Cadillac ATS Sales Sink 8.7 Percent To 974 Units In January 2017
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Cadillac ATS deliveries in the United States totaled 974 units in January 2017, a decrease of 8.7 percent compared to 1,067 units sold in January 2016. The result represents the ATS’ lowest sales volume month in history in the U.S.
Sales Numbers - Cadillac ATS - January 2017 - United States
| MODEL | JAN 17 / JAN 16 | JANUARY 17 | JANUARY 16 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ATS | -8.72% | 974 | 1,067 |
In Canada, ATS sales decreased 61.8 percent to 99 deliveries in January 2017. The result represents the ATS’ lowest sales volume month in history in Canada.
Sales Numbers - Cadillac ATS - January 2017 - Canada
| MODEL | JAN 17 / JAN 16 | JANUARY 17 | JANUARY 16 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ATS | -61.78% | 99 | 259 |
The GM Authority Take
Our knee-jerk reaction would be to attribute the ATS’ January 2017 sales decline to the ongoing crossover craze at the expense of sedans. However, a more thorough analysis reveals that this might not be the case, and that it is much more likely that the decrease in ATS sales is attributable to decreased sales to commercial fleets as well as the ATS being the oldest in its competitive set.
For starters, Cadillac confirmed that its cumulative January U.S. sales volume was down due to a reduction in sales to commercial fleet customers, as total Cadillac fleet sales decreased 19.5 percent to 2,221 units. Meanwhile, Cadillac retail sales grew 1.2 percent to 8,077 units.
Meanwhile, direct rivals to the ATS — including the BMW 3/4 Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, and Audi A4/A5 — all saw sales increase during the month. This brings us to conclude that the ATS’ January slump has little to do with being negatively impacted by the general market shift to crossover utility vehicles. Instead, we cumulative ATS sales volume is probably suffering as a result of very little model-specific marketing. Cadillac appears set on waiting to replace the ATS to begin marketing the segment. In addition, the ATS is the oldest in its competitive set and thus the least competitive. As such, the ATS’ replacement — likely to be called Cadillac CT3 — can’t some soon enough.
| Model | January 2017 Deliveries | January 2016 Deliveries | January 2017 / January 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercedes-Benz C-Class | 6,453 | 5,079 | +27.05% |
| BMW 3/4 Series | 5,976 | 5,119 | +16.74% |
| Audi A4/A5 | 2,041 | 1,840 | +10.92% |
| Lexus IS/RC | 1,870 | 2,933 | -36.24% |
| Cadillac ATS | 974 | 1,067 | -8.72% |
About The Numbers
- Mercedes-Benz C-Class sales figures include C-Class Sedan and C-Class Coupe
- BMW 3/4 Series sales figures include 3 Series Sedan, 3 Series Wagon, 3 Series GT, 4 Series Coupe, 4 Series Convertible and 4 Series Gran Coupe
- Cadillac ATS sales figures include ATS Sedan and ATS Coupe
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Reporting by Francisco (Frankie) Cruz. GM Authority Take analysis by Alex Luft.
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Are there numbers for Giulia and XE? It seems a bit disappointing that aTS sold less than a Regal
Alfa Romeo Giulia sold 70 units, but that’s heavily constrained:
http://fcauthority.com/2017/02/fca-fiat-chrysler-automobiles-sales-numbers-results-figures-january-2017-united-states/
Jaguar sold 693 XEs during January. Total Jaguar sales were 2,939 units.
I wouldn’t put compare sales volume of the ATS and the Regal too much… there is a substantial price gap between the two that would favor the Regal selling in higher volumes.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the Giulia. Its strictly a niche sedan. No matter what the Fiat president says, Alfa isn’t gonna be dominating the sales charts anytime soon in the US market.
Ps. Alfa barely managed 66 thousand + car worldwide last year.
The article does not mention what likely is a big part of the ATS’s poor sales performance relative to the competition: The ATS sedan is not competitive in a couple of major areas that have little to do with the car being the oldest in the competitive set. The ATS has a severely substandard rear seat including very crampt ingress and egress for one’s feet. The segment benchmark 3-Series is much roomier in this regard.
In addition, the ATS-V’s turbo V6 is a mediocre engine from a refinement standpoint. Cadillac would be wise to replace it with the LT1 V8 from the Corvette, which would transform this competitive disadvantage of the ATS-V into an advantage relative to the M3/M4 and rough parity to the C63, which has a turbo V8. Sporting purists will prefer the LT1 V8’s natural aspiration in combination with the manual transmission, a niche that soon will be empty due to the end of the SS sedan this year.
