All Entries Tagged With: "CADILLAC"
First Take: 2010 Cadillac XTS Platinum Concept
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG GM
LIKE the DOD, GM’s positioning Cadillac to fight a war on two fronts.
The XTS concept which bowed at Detroit this month is a testament to how far Cadillac has come in honing a product range that’s right, tight, and ready to roll against the best that Japan and Europe can import.
It is very clear that GM designers did their homework in studying and in some cases borrowing from rivals as well as paying clear due diligence to the marque’s own past.
In this respect, Cadillac’s design team have actually succeed in routing their rivals by creating an almost road-ready concept that offers more by being less.
A crucial case in point: the XTS provides similar interior space as the capacious DeVille/DTS while simulaneously managing to occupy less real estate – the new sedan is four inches shorter.
Thanks to short overhangs, a high bow that sweeps into a high beltline which arcs gently into a short decklid with trademark fin LEDs, the package en totale seems even tighter.
Tighter, in fact, than either the new Audi A8 or the Lexus LS.
Only One Car That’ll Do: Pink Cadillac
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG via IMCDB
LOUD.
The Boss is playin’ as I write. His wailin’s managed to clear out wildlife for a mile. Maybe more.
If you’re in an audio-safe zone, rock with me as you read.
Bruce Springsteen – Pink Cadillac
Now, you may think I’m foolin’, but there’s really no replacing Cadillac. There’s no Japanese, German, or Italian translation. No Honda Valkyre to its Harley. Heck, there’s no American equivalent, either.
Lincoln? C’mon.
At Lincoln’s best – the 60’s Continental – the original “L” marque was an ultra-serious, minimalist zig to the Caddy’s rocket-shipped zag. It’s as if those mean lines were a stern apology for that out-of-control party over at GM.
God bless Mister Earl and his rocket ship fantasies.
Any of the large ‘n in-charge designer’s issue from the 50s thru to the mid 60s were the rolling image of America on wheels. Cadillac was part of brand USA’s A-Team like Coca Cola, Mickey Mouse, and General Electric.
Back when chrome was metal and gas was -gag- leaded…
To hell with brands. What about larger-than-life icons?
Marylin Monroe. Ronald Reagan. Elvis. Sunny. Optimistic. Larger-than-life. Universal.
Goddamm beautiful.
Anyway, Cadillac was something more than A-to-B transportation. Something past playing catch-up with ze Germans. Something above the blue. Those rocket fins were fitted just to take off with our imagination.
What about Cadillac today? The 2010 SRX seems a little weak. And the DTS is a cop-out for “tradition”, a rental car long overdue for retirement.
Still, Cadillac could still rebound. The CTS-V is thunder, Heaven sent. The Escalades still espouse true Cadillac excess.
If MoTown’s top brass had, well, the brass to build it, they’d take the CTS-V’s throttle, the Escalade’s size , and all the heavy metal and cow hide that made an old Biarritz worth more than a Silver Cloud and show the world a true, honkin’ Caddy, two door and four door.
Did someone say Sixteen??
Hell, it doesn’t even have to corner. Just be big, beautiful, and unashamed at being, well, a Cadillac. And nothing else.
As for such an enormous, luxurious barge’s place in the great automotive market, well, here’s how it’d fit:
Now some folks say it’s too big
And uses too much gas
Some folks say it’s too old
And that it goes too fast
But my love is bigger than a Honda
It’s bigger than a Subaru
Hey man there’s only one thing
And one car that will do
Anyway we don’t have to drive it
Honey we can park it out in back
And have a party in your pink Cadillac
GM Webcast – Product Technology
The way of the future…
By Gunnar Heinrich
CALLING all blogs.
GM’s set to announce it’s latest and greatest efforts in developing a relevant march into the uncertain future.
The General will appear armed and ready with product brimming with new potential (we pray) including but not limited to the following:
- A new, smaller Cadillac 3er/C-Class/ A4/ IS fighter called “ATS”.
- Much anticipated by the Sunshine State’s pensioner set – the Cadillac DTS (née Sedan DeVille) successor XTS will also be formally announced
- Buick will showcase a brand new midsize saloon
- And there will be news about the 2011 Chevy Malibu
Lock it here for the press conference with GM CEO Fritz Henderson which will go live at 08:00 EST.
If the embedded player functions as reliably as an old Chevy Citation, tap this link >>> GM Product Technology
ADL TV | GM @ 100 Yrs: Cadillac
“MISTER EARL”
There’s nothing quite like having the man who designed the Corvette Sting Ray tell you, the interviewer, that you’re not giving GM’s larger-than-life chief designer Harley Earl enough respect.
My question: “Did you ever work with Harley Earl back in the day?”
Bob Veryzer: “He was around. It was never Harley Earl. It was always Mister Earl.”
To which GM’s VP of Global Design Ed Welburn added, “It was only until recently that people started calling him Harley Earl.”
Apparently, GM’s artistic duo hadn’t seen any of Buick’s “My name’s Harley Earl” TV spots. Nevertheless, at this gala in honor of Cadillac, clear respect for an icon was the order of the evening.
