Cadillac CTS deliveries in the United States totaled 691 units in January 2017, a decrease of 31.8 percent compared to 1,013 units sold in January 2016.
Sales Numbers - Cadillac CTS - January 2017 - United States
| MODEL | JAN 17 / JAN 16 | JANUARY 17 | JANUARY 16 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CTS | -31.79% | 691 | 1,013 |
In Canada, the CTS recorded 31 deliveries in January 2017, down 60.3 percent compared to 78 units sold in January 2016.
Sales Numbers - Cadillac CTS - January 2017 - Canada
| MODEL | JAN 17 / JAN 16 | JANUARY 17 | JANUARY 16 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CTS | -60.26% | 31 | 78 |
The GM Authority Take
At first, we would think to attribute the CTS’ January sales decline to shifting consumer behavior dynamics that favor crossovers at the expense of sedans. However, taking a closer look reveals that this might not be the case, and that the decrease in CTS sales is likely related to a reduction in sales to commercial fleets.
Cadillac reported that its cumulative January U.S. sales volume decreased 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.
In addition, two of the CTS’ direct rivals — the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and Audi A6 — posted an increase in sales volume, while the other two competitors — the BMW 5 Series and Lexus GS — saw sales decline during the month. Of particular interest is that Mercedes-Benz managed to top 4,000 deliveries of its all-new E-Class, enabling us to conclude that the midsize luxury sedan is relatively healthy, and is not suffering at the hands of crossovers. So, just as with the ATS, we will chalk this one up to a lack of model-specific marketing, which Cadillac will likely commence once it replaces the CTS with an all-new model that will likely be called Cadillac CT5.
| Model | January 2017 Deliveries | January 2016 Deliveries | January 2017 / January 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercedes-Benz E-Class | 4,155 | 2,790 | +48.9% |
| Audi A6 | 1,008 | 841 | +19.9% |
| BMW 5 Series | 759 | 3,795 | -80.3% |
| Cadillac CTS | 691 | 1,013 | -31.8% |
| Lexus GS | 422 | 1,298 | -67.5% |
About The Numbers
- Mercedes-Benz E-Class sales figures include CLS-Class “four-door coupe”
- Deliveries of Jaguar X and Maserati Ghibli were not available
- BMW 5 Series deliveries likely negatively impacted by availability issues associated with all-new 5 Series, which is currently undergoing launch
Related News & Info
- GM news
- Cadillac CTSÂ information
Related Sales Reporting
- Running GM sales results
- Running Cadillac sales results
- Running Cadillac CTS sales numbers
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- January 2017 GM sales results
- U.S. January 2017 GM sales results
- January 2017Â Chevrolet sales results
- January 2017Â Cadillac sales results
- January 2017Â Buick sales results
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- January 2017Â GM China sales results
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- Global January 2017Â Cadillac sales results
- U.S. January 2017 GM sales results
Reporting by Francisco (Frankie) Cruz. GM Authority Take analysis by Alex Luft.
Comments
Further proof that buyers aren’t buying Cadillac’s Marketing Director, Melody Lee, sales pitch to the public; a more interesting approach would be to show images of how Cadillac is ready for a new world order utilizing advanced CAD/CAM engineering so that the CT6 is a thousand pounds lighter than some of it’s competitors or how a CTS-V is capable of a top speed of 200 mph and how it was a Cadillac DPi-V.R that was the overall winner at the 2017 24 Hours of Daytona.
For a long time I’ve thought buyers of luxury cars who pay attention to what is under the hood, know Cadillac utilizes the same engines and transmissions you can find in your everyday Chevrolet and it turns them off. The drive-trains are just fine, but when people buy luxury they are doing it for exclusivity not just a more luxurious Chevy. For Cadillac to really compete, they need their own engine line. I know that is expensive, but I think it is something the luxury customer would appreciate if Cadillac expects people to pay a price equal to their BMW and Mercedes competition. There is no reason why someone should pay 50, 60, or near 70K for cars using the same turbo 4 you can find in Malibu or Camaro.
