You won’t hear it from Cadillac officials, but the brand is working on a proper full-size flagship sedan; and when we say proper full-size sedan, we don’t mean a transverse-engined FWD-based XTS with a dash-to-axle ratio and driving dynamics of a Chevy Malibu, on which the XTS is based. Instead, we’re specifically referring to a “proper” luxury sedan with a longitudinally-mounted engine and rear-wheel-drive (based on the Omega architecture) that can battle the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7 Series, and Lexus LS. Such a vehicle was previewed by the stunning and gorgeous Ciel concept last year — yet considering the vast amount of non-production material on the Ciel, it’s not very likely to reach production — at least not in the way that it exists as a show car. But the car you see pictured, or rather rendered, above — is.
Those paying particular attention to Cadillac over the last several years will recognize that our rendering bears some resemblance to the XTS concept car that debuted at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, as well as the renowned Cadillac Sixteen concept first presented in 2003. Frankly speaking, the design of the currently in-production XTS is very appealing, attractive, and stylish, but the production car’s front-wheel-drive architecture leaves little flexibility in designing a luxury sedan or coupe worthy of $80,000-$150,000 prices.
So, we took an XTS, changed its body color, increased its dash-to-axle ratio (that’s become a hallmark design element of today’s luxury vehicles), and gave it two doors. Then, we added the cab-rearward greenhouse of the Cadillac Sixteen concept, while maintaining its B pillar-less elegance.
Now, we’re not delusional enough to recommend that a full-size luxury coupe such as the one we’ve rendered will make its way into the Cadillac lineup in the near future; instead, a sedan variant of such a car is likely to be introduced first (as with ATS/CTS sedans), while carrying the LTS nomenclature. But a full-sized coupe based on the LTS sedan might follow, and if it does — it could look like our interpretation, while battling the Mercedes-Benz CL (S-Class coupe).
Rendering inspired by Casey Shain.
Comments
Oh god the return of the land Yacht….well looks like you boys found Eldorado again…
Doesn’t have to be a land yacht. The MBZ CL is anything but.
The Mercedes-Benz CL can be optioned up enough that it can compete with super-luxury coupés like the Bentley Continental GT. It’ll be interesting to see how far this Cadillac coupé could go if done right…
Build it 🙂
SO hot, I’d love to have the option of buying a large coupe.
True, Cadillac should go back to its brand roots and make a premium coupe “halo” car- you won’t sell a lot, but it improves your image. The 57 Eldorado Brougham sold for triple the price of a regular Cadillac. They didn’t sell a lot, but everyone wanted one.
I’d like to see Cadillac make a more “traditional” coupe that really stands out:
http://encarsglobe.com/data_images/gallery/01/chevrolet-corvette-corvorado/chevrolet-corvette-corvorado-06.jpg
I respect the artist and the drawing but the assumption that there is a market here is stuck in 2002. if you look up annual sales of these full sized premium luxury cars you’ll see the following:
– bmw 7 series: 11k in 2012 down from 22k in 2002
– s-class: 12k in 2012 down from 21k in 2002
– LS 8k in 2012 down from 26k in 2012
So you’re talking about a market that was 69k in 2002 and is now 31k in 2012. I think GM has sold 10k ATS in the first three months of 2013 or basically as many 7 series that BMW sold in all of 2012.
It’s clear that something has changed since 2002. perhaps the luxury consumer has moved on to the premium suv type cars such as the mercedes gl class. Why not design something that will move the needle at GM like a new premium luxury SUV?
“Earthlings to Caddicac”RU CRAZY?
Should have been a sedan.
Didn’t Mark Reuss make the comment last year that there will be a Ciel sequel concept shown this year that will be close to the production LTS?
Kid, agreed… What Cadillac needs is product we can aspire to while maintaining a product line that is relevant to uperscale buyers… I think a world class super premium luxury vehicle is dooable; unfortunately Cadillac is not recognized for benchmarking or beating Bently at its own game… Cadillac needs a vehicle that is relevant to Cadillac… To me this rendering screams ElDorado, which screams Cadillac but may not scream Cadillac to the buyers Cadillac wants to bring into show rooms… Cadilac wants to sell cars, not land yachts…
@Yaba is the Benz S-Class/S-Class Coupe/CL a land yacht?
