Bauer Millett, one of the United Kingdom’s few American car importers and the only surviving Cadillac dealer in the country, closed its doors for good just two days before Christmas, Car Dealer Magazine reports.
Cadillac’s market presence outside of the United States is low, especially in right-hand drive markets like the United Kingdom. A proper European expansion is on the luxury automaker’s cards, but is still a long way out. Mitch Millett, managing director of Bauer Millett, said similar American dealerships to his are also having trouble surviving in the competitive British auto market.
“We have always been known for being a specialist car retailer and that’s become an increasingly more difficult market. Used cars are harder to buy and more challenging to sell,” said Millett. “There’s more and more people looking, the internet has made it easier for people to buy at auctions, it’s a lot easier for people to shop around from the comfort of their own home.”
Cadillac needs to make multiple changes to its portfolio in order to have the European entry it’s looking for. Smaller models, diesel engines and right-hand drive offerings represent some of the changes that will need to be made to enter the UK, in addition to a dealer network. Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen knows this, and has put off an official European Cadillac invasion until at least 2019.
“Europe is crucial to our success but we need to have the right product portfolio. If you want to win in Europe you need the right products,” de Nysschen told Britain’s Autocar magazine last year.
Comments
Sad news, they’ve been selling GM’s American cars for years I can remember as a kid looking through the showroom glass at the big American cars.
As expected. Nobody in Europe buys a Cadillac.
Cadillac’s are not competitive in Europe, and seeing the sales drop in the US, they are loosing their home market as well.
Only the Chinese seem to keep buying them, although the Germans outsell them there big time as well.
Such a shame. Cadillac needs to get into the game and stop offering empty promises of a Europe, and indeed UK launch. Set up all products for RHD as well as LHD, launch a range of Diesels and bring in some compact models. Take Europe and the UK seriously and they will take Cadillac seriously. Money is waiting to be spent here.
Cadillac will return to Europe but this time they will give them what they need not what they just have laying around.
They will offer the engines they like and the models they will appreciate with the wheel on the proper side.
Not having the steering wheel on the right hand side is a killer for a car in even the cheaper price range as it is a pain in the butt to drive.
Having driven RHD here in the states it is a novelty but it wears off fast if you have to live with it. Just take a Rolls with RHD through a bank drive through and see how much fun it is.
I’m a Brit expat who’s lived in the US for nearly 50 years. Believe you me, you couldn’t give me a Cadillac. They are overpriced junk. People in the UK will miss nothing with the closing of this dealership.
All Cadillac has to do is build a car like the British would build one. Make it rust out in a couple years, put an electrical system that works when it wants to, make the engine smoke and drop valve seats like rain then put it on three wheels on it and make it fall over on sharp turns. Then drop a Piano on it. Then it would appeal to the Brits.
That is what the Brits used to build when they used to have an auto industry.
The reality is Cadillac need to get their line up set here first and then tailor the product for Europe and the niche markets like England. RHD, Diesels and other things they want and expect need to be added. GM has failed to do this.
To be fair there are many over in Europe that like American cars but the problem is the ones we have sent are not always suited to the markets there. Making sure they have what they need will help usher in a new era. But the past moves like a rebodied Saab were ill advised.
Britain doesn’t have an auto industry? Have I missed something?
The lone Nissan factory in Sunderland built more vehicles (circa 550k) in 2013 than the entire Italian output combined!
In addition, manufacturers including GM, Jaguar-Land Rover, Ford, BMW (Mini, Rolls Royce, engines), Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen (Bentley), MG, Aston-Martin, Mclaren, Lotus, Morgan, … need I go on? … all build vehicles and/or engines or both in the UK. The majority of these players also have full design and engineering facilities in the UK.
The UK produced 1.6m vehicles during 2013 (2014 stats not yet available) placing it 14th in world ranking. By comparison, Canada @ 10th built 2.4m.
On the subject of Cadillac, when the last gen CTS and BLS (Saab 9-3 based) were available in RHD, there were only four dealerships nationally in a country that’s over 1,000 miles long. I actually considered buying a CTS as I personally felt it compared well with the BMW 5-series (which I eventually settled on). However, I was damned if I was going to drive a 250 mile round-trip every-time it needed a service or a fault fixing. If Cadillac is serious about Europe, it needs representation in every major city at the very least, ie. every 50 miles.
