The Cadillac ATS Coupe became the first Cadillac to feature the brand’s new crest without the wreath, and it was only a matter of time till the CTS went through a similar change. Now we’ve learned that will happen for the 2015 model year − here’s an official picture of the facelifted CTS with the wreathless crest.
It seems the crest is not the only change the CTS has adopted from the ATS, as the grille is more horizontal as well. Base CTSs will receive a chrome grille while the CTS Vsport will receive a black chrome finish. Of course, a lot of the other changes for 2015 are well-known, like available built-in Wi-Fi hotspot using 4G LTE connectivity, CUE infotainment text message alerts, and wireless DockSpot magnetic phone-charging mat.
Engine options remain unchanged for 2015: 2.0L turbo-four, 3.6L V6, and twin-turbo 420-horse V6. Of course, it remains to be seen how the CTS-V will shape up, but right now it’s looking like it will be the recipient of the Corvette Z06‘s 6.2L supercharged V8.
Automobile magazine reports that pricing for the 2015 Cadillac CTS has yet to be announced, but you can read about it GM Authority when we find out.
Comments
No offense, but this new, updated front end was already shown on other sights a few weeks ago. Maybe this is another photo, but some of us have seen the front end already,
It does look nice and I think black chrome will be nice on the V models. I just hope GM can keep freshening Cadillac every year and be more agreessive, especially since they are charging more.
Wow!!!!
215 day supply of the SLOW selling CTS and avg 172 day supply for all Slow Selling Caddy’s….!
While Lincoln sales are up 14%…!
Tide is turning…!!!
If they sold 25 more Lincoln’s a month they would increase sales 14%.
You need to look at the real numbers and not just percentages over last month or last year as a poor selling car can have one good month and jump 35% while a great selling car may increase or decrease 8% and still move a great number of cars.
I think GM just needs to re establish a solid coherent marketing program and they will be fine.
I am not sure if anyone has been paying attention but GM has always had a deal where a major segment of management always wants a certain percentage of profit on a car. This has driven prices up on cars like in the Cadillac line.
There is a growing segment with people like Mark Ruess that are pushing to drop the state marketing margin on some of their cars to price them to make people take a chance on them and get them into their cars. Once you do this for a few years and hook buyers you can slowly go back to the profit margin requirement later on.
These little nuggets are the things we seldom read about on the web and you have to dig up to make sense of things as to why they happen.
I suspect the lower prices will arrive at some point here and GM will drive to get butts in the seat with people giving them a chance with much lower prices than the competitors.
GM has the cars they just need to win people over with better marketing with price and product.
Lincoln sales Increase just proves there is More to the Luxury Market than just highend performance!!!
There is market of consumers who do Not want BMW like stuff suspensions that Caddy’s is chasing!
Lincoln has found a niche !!!
When Lincoln can command equal of greater ATP’s than Cadillac, then Lincoln will be worth a damn. Volume doesn’t describe success in luxury circles; product does, and pound for pound, the CTS is a better product than the MKZ.
Sure, you can always fall back on the MKZ’s “price advantage”, but luxury is not a value proposition. Wal-Mart style pricing erodes any sense of exclusivity when it’s priced like a commodity and not as a luxury. Luxury cars aren’t just leather and smooth rides, and having a MKZ that can’t break $50K doesn’t speak to the idea that the product is competitive; it says to me that there is a $20K deficit in the product that Ford is too cheap and lazy to address.
Until then, FoMoCo can sell as many discounted and rebated MKZ’s as they can. They’ll sell them under those lame car lot flags and ties ins with tired sitcoms. But even Ford knows that no matter how many Lincolns they outsell Cadillac by at the end of the MY, they’re ATP’s will never command what more respected and established luxury automakers can achieve.
We will worry about Lincoln when they can compete with Buick.
Lincoln needs to find a way to take a Ford platform and make it their own. Tight now a fancy Ford does not make a Lincoln that is going to save the company. Ford has admitted as much and hopes to change this in the future.
Right now the increased sales are more from those who can’t afford a real luxury market car [trailer parks have seen a up tick in Lincolns] and increase sales and discounts have also moved slow moving cars with lower profit margins.
I am willing to bet the increase in sales here are more due to the new SUV models than cars.
The wreath wasn’t used by Cadillac from its early beginnings (1903) until the sixties on the Eldorado. Not displaying a wreath is in keeping with most of Cadillac’s history.
The product managers at Caddy are IDIOTs to let supply get so far ahead of demand with 215 days worth of CTS inventory is already prompting $6000 rebates on these Over Priced cars…! Just piss poor management…!
Same for the ATS and XTS while the ELR is the Laughing Stock of the auto industry with its rediculous $75k price and 2 Year supply…!!!
So much for your theory about great product producing sales at Caddy… It’s Not working… So bring on the Big rebates and accelerated Depreciation of weakened residual values… Just gonna piss -off current customers who over payed… Won’t buy another Caddy either…!!
