Community Question: Is The 2016 Cadillac CT6 Price Right?
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Yesterday, during the hoopla that is the 2015 SEMA Show, General Motors’ Cadillac division dished out official pricing details on the 2016 CT6, slated to hit dealers in March of 2016.
Frankly, we were shocked to see Cadillac undercut its German rivals, and the 2016 CT6 may end up being the deal of the century. The 2016 Cadillac CT6 was announced to start at $54,490, including a $995 destination fee. Ticking each option box for a 2016 CT6 Platinum was revealed ring in at $84,460.
Comparing that to the likes of its German rivals, which begin to start where the CT6 tops out, the car looks to be a real bargain. Though, it remains to be seen how well-equipped a base 2016 Cadillac CT6 is at the $54,490 price point. We do know, however, it will be front-wheel drive and arrive with the 2.0-liter turbocharged LTG four-cylinder engine.
In the middle are the V6 options. The 3.6-liter LGX V6 with all-wheel drive tallies in at $56,490, while stepping into the 3.0-liter twin-turbo LGW V6 with all-wheel drive commands $65,390.
Again, we won’t have a clearer picture of the value proposition until we see where features will be allocated for each respective price point, but Cadillac may have made quite the strategic price move here.
So, we turn it to you. Has Cadillac priced the 2016 CT6 right? Or, has it undersold what this car is meant to be? After all, Cadillac CMO, Uwe Ellinghaus, has said the brand needs to begin selling aspirations and dreams.
Vote in our poll below, and sound off in the comment section should you feel so compelled.
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Cadillac’s CT6 will most likely replace their XTS and while $54.4K isn’t significantly more expensive than the XTS’ base price of $47K; it may have been nice if Cadillac had kept the base entry price below $50K (even at $49.4K). Doing the math, Cadillac’s base CT6 with it’s 265hp turbo 2.0L 4-cyl engine should have very similar performance characteristics to the Lexus LS 460; but may need the 464hp LF4 to outperform the 2016 BMW 750i.
I honestly hope Sean doesn’t get paid from this website for his contributions. That was an elementary error if I’ve ever seen one to suggest that this vehicle is FWD. The folks that aren’t true car enthusiasts will take that and run with it.
#FixItJesus
There are many reactions here regarding the 4-cylinder base engine. However, Cadillac aims to sell the car internationally, with local specifics which are different than in the US. In Europe for example, a lot of countries tax cars based on the C02 levels in the exhaust.
As an example, I live in Belgium and drive a 2014 CTS. I’m being taxed around 340 EUR (or 370 USD) per month (!) because of the CO2 level the car emits. My previous car was an STS with V-8 engine and taxation was more than double that amount. The more cylinders a car has, the more the CO2 levels climb. So the car companies move to ever smaller engines. BMW even offers 3-cylinder twin-turbo engines these days in most of the fleet cars they sell here.
As a result, Cadillac only imports the 4-cylinder turbo versions; we have no V-6 or CTS-V in the catalogue. The base engines in the big 7-series or S-class cars are also 4-cylinder petrol and diesel engines here. The 6-cylinders can be seen from time to time but are not common. The German V-8 and V-12 cars are very rare and were primarily conceived for sales in the US, as taxation makes them unpopular in most European countries like Belgium, France, Italy etc.
So from this international perspective, I think it’s logical that Cadillac also offers a 4-cylinder base engine in the CT6, as it will directly compete with the 4-cylinders in the S and the 7-series in some markets. In addition, to sell well in China they need to be able to state they have a world-wide presence. Europe especially has been a very weak market for Cadillac due to its unfitting engine offerings. JdN has consistently admitted this in a number of interviews.
In the US, people can easily chose the V-6 or the TT V-6, which are not that more expensive than the 4-cylinder. But as others have written here, a similar evolution will be seen in the US, albeit slower, with ever-stringent CAFE rules, which will equally force companies to move to fewer cylinders, smaller displacement engines, eventually assisted by en electromotor, or by multiple turbos… One may not like it, but this seems to be the evolution.
Thanks for posting this Mike, can you give us an idea of how much a SWB Mercedes S Class and SWB BMW 7 Series cost over there, if you know? Maybe it will give us an idea of how much those cars with 4 cylinders cost. Here in the US, we only have LWB Mercedes S550 V8 as default same as for the 7 Series in LWB with a 6 cylinder. I just want to see how competitive they are in price with 4 cylinders.
While it would be nice to see the CT6 a 300 horsepower 3.0L V6 being the base engine with displacement deactivation so it’ll function as a inline 3 or possibly a V4 since the CT6 is supposed to be Cadillac’s flagship model for now; but it’s understandable why Cadillac will not commit to a naturally aspirated 3.0L V6 because they’re planning on introducing a CT6 hybrid which will have the turbo 4-cyl plus an electric motor module that may give another 40-50hp for a combine 310-325hp and increase mileage to over 40mpg.
This would be a great time for De Nysschen to join us so we can hear his pricing rationale.
Autoline TV After Hours said it best in that Cadillac’s pricing approach is killing sales from what it was a couple of years ago because Cadillac should want market share and not trying to make huge profits per car; Cadillac can increase prices after it has established itself as being an alternative to the best of Germany, Cadillac CTS sales are off 41-percent for 2015 with just 1,319 cars in September while BMW sold 4,059 5-series. This means if Cadillac prices their CT6 too high, they may have difficulty selling high volume numbers just like the CTS.