“The drive-trains are just fine, but when people buy luxury they are doing it for exclusivity not just a more luxurious Chevy.”
^This.
Present day image matters more than the past image. This is Cadillac’s stumbling block.
I agree 1,000 percent.
When one buys a BMW, it is an authentic product with every nut, bolt, and fastener designed for a BMW. That’s obviously also true for the engines, transmissions, and suspension bits that company puts in their cars and utility vehicles. All of the parts are created with the purpose of building an Ultimate Driving Machine and with the knowledge that they will be sold at a ‘premium’ price point. None of their products is cobbled together from a parts bin where an engine has to be cheap enough to put in a Malibu or a pick-up truck and therefore it can’t be too sophisticated or costly to produce.
Many here are fond of saying that most luxury buyers don’t know where the engines come from and that’s true but in the luxury car arena, there a individuals who are the influencers. Those are the folks that drive the trends and dictate to others what to buy. Those people are savvy consumers and they most certainly know. They know Cadillacs use Malibu motors and they know an XTS is merely a re-bodied Epsilon which underpins Malibus and Impalas. They know Escalade is merely a blinged-out Tahoe. As a result, they have thus far been unwilling to give the brand their seal of approval.
Until Cadillac has a sufficiently authentic product, with its own engines, so as to attract those truly well-heeled who drive the trends, they won’t be able to sell products to the much larger audience of those who follow the trendsetters.
Super fine automobile but it has a major issue, conquest buyers really don’t have much of a reason to leave their Audis, MBs, BMWs since they are basically fine vehicles with good reliability. Long-term Cadillac owners, like it or not, are totally put off by the asking price. Exclusive drivetrains will not change the positions of either of these two pools of buyers.
In retrospect, the biggest issue I had with my 2016 CTS Premium was the residual value when I traded it! It lost 40% of the value I paid for it, owning the vehicle almost 1 year. Mileage was average and condition of vehicle was excellent. Based upon the list price of the vehicle, it lost 51.5% of its value in one year! Car other than that was fine vehicle, excellent build quality, fine performance, great reliability–back for oil changes only, and a real looker. Just wanted something larger.
Residual value is the main reason why my friend is leaving Cadillac for Mercedes. He had a high mileage lease (65,000 miles, 39 mos.), with a set buyout price of $26,000 on his 2014 CTS. Now with only 47,000 miles and 6 months left on the lease, the car is only worth $21,000. Not to mention the car was in the shop for/needed: A rear gasket leak, missing cabin air filter, 3 blown run-flat tires, missing door handle piece, and now the car is burning oil. Personally, I love Cadillac, but he couldn’t care less about the brand, he just looks at the price and value.
I like Mercedes but you should know that Merc AMG and BMW M are the highest depreciating cars on the market.
The CTS has a very nice looking exterior, but the wrong type of driving dynamics for Cadillac. Too Euro-hard riding, too cramped for American luxury.
When will GM finally admit that trying to copy the German “sports sedans” is a huge mistake? Do they need to go bankrupt again before they learn that lesson? Let Cadillac be Cadillac, not a BMW-wannabe.
When will you finally admit that you have no clue what it takes to build or re-build a car brand, and that your perspective is focused on the short-term?
Need I remind you that in 1993, Audi had 4% market share in this very segment. Fast forward 24 years, and its entry is the second best-selling model in the segment. Take a lot of time, money, and patience..
Alex, why should I “admit” something that isn’t true? Cadillac is into at least its 20th year of “rebranding”, The reality is that there was no reason to rebrand at all. Twenty years of failure is not a “short term focus”. BTW, Audi never “rebranded” itself, it was already a German “sports sedan” company. it just rode the fad of German “sporty” cars for the past few years (Lexus was number one until 2011), a fad that is likely to fade, even if Cadillac continues to follow it.
