Cadillac stunned the world yesterday by unveiling the Elmiraj Concept ahead of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Now, not even a full 24 hours after the unveiling of the full-size coupe concept that “demonstrates Cadillac’s vision for luxury driving and the top of the brand’s expanding range”, the vehicle has received (nearly) universally-positive praise from enthusiasts, the media, and (probably) even grandparents all over the world.
But a rather important aspect of the Elmiraj that could easily be missed among the excitement and plethora of details is something that could be easily missed: the Elmiraj uses the chassis and structural elements of “an ongoing Cadillac vehicle development project slated for future production”, according to Cadillac. Furthermore, the new architecture “expands the brand’s commitment to lightweight RWD performance” that has become a celebrated trait of the ATS sport sedan and the all-new 2014 CTS sport sedan that launches this fall.
A source close to GM’s engineering efforts tells us that the vehicle architecture being used in the Elmiraj, although still in development, is none other than the upcoming Omega platform.
One could think of Omega, according to our sources, as being based on the Alpha vehicle architecture underpinning the ATS, new CTS, and upcoming 2015 (or 2016) sixth-generation Camaro, only stretched in every direction — with everything being bigger and better. In engineering the architecture, however, our sources tell us that GM’s top priority is to make Omega-based vehicles very light by using a combination of advanced materials and creative light-weighting techniques.
The Elmiraj will have to tide us over until an actual Omega-based production vehicle arrives — which, at this point, should be around 2015 or 2016.
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Comments
This is pure Cadillac!!
Just build it General!
BUILD IT…
this car screams Eldorado, bring back the real car names! The three letter name thing lacks personality.
But Cadillac has built up so much brand equity WITHOUT using the tired old names, they would be stupid to reuse the Eldorado nameplate. Besides, CTS is a name, and there is no way Cadillac is going to dump 10 years of growth for a damaged nameplate from the 60’s. Using words hearkens back to a time period before the alphanumeric names came around, and will make the car look old, technological inferior, and uncompetitive right out of the gate.
Nobody in the mainstream luxury market wants to look old. Not even Lincoln.
While the CTS has recognition, in general I don’t agree with initials.. Look at how much better Taurus is working for Ford than 500 did. Buick is doing well with a new customer base and using old names. I don’t see letter names being that successful for Acura or Lincoln. The average person who doesn’t visit sites like this has no clue about most of the tech advances, but name brand recognition goes a long way. In a few years the letter names will just be alphabet soup.
The ford 500 didn’t work cuz the car was not very competitive plan and simple!
So why did they change the name to Taurus when the made the updates to make it more competetive? Because they got a new CEO who said wtf, why did you throw away all that brand recognition? Yea, early Taurus’s weren’t great, but they sold a lot of them,.
“I don’t see letter names being that successful for Acura or Lincoln.”
Maybe not for those small time players. Try asking MB, BMW, Lexus, Infiniti, Jag, or Audi if they’ll call their next car the ”Palomino Biarritz Bill Blass edition”. If they aren’t, there’s no reason for Cadillac to revive the Eldorado nameplate as it would alienate themselves from the market.
I’ve said before, when the first generation CTS debuted in 2002, it kicked off the Art and Science movement at Cadillac. Everything done by Cadillac since has been new and groundbreaking for GM; diving head-first into segments that nobody at GM would have ever considered tackling becasue it was either dominated by the Germans, or wasn’t a segment where GM could sell B, K, and E bodies in droves.
The first gen CTS was a gamble, and unless I’m mistaken, the Sigma platform only just broke even. But the change in Cadillac’s public image since 2002 is prodigious and is measurable by how many people are putting Cadillac’s on their list of contenders when their leases are up. Almost all of this success for Cadillac can be traced back to the first gen CTS and it’s non-name.
Besides, the average joe walking into a BMW dealership might not know what 325ix means, but he knows that it marks him as distinct from someone who drives around in a Sebring or Accent. It’s that difference, even if it’s not word, that makes a BMW different and more special than the common, non-luxury car.
It’s that air of distinctness that the ATS is going to have to cultivate slowly over time, so much so that after average joe leaves the BMW dealer, he’ll head to the Cadillac one.
Name of the car has no effect on weather it sells, what the car stands for both inside and out is why it sells!
I agree on the name. This car is not an Eldorado as it only shares being a coupe. It is RWD, it would stop and turn better than any Eldo and it deserves its own identity.
Also we need to consider that GM is going after people that are not Cadillac fans and the last thing we need to remind them of is that crappy rental Eldorado they had in the 80’s.
If you want Cadillac to grow and advance you have to get our of the circle of repeat. While many here wax greatly on the Eldorado like the 67 the people we want to draw in do not remember the good time and only recall the dark days of the name.
To move into the future we need to let go of some of the past. Let the Eldorado be the Eldorado and let this car be to it’s own.
Keep in mind this is a global car and has to show that the Cadillac is not more a floaty boat with too much chrome and bad fake wood. This is a car that could sell in Europe, China as well as Main Street USA.
So we’re throwing the Escalade name out too, I guess.
