Cadillac has built a strong brand foundation around its V-series vehicles, and even introduced the world to a V-Sport model with the CTS sedan. Loyalists can rest easy at night knowing Cadillac has no plans to cull its performance offerings. In fact, it sounds like quite the contrary.
In an interview with Motor Trend published Tuesday, Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen said V will continue to be an integral part of “creating this halo brand cachet around Cadillac.”
He added that not every Cadillac will sport a V model, but he confirmed more vehicles will gain a V variant, and V-Sport models will proliferate. The next V-Sport model could very well be the Cadillac CT6 as we await more information on the brand’s 4.2-liter twin-turbo V8 engine.
Of course, the CTS-V, arguably the brand’s most well known V vehicle, will go away as Cadillac prepares to roll out the CT5. We’ll most certainly see a CT5-V in the future.
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Which is what people have been saying for years. Merc likely moves as many AMG models as Cadillac does its entire lineup
GM needs to nut up, not just Cadillac. Silverado needs a Raptor rival and an SS
Offer high output sport models, anything with a turbo in, tune it for 5-10% more power. That’s what the Redline edition Chevys should be.
I get, appearance packages sell and are cheap to do. But enthusiasm sells too.
Spot on.
Right on. GM needs to drop the 2.0T LTG in more models. Turbo lag makes it sub-optimal for anything but low-end cars so I’d like to see an updated 2.0T with a liquid charge air cooler to eliminate lag.
GM could take it even further and bring their chassis tuning expertise to bear on ALL of their products instead of limiting it to a handful of high end platforms. Of course not every car should be tuned for track performance, but a performant chassis still pays dividends when tuned for comfort in the form of stability and responsiveness.
I really hope we see a V-Sport trim debut with the XT4 later this month. Give it the 3.0TT, 400HP, 0-60 in 4.8ish seconds, and you have a real winner. Darkened accents, athletic details, and some aero elements. Cadillac has yet to do a sporty SUV/CUV. I think its time for one. If XT4 does indeed ride on the E2 platform, it can handle the V6. The new Regal GS, which rides on the platform, has received good reviews for its handling. I can only imagine what Cadillac can do with it when they get their hands on it.
In the XT4 teaser video the car used has aggressive sport rims (seen on an early test mule), blacked out trim instead of chrome, and what look to be functional air vents in the front. Praying this is an indication of a Vsport/V model
I was thinking the same thing when I watched it.
Well this was not a surprise. Most auto brands offer up scale luxury models for additional income. But if you already are a luxury division you have to offer performance as you already have luxury.
Cadillac was not going to abandon this as the V line is their Denali line. While the volume is lower the profits are greater and much higher ATP.
Contrary to what some think AMG accounts for approximately only 10% of sales in this country and it may be less overseas where Benz sells more low end cars in fleets.
It is not the volume but the higher price point and ATP that matters.
The problem in adding performance models is this. If you do a CTS and add a V series set up on it the added $20K-$25K is not as much of an issue. It also adds much to the profits.
But say you take a Cruze and you add the AWD and the better engine and all the bits to do it right you end up with a car that will sell for more than $40K and sell only in small numbers. That leaves you with little room for development cost unless you can sell it globally. GM really does not have many global cars as they had Opel in Europe and Holden who is just now embracing Chevy models etc. You have China but small performance cars are not big there.
Now with that said Cadillac can do this with all models but they need to make sure the changes to a V make it worthy to hold the badge. Just like the GM performance division you need to make sure it goes, stops and turns in world class manor.
My HHR SS was proof GM could take a turd and make a great handling 13 second car. But here too they could not add AWD as just how much will people pay for an HHR? $28K was the sticker and that was already too high.
The Ford RS only survives on global sales due to low volumes in each market. Bit the car is based on a model they sell globally.
The Regal is one of the few GM has that this works on in the lower price segments and it is not cheap. But it is a global platform.
Might add that our Acadia Denali with the adjustable suspension while not a Corvette is much like our SSEI in ride and better handling than my GTP Comp G. It is a 17 and large but acts more like a well tuned touring car in sport mode.
If done right never underestimate a platform. GM has failed but they also know how to get it right.