The attempt to remake Cadillac as a quasi-German brand goes back at least to the 1997 model year with the introduction of the Catera. At that point, Cadillac was the number 1 seller of luxury cars in the USA, a position it had held for many decades. Three years later, Lexus began an 11 year run as the number 1 US luxury car seller. Coincidence that this followed so soon after the disastrous Catera? I don’t think so. Trying to be a German-like car brand has NEVER worked for Cadillac! It’s hurting the brand.
One could also say that trying to remake Cadillac has been going on for 35 years, when considering the Cimarron. The Cimarron was Cadillac’s first attempt to build a small luxury car to compete with the Germans. Net result – IT HURT THE BRAND. Again, whenever Cadillac stops being Cadillac, it doesn’t work and degrades the brand.
But despite these failures, Cadillac keeps pushing on to try and out-German the Germans, losing sight of what made Cadillac a great and popular luxury brand. In the 2003 model year, Cadillac introduced the ultra-expensive ($110k) convertible “XLR”, intended to be the new flagship. Built on a Corvette platform, sales were even lower than the very low company projections.
And the XLR also was the first Cadillac that tried to copy the Germans with meaningless letters or numbers, eschewing the real names they’d had for decades. This was quickly followed by the SRX, renaming the Seville the STS, renaming the Deville the DTS, etc. Now the rebranding solution is to have CT followed by a number or XT followed by a number, wow that’s original and memorable. But if the Germans do it, then so must Cadillac, goes the thinking of the foreign-born current leaders of Cadillac. So much for being a leader or actually “daring greatly”.
Today, which Cadillacs sell well, and which ones sell poorly? The Escalade and XTS sell well, the ATS and CTS sell poorly, jury still out on the CT6. So the Cadillacs with the tradition of roominess and comfort sell well, while the ones that imitate the Germans with cramped interiors and a harsh ride sell poorly. Yet the Cadillac plan has been to dump the big comfortable riding sedans entirely (until JDN temporarily saved the XTS), and people like Ellinghaus say that the Escalade does not represent the future of the brand. Strange that Cadillac management wants to continue to pursue what does not work, while intending to drop what does work. It doesn’t take a business genius to see that they’ve gotten that exactly backwards.
This is after 20 years of “rebranding” the company as a German-wannabe, or maybe even 35 years of transition if you count the Cimarron. As with the Cimarron and the Catera, the ATS is hurting Cadillac’s brand image, coming in last in the recent “shootout” of cars in the “class”. Frankly Cadillac should not be making cars to fit a German “class” anyway, they should be leading the way, making cars without regard for German sizing or German “sporty” (aka harsh) driving dynamics.
You don’t like the question, but you do truly have to wonder when Cadillac will admit they’ve been driving down the wrong path for at least 20 years. You say that rebranding takes a lot of time, money, and patience. Having infinite patience to stick with a plan that is clearly not working even after 20 or 35 years, is virtually the definition of insanity. Especially when part of that plan includes dropping what does work. How many more years does this take? Another 10, like Melody Lee wants for herself? Another 20? What if this is just the wrong path for Cadillac? Do you not even consider that possibility?
Alex I realize that you love your ATS, that’s great. But the rest of the world doesn’t love the ATS. GM is a business, that business is to make cars that sell well, not to make cars that please you personally. The public doesn’t favor German-like cars from Cadillac. Yes the public has Audi to choose from as you’ve pointed out, and BMW, and MB, and if they want to go cheaper they have VW. Those companies are the ones that satisfy the demand for German cars. Who is going to satisfy the demand for American luxury cars, if Cadillac exits that space?
You say that I am clueless about this, with the implication that we should just trust Cadillac management. The old idea that if they didn’t know what they were doing, they wouldn’t have those jobs. I say I do know more about cars than Melody Lee, and frankly I have a better idea what Cadillac means to the US market than a South African (JDN), a German (Uwe), or an Australian (Smith).
Furthermore, I feel that I had a better idea how to go about competing with the Germans, if that were desirable for GM. The way to go about that would be to keep Cadillac as Cadillac (roomy luxury, brash original styling, comfortable ride, strong power, no de-contended cheapening of the base models, etc) and then make Corvette into its own brand as the BMW-fighter. This should be an obviously better strategy than spending all that time and money, and losing all those sales, with a disastrous attempt to remake a well-established and highly regarded/highly successful brand, into something it never was.