Why would you do that as it is selling very well and has been in continues production vs. the Eldorado that had some rough last years and did not exactly leave on a high note.
The Escalade sell very well and is showing a big profit and are not a negative floaty boat to the general public. The new one will just build on what they have now. { I have little care for the vehicle but you have to take the positive sales where they are]
The 80s-90s Eldorado’s did a lot of name damage. The last couple years helped some but engine issues with head gaskets and falling coupe sales did not help to improve the image.
Lets put it this way there are reasons the Chrysler 300 was the 300 vs. a New Yorker. Just look at what the Lido padded roof big chrome grill stretched K car did to a very good name.
The Eldo was never that bad, close in the late 80’s but close. But today there is little room for error here and consider the people you are selling too. They are not Eldorado kind of people here. Times have changed, people have changed and markets have changed.
My parents had both a ’76 and a ’78 Eldo Beautiful cars back in the day. But times have changed, as much as some of us love the Eldorado name I don’t think it needs to come back. I’m thinking ETC since they’re into letters now, but that’s just me.
Was the Escalade a name used from the past? No come on you should better than this!
The Escalade was from the embarssing past long enough to have a bad original impression, does a grill change from a Yukon define a Cadillac?
And don’t forget, there were also K cars with a number name – the 1984 Dodge 600 must have been better than the 300, right?
BMW and Mercedes get away with numbers because the make sense (BMW and Audi – staight forward and simple – bigger number = bigger car, Mercedes A, B, C, E, etc all refer to the size as well). CTS has recognition, but the average person has no clue the difference between XTS, DTS, STS, etc. The only way I remember which Lincoln is an MKZ is because I remember the year they called it a Zephyr (OK, that was a horrid name!).
Regardless of history, everyone knows a Taurus is a Ford, a Challenger, Charger and Dart is a Dodge. Companies spend millions on brand recognition, why throw it away? While the average person isn’t real educated on new car technology, they are more likely to say “wow that car has come a long way, I’m impressed” vs “Does the new Dart still have a slant 6 and rusty fenders” – come on man, people aren’t that lost in the past, that’s like sayihg IBM, Apple, and Intel should change their names because they are also associated with the crappy computers of the past.
The Escalade nameplate is a legacy name from a pre A&S time. That’s the only reason it remains.
However, there was an Escalade EXT and ESV. Those names are that would fit with Cadillac’s nomenclature as ESC, EXT, ESV. That seems to be the only logical way to reconcile the Escalades’s legacy nameplate with the nomenclature today.
The Clade has never suffered an image problem. True the first year or two were just juiced up GMC’s but they still sold well and they were upgraded soon after. Today they sell in great numbers and show great profits.
The next one will take the next step up.
While I do think of them as silly vehicles for Cadillac to sell in my heart my brain tells me they are a must as they do little damage to the image and they make more profit than any of the cars per unit.
The Escalade never suffered the 8-6-4 issue, The Olds Diesel issues or the horrendous down sizing they took in the 80’s to damage the name.
I would park the Eldo name till later use it for possibly a Halo car much later. While the name is damaged it does still have a lot of equity. I would never consider not ever using it but while Cadillac is rebuilding I would create some new history before I try to relive old history.
If you want people to understand this is not your fathers or Grand Father Cadillac you have to make it all new. Once you have recovered and lead the segment then you can go back and revisit some old names or ideas.
Real talk Scott, people young and old lust after our “grandfather’s Cadillac” the world over. Nobody remembers the 4-6-8 v8 or the Cadillac Cimmeran (or what ever that piece of sh#t was called) but car guys, and spiteful GM haters. And even car guys generally love big early 70s and older Cadillacs.
That was a different era. And to write off an era when Cadillac was having far higher sales and still had a more prestigious reputation is just ignorant.
Yes the were hiccups in the 80s through 90s. And Cadillac was pretty bland in the 2000s. But the core reason of Cadillacs fall from grace was the wholesale abandonment of it’s heritage and tradition.
GM got cheap, they ignored their base, and they did the worst thing a competitor can do; they started trying to become their competition rather than buckle down and surpass them. Cadillac and GM fell pray to chasing the money through “aping” disease.
Cadillac’s core heritage and appeal still works. GM just forsook it.
Now they are going back.
I am sorry but Cadillac has had issues since the first gas crises of 1973.
Once the oil prices and gas shortages hit GM was at a loss as people began to move from the large floaty 3 ton sedans and coupes.
Cadillac did ok in 77 till the early 80’s with the smaller lighter cars. They did not gain ground but they at lease did not lose much till the diesel and the 8 6 4 issues came. Then they went for the ultra small down sized cars that crippled them. Add in failures of the roadsters, Cimarron and Catera they just did not gain much in reputation or respect. While this was going on Lexus, BMW, Benz and others were gaining market share lost by Cadillac
In the 90’s GM tried to bring back its rep with the STS and ETC but they were saddled with North Star engine issues that hurt for repeat sales.
The CTS was the real start of the comeback but because of the lack of funding and commitment buy those inside GM It has taken 3 generations to really get it to where they needed to start.
Today the changes will come faster and more often. We will see Cadillac transform with each and every new model today.