I’m afraid you’ve missed the point.
“The ATS sedan is not competitive in a couple of major areas that have little to do with the car being the oldest in the competitive set.”
It is specifically because the ATS is the oldest car in its class that it is less competitive. This is specifically indicative of the “room” argument you’re making. The ATS is smaller than the new competition because it was benchmarked against the last-gen 3er (E90)… a direct factor that it was developed a long time ago. Meanwhile, the ATS’ replacement will grow in length to account for this re-configuration in classes, which saw traditionally-compact vehicles like the 3 Series, C-Class, and A4 grow in length to accommodate new vehicles under them, specifically the CLA-Class and A3.
So yes, the biggest reason for the ATS’ shortcomings you mention are that it is the oldest vehicle in its class.
Hope they fix it soon and make it the class leader in every respect. It has too many short coming when compared to the competition.
About my CTS4…
i love my Cadillac as much as a person can love a car. What I don’t love is GMs desire to try and take more of my money by overpriced replacment components such as $200 remots?, yes I said $200 lets be honest the cost of owning this car is no love of mine.
The year of my car is 2011, coupe, AWD… thank you for its charms as well as its get up and go!
My Cadillac is going to be collected by enthusiasts some day and i hope to still have this one.
Currently the style change away from the sharp corners and the large ass of my car, the new ones look like poo…
yes i said poo…. you lost my intrest after the change you made GM..
The elr model would have made a great CTS class look…
Thanks for letting me rant!
What are your other options?
Lets see…..
other opinions…
My father is retired from GM as a motor technician. I have been in more GM cars as a child than you could shake a stick at!
I have tried my luck with all the major brand car makers, and by far It was the Lexus is 250 awd that I enjoyed from day one.
Comfort, classy and well built! Reliable as well as beautiful to look at.
I wanted the cts way before getting it!
I have no regrets… other than the cost of keeping her original.
The ATS and CTS are cars that were well executed when new . The fact is that when they came out with the second generation they were way over priced and that was the beginning of their downfall .
GM seems to have a habit of running vehicles for to many model years without significant changes . And that is not just a problem with Cadillac , it is happening with all divisions .
This is one time that when the ATS’s replacement appears that it will be given a new name is a good thing . However Cadillac needs to get serious about pricing the vehicle right and not make the same mistake as before thinking they could price it comparable to its rivals .
you are right. if you mean rivals, other cars in a comparable category, the ATS is way behind, as are the other CADs. They can’t compete at the same price point, which is what they are trying to do. The head of Cad, the name you can’t mention (as in Harry Potter) thinks by keeping price up, without the quality or other competitive items, such as interior colors, etc, that it will enhance the brand. If selling 20% as many vehicles as your competitors is the goal, your there, if you want to be 5% of the category, your there. If you expect to be player in the market, forget even a leader, no way with the current quality or product no matter how many different models are eventually made. And I try to buy American brands. currently – Escalade, ATS, 2 Veranos and a C7.
The fact that GM doesn’t constantly change their models is both a blessing and a curse. Its good because cars like the 2nd gen SRX were very simple for their class, and they sold in large numbers. Even cars like the traverse are selling OK for their age (and the competitiveness of the segment), there are a lot of people who have large families and cant afford something as expensive as the suburban, or they don’t want something as updated as the Explorer. Once the new traverse comes out, I’ll bet that the price also goes up at least $3K, as it did with the XT5.
On the flip side, cars like the ATS and the Silverado have to be updated frequently because they are in a very competitive segment.
Simple reason for (Yes, we have an ATS) problem with sales, poor ergonomics, design, quality and over priced.
I also have an ATS and see no issues with ergonomics or the price point. Both of those are more or less objective matters.
Design is rather subjective, and we can go back and forth on them all day long… but I see nothing on the design side that I would change.
Quality is a personal matter altogether. Outside of the recalls, I have only had one issue with the power steering rack… and the dealer replaced it with a new unit, thereby fixing the original issue, while giving me a loaner for the two days mine was in the shop. And if you’re taking about build quality, then it’s pretty good as well… everything is holding up well after the 24k miles I have on it… and i drive it really hard.
Overall, pretty satisfied with my 2015 ATS 2.0T Premium Sedan (6 speed manual, silver).
The thing the car doesn’t have going for it is that it is the oldest in its class and therefore the competitors have had time and money to surpass it in terms of room, features and refinement. It’s the typical leapfrogging that takes place across the industry. The CT3 should address most if not all of the issues with the ATS.
