We’ve spent an inordinate amount of time here debating Cadillac’s painful past. But what about its present, and future? GM has spent huge amounts of money in trying to reboot Cadillac in the past fourteen years, ever since the CTS came out. And in the past year or two, they’ve escalated their commitment and intensity, by hiring Johan de Nysschen from Audi and moving its headquarters to NYC, in an effort to recreate Audi’s slow but steady rise in the global premium car segment. Genuine success with the CTS and ATS have so far been somewhat muted and elusive, and their momentum seems to be slowing. de Nysschen’s strategy is to achieve higher transaction prices, but buyers seem reluctant to pay anything near full price for them.
Meanwhile, the Cadillac Escalade is on a tear ever since its 2014 redesign. Yes, everyone knows it’s just a Chevy truck with a lot of bling, but folks are literally tearing them out of dealer’s hands, at or near full price. That amounts to an average transaction price of $85 k for the lwb ESV version, or a whopping 33% more than what the CTS can garner. $100k Escalades are not unheard of. And the average age of Escalade buyers is well below the rest of the line. While the Escalade undoubtedly generates the lion’s share of Cadillac profits, de Nysschen frets about the (negative) impact the Escalade has on his long-term positioning of the brand. As Cadillac marketing chief Uwe Ellinghaus said “As much as I want to feature that it is a great-looking and -driving car, and it’s a cool Cadillac and we’re proud of having it, … we must avoid the impression that this sets the direction for Cadillac as the brand,”
Is it a real problem, or a case of these foreigners not “getting” the fact that the Escalade is perhaps the only “genuine” Cadillac in their portfolio? And maybe they need more of the same?
Ironically, the Escalade has given Cadillac and its dealers a glimpse of how life would be like if the vision as laid out by de Nysschen comes true: tight supply and inventories; low incentives, and genuine demand driven by desire rather than a good deal. But the Escalade is intrinsically so outside of Cadillac’s core mission, which is why it makes the brand’s execs uneasy.
Previous Cadillac head Bob Ferguson had proposed a whole family of Escalades, including crossovers. But that’s been nixed. Yet there’s talk of a $100k plus VSport model. The profits are too seductive. “How do you balance the desire to bring it into alignment with where we’re taking the brand and the equally intense desire not to screw up a good thing?” de Nysschen wondered aloud last April.
Although I’m no fan of the Escalade, is it really any less tasteful than a lot of the loud, brash and flashy Cadillacs of the past? Who bought an Eldorado in 1953? A newly-minted celebrity, someone who drilled a gusher, or anyone else who fell into some money rather more quickly than average. And who buys a $100k loaded Escalade today? Clearly it’s the anti-Tesla, yet of the same demographic. The “Tesla buyer” of 1953 would have bought a Jaguar XK 140. There’s always some who seem to gravitate to a big, brassy Cadillac.
Cadillac is hoping that the CT6 will make some serious inroads into the market dominated by the Merceded S-Class and BMW 7 Series. More specifically, the dealers are hoping that buyers looking to buy an Escalade for the wife will consider a CT6 for themselves. As one NJ dealer said: “I’m going to park the CT6 right next to the Escalade in the showroom, that’s for sure.” Who would have thought that a truck would become Cadillac’s halo vehicle?
Source: autonews.com
As alluded to in the subject post, the irony is that the Escalade has been the closest thing to the traditional Cadillac model in existence for the past decade or so. It’s not about autobahn-worthy dynamics or skid pad prowess, it’s about a big, comfortable, obscenely well-equipped luxury land yacht that makes its owner and passengers feel special and forces everyone else to pay attention to them. The CT6 may end up heralding the return of the traditional american luxury car as status symbol and object of desire. If Cadillac, Lincoln, and to an extent Chrysler stopped trying to “Out-Benz” the europeans and focused on producing a modern, beautifully styled and impressively put together luxury sedan that doesn’t rely on vinyl tops, vogue tires and fiberglass continental kits it might represent an era in which keeping their eyes on the ball for a change will pay off in spades. The typical american luxury car as we once knew it died on the vine because of its inefficiency, and was given a brief stay of execution by being tarted up with gingerbread and goo-gaws to impress a dying customer base. In the era of hybrids and once unimaginably efficient and powerful powertrains it is possible once again for a well-styled, well-packaged big luxury car to be practical as well as impressive. A modern version of the ’63 Sixty Special we saw here the other day is possible now, and it wouldn’t necessarily require a second mortgage to keep fuel in it. Cadillac has re-imagined itself and emerged from the darkness of its past, but it might benefit from taking a peak in the rear-view.
