There is a lot of buzz surrounding the forthcoming 2016 CT6 sedan from Cadillac, and how it will reportedly carve a new path for America’s premier luxury car manufacturer. Just don’t expect it to use anything outside of the marque’s current design language, says Auto News.
Despite all the hubbub about the CT6 being poised to give the likes of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and BMW 7 series an honest run for their money, General Motors Vice President of Global Design Ed Welburn will maintain the themes seen today on the marque’s current vehicles. This likely means a sedan with similar bold, angular lines and vertically-stacked headlamps and taillights as we’ve seen from Cadillac’s most recent entries like the ATS and CTS.
“It’ll be different and it will certainly stand out in the portfolio, but you won’t see a real shift in direction”, said Welburn. This flies in the face of rumors that the CT6 would borrow heavily from the smooth, voluptuous form of the Cadillac Elmiraj concept, introduced at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 2013.
Conversely, some changes that we can expect are the introduction of “the world’s most advanced body structure,” according to GM’s chief of product development Mark Reuss. In addition, the Cadillac CT6 sedan will kick off a complete rethinking of the brand’s model nomenclature, lending some hierarchy to the Cadillac lineup.
The Cadillac CT6 sedan is expected to make its debut this coming spring and is projected to go on sale starting in late-2015 or early-2016.
Comments
Uhm… So, will it be a CTS XL?
Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of. I hope it’s not true. This Caddy needs to set the bar in terms of design. With the Elmiraj they can do just that! That concept’s design is practically production-ready! And since Cadillac is sticking to their guns with the CUE system (which needs to be replaced with a newer, more powerful interface) I hope they invest in truly revolutionizing it: provide stronger processing and seriously refine the touch controls!
If Cadillac can deliver these things along with its already world class performance, the CT6 will most certainly garner the admiration and respect from the level of customers Cadillac is attempting to persuade!!!
Exactly!
I agree with you 1000%.
Why are you afraid of an adaption of the already-beautiful styling of the CTS to the CT6? After all, that’s exactly what the other lixury makes are doing, from BMW, Benz, and Audi to Lexus. Their flagship sedans are larger interpersonal of the brands’ existing design languages. And it will look good in a bigger package. Really good.
As for CUE: the only thing that needs to be changed is the addition of some high quality knobs and dials. Everything else is fine with the system, perhaps with the exception of map zooming/pinching motions.
Maybe because it’s Cadilllac. The Elmiraj is pure Cadillac…
And this is also a chance to make something different from the others… Why follow when you are Cadillac?!
I’m quite sure the CT6 will be a very handsome automobile, but since it’s a Cadillac, I guess many of us expect an extravagant, iconic, impressive car.
It will be all those things. But it seems that you want it to be so unique to the point of being polarizing.
Also, the idea of a brand design language is highly important today. Look at the 3 German luxury brands and to Lexus for examples. The entire lineup needs to have a similar appearance. Without that, they’re just disparate models under one brand. They need to be unified and the Elmiraj wouldn’t really accomplish that.
So will the CTS become a CT5?
The CTS is a beautiful car. The CT6 will have certain styling cues from the Elmiraj mixed with the CTS. It should be an excellent looking package with road presence.
Right now it is too early to read into any of the PR stuff. You have to take everything you read a grain of salt and don’t over expect.
There has been a lot of inside fighting at Cadillac over the direction they will take. This is why everything has been so helter skelter.
They have finally just gotten focus and control to where they are going to let Cadillac commit to being a autonomous company and stand more on their own than they have for over 75 years.
This has changed the CT6 from being a flagship to more of a stepping stone to the future.
Instead of posting here wringing our hands saying oh my just a bigger CTS we need to look at all the facts and actions of the big picture and realize that yes this was all the better it was going to get but now this is only a step to the future that holds much more promise than we had a year ago.
We once had only about 5 years to where Cadillac was going and now we are back to 10 years but the good news is they have set their ambitions so much higher it will be worth the time and effort. That is as long as GM keeps with the program and funds it properly and not stop and changes their minds half way.
I think we all should be happy GM has stated publicly that the CT6 is not longer good enough to be the kind of car company they want to be. It will b a good car but they want better. Who ever thought they would see that out of GM or Cadillac 5years ago?
I read the story of some US Cars brands that disappeared as Duesenberg or Packard; and has always been me who thinks the same.
The investor or shareholder or partner of the car company has neither patience nor know much about how you have to take a car company.
GM has struggled for that, for each partner of the company and shareholder has a different interest in the company, and if there is a team to go all at the same place, it does not work
In Europe the companies if they know how they have to do things and the time needed for it are taken, why they work, and the USA not, I hope that GM let Cadillac its place it deserves and not afraid to make a few supercars that well know them and do not worry so much sell the next day or so but withdraw sponsorship or to turn things around.
Cadillac is a brand of wonderful cars, enable work to engineers and they manufacture the best cars that can do; sales are going to arrive, do not be concerned.
PS: also the genius of Nicola Tesla was destroyed by a businessman who knew nothing about electricity and hard work and wanted immediate success; not getting that immediate success, Tesla ran out of money and talent was forgotten.
Regards from Spain
Duesenberg was killed by the depression and Packard cut cost as the went into a death spiral after WW II. They lost their way and they lost their income.
It is true that car companies make cars to make money for share holders and profits. The key for Cadillac today is that luxury cars are as great or can be greater profits per unit than any other model out there right now. This outside trucks is where all the money is being made today. This is why this is a good time to make a car like this. Lets just hope outside forces do not intervene.
As for Tesla the man. He has some good ideas but like most inventers most of his ideas also failed. He did broke mostly because he mislead many people and he was a very poor business man. The reason people like Edison and Westinghouse today are remembers are because they were smart Businessmen. Tesla made a fortune but plowed most of his money back into failed projects and then gave the few good projects away to others like Westinghouse that made the money.
Edison had as much or more failure but he knew how to protect his successes and how to market his inventions that did work.
Tesla the man was intriguing but he also was very flawed. His myth was created and still carries onto today. There are stories of his successes but many fail to read about the full story of his life and where he did fail. most of these inventers has low success rates but they also were workaholics that were constantly attacking problems and in the end the successes came from perseverance through the failure.
Tesla was a bright man when it came to projects but once he did find something he had little interest or idea what to do with them. As for failure they all failed often back then and if you did not fail you were not doing much work.