Ever since the ’70 Fleetwood Brougham CC, I’ve had Cadillacs on the brain. Well, actually, I almost always have Cadillacs on the brain…and Lincolns…and Volvos…but, I digress. The Seville had a good run from 1976-2004, and the replacement SLS was more or less its successor. But in which universe does “SLS” sound better than Seville? That name should be brought back, perhaps for the compelling example seen above, as posted by Casey at artandcolour.
Not only does his would-be 2014 Seville recall the fine lines of the original, but manages to do so without looking retro. I think luxury cars look so much better with a notchback, squared-off roofline like this. There are far too many cars with a pseudo-fastback, melted clay design; I, for one, like boxy cars that still have a little style–and this one does.
But wait, there’s more. Besides fine quality and first-rate customer retention in the ’50s and ’60s, Cadillac also boasted some of the most stylish advertising this side of the Van and Fitz Pontiac ads (this example is from the LJ- and JPC-favorite 1962 model year). Not only could Cadillac bring back the Seville, they could also revive their classic, bejeweled ad campaign. Why not bring a little style back to advertising, too?
Hmmmmmmmmmm looks like Chrysler 300 meets Cadillac XTS, I’m not feeling it.
I was also thinking Chrysler 300 with Caddy styling, but I do like it. I’m not a fan of the 300 styling, though the new ones are better than the Brink’s truck look of the previous design. This looks considerably better to me.
Indeed! looks very similar at the C pillar.
Im lost for words here. My first look I said to myself what in hell is Cadillac/GM thinking. Once again taking the cheap way out by stealing the 300 Chrysler.HOW SAD. WHATS NEEDS TO BE DONE…GM/ CADILLAC SHOULD BUILD A CADILLAC FLEEtWOOD WITH THE BALLS OF A ROLLS ROYCE. WITH TWIN 78MM TUBROS, 24 INCH LOW PROFILES TIRES AND MASIVE BODY STYLE TAKEN FROM THE AGE OF ART DECO WITH A MODERN TWIST. WITH SOME SMART MARKING THE SALES WOULD THROUHG THE ROOF. I have a 1993 Cadiiac Fleetwood with a 4.5 inch drop, 24 inch low profile tires and wheels, six speed trans with a 1970 Cadillac 500 engine with twin 80mm twin tubros plus the intercooler. With 70s door handles, mirrors and Opera lights with suicide doors. This Cadillac runs at top speed of 216 mph at 1800 horses at the back tires. under the hood the motor looks stock because everthing is black and all name brand items logos have been removed. Plus z06 six pistion disk brakes on all four corners. This is the best of Cadillac not GM but Cadillac Freaks of Detroit.
No doubt that this should be done on a stretched Chevrolet Cruze platform, to keep within the spirit of the original…
Car makers switch to alpa-numeric designations for their models to put emphasis on the make rather than the model. If your car is called “SLS” or “MKZ” then you’re more likely to say it’s a Cadillac or Lincoln. Marketing.
Poor marketing. When Caddy switched to letter names, it said, “Look, we can be cool like the Europeans!”
That was indeed Honda’s reasoning for changing Acura designations to RL, TL, etc. Too many customers said they drove Legends and Integras; no one drove Acuras.
We now know just how well that worked out for them…
I like where you’re going with this, but I would prefer a more formal front windshield, as well. Something to give a better dash-to-axle ratio and emphasize the length of the hood.
Oh, and I would suggest deleting that CHMSL, if possible. It looks too spoiler-like on an otherwise formal vehicle.
What would you do for the front end? I really miss the forward-canted stacked front headlights, but I don’t think they can be done on any kind of modern design. Also, they’re not very “Seville.”
I have five of those “bejeweled” Cadillac ads on my wall!
On the design suggestions, they would be in the best intrest of the design.
I actually like this one quite a bit.
I like it as well. It would stand out in a field of vehicles that are looking more and more the same with every new introduction.
Too much Chrysler.
Every time I see a “should have” or “should do” about Caddy or Lincoln it winds up looking like a 300 or it looks like what may become the next 300.
Judging from the comments above, it must be that Chrysler now has the only successfully styled sedan that isn’t a blob.
You are so right! The 300 and maybe the Charger are the only new larger cars out there that interest me if I was to buy a new car. This design is Great Looking only I would add a little trim around the tailights and maybe formalize the roof even more.
I think the current 300 is really nice. It’s one of those rare refreshes that look better than the original.
With you 100% on that. The 300 and Charger are some of the best looking sedans in production today. At least someone got it right.
