Global sales of Cadillac vehicles totaled 22,799 units in August 2015, a 5.9 percent decrease on a year-over-year basis. However, sales of General Motors’ prestige luxury brand are up 1.3 percent to 174,389 vehicles for the first eight months of 2015.
“We remain disciplined in our strategy to build the brand long-term,” said Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen. “Led by our increasing product excellence, we’re following our plan of strengthening the core business and elevating the brand. In the last few weeks we have begun shipping the acclaimed new V-Series cars, to customers eagerly awaiting these high performance cars from Cadillac.”
August 2015 global sales notes by model (vs. August 2014, unless otherwise noted):
- ATS was up 13.4 percent to 5,107 units
- CTS was down 31.7 percent to 1,989 units
- ELR was down 77.7 percent to 46 units
- SRX was up 30.2 percent to 9,046 units
- XTS was down 45.2 percent to 3,158 units
- Escalade was down 11.3 percent to 3,453 units
Cadillac notes that the ATS and CTS product lines “are benefitting from demand for their high-end derivatives, resulting in increased transaction prices year to date of $1,800 and $2,200, respectively.”
Sales Numbers - Cadillac - August 2015 - Global - By Product Line
| Model | August 2015 / August 2014 | August 2015 | August 2014 | YTD 2015 / YTD 2014 | YTD 2015 | YTD 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | +5.9 | 22,799 | 24,224 | +1.3% | 174,389 | 172,121 |
| ATS | +13.4% | 5,107 | 4,505 | +25.0% | 37,794 | 30,231 |
| CTS | -31.7% | 1,989 | 2,912 | -34.9% | 14,972 | 22,985 |
| ELR | -77.7% | 46 | 206 | -9.2% | 728 | 802 |
| SRX | +30.2% | 9,046 | 6,949 | +4.0% | 63,734 | 61,289 |
| XTS | -45.2% | 3,158 | 5,758 | -17.1% | 30,821 | 37,187 |
| Escalade | -11.3% | 3,453 | 3,892 | +34.1% | 26,296 | 19,608 |
| Others | -100.0% | 0 | 2 | +131.6% | 44 | 19 |
Further reading:
- 2016 Cadillac model guide
- Cadillac August 2015 sales figures on a market basis.
Comments
The good ‘ol SRX is holding things together at Cadillac . Lets hope the XT5 isn’t so over-priced that it scares away the folks that might want to trade for the newer model . I know its said that it will be full of techno gadgets and can expect a higher price for the model , but if Cadillac follows what they did with the CTS sales will suffer .
Sales of the Escalade for the month is a bit worrisome with gas prices a dollar cheaper than this time last year . Something to watch for sure . Thats a money maker for the division .
However sales are inline with Johans stratedgy , less sales but higher transaction prices .
Another thing to keep an eye on is sales in China where it was expected to be Cadillacs golden goose for the CT6 .
Sales volume isn’t the end all be all. Profit is. The. XT5 will do both, but it will still be outclassed by the Germans in ride and handling.
The only reason the SRX is selling well is incentives, and good lease deals. If the car was more competitive (better), it would actually be selling more.
Just doing the math –
At what point does higher ATP give way to fewer sales?
Sometime, no matter how healthy the ATP is, if you’re not selling enough, the ATP/sales lines will bisect (in a bad way).
And CTS should go fleet. Otherwise, just give them away, cuz nobody’s buying.
What a nice short-term view of building a brand you have. Good for you! Yay!
Well, it seemed like a legitimate question:
How many high mark-up cars do you need to sell for the ATP vs volume equation to be effective?
Personally, I wrestle with justifying a $12b investment in what’s increasingly becoming a niche brand.
I get that it’s a long-term proposition. And I want to see it succeed. But the financial disclosure is pretty opaque.
So, say Cadillac is a storied brand.
Then, mishandled. And now, they’re digging their way out. If it were a stand-alone brand, would I invest in it? Probably not, unless I had more transparency that convinced me otherwise.