So am I the one who is clueless? Or is it the people who think that 20 years (or is it 35 years) of rebranding failure is “not enough time” who are clueless?
Right on dude. 20 years of rebranding is right. GM got sloppy, and it’s all been downhill from there.
What does Cadillac actually do better than any of the other luxury rivals? If someone is in the market right now, let’s look around:
Lexus – new flagship and new grand coupe (LS and LC)
Mercedes – pure opulence (S class) and raw sex appeal (AMG GT)
BMW – Practical sportiness (3 series) and cool next gen tech (i3, i8). Also remote control parking.
Audi – Quattro (all models) and a half-price lambo 0-60 in 3s (R8).
Acura – well, they’re just glorified hondas… :p But that new NSX is still pretty sexy
Infiniti – Radical flowing design and mega new twin turbo v6 (Q60)
Volvo – Swedish design. Chairs that are nicer than anything you’ve ever sat on. THOR’S HAMMER!
Maserati – I mean, they’re maserati. Italian design, cool engines.
Cadillac – Tons of cool concepts that never come to market. Chevys in fancier clothing. The CT6 is only uniquely cadillac model, and it’s not even that compelling (compared to Volvo S90 or new BMW 5)
My recipe for caddy success. Change the design! Soften it up some. Be uniquely american. Don’t use major parts from chevy and gmc. Offer something nobody else does.
Great comments Megatron, and great recipe for success. I would add one thing to that recipe – don’t offer cheapened (de-contended) base models. Give everyone with a Cadillac the good (real) leather seats, a strong engine, the premium stereo, the HID headlights, etc. There should be minimum standards for calling a car a “Cadillac”, and something cheap fake-leather seats is not worthy of the name; it also hurts the brand when someone rides in a cheapened version and thinks “This is a Cadillac?”.
And perhaps the most important point in your recipe – OFFER SOMETHING NOBODY ELSE DOES! This idea of copying the Germans, right down to the actual dimensions (i.e. “car class”) has got to go.
There was some complaining in the recent “shootout” that it was unfair that the ATS back seat got dinged for being small, when it was the same dimensions as the prior German models in that class. But the Germans had added an inch and a half when they came out with their newer versions of that “class”, which gave them a leg up on the “competing” Cadillac.
Hey too bad – no one says you have to build a car to someone else’s set dimensions and standards, and it’s cheating if you go outside those boundaries. Be the leader with your own dimensions and standards, not the follower – blow them away with more legroom, rather than matching theirs. Offer a more comfortable ride (the “Cadillac Ride” that you can SELL in advertising), rather than trying to match the German ride, then complaining when they soften it up.
Again BUILD SOMETHING ELSE! Cadillac should be the style, room, and comfort leader – and proudly advertise that, not be embarrassed by it. Magic Carpet Ride beats “feel the road” to a lot of folks. Plus it’s something the other guys don’t have (except to some extent in the uber-expensive MB S-Class at well over $100k). There’s plenty of profitable territory to be staked out by Cadillac, but it would take real leadership and independent thinking to get there, not a “let’s copy BMW and say we are just as good” mentality.
I’ve always love Cadillac until I bought a 2016 CTS. Cadillac can’t even get the basics right. Climate control does not work. No heat on the driver’s side all winter. Passenger seat is like a sauna. I finally got some heat on my side by several delink/sync cycles. The passenger side seat heaters went out at the same time. Selling dealer always has the same tune. Works as designed. Trade it in on a new Cadillac. I think dealer has a belt slipping!
I’ve decided to put fresh eyes on it next week. Scheduled service with a different dealer. Hope they can get these long time Cadillac items working properly. If trading it in at 3700 miles is my only option I will never look at a GM product again.
The dealer I will try next week sells 18 marques. If I have to trade this one and take the depreciation at least I have choices.
