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Is Cadillac's Image Dying and Does Anyone Care?

6186 messages,  Last post on Mar 26, 2013 at 6:19 PM

You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum.

What is this discussion about? Cadillac Escalade, Cadillac XLR, Cadillac STS, Automotive News

    

Messages Page 464 of 620

#4623 of 6186 Re: The Only Luxury Car... [lemko] by circlew

Feb 27, 2008 (12:00 pm)

Replying to: lemko (Feb 27, 2008 5:52 am)
Her is some interesteing data from July 2007.
 
According to the industry examiners at CNW Research, Cadillac’s fortunes appear to be slipping away at the margins.
 
In the firm’s July installment of their Retail Automotive Summary, their Aspirational Index (which judges a brand’s attractiveness to consumers) reveals that Cadillac’s rising star is beginning to falter. In the mid-Nineties, the marque rated only a 4 on a 10 point scale. With the brand’s dramatic rebound beginning in 1999, its score climbed for five straight years, flattening out in 2005 and 2006. It has now slipped under 8.0, the brand’s lowest mark since 2003.
 
The ‘aspiration age’ for Cadillac buyers has also swelled from 30.3 just three years ago to 35.9. Interestingly, Cadillac trucks (read: the Escalade brand) went from 25.7 to 32.7—a 27 percent increase. This suggests that Cadillac’s appeal among buyers in that most coveted of demographics (18-35 years old) is slipping.
 
Editor’s Note: Cadillac’s disappointing trending seems like a fairly predictable result of its aging bread-and-butter product line (think: CTS, SRX, XLR, and STS). Older consumers seem to be less concerned with purchasing new models than they are with other factors (witness the devoted elderly audiences of such long-running cars as Cadillac’s own DeVille, or Ford’s Crown Victoria). We anticipate an uptick in Cadillac’s scores once the 2008 CTS filters into dealerships.
 
Regards,
OW

#4624 of 6186 Re: Rolls the Standard? [lemko] by bumpy

Feb 27, 2008 (12:48 pm)

Replying to: lemko (Feb 27, 2008 10:47 am)
I think the new CTS still has the 2.8 in Europe, but over here it's either the standard or direct-injection 3.6L. If Cadillac does get a sub-CTS car, I'd imagine they would drop the base 3.6L to open up some pricing room for that, and add a 375-400ish V8 to push the CTS up into E/5er/Genesis territory.

#4625 of 6186 Re: Rolls the Standard? [bumpy] by xhe518

Feb 27, 2008 (12:55 pm)

Replying to: bumpy (Feb 27, 2008 12:48 pm)
I think the new CTS still has the 2.8 in Europe, but over here it's either the standard or direct-injection 3.6L. If Cadillac does get a sub-CTS car, I'd imagine they would drop the base 3.6L to open up some pricing room for that, and add a 375-400ish V8 to push the CTS up into E/5er/Genesis territory.
 
I'm not sure about Europe, but here in the US, the CTS has two 3.6L engines - the base one makes about 255hp, the direct injection one makes 300hp. There is definitely plenty of room between the 300hp CTS and the 550hp CTS-V for a V8 option.... But in this new era of $3.50 gas, 35mpg CAFE, etc.. I don't know.... They will definitely have a turbo-diesel for the CTS soon - I think it's already on sale in Europe.

#4626 of 6186 Re: The Only Luxury Car... [lemko] by jimbres

Feb 27, 2008 (2:39 pm)

Replying to: lemko (Feb 27, 2008 5:52 am)
Geeze, the CTS already wipes up the floor with the 3-Series and C-Class, both of which are overpriced yuppie poseurmobiles.
 
Easy there, big fella. While the new CTS is clearly the best Cadillac in 40 years (please don't pretend that any of the 80s Caddies were anything more than pathetic), it leaves something to be desired for us stick aficionados. Every review of the MT version of the CTS that I've read pans the stick. I don't doubt that the automatic can hold its own against the foreign competition, but as long as my knees hold out, I have no interest in a car with fewer than 3 pedals.
 
I'm at least 2 years away from replacing my 330i. If Cadillac can work the kinks out of the manual tranny by the time I'm ready to buy, then the CTS will be a serious contender. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the same level of gear-shifting satisfaction from the 2010 CTS that I'm used to from my 2001 330i.

#4627 of 6186 Re: Longer? [bumpy] by pmc4

Feb 27, 2008 (3:24 pm)

Replying to: bumpy (Feb 26, 2008 8:45 pm)
"Fake burled walnut is deserving of every bit of hate that can be heaped upon it. I can print out a picture of a board and tape that to the dashboard of my car and it would look better."
 
Weren't you the poster who agreed with Consumer Reports when Consumer Reports remarked how elegant and real the fake wood in the 2007 Toyota Avalon looked? What, then, makes the fake wood in the early 80's Cadillacs any different (late 80's Caddys and beyond went with real wood trim)? Could it be that the Cadillac is a domestic car and the Toyota is an import? And if that's the case, what difference does origin of manufacture matter when fake or real wood trim is discussed?

