Cadillac has had a busy week: it has announced the relocation of its headquarters to New York, predicted notable sales gains in China for 2015, and confirmed its upcoming full-size Omega-based flagship while at the same time revealing what will likely become the biggest auto news of the week — a new naming convention for its vehicles. Gone are ATS, CTS, SRX, and the unrealized LTS. In their stead are CT5 and CT6 (as first uncovered by GM Authority), with other numbers in the alpa-numeric pecking order to follow.
And though the general quality, appeal, and overarching characteristics of the product will likely have a much more significant impact on sales of Cadillac vehicles in the long run, we do wonder what you think of the new naming scheme. So, vote in the poll below, and share your opinion about the new naming convention in the comments.
Comments
I’ll have to wait and see.
Maybe the LTS should be called CT7. What if GM decides to build a CTS coupe?
I’m considering they’re going after BMW with the new naming scheme.
I’m undecided, but it may be good since GM makes smart moves. It also gives Cadillac nice oportunities to use introduce different trim leves.
The LTS is the CT6!!
In William’s defense, I assume he already knows the Omega model will be called CT6. He was stating that this Omega model could be called CT7.
I will repost this again here.
Some Forget that one of the greatest automakers in the world offered their cars with the Name Model A and later J and SJ models. That automaker was Duesenberg. I just spent the weekend at a show with a handful of their models.
I think that many forget that even with this great cars J and SJ models you just got a chassis driveline and grill. There was no body or name attached at the factory. The cars were bodied by many different coach builders and they normally were named only by their body style or in some cases their famous owners like Gable or Cooper. One was called the 20 grand just for the price it cost.
Today these are considered works of art ad cars that were some of Americas truly best cars ever made. Did the name add or change these cars …..No. The cars were made up of their content and styling and they evoked their own names based on what they represented and each nearly all had their own name.
So while we can argue names or numbers lets not take our focus off what really matters.
What is done now is done and lets all just focus now on what really matters the actual car and what it is and does.
Lets face it even someone names Elon can be successful.
I think they could have done better in the naming of the models but in the end if you do not have the product does it really matter. As we see daily numbers names do not distract or hurt the many other MFG. You do not see there fans complain one way or the other. They as most buyers in this segment are not concerned if there is some dramatic name attached to the car as long as it is a world class car they are buying.
The truth is you could name it the Putzmobile and people would buy it if it were best in class.
The truth is the names Cadillac has used in the past do not represent the kind of car they are building today. Also many of the buyers they want in conquest sales also are people who already own alpha numeric names.
Finally if you go back in Cadillac’s history most of their car were just model numbers years ago for decades. To be honest Cadillac was one of the companies to first use this system back when they really mattered in the 00’s-40’s.
Right now it is what it is and they just need to settle on one system and stick to it. Then they need to bring no compromise cars to the market which I feel the new autonomy may help usher in. The LTS or CT6 or what ever just needs to be right when released. It can not and should not be as good as the others as it needs to be better than the others. That is what matters.
all of those great cars you named……are they still in production ? do the younger buyers have talk about these cars ? no……….yes, those cars are great, but that is because they have had time on there side…..Time, is something cadillac cant get on its side to be rememberable because they are always changing their roots……now this 20 grand car you speak of how many name changes did it go through ? or any of those cars ? you can only build a name for your self with sustainability !!!! some people buy S-classes because there father or grandfather drove one……Lineage and heritage is what cadillac needs….50 years from now if cadillac doesnt change its naming scheme people can say…”you see that 2064 CTS over there, that first of that model launched cadillac into greatness and that why i drive one”………..12 HARD YEARS OF WORK will go down the drain, all of you whom are agreeing with this naming scheme have no sense of time and what that means to a luxury automaker, if i type “RR” you would know what that means, if i typed “S-class” yall know what that means, if i type CT6……what is it ?!?!?……to be honest they need to rehire Don Butler and Ed welburn for the heads of cadillac…..yes, the actual product will remain the same and the quality will be excellent no doubt…..but alot of potential buyer maybe hesistant from dropping money of a CT6 with no history vs. getting a S-class or A8 or 7-series….
