Not that long ago, Cadillac’s efforts to be a player in Europe collapsed with the loss of the Kroymans Group – which marketed the brand on the continent.

Now, GM has decided to, rather than go truely head-to-head with BMW/Mercedes/Audi in their home turf, they will market the CTS line and the new SRX and attempt to make a push as a ‘niche’ brand.

A sign of this is the drop of the planned diesel engine (typically a kiss of death to sales in a market where most cars are diesel powered) – so we have them supplying a wagon body style that Europeans are expected to respond favorably to, but not the powertrains those same buyers want.

It will be interesting to see if this strategy will do any more for the brand.

It certainly feels like this is a re-focusing on getting the product mix right in the home market (i.e. get the ATS line in place and work on a true flagship above the XTS) while trying to not abandon the Euro market during the transition.

Categories: News, CTS, SRX, XTS
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Car and Driver is reporting that Cadillac has been given the go-ahead to work on a new, rear-drive, flagship sedan to slot above the new XTS and officially go hunting the upper rung of luxury models we have expected them to for years now.

It appears that the approval came from the very top (Ed Whitacre himself) and would basically leave the Epsilon II-based XTS as a pseudo-flagship for a relatively, and mercifully, short time (replacing the current DTS and STS for a few years). This will likely leave it as much more a neo-DTS once the 3rd-gen CTS hits in a couple years based on a stretched Alpha platform and is positioned directly in the mid-range luxury segment (5-series and E-class). This also gives the ATS the space it will need to go hunting 3’s and C’s.

Expect this rumored rear-drive flagship to go into production no earlier than the 2015 model year and the XTS to fade out at the end of its single-generation production run.

Now, that’s the Cadillac we’ve been hoping to see signs of again.

Source: Car and Driver

Categories: News, Rumored Models, XTS
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There appears to be but one thing wrong with the new XTS that even the most skilled designers couldn’t fix…

The platform is front-drive, leading to a much shorter front than any ‘flagship’ should possess in this segment.

Read the design critique over at:

Automobile Magazine XTS Design Review

Categories: News, Reviews, XTS
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It seems everyone is covering the XTS on YouTube – here is Motortrend.com’s coverage of the car giving a pretty similar overview of its market position, mission for Cadillac, as well as the source of some of its technology (specifically the hybrid powertrain).

Enjoy:

Categories: Concepts, News, Rumored Models, Video, XTS
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Here’s a great video that just takes you around the XTS concept and shows all the great details that Cadillac designed into the car.

I’d expect a significant number of these to make it all the way to production.

Enjoy.

Categories: News, Rumored Models, Video, XTS
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