Mercedes-Benz went official with their new 2015 S65 AMG full-size luxury coupe today. The new two-door packs a twin-turbocharged 6.0-liter V12 under its hood, producing 621 horsepower and an impressive 738 lb-ft of torque. The engine is linked up to a seven-speed automatic transmission and makes the S65 good for a 0-60 mph sprint of 4 seconds. It also has almost all the same luxurious amenities as the standard S-Class sedan and in typical S-Class fashion is jam packed full of new technology. Sounds good, doesn’t it? The real question though, is should Cadillac make a competitor to the S65?
As we know, Cadillac is currently developing a new, full-size sedan which may be called LTS. The luxury four door will slot in above the current Alpha-based CTS and will go head-to-head with the aforementioned Mercedes S-Class and other established names in the executive sedan segment such as the BMW 7-Series, the Audi A8 and the Lexus LS. Very little is known about the ‘LTS’, but as far as we know, a coupe variation isn’t on deck.
Creating a competitor to the S65 AMG based on the LTS would be a difficult task for Cadillac, but far from undoable. The next-generation CTS-V is rumored to receive a version of the 650 horsepower LT4 supercharged V8 set to find its way into the 2015 Corvette Z06, a power plant which could also be easily adapted for use in our theoretical high-performance LTS Coupe. Additionally, if Cadillac didn’t want to make anything as extreme as the V12 S65, they could set their car up to compete with the S63 AMG, which uses a smaller, twin-turbocharged 5.5-liter V8 to produce 585 horsepower and 663 lb-ft.
If Cadillac was waiting around for a reason to put the well-received Elmiraj into production, Mercedes has given them one with the S65 and S63. The brand has already said it won’t be going product-for-product with BMW or Mercedes though, both of which now have very vast portfolios in comparison. This makes the chances of Cadillac producing a performance-oriented full-size luxury car slim, but it would show consumers they are serious about competing with the S-Class, a car which has long been thought of as the king of the luxury sedans.
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For this reason only cadillac should make the elmiraj……i can see the two staged engine line up (Z06, ZR1 [hopefully])…….amd it will destroy the benz if power is the issue……but customers of this stature want oozing opulence with the power for the side……..the LTS/Elmiraj need interior beauty
The S-class coupe is occupying what was once Cadillac’s mainstay many decades ago; the full-size coupe.
The above pillarless coupe is what Cadillac would have been squaring off against had Cadillac not taken to the idea of quantity over quality. That’s why comparable Eldorados of the time never had a chance against the CL’s and SEC’s of the time. They were simply outgunned by Mercedes in terms of build quality and product execution. GM never seemed to care that Cadillac clout was withering away; its luster dulling under the sweaty buttocks of Roger Smith’s indifference, all the while cashing in on Cadillac name while selling out the brands future just so the balance sheet come December was black.
There may not be an LTS coupe, and Cadillac might have to pride themselves on a stalwart and sexy LTS sedan that will propel the brand to heights it hasn’t reached in more than half a century. The thing is, the S-class coupe isn’t going to go away; it ate Cadillac lunch years ago and now enjoys a privileged and strongly held position within the luxury car market. There still could be an LTS coupe, but the long road to such a car and the amount of clout it is to project from the still rebuilding Cadillac brand is a road that would make the CTS’s achievements seem insignificant, if not unimportant.
An LTS coupe could be built, but the mountain it has scale is very large. Olympus Mons large.
Cadillac is not waiting around to find a reason to build the Elmirage.
The truth is they are looking for ways to leverage out a platform that can be used to build a car close to what the show car was and to make it so they can sell it at low volumes that the coupe market does and still make a profit and not have to charge $141,000 for it.
I wish more people would learn and understand better the interworking’s of the auto industry and how things and why things are done. It is more than this is a cool car and we are going to build it and they will come.
Building, Marketing and selling a car is broken down to so many small things you would be shocked at what all that is considered and could make or break a new model. They even look down to things like the smell of leather for a car. How important is it to the buyers as it cost money to put in as the leather would have no smell to it otherwise today.
So if things are looked at to this level they have to make sure there is a market for it and if they can sell it at a price that people will buy in numbers good enough to avoid a 4 years and out car like so many we have seen from Cadillac in the past.
I wish the media would stop baiting the public like this as any informed writer would know better.
Let them sort this out and I believe they will get it out and get it right. No sense in rushing this and not get it right and end up with another Allante or XLR. This is the new GM and you need to let them do their job and not repeat the past.
Benz has some leverage here that Cadillac does not have. They also have a larger global market to drop these coupes in while Cadillac will have to relay on 85% of the cars ending up here in the states.
Can’t argue with the fact that Cadillac, and GM for that matter, used to have a strong footing in the area of large, RWD luxury coupes. But neither can we argue with the fact that Cadillac is a growing luxury brand and doesn’t yet have the global appeal and leeway Mercedes-Benz has this time. At this juncture we can only hope Cadillac is drawing inspiration from cars like the Benz S65 and ultimately find a place in the market for the Elmiraj.
Although I like the Elmirage, and wish it was going to be built , maybe pulling out the ol’ name Eldorado as its name , I believe GM needs to focus their attention on a model that could be sold to the middle class versus the wanna be millionairs . GM’s sales are flat right now and spending a huge amount of money to tool up for a vehicle that they probably will never make money on is foolish ( ex. ELR ) .
The name Eldorado brings back memories of gandma’s defeatured psuedo-luxury FWD caddy, I think the Eldorado name should stay dead.
“GM needs to focus their attention on a model that could be sold to the middle class versus the wanna be millionairs ”
That’s what Buick is for.
The next Buick Lacrossse will ride on the RWD Omega platform and the flagship has been FWD for 30 years now and its time for RWD to come back…bring back the good old days.
It would be vary disappointing if Buicks flagship stays FWD…the.. not so good days would still remain after 30 years.
In the 1950s 60s and 70s… cars were RWD and they were good cars intill the 1980s…ever since the 80s… car were cheap shit FWD cars…I was born in the 80s and I missed out in those good RWD cars…Im glad RWD is coming back.
Buick doesn’t need a rear wheel drive product, as their their product portfolio doesn’t call for it, and its intended consumer base usually doesn’t have the disposable income that permits such a luxury. That, and their consumer base generally doesn’t care about drivetrains.
Rear wheel drive is a luxury is for those who can afford it and those whose wealth can allows them to enjoy the perks RWD offers. Cadillac exists to offer those with discriminating tastes the best of the best; exclusively and without equal.
Buick is to remain subordinate to Cadillac.
If buick doesnt get a RWD flagship. they better make the next Lacrosse bigger and much better.
Replace the FWD Buick Lacrosse with a RWD Omega platform and call it….Buick Roadmaster.