Cadillac’s ATS is 5 years old and it might be about time for a refreshing or a redesign.. as this is just another example of Cadillac President Johan de Nyyschen asleep at the wheel.
No offense (this is a great website, thanks), but why does “the GM Authority take” always make excuses for the weak sales of the ATS and CTS? First they claim the weak sales are a factor of SUV sales taking from sedan sales. Then they claim it must be that the cars are old and need refreshing. But the CTS is actually in its 3rd generation. And the ATS has never sold well – even when it was a new model, despite getting rave reviews from the professional auto press. At some point you have to look for a different explanation.
What “the GM Authority take” will apparently never suggest, is that people simply don’t see Cadillac as a maker of German-style “sports luxury” sedans, and if they want one of those, they’ll go for the German brand. Cadillac already has an established niche, and it’s not in cramped, harsh-riding “sports sedans”. That’s BMW territory, and the market knows this.
How does “the GM Authority take” reconcile the strong sales of the XTS with the weak sales of the ATS? The XTS is an “old design” by now also. But the XTS is more in keeping with how the public sees Cadillac. It’s also the type of car that you can’t get from the Germans. There’s nothing wrong with Cadillac being Cadillac, there’s a market for that. Pretending that Cadillac should keep trying to be BMW, while attempting to explain away the weak sales of the German-wannabe Cadillacs, is not realistic or helpful, IMO.
Oh Drew, you’re off the mark on so many levels, that I don’t even know where to begin. But I’ll try to clear up and inform you to the best of my personal abilities.
First and foremost: the GM Authority Take does not serve as an “excuse” (as you put it) for anything. Its purpose (in this article and countless others) is to provide context to the story. That is precisely what it does in this article.
Second: everything else in your post about the ATS and Cadillac is highly subjective/opinionated, and doesn’t take into account real-world business strategy or the automotive landscape at large.
1. You say that the ATS “has never sold well”. I find that highly subjective statement to have the worst of origins and sorely lacking in context. The ATS “hasn’t sold well” according to you. Though it perhaps hasn’t met your personal expectations of sales volume, that’s not really what matters, does it? The only two things that matter are: 1) whether the ATS is a profitable product program (yes, it is) and 2) whether it advances the Cadillac brand (yes, it does). Everything else is irrelevant poppycock.
2. The CTS is in its third generation, but occupies a completely different segment than its predecessors. It’s a CTS only in name, but nothing else, thereby making your point about it irrelevant.
3. According to you, people “simply don’t see Cadillac as a maker of German-style “sports luxury” sedans”.
Personally, I agree with you on this. The fact is that it is all about perception, which takes time and marketing to change. We have been over this so many times before, that I am starting to feel like a broken record in spelling this out for you on a regular basis… but I’ll go at it again for the sake of others: Cadillac is one of GM’s last remaining areas of hope for making more money and becoming more profitable, as it has considerable upside in the U.S. and globally. The targets are “Germany-style sport luxury” vehicles, as you put it since those are the ones that sell the most (in the U.S. and globally). That’s what Cadillac is doing. That is reality. That is GM’s strategy. That’s where we are.
The only thing that can be done now is to execute on that strategy. It won’t be easy, it won’t be cheap, and it won’t be quick. But in the end, it will all be worth it in terms of dollars and cents… and brand image and the value of the Cadillac brand.
You insist that performance luxury vehicles are “BMW’s territory, and the market knows this.” And to this I say, what a short-sighted perspective you have! Things change, and with enough time and money, anything can be changed, including market perceptions. From a revenue and profitability standpoint, this is one subset of the market that is definitely worth changing.
4. We all know you love the XTS. Good for you, keep on keeping on! But get this: the XTS segment is tiny compared to the others in the luxury sedan space. Sales volume of vehicles such as the XTS has been gradually declining, while popularity of vehicles in classes in which the ATS, CTS, and CT6 compete has been increasing.
The mantra that I’d advise you to look at is “live today and prepare for tomorrow”.
That is precisely what Cadillac is doing: the XTS has a loyal market base today. It is also the most affordable Cadillac from a features-price standpoint. It has a significant amount of value. It is also the one model that appeals to those who have purchased Cadillacs for the last 20-50 years. But its sales potential has peaked; going forward, sales volume is going to stay where it is now or decrease. Meanwhile, sales volumes of luxury compact, luxury midsize, and luxury full-size vehicles is significantly higher than that of the class in which the XTS competes… and will be that way going forward. And GM/Cadillac are very smart to chase the more profitable (higher margin) and bigger (higher volume) segments in the luxury category.