All we have now is faith in vision and management.
Anyway, I’m pulling for them. I don’t think the CTS is a dog – but if it’s not resonating w audiences young and old(er), it doesn’t seem viable.
Maybe you have more info than the rest of us do.
Cadillac’s TV commercials and print ads are boring.. as they should be pushing a strategy that Cadillac is luxury with an attitude by showing how the Cadillac cars built now are not the sofas on wheels that most people think of and how the Cadillac of today can compete with the best in the world.
Still waiting on the side line for a crazy discounted xts or maybe cts 🙂
The sales figures are concerning enough however I am more concerned that here will be a new product drought for 2 years after the CT5 debuts.
Without new products to build excitement for the brand I expect sales to slip even further.
It’s CT6 and XT5 that are coming out. But that’s not the point. Buick has shown that you can sell vehicles and post YOY increases in sales without fancy new product.
When you already have good-great product, the name of the game is operating a viable, competent, and capable dealer network and knowing how to properly run sales operations. Cadillac needs to get its hands on conquest customer info and make dealers hungry for it, making them want to sell a Cadillac to an owner of a rival brand. Do ride and drives and collect potential customer info. Buy the info from intelligence firms and give it to dealers. Things like that.
Sorry I humbly disagree. Great products will tend to sell themselves without ridiculous amounts of advertising and marketing. Very few current Cadillacs are viewed by the public as “great”.
In most auto/consumer magazines, Cadillacs generally do not finish in 1st place in comparison tests. Additionally you have periodicals like CR reporting customer’s experience with the brand, and being frank, these results are not flattering. Only one vehicle is recommended, the CTS and the balance of the line up either has poor reliability ratings or low test ratings.
Start building cars that are “great”, not good, and not almost as good(drives me right up the wall to hear this over and over about current Cadillacs). When the public views the cars justify the price they will sell .
That only seems like a half measure. Getting new (well executed ) products has historically been the most effective way to build sales and brand equity.
Cadillac has to many holes to fill in it’s line up to solely rely on 3 and 5 series conquests.
I think getting a sub-ATS sedan and coupe plus a smaller than CT5 crossover should be the most important things on the Cadillac agenda.
Volume is not the major concern. Profits are and right now Cadillac is very profitable.
Much like the Denali for GMC it is sold In smaller volumes compared to the Chevy and it make so much more money with the added content. What many forget is the cost of designing and building a car like Cadillac is not all that much more than a Chevy but the added content does let you ask a much higher asking price and adds much more profit.
The Cadillac has done well in reviews. We went decades with not even being a car considered to a cat that often finished well in the reviews. Most often where they lose is in the old Cue system or interior subjective categories. Even so they still receive praise and often a second place out of three or four.
CR for the most point is not always consistent and people in this class do not read CR for car buying as if they did they would never buy a BMW.
Just recently in the Lightning Lap for Car and Driver three V series cars just got major praise in soundly beating the new BMW 4M in lap times and handling. Their quote is that it felt like it was developed buy a race team at Lemans and that it did what no BMW never has done a sub 3 min lap. Benz came close but was just off the time in an AMG. Might note the Z06 beat the McLaren and Lambo and 911 Soundly. It had the second fasted lap ever to the 918 time.
What we need to do is step back and look at what we have going here. We have a competitive car that really had little marketing. It had some mistakes made in quality of materials and did well against the competition even with engines from a truck.
Now move to today these cars will receive a many changes over the next couple years addressing any short coming by a staff that is not the old culture GM people. This will fix many of the smaller issues and only improve on what they have only gotten right. We will get more marketing as time goes on.
GM stated going into this Cadillac is no longer the mass volume car it once was. They are not expecting to or wanting to sell a Cadillac to just everyone. What they want are people of means to own them and if you own one it means you have a good income. This builds status and profits.