As a footnote to my comment above, I perused Cadillac’s website out of curiosity, and the CT6 is indeed a strikingly beautiful car with a presence I can’t recall seeing from Cadillac since God-only-knows-when. I’m a bit smitten with it. Even better: In addition to multiple shades of gray and black, as well as one obligatory red and one blue, it’s available in deep metallic green. Nice to see some degree of color coming back to high-end cars. It’s a start. I haven’t seen a new green large car since the mid 90’s, I think.
In an interesting case of the CC effect, today at lunchtime I wound-up behind an Escalade with the bling turned up to 11. It either had a silver vinyl body wrap or had been painted with mirror-finish paint (which exists but is very expensive).
Anyone expecting a return of the BOF, full size, Caddy Brougham/Fleetwood or Lincoln Town Car is dreaming. Sorry, but this is the real world of the 2010’s to 2020’s.
Even a return to the downsized 77 GM cars would not give you a 3 adults across seating. I am not sure about child seats, but probably only two.
I can’t help but wonder who drives this Escalade with Czech plates that I saw in the old section of Bratislava, Slovakia in October.
Keyzer Soze…..
(click to enlarge)…just checking his latest investment.
What Cadillac (and Lincoln for that matter) is missing is a true luxury car. A Fleetwood Brougham for the millenia. A true luxury car has a dedicated and exclusive platform (MB S class, Lexus LS…etc), along with dedicated or well disguised switch gear, and last but not least an exclusive engine. Granted Cadillac has had all these things at one time or another but the execution was horrible. Remember the NorthStar, or the 4.1 V8.
The car has to be near perfect out of the box. No development by customers after the fact. There are so many other factors as to what makes a true luxury car that I can’t go into in this post. This would not be a high volume car but one for Cadillac to build a new reputation as the Standard of the World. There is nothing wrong with the Escalade it is what it is no one is forcing you to buy one.
What you’re describing is 95% of the new CT6, the first 2 engines choices aren’t Cadillac exclusive, but the twin turbo V6 and V8 options will be, the platform is also Cadillac exclusive, though it could possibly spread down to Buick and Chevrolet(and Holden too) in a less expensive version in a few years.
Carmine I have to admit that I am not up to date on what the automakers are up to these days. I was a die hard GM fan since I was a kid. My views changed over the years these days I am partial to Ford. If for no other reason they were the only ones that didn’t take bail out money. Also in the last 10 year I had a couple of Panthers that have been great. I want to see the domestic automakers succeed.
I wonder, will the same question could be applied to BMW and Mercedes as well? Could they have a model a bit too successeful for the brand?
I think the Slade is great for Cadillac and they should double down on making it better.
In terms of size and presence it is the only real successor to the Fleetwood Brougham. We can’t have big sedans now because sedans don’t sell anymore. But we can sure as shootin’ have mondo SUVs, and as stated more politely above these imported CEOs should remember where they are and what they joined.
Escalade sells because Americans still want their Cadillac big, long, and flashy, just higher up than their dad’s or grandfather’s was.
But the ethos of the Fleetwood is with the XTS, a truck just cannot be properly said to replace a sedan. We’re just at a stage in which style and class are in hibernation. These days we have Jersey Shore gauche as well as folks who have the money but can’t figure out you are supposed to match your shoes and belt, let alone any of the finer points of, well, anything. Big, beautiful sedans are on the wane because the times don’t deserve them. They will be back in the limelight if we ever make it out of this dark age.
Just my two cents,
The Escalade is not my cup of tea but I do still admire it. It doesn’t apologize for being what it is. It’s big, bold, brash, and in your face. You have to notice it. Isn’t that the point of a Cadillac anyway? If you want to go unnoticed in a comfy ride, you buy the GMC clone for less money.
Perhaps Cadillac would do well to do somewhat as Porsche does. The Escalade is clearly the Cadillac that people want to buy most, despite the division’s leadership’s desire for its image to be centered somewhere else. Better, then, to expand the range and make as much money as possible off of it to better allow building really nice sedans that they can accept selling in smaller numbers. I know this isn’t quite Porsche-like, in that the 911 is what ‘Porsche’ means to people and not the SUVs that rake in the money, but it’s close. I think they’re foolish to try to convince people that the Escalade isn’t the most Cadillac of Cadillacs.