Now we’re talking!
More performance versions of Cadillac cars the better
The front wheel drive vehicles (CUVS) should only be offered in V-sport models. it, is important that they don’t start tacking full on V badges to cars that don’t meet the performance requirements (500+hp). That’s what happened with the SS brand in the early 2000s
Good point
This is nice to hear.
As good as the CTS-V is, the market for higher performance variants has encompassed SUVs, and Cadillac has completely missed the current generation, forcing buyers to look elsewhere.
Although the CTS-V and ATS-V have received hardly a refresh or improvement since launch, the fact that they’re still competitive in their segments says GM knows how to build a performance car. I just hope they haven’t forgotten.
The cars cuvs from Cadillac will run circles round the competition only to have people say the dash is not cute enough like that matters in a performance car.
Not to be Debbie Downer, but the name “CT5-V” sounds so stupid. CTS-V has a certain ring to it; CT5-V sounds like random letters and numbers mashed together.
Those letters aren’t randomly arranged. The name tells you something about the car, it’s body style, where it sits in the range relative to other Cadillacs, and what kind of performance spec it is.
By that logic so do the current -ts names. -ts are sedans, and the first letter is the size from smallest to largest. i.e. ATS- smallest, XTS- biggest.
I’m not saying the name it self is not understandable, I’m saying it sounds weird and is not much different from the current “names” (or lack of).
This doesn’t mean anything if Cadillac doesn’t tell the world by advertising the very existence of their V and Vsport models; further, this should be something Cadillac needs for every vehicle in the Cadillac lineup.
I miss the Fleetwood, the Seville, the Devilles
I loved my stretch brouhams with LT-1 s.
Here’s the bottom line on Cadillac upping it’s ante on performance!!!… For it’s probable last model year of the current CTS-V platform (the upcoming 2019 model year)…. They need to blow away the competition hands down with a “CTS-Z”..!!!!!!!!!! Yes, cts-Z…. A 4 door sedan equivalent of the 755hp 2019 Corvette ZR1 !!!! That’s what Cadillac NEEFS TO DO..MUST DO.!! even if it’s ever so slightly “de-tuned” to say….750, 745hp….as they did with the current CTS-V… (at 640 instead of the official 650 zo6 version)…. 745-750hp in a cts sedan package would blow the doors off any Mercedes AMG packaged model anywhere…all the way thru to their S65 series. So what if the base price for a CTS-Z model would avg. $150k+… it’d still sell….sell very well…. So we’ll… Cadillac brass would see stars with all the profits they’d see from it…a CTS-Z model. But who knows… maybe the Cadillac brass already has this in the works already for a 2019 offering. I sure hope so…. They need it…WE NEED IT…WE WANT IT…!!! Oh, and BTW. WITHOUT THOSE STUPID AND RIDICULOUS LOOKING WINGS ON THE BACK OF A ZR1!!!…(big wing with that extra perf. package or the lower wing w/o that package)..any wing on a performance and luxury 4 door sedan would be totally stupid!!! (looking). Cadillac could throw in a few extra luxury and performance goodies features too like a incredibly more powerful audio option, incredibly wide low profile tires,. blacked out custom wheels with a chrome lip!! around the wheels rim edge!!… an even less restrictive exhaust system….with both stealthy “silencer” package (where the exhaust sound is dramatically minimzed for driving thru neighborhoods…or to not draw attention from “the fuzz” (police)….and then a “wide open” exhaust switch for when “one just doesn’t give a damn and wants to unleash as much noise pollution as possible!!!!
Come on Cadillac brass…why allow after market performance car/truck companies like Hennessy…do your dirty work. Do it yourself!!! Give us CTS-Z !!!! now, next week…at least before mid summer!!!
What do you think??????
if GM rehired Bob Lutz, I think you’d get your ZR1-based CTS-Z and I would even be able to get a CTS-V with a 6-speed manual.
Barring that, I think Hennessy’s business is safe.
Maybe there’s a great CT5-V in the works, but given the amount of years the V’s have remained stagnant, I’ll believe it when I see it. Bean counters don’t like these cars, so who’s there to push them?