#CadillacEscalade

With 70 percent of its buyers new to to the brand, the Cadillac ATS is an important way for the brand to bring new buyers into the fold. But the ATS is still missing an important product that its main competitors currently have; a coupe.

In a month’s time, we’ll have our first look at the new Cadillac CTS, when GM takes the wraps off of its new luxury sedan at the New York Auto Show. The new CTS is merely the first in a wave of new cars for Cadillac, along with the already unveiled ELR plug-in hybrid.

The Cadillac Escalade, perhaps the decade’s most prolific monument to conspicuous consumption, will be going in a different direction for its next generation. GM’s Mark Reuss described the new Escalade as “much less ostentatious”.

In rapper parlance, the word “ignorant” often denotes someone or something that is offensively ostentatious, lacking in taste, discretion or refinement. It’s a great descriptor for the Cadillac Escalade, and according to an Automotive News report, things aren’t going to change when the next generation debuts.

The Arlington, Texas plant that builds full size SUVs like the Chevrolet Tahoe and Cadillac Escalade will get a third shift, adding 800 jobs.

Reports of a next-generation Cadillac Escalade, due in 2014 after a brush with the Grim Reaper, have us asking the all-important question; what was GM thinking in trying to kill the car off in the first place?