General Motors and Ford have taken vastly different approaches with their respective Cadillac and Lincoln brands, but they’re both working towards the same goal. Cadillac and Lincoln want to capitalize on the expanding global luxury vehicle market, but which Amerian luxury brand has the winning formula?
The Detroit Free Press recently compared Lincoln and Cadillac’s sales competition to a tortoise and the hare-type race, where Cadillac is the eager hare, and Lincoln is the slow-moving tortoise. Cadillac has made some huge moves as of late, like separating from the GM mother ship in Detroit and moving to new offices in NYC, planning to report its earnings separately and outlining plans to spend $3 billion on vehicles and powertrains before 2020. The brand also hopes to sell 500,000 units annually by 2020.
Meanwhile Lincoln has said it will add two additional products to its portfolio in addition to the four others it said it would release over the course of four years. It also has plans to use the Chinese market as a way to help boost sales to around 300,000 units by 2020, goals and decisions that are “low key”, The Free Press says, compared to Cadillac’s.
“It will take years either way to change the brands and both are in it for the long term,” said  Jessica Caldwell, senior analyst for Edmunds.com.
Cadillac’s move to New York City has been compared to Lincoln’s move to California in 2001. Ford called their luxury arm back to Dearborn rather quickly, and has instead given Lincoln its own design studio and staff to help further differentiate it from the Blue Oval. Cadillac president Johan de Nysschen doesn’t see the same happening to Cadillac, saying distance from GM is what the brand needs to truly change its business practices and culture.
Both Lincoln and Cadillac have plans to vastly expand their product portfolios, however Cadillac has their eye on more global markets than Lincoln. Cadillac will eventually offer right-hand drive models and diesels as it looks to enter European markets, but Lincoln only has the desire to increase its Chinese presence.
Cadillac is also introducing a number of halo and flagship models, like its upcoming full-size luxury sedan, the CT6, and the all-new V-Series performance lineup. Lincoln, meanwhile, has no interest in flagship models, with brand president Kumar Galhotra saying “it’s not about the flagship. It’s about the portfolio.” Galhotra is also uninterested in performance cars, unlike de Nysschen, who critiscized his former employer, Infiniti, over not producing a concept performance sedan and was recently quoted in saying “you can never have too much power.”
Luxury vehicle sales in the U.S. were up more than 7% in 2014 to about 1.7 million units, The Free Press says, accounting for 10.5% of the auto market. China’s demand for luxury vehicles is also rapidly expanding, but will it be Cadillac or Lincoln that ultimately capitalizes on the growth of both markets?
Comments
I do not understand. GM Cadillac. and Cadillac makes its machines. Lincoln let him be what he wants. I do not understand. Europe to come to the US from different manufacturers of cars and luxury cars.
GM still has to act for themselves and look to be the best and first.
Some things still seem to be a strange and funny gm of which I do not understand.
JEEP SRT 2013 facelift is europe super popular and super deal i like it much, super jeep. chrysler 300 srt8 is to nice and large class . But these were not the direct sales and disappeared completely off. Lancia, which is now also normal but people still are not very familiar with it. I can not quite understand what this car belongs to a class, because I think there is no such class. He is like a higher middle class and even a bit higher depending on the model.
In my opinion, Cadillac is years ahead of LIncoln. For the ‘luxury’ segment in China, Buick is considered a luxury car. I say let Buick have that market. Cadillac is trying to compete with the top European luxury cars. In this regard, I feel like Lincoln has given up trying to compete in this market and instead focused on being a competitor to Buick since that is Buick’s strategy. Also, Ford still trickles technology and innovation up to Lincoln whereas GM trickles it down from Cadillac (and the Corvette).
So it pretty much says Lincoln want to be Buick
The Detroit contest is now Buick verses Lincoln with Cadillac in its own orbit with BMW and Benz.
Even Buick has talked about either an Alpha halo or Omega flagship but Lincoln has basically fallen into Mercury space albeit with a larger price tag.
Ford will shutter Lincoln within five years opting to move upmarket like Hyundai and Kia are with a big brand portfolio. This plan worked for Nissan in Japan when they sold Infinity models under the Nissan Skyline line. The flip to Infinity branded in the domestic market was much more about global alignment than sales. Ford seems to be toying with this in Europe with the Vigole (so?) line, & we may end up with something similar here.
I am not sure what Lincoln really is anymore because they have no interest in flagships and performance. I say they need a new leader ASAP. The only Lincolns I like is the MKC and MKZ but I don’t like them enough to purchase them over the SRX and ATS.