In all, I encourage you to look at the bigger picture here, one that has to do with business more so than cars: just because a brand isn’t as successful as it can be (like Cadillac and the ATS) doesn’t mean it can’t or won’t be successful in the future. There are countless examples of this in the automotive industry and beyond, and even a few examples in the luxury automotive space as well.
In Cadillac’s case, it is overcoming all kinds of obstacles to sell cars — including issues related to image, perception, and product. It is a brand in transition, the biggest transition in its history. Your continuing to hark on it during this time and making overarching conclusions can best be described as short-sighted.
Ultimately, I would equate your stance and reaction (about Cadillac and the GMA Take) as seeing the world through ATS and CTS-hating lenses… or perhaps through lenses of someone who dislikes cars with a RWD layout. Unfortunately for your subjective stance, the overwhelming majority of the world’s luxury vehicles are RWD.
Alex, thank you for the thorough and well-reasoned response to my post. However, we’ll just have to disagree regarding Cadillac’s long-term strategy to shift toward German-like “sports luxury” and away from traditional American luxury. You apparently think that this is the right strategy, even though it has not worked thus far. You feel it just needs more time, even though it’s in it’s 15th year now. Melody Lee says give it another 10 years, or at least says give herself another 10 years, to change the perception. If these were the right cars in the right market, they wouldn’t need 25 years.
As far as the ATS, I don’t know how you know that its been profitable for GM. You’ve mentioned that you formerly worked for GM, perhaps in that role you had access to the entire design, engineering, testing, tooling, advertising, production, interest costs on borrowed money, etc. and are aware of the sales revenue to GM (properly deducting rebates of course). I have not seen any of those figures, they are not available to the public. But virtually every article I’ve seen says that GM was disappointed in initial sales of the ATS, and those sales have declined every year since then. Do an internet search for “Cadillac’s problem child” and the name that comes up is ATS. That’s not my subjective opinion, that’s the widespread consensus.
Even if GM has made money in the ATS, considering “all in costs” (and I’m not convinced of this), GM’s job is to make a lot of money for shareholders, not just “some”. The price/earnings multiple on GM stock is currently 6.2, meaning a 16% annual profit on market capitalization. I doubt that the ATS is pulling its weight on that, thus that money could have been better invested in a different model, even if it is as you claim profitable.
I also believe that the ATS is hurting Cadillac’s reputation, not as badly as the Cimarron, but in a similar fashion. Again we can disagree on this. To my thinking, the cramped dimensions and harsh ride disqualify it as being a “real Cadillac”. I have no problem with “sporty” handling (even though I have no personal need for it), but not at the sacrifice of ride comfort. “Sporty” handling almost always does sacrifice ride comfort, and therefore it’s no longer a Cadillac. (See “the Cadillac ride”). As far as the ATS being cramped, it’s insane to offer a Cadillac with only 33.5″ of rear legroom. Even the properly-derided Cimarron had about an inch more than that. And the current Toyota Corolla, while roughly the same overall length as the ATS, has nearly 8″ more of rear legroom!
Now GM Authority did a column on the ATS rear legroom 2 years ago, and found that this was only an inch and a half less than the BMW, M-B, and Audi of the “same class”. But I’d say that if GM can’t offer a Cadillac with rear legroom worthy of the brand name, then they should offer that car under a different badge (perhaps creating “Corvette” as a separate brand). And why does Cadillac have to create a comparable product for every one that BMW has? That’s being a follower, not a leader. Let Cadillac create their own classes of cars, rather than letting the Germans establish the class, and then say “me too”. That’s never been Cadillac’s way, until this copy-cat move that started 15 years ago, and has gotten worse along the way.
Beyond the legroom problem of the ATS, there’s the harsh ride. While I know of no specific metric for ride quality, it’s something that people know when they feel it. And by all accounts, the ATS has a harsher ride than even the BMW 3 series. That’s insanity, when a brand that took decades to establish itself as the leader in semi-affordable luxury ride quality (I say semi-affordable because there’s always been Rolls Royce at 5x or so the Cadillac price), known fondly as “the Cadillac ride” actually makes a car with a harsher ride than the popular brand known for a harsh ride. Yes I guess that out-Germans the Germans, but not in a positive way. So anyone who takes a ride in an ATS now is going to think “wow, Cadillacs have a harsh ride”, thus killing one of the most important virtues of the Cadillac brand, in the minds of the public.