With the improvements and the new Cue and the revamp of the CT4-5 along with true Cadillac engines this will add more value to the cars.
GM has for too long benchmarked these other cars but today those in charge are set to be the benchmark not just match it.
All we need to worry about right now is that they are making as much or more money on less cars and that with the improvements the rest will come. But we will never return to the days of the mass marketed rebodied Caprice based Fleetwood’s.
Cadillac is a work in progress that is helping support it’s self not a hail mary.
I will be more succinct. I’ve got subscriptions to about every auto enthusiast magazine there is. The only comparison test where a Cadillac won was recently in MT with the Escalade. To offset this, CR was less than impressed with the new Escalade. There have been numerous tests of the new ATSV and guess what?–no first places.
Besides what the ATS V and CTS V do is irrelevant. Those two models represent miniscule sales in the grand scheme. The regular CTS and ATS need to be “great”, once again not second rate, because if they are(and currently not really sure they are even second). If they are second or third rate they need to be priced accordingly. That is the real issue here! Sales are reflective of the public’s worth of the product. What the public is saying loud and clear right now is Cadillacs are NOT WORTH THE PRICE BEING ASKED!
Martin, have you considered the possibilities that:
1. Very few know about Cadillac products (or their competitiveness)
2. Very few associate the Cadillac brand as being on the same level as that of the German 3?
There is so much more going on here than just pricing. And if you want to talk about pricing, then you should also present the fact that the ATS and CTS offer more for less vs. the same-class offerings from the German 3: more standard technology, more standard safety, and more standard power… to name a few. They’re not perfect (yet), but they are a better value overall than the German 3 on a class-by-class basis.
All that’s to say that there’s significantly more going on here than just pricing-related issues.
Martin you had better reread the stories on the cars as Generally the ATS and CTS have consistently finished well in all the test.
Generally they finish 2nd and if they finish 3rd it is with good reviews and mostly subjective criticism of Cue and some interior bits. The V6 will get some Noise and Vibrations comments too.
Just look at the latest Motor Trend where the V placed second to the Benz on some subjective issues and the M4 was left to third place.
The latest Lightning lap the Cadillacs all three got high praise and the lowest lap time of any 4 door they ever tested. The Handling dynamics were considered great. Yes this was praise for the ATS V coupe, Sedan and CTSV.
What the V series car do matter as they will help sell more of their brethren. Especially the V sports. These are image builders of cars in a very image conscience market segment. BMW did not build their image on quality as their cars have always had some quality issues but they did build in on the back of the Ultimate driving machine and the M series cars.
I do agree they need to continue to improve the cars as they do have things that need fixed. Some areas they have surpassed the competition and others they have not.
But to discount the cars would only continue to damage their image. Second in a couple years you will have to raise the price again, and finally the cars are making GM money even at these lower volumes and at this price unlike the other cars they may have sold more of and were not making money.
As for the value of the price. Well these cars even undiscounted are cheaper than the others in class now. What do you want the CTS at Impala Prices? You can not be that thick?
The problem here is you have to train customers on price and stand your ground as you continue to invest and refine the product. The new guys that just came in last year will not be able to show us much till at the earliest 2017 but even then the XT5 was already locked in as it is.
Like rebates in the truck market you train people on prices and they will back away if they expect continued discounts. As long as GM is making money which they are and as long as they continue to invest to fix the issues on the Cadillac’s I have no issue with the cars they have priced under the BMW and Benz. As many of the reviews state these cars while not perfect are getting closer and have earned a place in with the others. That would not have been said even 10 years ago.
For the most part many people today have no clue of the Cadillac’s and just what they can do. Others have more expectations as they want real Cadillac engines that are coming and no a Malibu 3.6 in their car.
No one said rebuilding was going to be cheap or easy. We finally have people in place that have stood up to the old culture of just good enough and are now investing to fix the nagging issues. Discounts would only add one more issue to their list of things to fix and if they are making money it is better to ride out the storm.
