Cadillac Will Give Us A Taste Of The XT5 This Week, Whole Meal in Dubai
Cadillac will release later this week the first “official” looks at its replacement for the SRX — the XT5 — before unveiling the car first in Dubai, and then shortly after in Los Angeles. Autoblog first reported that the XT5 would be shown in Dubai.
The Dubai International Auto show will be held Nov. 10-14, and the Los Angeles Auto Show will be held Nov. 20-29 for the public, with a preview for media on Nov. 17.
The XT5 has already been extensively photographed in the wild before (See above. And go ahead, Google it if you want to see more, we’ll wait right here) so the reveals this week and in November may be a little anticlimactic.
Nonetheless, it’s worth looking into the Dubai reveal a little more as Cadillac positions itself further outside North America. The Middle East is the fastest growing region for Cadillac sales this year, according to the company.
In June, the company reported it had sold 533 cars, which is a 127 percent increase from June 2014. Overall sales in the Middle East are up 47 percent year-to-date.
Last month, Cadillac announced that it would delay its return to Europe until 2019 to focus on regions such as China and the Middle East.
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The current SRX is one of the top 10 selling imported vehicles in China (source: bestsellingcarsblog). This despite it being rather old and with IMO a hideously cheap plasti-chrome face that won't age well. Worldwide, it's most likely Cadillac's overall best selling vehicle. This XT5, to my eyes, looks much better. I think it will do well, both here and abroad, and will be a relative hit for Cadillac which is badly needed. I think they're bringing production back to the US from Mexico on this one, also, FWIW.
Now that the new Lexus RX looks like a prop vehicle from Mad Max (let's see what the suburban moms think about THAT), perhaps a conservative XT5 is the way to go for Cadillac. Personally I just don't understand what is going on with most luxury makes. Aside from Mercedes, they seem to have all lost the plot on styling.
OK, the usual Cadillac hate, and yes, this is not exactly radical, but have you seen the new Lexus RX? It's acid-trip, mind-bendingly ugly. My perception of this segment is that buyers want a conservative design with a hint of sporty, not something that got left on the cutting room floor from "Akira" because it was too weird-looking to make it into the movie. I'm predicting market share loss for the RX model right now. Lexus gave its competitors here an opportunity, and I think Cadillac and Lincoln will be primed to capture some of what Toyota is potentially giving away. And I think Lincoln could be the bigger winner with the new MKX.
Timeless elegant international style destined for greatness and longevity. MOMA will shortly be on the blower to commandeer a copy to slip in a glass case for display in the main lobby.