I like the direction Cadillac is going and have no problem with them since they will be in a lot better position in several years compared to Lincoln.
cadillac is cadillac, buick is buick and lincoln is lincoln.Lincoln is not the GM. who cares what makes Lincoln. Lincoln is doing its job.
GM still has to look to ourselves to be the best. Everyone wants to do good, and the best machines and the luxury cars and GM as well as different brands. Dec. some of the things I do not understand the GM case. What is all the luxury brand. you people still know what products MB-Audi-BMW offers. Luxury brands are perhaps some of the Rolls Royce. benley
even though s mb AMG v222 is better quality, and equipment than rolls ahaaaa
cadillac CT6 may try to compete with the MB S class. Bmw 7 Series and audi8 definitely a competitor. But mb s class is different from the world. Car manufacturers can compete against each other different models. But talk of the luxury class, and so on is a mess. every car manufacturer could be a luxurious models. cheap, average and expensive brand may be able to tell. or to say that a high-quality brand. But today it is also a great variety of cars for all producers to the range.
Rolls-Roys can perhaps be said that it is an expensive luxury car brand. or Bentley.
Cadillac is 10 years ahead of Lincoln. Ford did not so much with Lincoln for a good while because they were close to closing them down till those who supported them showed how they could prove to be profitable an important in the future as this is the most profitable segment outside of trucks.
Lincolns real issue is what has hampered Cadillac the are stuck working with just what Ford has on the shelf. No special engines and in their case no RWD.
Cadillac has been green lighted to get their own engines and I expect while their cars will still have a GM origin they will be set apart even more. Until Lincoln gets the same treatment they will remain a future competitor of Buick and Acura.
This is not a Tortoise or Hare? I am not even sure how you can compare that. Ford has just set their sights low on where they are going as they have not fully committed to go big time yet. On the other hand GM has fully committed to go big and do what ever it takes to make this work.
I see it as a full on approach from GM and a half hearted approach from Ford that could still change to a full on approach if they can convince the right people internally.
Ford moved Lincoln to California as they were trying to become hip and trendy like Lexus but found where you live does not transmit to a Lincoln Town Car.
GM on the other hand can say all sort of things about NYC but the real truth is it is isolation from GM leadership. It removes them far enough that those who need to know what they are doing will and those who do not need to know will be kept out of the loop. The internal fighting on what Cadillac is or is not to be has been a problem. Just look at the argument over the door handles on the CT6. That should have never even been challenged.
For Cadillac to succeed they need to breaks some rules and rewrite and challenge some archaic GM policies and from NYC they will be better suited for that.
Note that much of the technical work will still be done a the tech center but the business decisions will all be done in NYC.
Just look at your own jobs and often things operate much smoother when you are left alone to do the best job you can and not have someone else trying to tell you how to do it that has no clue of what you are doing.
To be the Standard of the World you must be the standard that all other compare.
I don’t know about this guy, Nysschen, but I’m not convinced that he is right about anything.
Moving the Cadillac headquarters to New York, doesn’t make any sense at all.
Maybe people just don’t like the styling of the Cadillac as much as it’s been portrayed.
It used to be, that Cadillac got all of the cool stuff before the other GM brands, and then after a few years it would trickle down to the other brands. Not so much anymore, as the Japanese put the new cool stuff in all of their cars from the gitgo.
No matter what this guy wants… It always boils down to styling and quality. Great advertisement doesn’t hurt either. Time to find some right brain ad guys… Just like Buick has done. Beautiful styling, and great ads are driving Buick. Doesn’t seem like rocket science to me.
I think Cadillac has the winning formula because in fact Lincoln is falling down (competitively speaking, downgrading to Acura/Buick territory), even though I have rode in some Lincolns.
Lincoln has been chasing Cadillac for years . There was a comparison between the Escalade and Navigator . Had I been a Lincoln engineer I would have been embarresed . The Navigator looked like something from the 90’s . Plus lincoln has been taking products from Ford and rebadging those withe a different skin hoping consumers wouldn’t notice . Trying to compare the two divisions isn’t a fair comparison. Each division has a completely different strategy . Lincolns new crossover ( MKC ? ) , may be stealing sales from Cadillac right now , but the SRX still ( with a 5 yr. old model ) is still selling better . Just wait till the XT shows up . And when is GM going to start to give us a sneak peak of it ?