Cadillac has near 40 years of poor reputation to live done. the market has changes and the publics wants and needs have changed. Cadillac is just now seeing these changes.
It takes time to re earn a reputation.
The fact is there are always a small group who will pine for the cars of this weak 40 year era. They see what they want to see as I did in the past. But today I look back and see I made excuses for cars that really were that bad. Today I see cars that deserve to be considered as they are relevant to todays market.
I agree GM made poor decisions and cheeped out on things.
As Bob Lutz pointed out about Chrysler in the 80’s. Lee was in love with the vinyl roofs, Greek temple grills and opera windows and that worked fine in the 70’s but times changed and Chrysler was left behind. Same for Cadillac they were left behind.
The sad part is the cars you say people do not remember is not true. They are still well remembered and often joked about. I even saw a Cimarron was joked about last night on TV.
I love GM but the older I get the less blind I am about GMs failures of the past. As I see them reawake today I see just how bad things were.
I love the old 70’s Seville. It looked great but it was really not a very good car but most cars then sucked too. It was a good idea but just poorly executed.
I like most of what you posted, but I do have one q’s!. If it takes years to build a reputation then how do you explain tesla?
Car has zero history in any segment and they can’t build them fast enough!
I really don’t think reputation has much to fo with it, if you build a home run it will sell!
Arguing about the name vs alpha numerical is missing the point. Great names on great cars CAN’T fail. And alpha numerical that MEAN SOMETHING work great as well (Europeans). When you ape and copy great ideas without grasping what made them great you get the current Acura and Lincoln naming fiasco (nobody likes any of their letter designations) but then again none of their cars are all that good either, at least for right now.
What ever Cadillac decides to call this car, assuming we get it or something like it, if it looks half as good and drives and is built at least as good as a current CTS, it will win.
That said I would love for them to ditch the dumb ass letters and keep the concept’s name or come up with something else new. No need to revive the Eldorado.
Now as far as this Omega platform – can we get a premium Buick coupe and maybe even a big Chevy coupe with that all American V8 swag and size of the classic RWD 2dr Impalas of yore?
I sure hope that this platform can be spread around, if ya know what I mean.
“Now as far as this Omega platform – can we get a premium Buick coupe and maybe even a big Chevy coupe with that all American V8 swag and size of the classic RWD 2dr Impalas of yore?”
No, and never.
That’s the thing about people who call themselves “Cadillac’s base”.
They are an ever-shrinking consumer minority, they don’t like anything new, they hold up the unreliable garbage cars from the 70’s as a benchmark for cars of today, they think no Cadillac should cost more than $65K, and they seek to prevent growth at Cadillac with their unrealistic demands and reactionary world-view.
The silver lining in all this is that they are losing ground everyday to younger, more discerning buyers who are willing to put up bigger sums of money for something truly unique and not a replica of something their grandfather drove. They’ve been weened on BMW’s since they first saw them as status symbols and will hold any such alternative to their 3 series to such exacting standards. They want the best now, not as it appeared 40 years ago.
One last thing, there’s no need to be xenophobic. Saying Cadillac is being “too European” with it’s nomenclature is ridiculous. For more than 40 years, the Germans have set the standard of mainstream luxury world-wide, and because of this, they dictate and lead consumers to their interpenetration of luxury automobiles. You’ll note that never do the Germans hang onto their accomplishments from the 50’s or 60’s. They’re always innovating and focusing on product and engineering; and never once worrying about such trivialities such as “REAL NAMES”.
Lexus, despite being a relatively young brand, had no choice but to do the same or risk alienating themselves by being too different from the Germans, thus being seen as an unworthy alternative. Since Cadillac is wisely choosing to emulate rather than alienate, they do so because it leads to greater acceptance of the brand in the mainstream luxury marketplace.
Basically, the nomenclature at Cadillac and whether old people like it or not is a complete non-issue. To suggest otherwise is to suggest that product and engineering should not take precedent at Cadillac and that upholding “tradition” is of greater importance.
“Tradition”, by the way, is just anything you’ve ever done more than once. That includes breathing, praying, and bowel movements.
The bad image that must be overcome is just attached to the Cadillac name as it is to many of the well known model names. Bringing back a classic model name on a vastly improved model goes a long way to restoring the Value to that model AND brand name. Thinking people will forget Cadillac’s past by making up a new model name reminds me of the dad putting “new phone smell” on his daughter’s phone and trying to pass it off as new – makes it look like you’re trying to hide something.
Alex do you have any idea or a guess where the length of the new flagship will be at? I know the Elmaraj was at 205, the old DTS was 207 with the current XTS at 202. I am hoping they make this thing massive in length.
So under your thinking how can Cadillac ever win your kind over
If this comment is for me let me tell you. I have owned new Cadillacs for the last 12 years and the XTS DID NOT WIN ME OVER. I have owned Devilles and currently a DTS. No i am not 70 years old either. I like long wide luxury cars. Without a doubt i think the new flagship should be as long if not longer then the DTS. I am not even sure i could afford the new flagship but it would give me a lot of faith back in Cadillac in terms of a full size car.