Now I don’t “love” the XTS, but it is Cadillac’s best sedan IMO, and the one that comes closest to representing true Cadillac values. I’d say that the CTS and ATS beat it on exterior appearance (although the XTS looks pretty good too, especially in person), but in driving dynamics the XTS wins. I liked the DTS even more than the XTS, even though the exterior style – once cool when it was introduced with the STS – was looking a bit dated by the end of its run. I’d have given the DTS a bit more headroom, but otherwise it’s as perfect a driving car as I’ve ever had, for my particular driving habits (commutes and long highway cruises). Sadly current Cadillac management seems embarrassed by the DTS legacy (despite strong sales and presumably large profits), because it’s not “cool enough” for the NASCAR-wannabe professional auto writers.
Now as far as RWD – you are correct that I prefer FWD. And yes it’s true that the professional auto writers have pushed RWD on the public, as somehow better, despite the higher production cost. (Some “status symbol” lovers even prefer the higher cost of RWD, because it shows everyone they have a lot of money to blow on something beyond necessity, apparently this show-off thing matters to some). I prefer FWD because it performs much better in snow and slippery conditions than RWD, and because legroom matters to me – and FWD yields more legroom. FWD also yields better gas milage, which doesn’t matter to me, but does matter to many.
Now Cadillac has not always been FWD, for many years it was RWD only until the 1967 Eldorado came along, and it did not become exclusively FWD until the late 1980’s or 1990’s. But remember, when Cadillac came out with the 1967 Eldorado, it was establishing and furthering itself as a leader, not a follower. Today every car that BMW makes is RWD. If you don’t care about driving in slippery conditions, and don’t care about maximum legroom, get a BMW. If Cadillac will offer FWD and plush, roomy rides, they’ll have that segment to themselves, at least vs. BMW. As far as the merits of RWD, polls show that most drivers don’t care about RWD even on dry pavement. It’s only the small segment of NASCAR-wannabes that care. But that small segment absolutely dominates the auto press, and they will deride anything not RWD. The public only hears the derision for those cars, without understanding that this is something most will not even notice (until they experience slippery conditions).
Bottom line, does Cadillac want to keep failing as a BMW-imitator with the ATS, or does it want to embrace its own successful history? Currently Cadillac does offer the XTS, but only grudgingly, and they don’t advertise it. What if Cadillac actually advertised plush-riding roomy cars as a positive, instead of being embarrassed by them? Well that would take real leadership, something that Cadillac has been missing for quite some time.
By the way, I’m pretty sure most people would consider the Audi A8 a serious luxury car, in every sense. And starting at over $80k each, it had better be luxury. The A8 is a front wheel drive design. I don’t see anyone claiming that that A8 is hurting the Audi brand, due to not being RWD.
The auto-writer claim “RWD is the only luxury” is a fad that is crumbling. Most luxury car buyers don’t care about RWD. Cadillac can fall into the “me too” trap of thinking RWD is essential, or they can think creatively and sell creatively, as they did with the 1967 Eldorado.
Steve Jobs is famous for creating products that no one else had, then selling them to the public – even though the public didn’t know they would want these products. He didn’t sit back and say “hmmm, what is selling well today, let’s copy that”. Cadillac needs to be more Steve Jobs, less “me too” Hyundai.
It’s ridiculous to think that the demand for comfortable-riding roomy cars that handle well in slippery conditions, will just die off as the current over-50 crowd ages and dies. Today’s 40-somethings will be 60-somethings in 20 years (if they don’t die off while losing traction in their RWD “sporty” cars before then). There will always be older people who no longer care about zooming around like maniacs, but do have older bones and joints that appreciate a nice comfortable ride.
Human beings have not suddenly evolved to stop the aging process. In fact demographic projections show that the trend toward an older population is continuing, due to advances in health care, nutrition, etc. And of course you don’t have to be an older person to appreciate a comfortable roomy ride. Cadillac simply needs to sell the benefits to this nearly wide-open market segment, rather than expecting the professional auto-writers to sell it for them (they never will). That’s the Steve Jobs approach, that’s what makes you the big $$$.
OR, Cadillac can continue this losing trend of “remaking” the brand in the image of BMW. Just give it another 10 years, says Melody Lee. I’ll take the Steve Jobs strategy over the Melody Lee strategy any day.
Cadillac has been “a brand in transition” ever since the Cimmaron launched in 1981 as a “new kind of Cadillac”. After all those years, and all those Allantes and STS and CTS and XLR models that were supposed to change Cadillac’s image, I think it’s fair to question the wisdom of what they are doing. They’ve never really been successful in building wannabe BMWs and they’ve now been trying for 35 years.
I think they’ve been given long enough to “transition” and perhaps it’s time to give up on their efforts to out-German the Germans. Perhaps it’s time instead to learn how to build a modern Cadillac.