What another very poor example of what Cadillac is thinking. Hint you need to do better.
As for won’t hear it from them? Let me point out a web site called GM Autoauthority Back on Aug 22 2012 they posted a story and drawings of a full size RWD Cadillac that was called the Cadillac Glamor coupe. Not much was said about it other than it was a hint at some of Cadillac’s thinking. I know that web site has a lot of hits and misses but this one was a lot closer than the one shown here.
Trust me the new sedan and possible coupe will be very dramatic and will not just appear to be a bad photo shop of a stretched CTS or XTS.
I would recommend you do some more digging and you will find more hints out there that will show you a car that is not just a big CTS.
While the new car that has been mentioned by Cadillac will not be a copy of the Sixteen look for it to make an impression just as great and the interior to even out pace the present new Cadillac’s.
I would recommend anyone here to Google the Cadillac Glamour Coupe on the web and you will see a car that could challenge even the sweet looking Bentley. While the drawing is not production it will give you an idea of where they really are going or at least what they will admit to at Cadillac.
Scott — you seem to be implying that Cadillac officials have been openly speaking about the upcoming full-sizer and dropping hints left and right. Let me set the record straight in telling you that this is not the case.
If you actually speak to anyone at Cadillac with knowledge of the future product roadmap, you won’t hear anything; not a peep. We have our own ways around this; sometimes they work, at other times they don’t. So while you bring up other drawings/renderings that are posted here at GM Authority and elsewhere, they’re nothing more than guesses and hypotheses — as is ours.
So saying things like “trust me”, the “new sedan and possible coupe will be very dramatic and will not just appear to be a bad photo shop of a stretched CTS or XTS”, or “While the drawing is not production it will give you an idea of where they really are going or at least what they will admit to at Cadillac” implies that you have some kind of deep-rooted inside knowledge of not only the design, but also the general direction of the vehicle in question. Do you actually have this kind of information? Should we, in fact, “trust” you?
Outside of that, one of our goals with the renderings (such as the one you see above) is to inspire discussion, conversation, and an educated dialogue about what may, or may not be coming from GM in the future. It’s not always to be 100% spot-on with what a certain brand may or may not be thinking. In that regard, we’ll take the feedback we’ve received here in the comments and will apply it to another rendering. 🙂
Just a correction, Alex. The upcoming sedan will have a longitudinally-mounted engine…not transverse as you have it. Thanks for the rendering.
Yes, I meant longitudinally-mounted. Thanks Richard!
Looks good, one critique though, the window is sharply cut off on the back window. elongating it would do it alot of good, but other then that, looks good. To comment on the whole land yacht issue, consider the S class or the 7 series (especially the Li), they are not particularly small but they contain alot of power and handle quite well
(these are performance versions I know, but a V series caddy will be in this comparison). Just because there big doesn’t make them bad and to call them a land yacht is implying such. Also I will say that making a big car doesn’t imply your competing with Maybach or Rolls or Bentley, I mean does a S-class compete in that class, no (not now at least not since the Grosser) nor the 7 series nor the Audi A8.
“they are not particularly small but they contain alot of power”
Not the V6 models of the S class.
If Cadillac is going ahead with a large/full size car, let them first nail down competent, mainstream, powertrains before anyone even mentions the letter V…and that’s even there should be a V at all.
@Grawdaddy Cadillac already *has* nailed these powertrains: aside from the 3.6 liter LFX, they can also utilize the new 3.6L TT LF3, or anything from the new/LT small block family.
That said, the V6 variants of the full-size sedans from BMW, Audi, and MBZ aren’t speed-deamons — but they’re still fine luxury machines that can handle very well. This isn’t any different than offering a “base” engine on the ATS or CTS (or 3er, A4, etc.), and giving the consumer the ability to upgrade as they wish to a more powerful powertrain.