Cadillac was a wonderful car for all my life. Grew up in Cads. Learned to drive on a Cad. Bought Cads for my daily driver always. It was a great run. Wish it lasted longer.
Alex Luft: “Take a lot of time, money, and patience..”
Two out of three of which GM has proven time after time. they don’t have. Exhibit A is Oldsmobile. They dumped money into it and turned out some very good products after years of neglect but GM wasn’t willing to wait for it to turn around or continue to invest money with no immediate return.
The Audi example worked because Volkswagen took a long-term approach and was willing to endure losses. GM is not Volkswagen. GM has never been willing to lose money on a product just because it is good for branding or because it might pay dividends at some time in the future.
Based on GM’s past, I fully expect the ambitious plans of JdN to be scaled back and something akin to Ford’s strategy for Lincoln of re-badging Fords to be put back in place; in fact I think that’s already happening. We know CT8 is dead and instead the FWD, Impala-based XTS will be redesigned and carry on. As I see it, that’s bad but not as bad as the fate Oldsmobile ran into when they couldn’t make money. If JdN and company aren’t careful, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the bean-counters at GM make the case to pull the plug on the brand entirely. JdN may think he is dealing with the same kind of management he had at VW that gave him time and let him run losses for years but nothing about GM’s past would suggest that’s the case.
It’s time for a 50% off fire sale.
Does anyone have an idea of when we might start to see some used CT6’s or XT5’s, I think it would be a great car once it lost some of its value and I could pick one up for a decent price.
They’re already out there, mostly as vehicles that were used by the dealership for service loaning purposes.
I do not understand how such a good car can sell so little.
The CTS-Vsport is wonderful.
Cadillac has to make the CUE much faster and adds many elements to customize the car inside.
In the world of luxury; If you do not have prestige, you have nothing.
Cadillac has told the world that it has one of the fastest and best cars on the track; Now you have to tell the world that you can make a car with a lot of attention to detail and elegance inside
Speaking as a recent A4 buyer, problem with cadillac is that it doesnt offer anything unique until you increase the price considerably. Fit and finish are not as good as the rivals, the Art&Science design ages very quickly on the road (old BMWs aged *way* better than previous gen CTS), interior space doesn’t compete with rivals, Cadillac CUE is not intuitive. Also, the ATS is basically a camaro with slightly better visibility and a marginally larger trunk. Heck, the nice colors (white and red) cost $1k.
I think it’s mostly a design problem. The cars aren’t really that special or unique inside or out. Contrast with the new Volvos and their THOR’S HAMMER lights and gorgeous interiors. The new audis aren’t that exciting to look at, to be honest, but I know they’re audis. And every part of the car has been well thought out. Look at that front hood crease! Sorry Cadillac, I just don’t get you.
This decline was very predictable when Cadillac decided to go for price parity against the established German competition. Talk about dare greatly…want to make a dent in a new market? Offer more value than the competition. Playing catch up at equal pricing? That may take decades.
Thanks to the author for calling out that this is not a “global” problem of the sedan market disappearing altogether. Glad we were spared that crossover cop-out.
If Cadillac doesn’t care about volume and has years of runway to play this out, more power to them. If lower volumes & high margins work for the business, that’s cool. Hope these models are still around in 10 years. I think the CTS is a great car in it’s own right — after a couple of years on the market, though, it offers nothing to upset the competition in any way.
WTF is daring greatly . It’s not proper English. Some very accurate comments. There doesn’t seem to be any real car enthusiasts in the GM board. Their lack of product knowledge means they are reliant on engineers ready to appease their thought that the German vision is the best. And when is someone going to realise that the new Cadillac V8 tt is too little too late.
Pym Reehal,
There are some real enthusiasts on this site but we recently found out that some mental institutions have installed terminals in some of their most disturbed sections. It appears that some have found GM Authority in the preset bookmarks and the result is we have seen a deluge of morons and psychologically severely disturbed patients. To add insult to injury, they seem to have unlimited amount of time to spew their nonsense.
And by pure coincidence, they’re all strong supporters of the orange carrot.
Sincerely