::Channel 2012
I would like to see Cadillac go back to being GM’s flagship concentrating on luxury. For me now its just an insignificant brand that has lost its identity and does not know who it is building station wagons, trucks, and fast cars with cheap interiors. Oh how I wish it was not so.
There’s no denying that those “wagons and trucks” are some of the coolest wagons and trucks ever – the escalade is a truck with some class and the CTS-V Wagon is, as they said on TopGear, “The fastest wagon in the Universe”.
::Channel 2012
My ownership experience with an STS will become a future COAL. For now, let’s just say, “painful”.
4.9 V8 or infamous Northstar?
He said “painful,” so I’m guessing Northstar. I think the 4.9 was a pretty good engine.
His ATC coupe is a much more attractive design.
That and, I’m sorry to say, the days of cars like the Seville are long gone…
Waaaaay too much XTS left in the design. I like the greenhouse treatment, but it’s completely incongruous with the lower body. Maybe a CTS would have made a better template?
I also agree with those who say that it would only look like GM was copying Chrysler if something like this came to market.
I’m not exactly a Cadillac fan, but I think their styling is fine as is. As I see it, there are two main problems with Cadillac.
-The XTS is a joke of a flagship. No V8 and the stupidly tall, FWD proportions it shares with the LaCrosse. Make a real flagship or don’t bother; This only hurts the brand.
-Names. Why no luxury car maker has yet to jump out of the box and go back to real model names is beyond me. The CTS should be a Seville, the XTS a Deville or perhaps a Fleetwood or Sixty Special, and the ATS should be something like Calais. Move the CTS coupe upmarket and make it an Eldorado. Bring back trim names d’Elegance, Brougham and Biarritz. Cadillac’s alphabet soup isn’t as bad as, say, Lincoln, at least it used to mean something, moving away from it would help the brand stand out.
I agree with you that actual names would be fun, but I wouldn’t go back to the old names. I’d guess the only people for whom those names are aspirational are in their 70s now. I’m 58, and I remember a time when I was a kid that Cadillac was the car to have if you had made it. Unfortunately, once I got a little older Cadillac became identified with old guys who can’t drive faster than 5-10 miles under the limit.
It’s unfortunate, but both Cadillac and Lincoln became stereotyped as cars for old guys, or even worse, old ladies (actually, Lincoln had it worse, because for the last 10 or so years of its life the Town Car sold 90% of its production to liveries).
One key to the auto biz is to remember the wise words attributed to Bunkie Knudsen when he was leading the resurrection of Pontiac in the late 50s. “You can sell a young man’s car to an old man, but you can’t sell an old man’s car to a young man.”
Now, getting back on topic, I do kind of like this approach. I’ll admit my first thought was that it looked like a Chrysler 300 in Caddy drag, but I think a semi-formal roofline on a reasonably aerodynamic body looks kinda cool. I do agree with the commenter upthread that it would be better to lose that CHMSL treatment. It looks like a tea tray was grafted onto the trunk lid and then painted body color.
I don’t understand why Cadillac chooses to name its cars based on a series of letters. Names like CTS, SLS and XTS mean absolutely nothing to anyone without a specific knowledge of the codes needed to decipher which model is which.
Unlike the old days when they had names like Allante, Catera or Cimmaron…. oh wait, I just worked out the reason
I think there WAS a system when they changed over. The first letter of the old name became the first letter of the new name. The middle letter was always T, presumably to represent “Touring”. The last letter was S for sedan or C for coupe. Catera became CTS, Deville became DTS, Seville became STS and unfortunately the Eldorado became ETC.
No reflection on your Photoshopping skills, Tom, but…no. It really does look like Cadillac is going Chrysler 300 hunting.
Michael,
This one isn’t mine. It, and a bunch of others like it, are on Casey’s art and colour blog. He has done a couple of posts for CC as well.
That said, the roofline reminds me a lot more of the original Seville than the 300.
Gorgeous! I Wish it was ready.
Instead Of Lincoln rising above the MKS, The Cadillac Is Now an = XTS.
It has got to Do better and More Premium to be close to Standard of The World.
cars cant come fast enough.
I want An El Dorado, Seville, Deville Fleetwood when it comes to cadillacs… yet they barely have a deville in the Lacross ‘cadillac. actually thats barely a calais.
i miss those names. now … ats -seville- their best car, now for least amt of money
cts is the deville, /eldorado… making xts the fleetwood 60 special
Just posted today, I googled the 2014 Cadillac Escalade and they have posted an updated rendering of what we are expected to see here in the coming months ahead, the design looks fresh, more athletic and with nearly as much bling as the outgoing model, can’t wait to see one on the street.
I like the look of this Cadillac. I hate alphabet soup names.
Bring back the old trim level names to enhance the continuity of the models.