#4628 of 6186 Re: The Only Luxury Car... [jimbres] by pmc4

Feb 27, 2008 (8:27 pm)

Replying to: jimbres (Feb 27, 2008 2:39 pm)
The 80's Cadillacs were pathetic, yet you own a BMW? What, pray tell, is your opinion on the 80's BMW's? I at least proved with pictures that they were certainly the most pathetic car during the 80's in any class. Only cars from Yugoslavia were more pathetic.
In fact, looking at BMW's from the 1980's and Yugo's from the same decade, we can swear they're from the same manufacturer...

#4629 of 6186 Re: The Only Luxury Car... [xrunner2] by pmc4

Feb 27, 2008 (3:30 pm)

Replying to: xrunner2 (Feb 27, 2008 4:54 am)
When Lexus invents automotive greats like the first V16, first automatic transmission, first starter, first power steering and power windows, as Cadillac has, then they can call themselves "It's... the Lexus of..."

#4630 of 6186 Re: The Only Luxury Car... [circlew] by pmc4

Feb 27, 2008 (8:39 pm)

Replying to: circlew (Feb 27, 2008 6:15 am)
As I proved before, circlew, Cadillac in all decades (except the 90's) made the best cars in its respective classes. Find a decade where I'm wrong.
Nothing from Germany could ever touch the ElDorado, which explains why Elvis and F. Sinatra owned them. The best Germany could do is resurrect WWII-era vehicles, add power steering to them and a huge 6L engine, old technology and ugly interiors with high noise levels and a truck-like ride ("I bought my 300SE 1988 Benz for $50,000 because it's vault-like solid. Like my F-350 SuperDuty pickup."), so we saw nothing significant from Germany until this century.
Japan started making nice luxury cars in the 1990's, starting first in 1991 with the Lexus LS 400. Before that, Cadillac was the luxury car.
 
If I'm wrong, then please support your argument with something like pictures instead of vagaries. Thank you.
 
You can't do it though, because everything from Germany was crude and primitive up until the 1990's. If I'm wrong, show some pics of german cars that cost around $30,000 new from the 60's, 70's, 80's. You can't do it without embarrasing Germany...
 
.

#4631 of 6186 Re: The Only Luxury Car... [62vetteefp] by jimbres

Feb 27, 2008 (8:39 pm)

Replying to: 62vetteefp (Feb 27, 2008 7:52 am)
I guess I would think that most would say MB is the standard compared to the rest. Sure it is not a performance car like the BMW but in my opinion if a high priced BMW is sitting next to a high priced MB I would say the MB has more prestige. Am I right here?
 
I'd suggest that car X is prestigious if significant numbers of upper-middle & upper-class professionals/managers/entrepeneurs buy (or lease) it. In my town, which is a fairly affluent NYC suburb, this segment of the market is voting German with its dollars. From what I've seen, this is true of most demographically similar zip codes on the east & west coasts. It might be different in the flyover states.
 
It wasn't always this way. When I was a kid - in the late 50s & early 60s - Cadillac owned these buyers. The only serious competition came from Lincoln. I can recall just one Mercedes in my home town (also a fairly well-off NYC suburb), & it belonged to a career Foreign Service officer who brought it home after completing a 2-year stint in West Berlin. Apart from this, Cadillac was the car of choice for the local ruling class. No one thought that this would ever change.
 
But it did. By the later 1980s, the doctors, bankers, lawyers, stockbrokers & successful businessmen were driving German iron: Mercedes, for the most part. The only exceptions were folks who, for personal reasons, would not buy anything made in Germany. By this time, the typical Cadillac buyer was either old or a member of what I'd call the blue collar aristocracy - the Con Ed foreman who had worked a lot of overtime, for example. Nothing wrong with that, mind you, but certainly not nearly enough to sustain a luxury brand.
 
So I'd say that if Cadillac can recapture a significant chunk (20 or 25 percent, say) of the upper-middle & upper class market segment, it will be perceived as a top-tier player.

#4632 of 6186 Re: The Only Luxury Car... [pmc4] by jimbres

Feb 27, 2008 (9:00 pm)

Replying to: pmc4 (Feb 27, 2008 8:27 pm)
The 80's Cadillacs were pathetic, yet you own a BMW? What, pray tell, is your opinion on the 80's BMW's?
 
What difference does it make? I own a 2001 BMW 330i, not an 80s BMW. My car is 2 generations removed from the 3-series cars of the 1980s. Your question doesn't make sense.
 
I have a great deal of respect for the Cadillac brand. The Caddies of the 50s & 60s were magnificent cars. Consider the '57 Sedan de Ville, for example, or the '64 Coupe de Ville. Beautiful cars. The '67 & '68 Eldorados are simply drop-dead gorgeous. So I'm no Cadillac basher. But after '73, Cadillac lost its way.
 
If you were a Cadillac marketing manager & you had to develop an ad campaign that tied the new CTS to the one of the great Cadillacs of the past, which car would you pick? A timeless beauty from the 50s or 60s or one of the rolling bathtubs from the 80s?

Messages Page 464 of 620

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