You are reaching now. When Lexus came out, they had no history same as for the S Class when it was first introduce and other cars in the class especially the Model S. Except for the S Class which been around for many decades, the original Lexus LS and Tesla Model S are selling and sold well for their respective periods. So what make you think the CT6 will not sell well for Cadillac? When the CTS originally came out, it sold well for Cadillac same as for the ATS and XTS.
You are finding something about Cadillac to complain about. The CT6 is a brand new model with no history for right now but in the next several decades, if most of us still living, we can talk about the history of the CT6.
So to make it more clear to you, every car model and make newly developed have no history. And FYI, I know my Cadillac history very well. I am not for or against the name changing. What I am for is excellent product execution is what I am aiming for. The name is an afterthought and I think most would agree with me.
The problem with you comparing lexus and tesla to cadillac is the LS and Model S was there LAUNCHING car !! Of course they could name them whatever they want but Cadillac has a solid line of names with good lineage behind them…the first CTS was cadillac relaunching itself back in 2003 so of course it didnt matter….here in 2014, SRX is a best seller, the CTS best it has ever been…….and your going to throw it away by trying to “relaunch” cadillac again ?!? Why ?…..but there is no point going back and fourth you…..you seem to have your mind made up and so do I…..
The attention span of customer today is low and the younger the consumer the less they really care about names. No matter where you turn it is I Phone 6 or Play station 4 or 787. Today names just do not have as much longevity that they once held or even he allure.
The CTS as a car did well but a model names something else will not matter much as long as it is a better or best car in class. Today they don’t care if the car is called a 318 or 325 etc it has not hampered BMW as long as the car is the latest and greatest model. In fact the new number often is a badge of honor as you have the latest and best version out there. There is marketing to this. Also the fact that alpha numeric combinations are also easier and cheaper to register. Naming a car today can become a tedious and expensive issue. It can take a legal team months and even close to $50,000-$100,000 to clear a name.
The era of the romantic name and owner loyalty was from around 1950-1985. After that only a few cars merit much with a name from heritage origins.
Before 1950 most cars were just the brand name followed by the body style. A few had names but not many and they were changed often.
I know some are very attracted to classic names and the images they bring to them. I too like many of the old names and the image I still see in some of the old advertising especially 60’s Pontiac’s painted advertising. But I am also informed enough today to understand that what once mattered really matters little today Car buyers are a different breed and the market has changed.
Even names today like Civic and Camry if changed would matter little if the car was still up to the expectations of the customer.
So if they change CTS I would have little fear that say a CT5 or what ever they call it will work just fine as long as the car is the best in it’s class. If it were not best in class even the name CTS would not save it.
If you want to be beat the best in class you have to build the best in class and it matters little what you call it.
This new naming convention confuses me, my last car was a CTS and this new naming is to close to that. BMW’s naming is fairly easy to follow in part, 7 is the big one, 5 the intermediate, 3 the smaller sporty one and the 1 the compact sporty one. It’s the 328 or 335 that is confusion to most unless you realize the engine displacement relationship.
I would have preferred something like this for the new era Cadillac:
AT4 or AT6 for the ATS name replacement with maybe a small c to denote the coupe (AT6c) or AT4 t, for the turbo model with maybe a AT4 tc being the turbo coupe, CTS would become CT6 or CT4 with a small t or tt for the turbo or twin turbo. For the new large model I would consider LT8 or LT6 tc for the V8 Model or tt for the V6 twin turbo or maybe LT8 sc for a V8 supercharged model.
But you are introducing too much confusion. AT4, AT6, AT6c, AT4c, AT4tc, AT6tc. Then add in all the two door versions and convertible versions ! And then there are the other platforms.
Much easier to just call them all one name, say CT3 and leave it at that. Why do we need to know what engine it is by the name? A8, A6, A3, etc. Remember he is from audi.
Or just no “CT” anything in the first place…
All of the Cadillac lineup is good right now and will be getting better. As long as the car the name is going on is a good one, they can name it almost anything. People will always come up with some sort of nickname for the model anyway. Obviously, whether we like the names or not, somebody high up in GM knows better than we do about these things and has determined this is the right way to market their products. Just so long as we don’t get anymore stupid dancing robot ads from Cadillac all will be good.