Even if Cadillac builds the undisputed class leaders it will still take time to change minds in the publics eye that these cars are worth every dollar. Images are not built overnight and discounting a car is not going to improve the image if anything it will continue to erode it.
I appreciate that you have a issue with the price but you need to take in the whole big picture here not cherry pick you personal individual gripes.
The last thing you want to do is for your customers to drive up to the club in a CTS V Sport and have him say I got a hell of a buy on this. What kind of image is that? Now if they were losing money on these cars I could see your point but they are not. The next couple years will be bumpy but they will ride them out and the cars will finally get the details they lack.
Now if you were speaking about Lincoln now you would have a legitimate argument on discounts or lower prices. They are not even in the room at this point.
Note too Cadillac may never out sell Benz and BMW but that is ok as this is about net profits and that is what they are targeting. Even at these numbers they bring in nearly 50% of all sedan sales money. That is why you do not play the discount game. We are not selling Chevys.
Scott,
You better reread my post. It clearly states the Cadillacs do not finish FIRST, never said anything about competitive. As long as Cadillac is satisfied with 2nd and 3rd place they will continue to muddle along in mediocrity.
Chris and Scott
Let’s quit continuing to say competitive or just about as good as, because 2nd place is 1st loser. We all know the current crop of Cadillacs are not great.
Price/sales is public’s judgment on the worth of the vehicle. Please do not forget there is a “wow” factor that can be worth a ton of money. Frankly the Cadillacs suffer in this category the most. They all look the same and in the car area most folks see small, medium, and large. The revised Escalade in some respects was also a disappointment. It was nothing more than a mild refresh with some improvement on the quality of interior appointments. Sadly, until an IRS is added, the 3rd seat is relegated to kids and unusable for adults.
Scott, right now a lot of people seem to think the Impala is a “better value” than the Cadillacs. If I remember correctly, the Impala outsells all the Cadillac cars and as contrasted to the Cadillacs, the Impala has finished 1st in most of the comparison tests. I believe CR also rates it as one of the highest rated vehicles ever tested, and it is highly recommended by them.
Interestingly enough, even with all the $ to be spent on Cadillac in the coming years–the $12B is just the tip of the iceberg–dealer buyouts and lawsuit settlements will result in additional expenditures. The basic business question has to be, will the ROI ever be there? Need to sell a lot of vehicles with fantastic profit levels to give an annualized return of 15-25% on that type of investment.
Another side note, even with the Cadillac engines, Cadillac design, NY input and cost, the future Cadillacs will still probably be coming off the same production lines as Chevys and Buicks, and GMCs. With the multitude of vehicles and the super low sales volumes, dedicated plants are out of the question unless you converted a corner gas station!
On a final note, my current $55K–super loaded 2014 ATS Premium is without a doubt the most problematic vehicle I’ve owned. I would love to calculate the number of returns to the dealership for warranty work and recalls. Great vehicle–no, good vehicle–no and sliding toward a big mistake category. This is a car with meticulous care, no hard driving and only 22K miles. DIC total replacement, right blind side alert electric replacement, steering knuckles pending replacement……..currently rides like a dump truck.
On another note, I had the opportunity to respond to a Cadillac email recently and the response on their end was hilarious. Received an email back indicating not all my message was received, however I was free to contact them via phone, which I did. As a starter there were no options beyond, buy a car, check order, CUE issues… Johan needs to take a long hard look at the back office support staff before crucifying the dealers!
The ship needs to be righted now and not within 10 years. In each successive year there is a new batch of consumers who will not even consider a Cadillac because of the many issues.
Martin till you get the big picture you will never understand what is going on.
If you think you could fix Cadillac any faster then you may want to send Johann note on how to do it.
I agree things many things still need fixed but what you miss is the real time and the amount of money . Time and effort it takes to change things.
Add to this the internal old culture issues that have had to be delt with.
You really need to consider the real life factor not just the web issues at hand.