Watch and learn how a great product is built and brought to market this Fall with the launch of the Hot Lincoln MKC…. All reviews have been out standing to date… Not just performance and handling but interior Quality that surprised everyone….!! Plus it looks great too…!!!
You mean Lincoln is bringing out a new Taurus SHO with more chrome again.
If things do not change much in the next 5 years Lincoln may be gone like Mercury. The idea has already been floated more than once at Ford.
Ford either has to step up with some real global product or fade away as the cars they have now are just not going to get it done even in a simple review.
Note one thing that is hurting sales is the fire sale prices on the 300 sedans. You can get a V6 for $27,000 or a V8 for $34,000. that is $10K off sticker
I agree with Greg . Cadillac sales are down I believe because they are over priced . I don’t know anyone that will lay down 60 grand + for an ATS -V . When you can buy a loaded XTS for that , and the car is bigger ! GM needs to do something about CUE . Almost every article I have read from Car and Driver to MotorTrend hates this system . ( Bad Publicity ) . Plus they put it in every Cadillac . Back in the day , if you bought a cheaper car you got a standard radio , and if you bought a loaded car you got a better radio . Throwing Cue in all of the cars doesn’t make sense to me . Cadillac better watch what they are doing or it won’t survive .
“I don’t know anyone that will lay down 60 grand + for an ATS -V . When you can buy a loaded XTS for that , and the car is bigger !”
It’s foolish to assume that compact hi-po sports sedan is on par with a billowing land barge, and to assume that luxury is sold by size like meat in a butcher shop.
Greg is wrong because he doesn’t know what ATP is, and what it means when selling a product as a luxury. Furthermore, if the price of a luxury product scares you away, then you have no business looking at ANY luxury product.
That’s why brands like Lincoln, Acura, Chrysler, and Buick exist: for people less discerning and without the financial means or social capital to demand more of themselves. Those brands represent a bar lowered for people to jump over without any effort or struggle; to lie to themselves that “they’ve arrived”. The automotive equivalent of a participation medal at a children’s soccer game.
Look the part, be the part. Lincoln can only sell a midsize car starting at $35k, whereas Cadillac can do it at $50K. That’s $15K of clout and image that Lincoln can’t employ in it’s marketing because Ford has spent decades making value-priced Lincoln. It’s the kind of weak business model that gets public reactions when people snigger and say “I wouldn’t pay $50K for a Lincoln!”, and you know people have said that.
But people have paid $50+ for a CTS. Not many as the sales have shown, but its proof that GM can sell a mid-size luxury car for $50K without having to diminish themselves with a value-priced approach.
But if the Lincoln vs. Cadillac dichotomy matter so much to some people, then think of it as a ATP race, not a unit sales race. The first to get the highest ATP for their cars in the segment wins. Right now, Cadillac has a $15K advantage that their cars can command that Lincoln cannot.
Hasn’t history already shown that Cadillac always made the better car despite Lincoln always selling more? Or am I just a little rusty on my history of America’s auto industry? I found the exact same thing when looking up Packard, before trying to sell cheaper cars, they were always on top of Cadillac which held the sales crown. Remember, higher profit margins and ATPs are what pay for R&D as well as future generations of a model, not volume, let’s also remember that GM learned this the hard way back in 2009, and FCA is as well considering how much cash Chrysler is throwing on their older models.
ATP is important Butt…
Bit as important as Margins:
– GM made $1.4B in Q2 in N America at 8% margin and Missed earnings expectations for 3 qtrs in a row
– Ford made $2.4B in Q2 in N America at over 11% margin and Beat expectations again!!!
Bottomline: It is Not just about Price butt… Who is more efficient = Ford…!!!
Caddy’s are over priced and too expensive to build that’s why GM margins are so much less….!!
Caddy’s aren’t more expensive to make, there just aren’t enough cars on the RWD alpha that GM spent over 10 years trying to fine tune to increase the profit margins. On the other hand you have ford doing nothing but using the Toyota way of making nothing but making appliances (yes mainstream FWD cars are appliances) in order to make money, of course they’re more efficient, all they sell are FWD cars with mainly I4s under the hood, the only exception being the trucks and the mustang that doesn’t even sell that many units. Look at Mazda, they’re one of the quickest most efficient car companies around, ever wonder why? Because they’re a small company that only sells a handfull of cars.
One Ford…!!
Great strategy that is producing higher Margins and more Profits on less volume than GM…!
FWD is used by Ford Toyota Honda Nissan VW Fiat GM and many others because it is a more efficient layout than RWD… So what!!!!
Plus Ford has world class I3 I4 and V6 EcoBoost engines that are leaving GM in the dust… That’s why GM just said they would use more diesels… Can’t match Fords leadership with EcoBoost and the 100s of patents that protect it.