Ci2Eye, very astute observation. Cadillac started trying to be something other than Cadillac when it came out with the Cimarron in the early 1980’s. That was an attempt to meet the smaller imports at their own game, and it flopped, big time, left a stain on the brand.
Another attempt for a “new kind of Cadillac” was the Catera, marketing as “The Cadillac that zigs”, complete with lame duck mascot that was meant to be evocative of the merlettes on the Cadillac symbol (now gone). The Catera was not only a car with German driving dynamics, it was engineered, designed, and built in Germany. And it too was a major belly-flop for Cadillac, leaving another big stain on the brand. It’s ironic that the Catera was the last straw for some, driving them to the German brands, when the Catera itself was a German car, a Cadillac in badge only.
So yes, 35 years of trying to get into the German-like car game, rather than purely making true Cadillacs. One difference now though is that Cadillac was adding a model or two to “compete with the Germans” or “change the brand image”, now they seem committed to dropping the last vestige of real Cadillacs, in pursuit of 100% German-like autos. It’s the Melody Lee approach, “just give us another 10 years” and a failing plan will eventually work. At least JDN has extended the life of the XTS, and he didn’t – like Uwe – say that the Escalade does not represent the future of the Cadillac brand. Maybe JDN will return Cadillac to being Cadillac, though he hasn’t exactly stated this in so many words.
I totally agree, it’s time to learn how to build a modern Cadillac. Not copies of 20th century Cadillacs, but embracing traditional Cadillac values of large, roomy, brash cutting edge styling, comfortable-riding, strongly-powered cars, with modern electronics. Time to be a leader again, not a follower. That’s where Cadillac can make the big money again, and be the brand of songs, as well as “The Cadillac of” cars again. After 35 years of failing to successfully enter the German-like market, Cadillac definitely shouldn’t be trying to go “all in” on that type of car, while ignoring their own strong traditional niche.
I bought my 2016 ATS4 Coupe in March of 2016. Sticker was $50980.00, I paid a bit over $42k with tax title, my supplier discount and cash back. My dealership also threw in for free the red engine cover, the winter mat package, trunk mat, the GM sport Brembo rotor and pad upgrade and an Xpel clear bra on the hood, front and mirrors. That’s an additional $2000 in accessories. It was like they couldn’t give me enough to get the car off their showroom floor.
I now have 10k miles on it, 11 months old. Went for my oil change service, and my sales person flags me down. He has a CPO 2016 ATS V coupe with 9800 on the clock, asking $46k. And it’s a manual, sticker was a bit over $72k.
This totally grabs my interest, so I let him get my ATS coupe appraised for trade. He comes back with $22800. Wait… What? Car lost 50% of its value in 11 months.
This has to be a contributing factor to the low sales of the ATS as well. Resale value is just outrageous.
There is a reason resale is so poor.
If a car is heavily discounted new, figure on high depreciation and low resale values. The two go hand-in-hand.
Buy the car to enjoy but don’t expect it to retain much value.
In all honesty, I do enjoy my ATS 2.0T coupe, so much so that I even took it to the open track day at Blackhawk Farms in Beloit Wis. this past October. I was the only Cadillac that was there, and I did get a bunch of positive comments on it for the design and for passing a few Porsche Boxsters like nothing. The car is blast to drive, on track and even daily for my 1 hour commute to the office thanks to Android Auto, or the built in Pandora.
I did trade in my 2013 Audi A5 S-Line Competition Coupe 6MT for it by the way. I have only owned Audi for the last 14 years, except for my 2010 Camaro 2SS RS 6MT garage ornament.
I went from 211hp with the Audi to 272hp with my Caddy. It is a good performance upgrade over the Audi as well. I dig the ATS drive modes, Lane Keep Assist, the cross traffic detection with the reverse cam and the follow distance warning. When I give this to my daughter in about 5 more years, this will be nifty for her when learning to drive. I will also like the fact the oil changes are $69 or less, and I get wiper blades for under $40. My Audi oil changes hovered about $225+ with $100 wiperblades.
I personally like the firmer ride with the standard Conti Pro Contact SSR run flats and the suspension tuning stock on my coupe. The all-wheel drive system has worked perfectly with the few snow storms so far. Although my coupe is rear bias, so you can swing the back end out a bit before the front picks up the slack.
My 2016 does have CUE/NGI 2.0. I have not had any issues with it, it’s responsive, and the touch sensitive buttons are fine. I mostly use the steering wheel controls anyways for volume and channel surfing, and Google Now via the VR key for any voice type searches, calling or NAV. Though the built in VR works fine if you set the speed to fast and confirm less.
