Answer Of The Day: Reader Response To The ELR Sales Question
The best comment on the ELR sales and inventory figures post didn’t even come from the comment section. Instead, it ended up in the TTAC reader feedback inbox.
One of our readers, who asked for his name to be withheld, had this to say about my ELR post
Not trying to excuse the elr….but you have to look at inventory on it with some sort of intelligence… not the usual approach. There are about 500 elr dealers…. do the frickin math.
Two units per store. Some have more….some have less. You act as if there are ELRs pouring onto the streets.
OEM has to supply the dealers who signed up to sell it right? Launches have to fill the channels…. you write like Cadillac is drunkenly building these without a clue.
Our reader certainly has a point, but I still think that there are too many examples on the lots, given how these cars are selling. And the high price tag – even if most of these cars will be leased – makes it a hard sell, especially against a Tesla Model S.
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I am in the target market for both the Volt and ELR. SF Bay Area, 9 mile each way commute to my store, lover of tech and so on. When my Sienna finally gives up the ghost I will probably replace it with something like the Volt, C-Max or ELR. So I went and built a Volt exactly to my wants and then the same ELR (as close as I could get anyway). The result: Volt w/ leather and all the goodies - $37,500 ELR w/ roughly the same goodies - $85,600 Now without a doubt the Caddy should be a much nicer car, materials, workmanship, etc. But I just can't get past that nearly $50,000 premium. If that Caddy were $55,600 I might be able to talk myself into it after I drove both, but not at $85,000. The ELR's troubles are all about Price, Price and finally, Price.
As I said in a previous post, Cadillac should recall every ELR and crush them, just as Chrysler did in 2008 with its hybrids when it realized its hybrid sales were never going to increase. The indefinite support for this vehicle will be very expensive. C'mon GM, man up, stand up, and kill this car - all of them! Politically, the time is right while GM is in turmoil - to look like they're doing something wise for a change.
Someone in a previous thread said the problem with the ELR was that it was Chevy technology hiding behind a Cadillac badge, I'd revise that to: the problem with the Volt was it was Cadillac technology hidden behind a Chevy badge. Tesla played it right, those with money will pay for the green tech cred, but those on a Chevy budget won't. I love this car (and that infamous commercial). So it's based on teh Volt, it sure as heck doesn't look like one. After all what was the '67 Eldorado but an Oldsmobile in a sharp suit?
You guys make me laugh when you say that Cadillac is chasing the Europeans such as BMW. BMW builds their cars primarily for the U.S. market. They are the true American cars. I owned an X5 which was 100% American and had to be exported from South Carolina to me in Brisbane. The Germans understand your market better than your home grown luxury brands.