Britain has no real large Home Owned Auto industry anymore.
Bentley, Rolls and Mini are German owned and in part even built in Germany,
Jag and Land Rover are Indian.
Lotus = Malaysian
MG =Chinese
Vauxhall = German/American
Nissan, Toyota and Honda are Japanese.
Aston Martin is owned by a global investment group with small interest by Ford and Mercedes.
Everyone one has a design studio in England so that is nothing special as most large companies have them everywhere else too.
The only real home brands you have are the cottage industry of Morgan and McLaren.
They assemble cars in England but there really is no home owned and operated industry anymore. Much of what you claim can be claimed by so many other countries about the same companies including Mexico.
They do have an extensive race car building industry but that is about it.
Lets face it they do not even have the Robin Reliant anymore.
Three months ago we were told the new CT6 would be an S-class figher , since Nysschen backed away from that . Now its look to 2019 for the big change . That tells me he has given up on Cadillacs current line-up . The ATS and CTS are brand new and sales of them are down 17+% and 30+% respectively . So now what, Cadillac is going to bleed money till the 19 model year ?! They are going to spend so much money on future developement that I don’t think GM can handle . And when the next recession hits Caadillac will be in deep $hit . Already Chinas economy is slowing as well as Europe . And China is and will be the biggest market for Cadillac as a middle class shows up .
Well sales may be down but in the end I think you will find they are at the least breaking even or even making money as the transaction prices are way up and the percentages you give only represent a number of cars that are in the hundreds to just over a thousand. Keep in mind when you sell in low volumes percentages can be larger but still represent smaller volume numbers.
It was made clear from the start Cadillac was not going to ever be the high volume brand it once was. They still want to grow sales but it is never going to be like 1980 again.
The reason the CT6 was the S class fighter was because a year ago that was as good as it was going to get. Today GM and Cadillac has woke up and understands that this car and their other plans were good cars but not segment leading card.
Like I have said Cadillac has just been trying to compare to BMW and Benz and meet them. If they really want to be the standard of the world they really need to set the standard and be the company that the others measure themselves too.
You want to be the standard you make the ruler. You want to be compared to the standard you measure with their ruler.
This is what has changed. GM was not fully committed to do what it would take and today they are. There is a difference being all in or not.
The money her for Cadillac is a long term deal and there are going to be some tough times as they transform. No pain no gain as they say.
In the end and Cadillac does not move up they would remain just as Lincoln and not really worth the effort or have the space to work over Chevy or Buick.
The secret many miss here is the Luxury car segment is the most profitable segment there is outside trucks. You do not have to sell a ton of cars to recoup your investment. It takes not that much more to design and build a $80K car over a $30K car. But to do it you need to command price and that is where they are at today.
They will be alright as time goes on. The CTS V will help not only Cadillac but also put the focus on the regular CTS too that has gone MIA in marketing.
We really need to see Cadillac do some real marketing and get the word out on their products. You have to sell cars and not just sit back and wait for the people to do their home work. Most people buy cars and often don’t even drive them first. You need to sell them on the image and why you are better. Ford has done a hell of a job selling the new beer can F 150 as they have people thinking it is 700 pounds lighter than anything else when in truth it is only 81 pounds lighter than the Steel bodies Chevy. Ford did not lie they just tell it so people assume that it lighter than all and not just the old Ford. Chevy on the other hand has not said a word or marketed that they have been as good for a couple years now and not had to use more expensive materials to do it.
Again it will take time for the product to reach it’s new intended level and in the mean time GM needs to market the hell out of their products. For once they have something to brag about but yet they tell no one. We get a geek in a ATS and dancing robots?
Sorry but the truth hurts.
Britain is no longer a major influence in the auto industry outside what James Bond Drives and the few cars McLaren makes. they contribute is small ways but not much else as most of their work is for foreign makers and with foreign money,
You can count cottage industries like the wood framed Morgan’s that are all made in one room and the several Lotus 7 remakes. They are great at the small scales hand built stuff of tradition but not a major force in the full scale building of modern cars from scratch. Anyone can assemble them but to start from an idea?