Can’t wait to drive the Hot new 375 ft lb torque 2.7 EcoBoost V6 that beat Chevys 5.3 V8 towing 7000 lbs…!!!
100s of patents for an engine that gets worse fuel economy? That’s a cool story.
“FWD is used by Ford Toyota Honda Nissan VW Fiat GM and many others because it is a more efficient layout than RWD” All of the above companies use FWD because they all make mainstream cars. Plus VW passenger cars does not speak for the entire collection of brands in the VW Group portfolio which includes companies like Audi, Bentley, and Porsche, two of which are currently using RWD based chassis, and the last, Audi, will soon use one developed by Porsche.
As for Ford, Honda, and Nissan, those are all mainstream automakers, who don’t compete with Mercedes and BMW (the two most important companies in the luxury segment Cadillac is currently trying to compete with.
Going back to the topic of profit margins, 11% is pathetic compared to Porsche’s 40% and Audi’s 29%, also in case you haven’t noticed, this topic is about Cadillac and luxury automobiles, not mainstream car companies.
Here is the fact about the luxury segment as it is the most profitable of any automobile. This is why Benz, Audi and BWM can sell less cars and make more money. That is also why it is important for Cadillac and Lincoln to do well for GM ands Ford.
The real issue here is not to over sell the segment as the limitedness has a lot to do with image How many people have seen town cars parked outside trailer park rec halls. Does a lot for the image does it not?
Now before you go blowing the horn on Mazda you also need to factor in that they are selling cars and making money but also they are using nearly all their profits up in product development as it cost a lot of money to develop new engines, platforms and transmissions. The fact is since Ford sold their share in Mazda they are looking for a partner or buyer as they can not afford to keep doing it alone. This is why the Miata was worked up with an Alfa.
In the future a company needs to be larger and I mean very large and or have a dance partner for development cost to be shared with. Note Ford is not working with GM on transmissions because they want to it is because they have to save money. GM likes it as they would build the tranny anyways and this way they can share the cost.
One big factor right now is most of the other players in this segment all have new cars that just hit the market. Also the economy is not as strong as some would like you to believe.
Factor in too that Cadillac is just now rebuilding it’s image and has mucked up the marketing for the last two years and traded managers like bush league players.
Also that the in fighting I mentioned about pricing is a factor in getting people to consider the cars. GM needs to drop this policy and get people in the cars and keep them happy to grow the division. This is not just a build it and they will come deal as we already have seen that play out on the XLR.
I know everyone has their two cents here but this is a more complex issue than many even understand.
As for Lincoln there are two factions there that one wants to save them and one that wants to kill them. Lincoln needs a lot of investment but if done properly they can provide a good profit margin for the company. But if left as they are now just fancy Fords they will fail in the long run.
As it is now Cadillac still needs at least 5 years of good product and Lincoln needs 10 years of better product.
I do believe GM needs Cadillac not to just bench mark the others but surpass them in all areas. Right now they have a better suspension and nearly equal interior. The engines need to be more Cadillac and have less NHV about them. GM needs to invest in these corporate engines to the point they will meet Cadillac’s needs fully not just enough.
Also like the TT3.6 do not share them with the rest of GM. Make their own version and keep it in house.
Agree with most of ur analysis
Problem for Caddy is they are just another “me too” like BMW and MB… So why but Caddy when u can get the original… Hence Caddy’s are piling up on dealer lots… Over priced too…!!!
Lincoln is NOT trying to be “me too” BMW and MB like everyone else…
They want the Niche between great driving n handling Plus “surprising” luxury and they have that in the First Lincoln designed car the MKC..! And it’s Not just a warmed over Ford Escape… It’s wider lower. Different footprint rear hatch interior unique 2.3 I4 EcoBoost engine n very upscale interior…. Read the reviews… It is “Surpisingly Luxurious!” Competitive price too…!
“the Niche between great driving n handling Plus “surprising” luxury”
God why do I even bother reading through the comments? Greg, when will you realize that luxury isn’t a bargain, if it was, the most popular car amongst affluent doctors would be the Hyundai Genesis sedan, not a Mercedes Benz C-class, e-class, or even BMW 3 and 5. When someone buys luxury, they want something not everybody can afford.
Although Cadillac is not revered by the general public, Cadillac is setting the benchmark with the CTS and ATS on luxury, chassis engineering and styling. The only things Cadillac needs to fix is marketing and certain interior dimensions, they would be better than great.
Cadillac will eventually be seen as a brand that makes vehicles that are just as good as the Germans, however, that will take some time. Right now, Cadillac’s lineup is still in beta, and they’ve done well for betas, future generations are where we will be seeing more fine tuning like a quieter 2.0l turbo, and more interior space. It says a lot about a car company when the head of Mercedes says that they are closely watching Cadillac.