Jerry Flint over at The Car Connection is running one of his curmudgeonly rants again. Only this time, it is about Cadillac.

It seems that he is convinced that Cadillac has lost their momentum compared to the Lexus, Mercedes, and BMW’s of the luxury world. To see his sales numbers, you have to admit that Cadillac is not seeing double digit growth of sales.

However, I’d counter that Cadillac is still in rebuild mode. They do not have nearly the number of models of these companies (even counting all variants, Cadillac has 11 offerings to BMW’s 18, Lexus’ 10 – the only one on this list with fewer models, though they aren’t pumped up by counting variants like V-Series or the 3 version of the Escalade, and Mercedes’ 27), and they are still in a multi-year push to rebuild the brand image through competitive product. This all takes time to register with buyers (as a visitor to this site, obviously you are ahead of the rest of the market).

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Categories: Models, News, Commentary
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Jalopnik is running a story today about a possible new product move for Cadillac. Rumor has it they plan to chase the European competition downmarket below the existing BLS with an even smaller, rear-drive car. Expect this model to be designed in the same vein as the Euro-only, hatchback-esque models like the BMW 1-series, Audi A2, and the Mercedes A and B class cars.

They conjecture that this car would be built on a cut-down version of the new Zeta rear-drive chassis, but given the size of that platform, we think the following is more likely – base it on the new, flexible Kappa chassis that is currently used on the Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky, and Opel GT. GM has already shown coupe and wagon variants based on this platform, so a 1-series competitor would be a natural.

Oddly, this would leave the BLS as the only non-reardrive model in Europe. Perhaps, instead of an Epsilon 2 based, all-wheel drive variant we’ve been expecting, they could move to Zeta for its second act.

This would play into our latest hunch that Cadillac will move the STS up into 7-series/S-Class/A8 territory (and the current front-drive DTS to go away altogether), making room for the CTS to move into 5-series/E-class/A6 land, with the 2nd generation BLS becoming a true 3-series competitor and coming to the US market. We don’t expect the sub-BLS Cadillac to make its way here unless the BMW model comes here first and meets wild success.

Now, if they’d just build an entry-level (30-40k USD) range roadster on Kappa, bring the rumored BRX to market – to compete against the BMW X3 and upcoming small utes from Audi (Q5) and Mercedes (GLX) then they’d really be hitting the competition hard.

Read the story over at:

Jalopnik.com: Mini DeVille: Cadillac Eyeing a Run at the BMW 1-Series?

Categories: News, Commentary, Rumored Models
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Cadillac, in a effort to reach younger customers and more women, has announced a new slogan and ad campaign.

Under the new tag line of ‘Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit’, and using non-traditional ad locations like video games and urban ads, Cadillac hopes to push their brand message to groups currently unreached by the current ‘Break Through’ campaign.

Personally, I think this new slogan is fairly lifeless and doesn’t get at what Cadillac is or should be – a driving machine on par with the European competition like BMW.

We’ll see soon enough if the ads are better than the slogan suggests.

Categories: News, Commentary
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Not exactly renown for their expertise in all things automotive – electronics and computer review site, C|Net.com has decided to jump into the car review market.

Having watched a few of their televised auto reviews downloaded by my Tivo – I can attest that they likely know a lot more about computers and electronics than cars – but, at least
tend to limit themselves to the interior environment, features, and ways that cars integrate into our ‘digital lives’.

This week, they take a look at the new 2007 Escalade.

Likes – styling and interior electronics

Dislikes – fuel economy, weight, lack of bluetooth (they also take a cheap shot at the ‘low-tech’ V-8 simply because it lacks overhead cams, discounting its variable valve timing and other high-tech features. Apparently the Infiniti 5.6l V-8 with 315hp is automatically more ‘efficient’ than the 6.2l V-8 in the Escalade with its 403hp due to its overhead cams)

Overall, they gave it a 7.0/10 rating.

Read all about it here:

C|Net.com – 2007 Cadillac Escalade Reviews

Categories: Commentary, Escalade, Reviews
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Something hasn’t seemed right to me since the spy photos surfaced a few days ago of the next CTS undergoing testing. Now I think I know why.

Is this not the next CTS? No, definitely not. Is Cadillac going the wrong direction stylistically – I don’t think so. What had me puzzled was the fact that the camo does absolutely nothing to actually disguise the car. Come on, camo that leaves the entire grill, headlights, and fog lights easily identifiable? I don’t think so.

My guess? This is a play by Cadillac, in the same vein as Audi plays the spy photographers with barely covered cars to generate buzz for their products. I think they are putting a lightly disguised car out with the express purpose of getting the photos taken and published.

Also, you might notice that this car has different lighting than the mock-up shown on 60 Minutes…it could be that this is not the final product, that the mock-up is of yet another, but related, product, or that the styling studio car was just the inspiration for the next CTS.

Only time, and further leaked info, will tell.

More spy photos over at Edmunds.

Categories: News, Commentary, CTS
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