Last summer we drove up to Saratoga Springs, New York where instead of placing bets on horses we braved the worst tempests that the Hudson River Valley could throw our way to tape a story about Cadillac’s past and where it might fit in GM’s tomorrow.
GM had turned 100 years old and the Saratoga Auto Museum threw a party in honor of Cadillac. Many GM big wigs were there, including GM’s G.M. for Cadillac, Jim Taylor.
As grim as Caddy sales looked last July, the financial markets had yet to crash and the General was still almost a year away from filing for bankruptcy protection. We were in, if you like, the eye of the perfect storm.
In this segment with a T.R.T. of 07:15, we watch some of the best and worst of Cadillac’s past; hear comments from the marque’s fans; and get a real sense that in the midst of the celebration, GM’s top brass knew what was to come.
“This is a new world we’re going into,” Mr. Taylor notes, “Quite frankly I don’t think anybody realizes how big a difference there’s going to be. Until you wake up in four or five years and realized what happened.”
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Credits
Executive Producers: Gunnar Heinrich & Neil Rogers
Editors: Michael Russell | Neil Rogers | Kevin Kusina
Camera: Joshua Schnitzer | Gregory Dwyer | Neil Rogers
Writer | Host: Gunnar Heinrich
Special Thanks: GM | Saratoga Auto Museum | Dres. Ward Heinrich, Sr. & Jr.| J.M. Ficca
GM Bankruptcy & Cadillac
By Gunnar Heinrich
THERE’S just no replacing Cadillac.
As GM files for bankruptcy today, it’s worth noting that the second of four divisions that GM intends on keeping is America’s last true luxury car maker.
Yes, Mercedes-Benz builds ML and GL-Klassen in Alabama. And true, there is still Lincoln whose Town Cars ferry America’s big shots from one city block to the next.
But neither count, really. Lincoln has no soul. And Mercedes-Benz is still very German. It doesn’t matter where they build ‘em.
So, Cadillac is “ours”, for better or for worse. And in recent days, it’s been for better.
A quick recap of recent stock.
The CTS is the sharpest midsize luxury sedan on the market. It’s just too bad that only the limited production CTS-V truly performs.
And the Escalade still has its over-sized thumb on the pulse of the luxury SUV market. Everyone else (the Europeans, in particular) can’t match the large truck’s big pimpin’ cred. We should also be mindful that this is the only Caddy that still makes into pop culture’s lexicon.
The SRX and STS are both due for an overhaul. Hopefully, they’ll get just that. The DTS just keeps on tickin’ for Florida’s senior citizenry.
For its part, the General sees a certain value in a strong Cadillac and has sacrificed stronger divisions – Pontiac – to ensure that the crested wreathed logo lives on to float GM through another day or another bond(s).
Let’s hope in this brave new GM to come, the company in its leaner form will be able to further Cadillac by building fewer cars of greater quality that will exceed their rivals -not merely hope to match them.
What else should we expect from the “standard of the world?”
Pontiac Succeeds Despite GM Playing Favorites
Pontiac has become one of the General’s stronger performers.
By Gunnar Heinrich
SHOULD General Motors survive from… pick possible cause of impending doom:
- Chapter 11
- UAW
- The Obama Administration
- Act of God
it would then be wise for the good folks at GM to reconsider Pontiac’s future.
That the General intends to keep Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC as part of a focused core of four comes as no real surprise when you consider how company management lavishes those divisions with extra-special love and affection.
Such is the top brass’ favoritism that time and again the company’s resorted to taking R&D limelight away from other divisions (ex. Saab) to benefit the cherished ones (ex.Cadillac).
Meanwhile Pontiac which didn’t make the final four cut, has been treated more like the redheaded step child.
Yet for all of GM’s bad parenting, the present-day sales numbers tell an illuminating story.
Year to date sales in March for both of GM’s upper market divisions – Buick and Cadillac – have been dismal. Cadillac sold 8,209 units while Buick parted with 7,369 so far this year. That’s down from last year by 53% and 40%, respectively.
But, you say, it’s the economy!
Well, consider then the dreaded foreign competition.
In the same period, Lexus sold 14,239 L-Badged Toyotas, Mercedes-Benz parted with 15,602 tri-stars, and BMW – 17,520 roundels.
And those figures were down from last year by 43%, 25%, and 24%, respectively. This tells us that Cadillac and Buick sales weren’t all that strong to begin with.
Pontiac, on the other hand…
GM’s sporting division which has produced the most-excellent G8 GT (can I get an Amen?) was down 30% from last year with sales to date adding up to…drum roll please… 17,583 units.
Nice.
Pontiac sales have so far eclipsed all of GM’s luxury competitors and are still more than all of this year’s Buick and Cadillac sales combined. So much for playing favorites. In GM’s American family, only GMC and Chevy have sold more cars this year.
So, should GM survive, Detroit would do well to consider giving Pontiac another shot.