I had a look at performance specs on the 6 cylinder specs on the S class and the 7 series, and their not too shabby. 322 and 306 respectively is a pretty decent number for a full sized car, also keep in mind that implying that a car is a land yacht also implies soft handling and considering the suspension in an S class should handle quite well. I will also point out that the current XTS has a 306 hp V6 engine and the CTS offers a 422 hp twin turbo engine, so the issue of competent powertrains is quite dismissively solved.
@Tyler precisely! Just because a vehicle is big (full-size), such as a MBZ S-Class, Lexus LS, Audi A/S8, or BMW 7er doesn’t make it a land yacht. All of the aforementioned cars are very capable vehicles from a performance standpoint.
Everyone that’s knocking it saying its a land boat yet Mercedes, Maserati & Jaguar can get away with similar needs to understand Cadillac needs to be in this segment it’s a must. For Cadillac to be taken seriously as a global luxury brand it needs an S class rival & several coupes in its range alongside smaller offerings.
Without such models as the top line coupes & saloons Cadillac is not utilising its full potential.
I fully expect the TT V6 in this car as the base but they will have a form of the LT in the car. I just hope they tune it and make a version only for Cadillac’s use.
I also hope they dress the engine in a way that it has the look of a premium engine and make it look different from the Chevy versions. Please no cheap black plastic covers.
Pontiac took the 2.8 V6 From Chevy and dressed it up in powder coat red and polished aluminum. They even used 12 point stainless hardware to dress the engine. I get people looking at my Fiero engine and think that I did the dress but it was all Pontiac. The Chevy only ever used the cast aluminum intake in raw and steel covers in black.
If you want to be premium and want to use a corporate engine you need to do something to set it apart. It is no different than platform sharing.
Unfortunately, the plastic engine covering is what people want to see in the luxury segment; it looks “cleaner”.
Powder coating the heads doesn’t exactly look clean, nor do wiring looms.
It’s the way things go, and Cadillac will have to follow suit.
It’s only about 20 years too late. The time for oversized coupes is long gone.
Nice rendering, though.
Alex, those cars are proportionately appropriate…
Alex, just to clarify I think this rendering is nice, maybe the front is a little elongated, but overall I really like it. When looking at the 7 series and S class I feel they represent their brand well and are sized correctly for their demographic… When I look at the Ceil concept I dont equate it with these… I think Cadillac was thinking outside of the box and not necissarily trying to peg the Ceil to any of its competition, which is cool in and of itself… I think Cadillac is trying to figure out what does the upperscale segment mean for Cadillac. Does it mean competing directly with the 7series and S class or does it mean even more, maybe it is more of a Jaguar and Mazerati esq. as Kyree mentions…
I am coming in with a “late observation” here.
The XTS is at the $44,000 to $60,000 and would appear to be about right from a marketing stand point. I think the car is a transitional model that left a lot on the drawing board. A few to many compromises on the car.
The coming CTS is quite well placed and executed, I feel strongly that Cadillac will sell boat loads of these cars and they should.
Cadillac has brought themselves into an enviable market position. Some is their doing , the rest has to do with Lexus, BMW etc. By remaining true to the marque’s angular styling tradition, Cadillac has avoided the lack of differentiation in the Lexus BMW group. Caddy’s competitors have been following each other around so long they forgot to be unique.
Cadillac lucks out and ends up with being a category design leader, which assures sales success.
The new large sedan has the opportunity to compete with the luxury SUV’s. This will be no small feat as $70,000 V8 four wheel drivers rule the price segment
My guess is a $70.000 to $85,000 range with some distant sports coupe variant winning the $100,000+ prize.
The LTS has a chance of being a “commodity large american sedan.” I can’t speak for management’s goals here, but, seeing lots of big caddy’s riding around will help sell a lot of other caddy’s.
get rid of the center console and put the gears back on the steering column. the new caddys are not made for a 6ft 250lb guy. my right knee hit the damn console and I decided not to buy the car
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