I would rather they used the same numbers as BMW designation. ie LTS would be CT7, CTS would be CT5 and then the ATS as CT3. Leaves room for coupes or other models.
Or maybe the ATS will be CT4 for all versions like they used to do on many cars. ie the Impala was used on sedan/coupe/wagon/convertible. That would make it much less confusing.
So what are they going to be?
CT6- LTS
CT5-CTS
CT4-ATS
CT3
CT2
XT6-Escalade
XT5-SRX
XT5-compact CUV
CT1
They need to exceed against competition, not copy them.
Well, I can honestly say I’m not a fan of this new naming scheme. To me, it’s just as soulless, unimaginative and uncreative as the rest of the mainstream luxury brands. Nevertheless I’ll give Cadillac credit for at least injecting some logic into denoting their vehicles. CT# actually makes sense in regards to better identifying specific models. My biggest gripe with this type of nomenclature is that it seems a bit too associative with non luxury brands; it’s just that it sounds to common and doesn’t bring any uniqueness to the Cadillac division. I understand classic names like Fleetwood and El Dorado don’t evoke a modern image and are associated with a damaged past, and I’m OK with keeping those names in the past. But why can’t the beautiful names assigned to those beautiful concept vehicles be brought to production? Names bring better meaning and purpose to a vehicle is all I’m saying.
At the end of the day, it’s the quality of the product that’s going to contribute to the success of Cadillac, and not the naming scheme. I’m liking where the Cadillac brand is going and am very optimistic about the new image Cadillac will invoke. As long as the product delivers, I can accept the changes.
I am not a fan of the numeric model names a la BMW or Audi. I feel like this brings about undue confusion to what should not be. I think that it is more difficult to put an image to “CT6” or “ELR” than it would be to a real name like “Deville” or “Lucerne”. I wish they would use real names instead of abbreviated words and numbers. I understand that they are positioning themselves with Audi, BMW, and Mercedes, but I think they could have had the model names be unique instead of numbers.
Just thought about something. Cadillac said only new or redone models would receive the new naming system. Could this mean the upcoming CTS-V and ATS-V models will receive new names? They are after all new models. Any thoughts?
Good point.
I doubt it because the ATS and CTS V series are base off of the ATS and CTS regular products and the V series are in-house beefed up models for the top of the line models for each of them.
I guess I don’t like it because I haven’t read or understand what these new names mean CT5, CT6. I don’t yet see the logic?
Back when I worked in GM manufacturing the platforms all had letter designations, so we knew right away what size it was.
The A Bodies were intermediates
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_A_platform
The B Bodies were big cars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_B_platform
The C Bodies were the big front wheel drive models
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_C_platform_(1985)
The X Bodies were the compact front wheel drive models
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_X_platform_(1980)
The Y was and still is the Corvette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_Y_platform
The J Bodies were the inexpensive front wheel drive model
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_J_platform
I am for the new naming for the CT6 and future Cadillac models which will formerly be known as the CTS, ATS, XTS, ELR and SRX. The current alphabet soup is all over the place and except for us car enthusiast, most people would not know or care which order the current line-up is at this moment but the future naming will be pretty much in order starting with CT with a number after that giving order of that particular vehicle according to price and size.
I believe it will make sense in time with most people. I do like the renaming of future Cadillacs but I do not love it. By the end of the day, what matters is how excellent the product is and continue to strive for excellence from here on out. I truly believe this is the new Cadillac division and GM and they have learned from their mistakes from a few decades ago to not half-ass products but put all of your might and effort like they are doing with the current Cadillacs. And to provide another example, the ELR will be heavily updated for ’16 model year with possibly more power, more efficiency, more standard equipment and etc. So this is a new Cadillac division that we are seeing here folks.
I think that it is stupid.
Really, do you think it matters? Not likely. You know there was a time not so long ago that luxury was more than a number. I wish names would be used that evoke some sort of emotion or … I don’t know, something. I can hardly wait till Rolls Royce changes the name of the Wraith to the R2.