I really don’t have anything bad to say about my coupe, other than the resale value sticker shock. I intend to keep it.
Cadillac shouldn’t be a brand for asshole, ignorant BMW drivers that think they matter more anybody else….Cadillac needs to be Cadillac.
Those ‘assholes’ have the money. Those ‘assholes’ existed way back in the early 1900’s when Cadillac was at its best. Why? Because Cadillac catered to those ‘assholes’ with money.
If you haven’t noticed by now, Rye, ‘assholes’ with money dictate everything.
If the ‘assholes’ with money want to look and feel like a million bucks, they’ll find someone to sell them something that will make them look and feel like a million bucks.
Cadillac once had that ability, and has since lost it. It wasn’t because Cadillac’s were too ‘hard riding’ or being too German, it’s because they lost the focus of exclusivity by democratizing what is supposed to be a luxury product. This happened long before the Germans made their big push into the North American market.
The second Cadillac turned their focus away from the ‘asshole’ with money and towards to everyman without as much money, they lost their direction. It didn’t take long for the Germans and eventually the Japanese to cater to the ‘asshole’ with money. Now, the Koreans are moving in and doing the same while Cadillac flounders.
This was NEVER an issue about ‘hard riding’ cars. If you turn your back on the ‘assholes’ with money, you’ve killed your chances for success as a luxury offering.
While I’m at it…
I know you won’t like hearing this Drew, but seeing how you think using a concierge service is indecent and socially immoral, I wouldn’t expect you to ever understand any of the above.
Grawdad, you have said you are from Canada, but currently you are living in fantasyland. First of all, how in the world do you know that Cadillac was at its best in the early 1900’s? What time machine did you use to make such a discovery? On what basis are you making that claim? Typical Grawdad, just throw something out there based on nothing, hope no one fact-checks it.
I completely disagree that what made Cadillac great was extreme exclusivity, aka catering only to the 1%, or the 1% of the 1%. What made them great was making great cars, big comfortable cars, the top of GM’s line. They have been GM cars since 1909, and it’s the post-1909 cars that established the brand in the minds of most people. They weren’t just riding on their pre-1909 exclusivity all the way to 1999, when they stopped being America’s best selling luxury car. Cadillac since 1909 has been a mass-market, mass-production car. This is not Rolls Royce we are talking about.
As far as the other brands, don’t you realize how mass-market Mercedes is? M-B is a prominent taxi and van maker in Europe and elsewhere, how exclusive is that? And you can get a BMW 3 series starting at $33k in the USA (I guess that’s currently about $330k in Canadian loonies, just kidding eh?), not particularly exclusive their either.
No, it’s that German brands acquired a certain cachet, mainly because the professional auto writers promoted them as somehow better than American luxury cars, that you once called “sofas on wheels”. Not that you’ve ever driven or even ridden in a classic American luxury “Cadillac ride” auto, clearly your “thinking” is derivative of those auto writers, rather than from personal experience. German brands focus on test-track times, as if that matters. And Germans like to be busy while driving, while Americans prefer to be relaxed. But if you are a “car guy” who writes for an auto publication, odds are you’ll be a gear-head who fancies himself as a NASCAR driver, rather than a typical commuter or highway cruiser. So you prefer German driving dynamics to American ones, and you foist those on the public – that’s all that’s happened here. Cadillac instead of pushing back and selling their “Magic Carpet Ride”, “Riding on a Cloud” dynamics as a positive, has virtually thrown in the towel (all but the XTS in sedans) on a nice roomy ride, and instead is trying to be a BMW clone.
But it’s not working. Those who want German “status” are only going to buy a German badged car. Cadillac needs to go a different direction, such as offering what the Germans don’t have. A nice comfortable roomy stylish ride, regardless of the vehicle. Sure the Germans have the S class, but there are only so many people who can pony up $110k plus. Or there’s Rolls Royce, at what $300k on up?
GM is a business, not an artistic statement. So what if they sell a lot of cars – that’s the goal, sell a lot of cars, make a lot of profit. Now I have said that Cadillac should not sell small and/or de-contented cars such as those with leatherette seats, weak engines, non-HID headlights, etc. That’s always going to be a mistake, one that they keep making (e.g. the Cimarron). But there’s also no reason to sell exclusively at sky-high prices. $50k would be a good starting point for a real Cadillac. That means no ATS, maybe no CTS, and definitely no de-contented cars.
