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Cars: Caddy's Comeback
Once the venerable "standard of the world," Cadillac fights back with a move upmarket.
Paul A. Eisenstein
From the Print Edition:
Cuban Models, May/June 03
(continued from page 4)
Turning things around, the affable executive stresses, requires Cadillac to return to its roots. That doesn't mean going retro, like some other manufacturers. But Caddy needs to reemphasize the things that made it a success a century ago: power, technology and styling.
Cadillac's new V-Series will certainly deliver the power. Modeled after Mercedes' performance unit, AMG, the series will include V-badged versions of virtually every future Cadillac product, starting next year with a 400-horsepower screamer, the CTSv.
The push for performance puts a premium on advanced technology, but so does the renewed emphasis on fuel economy. The STS is slated to serve as the launchpad for GM's new Displacement on Demand system. Though company officials would prefer to forget the comparisons, DoD is similar in concept to the old V-8-6-4 in that it will idle half its cylinders when power demands are low. "But the big difference," explains David Cole, director of the Center for Automotive Research, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, "is that they now have the technology, primarily the electronics, to make it work right."
As for styling, the Art & Science theme certainly stands out. But that's likely to undergo a subtle evolution, Lutz hinted. The Sixteen shows where Cadillac is heading. Compared with the hard, angular CTS, the big sedan, he notes, was "updated, with soft, sweeping surfaces between the [hard-edged] folds."
Since its debut in Detroit in January, the Sixteen has been one of the most talked-about concept vehicles on the auto-show circuit. Will it ever be built? For the moment, the answer is no, but it's a topic of constant consideration at high-level meetings. There's a growing likelihood, company insiders admit, that GM will turn to an outside production house to roll out a limited number, perhaps 1,000 at $250,000 a copy.
One thousand wouldn't even register on the sales charts, where the luxury segment now accounts for more than 1.5 million cars, trucks and crossovers annually. But "we're not focused on being number one again," LaNeve asserts. Not in volume, at least. With Sixteen, Cadillac would regain a seat at the adult table, playing in the same league as the world's best.
The Sixteen could also spearhead Cadillac's much-delayed assault on overseas luxury markets. Currently, it sells only a few thousand vehicles outside North America. There'd be tremendous credibility earned by going head-to-head in the home market of its competitors. And it might again permit Cadillac to lay the claim that it really is the global standard.
Paul A. Eisenstein publishes an auto magazine on the Internet at www.TheCarConnection.com.
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