You may have heard mention of this already…

CNW Research has recently put out a report that Cadillac’s appeal to 18-35 year olds is slipping. The score of the brand in the ‘Aspirational Index’ has slipped to its lowest value since 2003. The brand’s score started to climb in 1999 and flattened out in 2005-06 with it dropping below 8 (on a 10 point scale).

They note that the ‘aspiration age’ of buyers…I suppose this means the average age of people who would own a Cadillac, rather than those who could afford to buy one…has gone from 30.3 to 35.9 in the last 3 years. Of course, this looks less like a problem if you figure that the same theoretical 30.3-year old would be 33.3 at the end of the same period. Not a terribly odd thing given that the youngest buyers tend to be drifting toward boxy cars when they care about cars at all.

I expect the age of the current Cadillac product also has a bit to do with it given that most of the cars in the stable were close to brand new 3 years ago. Expect the numbers to reverse with the debuts of the new CTS, CTS coupe, CTS-V, BRX, etc.

Winding Road: Study Suggests Cadillac’s Appeal Is Slipping

Categories: News, Commentary, CTS
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Are you a fan of old school Cadillacs? No, I mean really old school.

How about a 1903 model? How about the 13th Cadillac ever made.

The Bonhams Quail Lodge auction, on August 17, 2007, will include the oldest Cadillac known to still exist. The auction takes place during Monterey Week (which is a week that includes the Monterey Historic Races at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca as well as the Pebble Beach Concours d’ Elegance).

The 1903 Cadillac is a Model A Runabout that also served as the actual showcar at the New York Auto Show that year and was then the first Cadillac sold west of the Mississippi.

The car sold for $850 (which my inflation calculator tells me is roughly $19000 in today’s money), but was close to a year’s salary for a worker of the time.

Power for the car is provided by a 1.6l single-cylinder engine mounted below the seats and powering the rear wheels.

We expect this car will fetch a pretty substantial sum.

Read about it over at:

MotorTrend.com: Bonhams to auction oldest Cadillac in existence

Categories: News
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According to GM’s Fastlane Blog (via Autoweek.com) GM should be bringing some diesel engines to their US lineup by 2010.

The Cadillac version will most likely be the recently announced 4.5l V-8 and find a home in the Escalade line. However, V-6 diesels will be making an appearance in Epsilon-based products in other GM divisions (and a V-6 diesel will be sold in the new CTS soon and a diesel BLS is on sale now, though only in Europe unless US demand increases).

From the blog post by Bob Lutz, GM does not immediately expect the new diesels to be California (and states that use California emissions standards) compliant.

GM is also expected to show a diesel/electric version of the E-Flex architecture in Frankfort, Germany this fall that may lead to a version of the Chevrolet Volt electric car with even greater mileage than it’s gas-assisted version (the Volt runs on electricity with a small engine powering a generator to provide greater range when the initial battery charge runs out – effectively giving triple-digit fuel economy numbers).

No announcements have been made for an E-Flex Cadillac, though if the technology catches on, you might expect a Cadillac version down the road.

Check out the post and video at:

GM Fastlane Blog: Checking Back with Bob

Categories: News, Escalade, Video
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MotorTrend.com has an article where they detail what they are calling the 2011 SRX.

Given the vehicle is stated to move from the SRX’s Sigma architecture (shared with the CTS and STS) in favor of a version of the Epsilon chassis that will be shared with a new Saab crossover (the 9-4). This sounds much more like the rumored BRX that MotorTrend itself is responsible for starting talk about several months ago.

Given what the competition has shown, Cadillac could easily re-work the SRX as a big brother to the BMW X3 fighting BRX while maintaining the Escalade as competition for vehicles like the Range Rover and the Mercedes GL series. The BRX would have 5-passenger seating, the SRX and Escalade would fight it out in the mid-to-large, 3-row seating segments.

If the 2011 model year is correct, expect to see the new small crossover debut in 2009 at one of the major auto shows and go on sale sometime in 2010.

MotorTrend.com: Cadillac SRX set for 2011 update

Categories: News, SRX, BRX / BTX, Rumored Models
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Over at GM Inside News, a reader has managed to snap quite a few images of what appears to be a lower-trim version of the new CTS (note the smaller wheels).

It certainly looks like fit and finish are better than anything we’ve seen from Cadillac yet.

I doubt that thier source ‘caught’ the CTS given most folks who spot a car in the wild don’t get the unfettered access this person seemed to get (like from the driver’s seat, etc). Regardless, this is good confirmation of what we should expect of the new CTS when it goes on sale in a couple months.

Enjoy all the pics at the link below:

GMI: GMI Reader Catches 08 CTS!

Categories: News, CTS, Spy photos
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