Realize though that people are generally much richer than they were 100 years ago, or even 50 years ago. I lived in an upper-class suburban neighborhood 50 years ago, yet even there very few people had color TVs at that point. Very few had cars with electric windows. Air travel was extremely expensive. No one had smart phones, GPS, personal computers, internet, big-screen tvs, or particularly good health and dental care (compared with today). People are much richer now across the board, so why shouldn’t we expect more people to be able to afford a Cadillac, and why would you view that as a bad thing?
As to the “concierge” bit, I never said that this was indecent or immoral. I did sneer at you on the thread “Book By Cadillac Program Lets Subscribers Drive V-Series, Platinum Models For $1,500 Per Month” when you said “Book By Cadillac” should additionally offer to get you an expensive bottle of Scotch. I thought it was telling that you said “expensive” rather than “good”, but you’ve also told us that you are from a working class background, thus you seem to have the nouveau riche attitude of wanting to leave “the folks” behind, separate yourself from them via imagined status symbols such as “expensive” Scotch.
I laughed at the fact that you want to be catered to, to the point where someone else has to order your Scotch, for you to feel like a big-shot. You and that incredibly arrogant “NewQ” did not even want to rub shoulders with a commoner at a dealership that sold Buicks and Chevrolets along with Cadillacs. I actually wondered if NewQ was putting us on, but she insisted that she wasn’t, and I’ll take that at face value. Yes I did say that people with your attitude is why the French Revolution happened, but that’s not the same as saying I viewed concierge service as immoral. If it makes some nouveau riche guy feel good enough about himself to fork over some money to GM, then they’ve succeeded. But don’t think that everyone who owns or would own a Cadillac has your same snooty attitude toward others. I realize that I’ve been fortunate in the circumstances of my birth and of my education and opportunities, but I see no purpose in lording that over others, when all I want is a nice car. We’ll just have to agree to disagree on where Cadillac should be, on why the ATS does not sell well, and the merits of “status symbols” vs. just being yourself and treating others as human beings.
I was at the Toronto Autoshow yesterday hanging around the Cadillac area. It was a simple small, but good presentation. I hovered listening an observing peoples reactions. Heard lots of positives, But I also saw lots of people who did not seem to know much about Cadillac or the models?!
I wanted to be supportive on their marketing push, but in the end after many years of New York streetscapes showing very little car , I feel it has not worked. To impress today’s younger crowd they need to start showing more traditional ads that showcase the tech, speed, coolness. No one knows what cadillac can really do or what they are.
Cadillac said it would take 10 years for them to move away from the German wannabee image….hmmm 2025-27 timefram ???
The problem is not that GM is competing with the Germans, the problem is styling and bottom line GM’s greedy pricing. If Cadillac changes their fundamental ethos on “What Cadillac is” their sales will plummet and no one will buy their brand. They need to keep competing with the Germans. Here is a perfect example, old people who use to have money now don’t, all the money is now with the young 30 – 45 age group, where in the 80’s and early 90’s money was more in the 40-65 because this age group were buying cars cash based on fair pricing. Look around you when your driving, old people are buying Toyota’s, Honda’s, and small cars because that’s what they can afford. This new generation has the money because they are willing to finance!!!!!! Cadillac needs to appeal to the young generation, however their current pricing is totally out of wack, bottom line so the young people are going elsewhere. Example, the 2016/2017 CTSV is not worth 90K, I don’t care if people say it’s way better than the M5 or AMG. I agree the CTSV is better, however the MASSSIVE PRICE increase does not make any sense. The supercharged LT4 is more expensive to build but not 30K over the LSA in the previous generation CTSV!! Come ON. And i’m right, look at all CTS and CTSV sales, there dropping 50-60 percent. Don’t believe GMs units sold to dealers, what matters is customers buying these cars and driving them off the lot. I own an 2010 CTS and love it, proper interior with no ugly digital dash. I live in a very wealth city and I haven’t seen one new CTSV, I hope I do because I’m smarter than everyone else and will buy it used and save a tone!!! 90K my ass! BAhahahahaha
In conclusion Cadillac pricing is way to expensive, if they lower the price drastically people will start buy again and will make GM even more more money!!!!!!!
Crappy car equals crappy sales.
Owned Caddies many times in my life. A ’55 coupe just out of high school. A ’61 soon after. Been driving a 2003 CTS since 2007. 237k miles, original motor, transmission, rear end -looks like it has 60k on it. Bought a 2016 ATS-V last December 2015. Damn thing was in the shop so much, the dealer offered to buy it back the following April. Bought a used 2012 Mercedes C300 4Matic off the lot and ended up enjoying it more as a daily driver.