling fan, it’s GM.

Anyone can sell a lot of mediocre product if you price it low enough. That’s not a winning strategy. GM needs to sell as much good product as they can at a profitable price, although realistically they’ll need to be cheaper than the competition for quite a while.

I think that appeal, not volume, should be GM’s goal with Cadillac. That would make it an aspirational brand. Let GMC and Chevrolet worry about the big sales figures.

I if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re essentially telling General Motors to go hang itself from a ceiling fan.

Some “car guy” products have enormous appeal–but they don’t sell in large enough numbers to keep the company going.

Good point, except for the fact that GM has still outsold EVERYONE in the US market this year. They’ve sold more than 1/3 more vehicles than their nearest competitor.

But hey, why let facts get in the way…

That’s quite funny… Let me get this strait… The car is a gem, except the interior is cheap and it is put together poorly… Nice way to describe GM’s flagship…

I’ll be honest I had to look up “tumblehome” But that sums up this car’s fugly look in one word. This car is as sexy as a cardboard box and the “bent” greenhouse just looks odd… exactly like someone tacked it on at the last minute in a fit of design frustration…

This car, the 2005 STS, will go down in history as Cadillac’s Edsel… Ugly and unloved…

I know over and over we talk about “Good GM” being Chevy and Cadillac… Cadillac has one car that sells… The DT7 is dead, the Alpha model is dead, the Ultra V8 is dead, the Escalade is going down market, the XLR is dead, the “V” division is dead, the STS replacement is dead, the 2008 update to the STS made things worse (if that was even possible)…

We joke about the tag line “Pontiac is Car” The truth is “Cadillac is one Car” is more accurate.

I’d rather see Cadillac fail building designs like the Sixteen and Converj than fade-away by bringing over the BLS and rebadging the Lacrosse.