Bring back multiple interior colors and FABRIC. Every car has leather now.
Cadillac – Don’t they make trucks?
The squared off rear window is nice, but a trunk height that’s lower than the hood is just look so weird today, it’s a big turn off for me. It might be acceptable in the 1970s, but looks weird today, and not in a good way. And I think the curved roofline and greenhouse looks off in a squared off car like this. Just stood up like a square peg in a round hole to me.
I agree with all the other commenters here, Chrysler did a much better job with the 300. Why make something that’s worse than what’s already there?
I like the made up feature car. There is a lot of Chrysler 300 in it. I saw a new XLS (?) or whatever the Deville replacement is called a couple days ago. It’s nice, but no WOW car. I can’t really say I’d want one or the CTS.
I don’t know when or if I’ll be shopping for a new car anytime in the near future, but I’d probably get a Chrysler 300. Not a hemi, just a regular sedan. I test drove one in hemi and base versions in 2005. I certainly don’t need a hemi, and the base model is more than enough power. The Chrysler just has the old time feel and flair, that the new Caddys and Buicks don’t. The only thing I didn’t like in the 300 was the claustrophobic feeling I got in the cabin. Other than that, it gets my seal of approval.
My 2002 Deville is the best car I’ve ever owned. Still looks and drives like a new car with 69K. I got a mailing a month or so ago stating my car was in great demand, and would command top trade. Call number and find out. Called and got an automated line which told me my car was worth as much as $ 3,470. Sure makes me want to trade it for a $ 50K or more car, ha, ha.
Unless a guy puts a lot of miles on a car, an nice older model is a good option.
Liked the small Seville of 1990. Liked the bigger one of 1995. Went away from Sevilles for a while and now love the 2008 STS. Absolutely trouble free for 50,000 miles, except for those damn key fobs. Hate them. Thinking about trying to find some pristine Seville scripts to replace the STS badge. Doubt anyone would notice. To the 20 something smart ass comment on older drivers, my other car is a 1991 Miata, usually driven the way it was intended to be driven. Not all older folks drive slow. I am 72.
I’d be interested to see a version with the trunk lid dropped down say 3 inches (including opening height), to make the rear window actually useful, as it is it is barely below the rear view mirror, and better balance the proportions of the rear window and trunk size/height. I’d keep the line of the rear quarters as-is though, maybe even change the taper of the tail light wrap-around to thicker at the bottom, which would perhaps emphasize them more as fins. There will be some that would love it and some that would hate it – but that is ok.
I don’t think it really looks like a Chrysler 300. It’s just that the 300/Charger is one of the few current car designs that sorta follows the classic three-box model and has at least a little rear overhang. To me, this design shows that it’s possible to do a successful 21st century design that has even a bit more rear overhang than the 300/Charger, and the result is a sharp looking car.
Some are complaining of Caddy not using old names, but the Chrysler 300 series sells very well with no “name” to speak of.
Bringing back DeVille, Fleetwood and Seville names may as well be “Cadillac Old TImers” to younger [under 45] buyers.
And I think the XTS should have been the new generation DTS. Stair steps from A and C TS.
> Some are complaining of Caddy not using old names, but the Chrysler 300 series sells very well with no “name” to speak of.
I think that’s a disingenuous comment. The Chrysler 300 has a storied history going back to 1955, so in this case 300 is a very historical “name”, even though it’s a number.
If you wanted to criticize the Chrysler 200 on the other hand, go right ahead. 🙂
If Caddy made a flagship car like this, I think they should call it something like the “Talisman”. There was a Fleetwood Talisman before, but never Talisman by itself that I am aware of, which makes it obscurely historic to those that know, and new and cool to those that don’t. The definition of a talisman is fitting too: An object, typically an inscribed ring or stone, thought to have magic powers and to bring good luck.
Yes! You’re absolutely right: it’s a great name on its own, and it will make the loyalists very happy.
I bought my father’s 1994 STS. It was great road car but the Cadillac dealer would rape you whenever the car was brought in for service. Not exactly reliable-$3500 transmission; $2000 a/c compressor and front CV boots; and $650 for cooling crap. I will never own a Cadillac again.
Besides this photo there is a more realistic photo rendering of the new 2014 Escalade that was just posted today, the design looks fresh, more athletic and to an extent, not as flashy as the outgoing one, for now at least.
I quite like the 2014 Seville concept and would like it to enter the showrooms and full-scale production. Of course I would like it to perform better than the current models in the crash tests. As far as I’m concerned the less deformation the better. To date I think the Volkswagen T5 has performed the best in this respect, from what I’ve seen of the Euro NCAP.
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