Cadillac U.S. Sales Decrease 8.1 Percent To 15,016 Units In August 2017

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1. 

   Cadillac defintely came up short the previous couple of years. Intriguing that all other GM brands got hybrids and Cadillac got none, on the off chance that they had then Cadillac would be in a greatly improved position that it is right now.
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2. 

   What is amazing is that Cadillac sales in China continue to increase at a sharp rate, and the average buyer is 30+ years old. The German brands must be confounded by this success with the Cadillac brand. At the same time, buyers in China must also believe that the Cadillac brand is of premium quality with attractive American style and performance.
   In the U.S., Cadillac remains in a holding pattern until they get to release new models like the XT4, and incorporating the Escala design language into all models.
   The good thing is that much of the heavy lifting is already in place. The bones of all existing vehicles are very good. Only the Escalade needs and independent suspension and lowered rear floor height, which will follow in 18 months.
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3. 

   Mercedes just announced their intention of introducing a new S-class coupe in 2018 and it makes you wonder whether Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen has Cadillac on the right track without even a coupe variant of the CTS or CT6.
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   1. 

      I don’t quite understand the thinking on a coupe version of a large car. I guess the two-door look can be slightly more appealing from the outside than four-door, but functionally the four-door has it all over the two-door. For one thing, if you have a large car, presumably you’ll have passengers in the back seats once in a while, and four-door is better for that. For another, the shorter door of a four-door is better for front seat passengers getting in and out when near parked cars, etc. Could someone explain to me why a large coupe would be appealing to buyers?
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      1. 

         There are a number of reasons why a big coupe is more appealing than a 4-door sedan:
         1) It keeps its value much longer.
         2) It looks more sporty while offering the room of a big car.
         3) It is exclusive, much more than a 4-door.
         It has all to do with what American companies used to call the “personal luxury car”: sporty but also spacious and comfortable. Not as cramped as a sports coupe, able to carry passengers and their luggage if needed.
         Think Eldorado, Thunderbird, Riviera and Toronado in the good old days. Today, only the Mercedes S-coupe, Bentley Continental GT and RR Wraith come to mind in this territory. I would certainly be buying one if the market would still offer an affordable personal luxury coupe.
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         1. 

            All good points, Mike: it’s all about personal luxury — and coupes have been the epitome of luxury for roughly 50 years.

            Those who “don’t get it”, just don’t get it… but the good thing is, they don’t need to. After all, not everyone buys wine for $1,500 a bottle.

            BMW is finally returning to this segment with its upcoming 8 series coupe, too — which I’m really looking forward to seeing. Though the market for these cars is small, the segment is insanely profitable, something to the extent of 50 percent.
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         2. 

            Personally luxury car would make sense for the ATS replacement, if they make it a two-seater as suggested by Henry. Not a roadster, just two big luxury seats instead of four tight ones. I’d also like to see it with a liftback, but for some reason Americans don’t go for that they way they do in Europe and Japan (probably those pesky US professional auto writers hating on all hatches as “cheap econoboxes”). And of course more comfortable riding (what part of “personal luxury” isn’t comfortable riding?). And FWD, but that’s way too much to ask these days, doesn’t hew closely enough to the BMW way.

            Yes the 1967 Eldorado was a significant breakthrough for Cadillac in many ways. Personal luxury of two-door, bold angular styling, FWD for extra legroom and traction in the snow. Back when Cadillac was a leader, not a follower.

            I see your point about the big coupes but I still would never buy one. Accommodating my long legs and big feet takes precedence over “looking cool” from outside the car. I could forget about parking (diagonal or perpendicular) in one of those, or I’d be trapped in the car. But if there’s a big market for this, I guess Cadillac should make them.
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4. 

   Interesting that the XTS sold exactly twice as many units in August as the much newer CT6, yet it’s the XTS that Johan and company want to kill after a one-time mild refresh. Without the XTS, XT5, and Escalade, where would Cadillac sales be in August?
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   1. 

      I was just thinking the same thing!!!

      It really warms my heart to see the “classic” Cadillac models kill the “sporty” models. Even if you exclude the XT5, the XTS and Escalade alone still outsell the the 3 sporty sedans.
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      1. 

         Henry — does it “warm your heart” to see Cadillac succeed, or do you want it to become a discarded also-ran like Lincoln?

         If the former is the case, you should be rooting for sales to increase on all fronts and with all models… rather than for some Cadillac models to “kill” others.

         I’ll repeat what I’ve said before: the reasons for the XTS’ supposed sales success is called fleets and livery (hearse, limousine, up fitters). These cars are pretty much given away with zero profit… anyone can put up sales numbers that way and call it a day, and say they’re winning.

         Either way, it’s not a battle. Different cars for different people (like Drew here). Not sure why you feel the need to make it a competition.

         But if you do make it a competition, then you should know that the overwhelming majority of people in the world (roughly 98 percent) do not buy cars like “Classic Cadillacs” but instead buy the “sporty” ones instead. Cadillac is simply making cars to fulfill market demand… nothing more, nothing less.
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   2. 

      Oh Drew.. again trying to spuriously fabricate a perspective that the CT6 is somehow a failure, eh?

      Indeed, your point of view should be called the “Drew distortion field”… as it distorts so much.

      First: there were over 500 units of the XTS that went to fleets in August… a lot of those went into the livery fleets. Not the case for the CT6. So take the XTS’ sales figure and subtract 500 units. Not a pretty picture, is it?

      Second: the fact that one car (CT6) sold less units than a car that’s 10 grand less expensive (XTS) while having less incentives is somehow bad, right? In what world is that thinking even remotely close to logical? Drew distortion field at its finest right there 🙂

      Next you’ll try to say that the S-Class (priced at $100k) selling less units than the C-Class (priced at ($40k) is a bad thing… and that it means that the S-Class should be discontinued and that Mercedes should just focus its efforts on making only the C-class, right?

      Look, we get it: you personally don’t like don’t like the direction in which Cadillac is going. You don’t like sport luxury vehicles. Sounds from previous posts that you hate them… with a passion. You are a fanatic of boats on wheels. Or is it couches on wheels? How do you self-identify, exactly?

      You’d rather see Cadillac (and the entire world) making and buying the Cadillac DTS (such as the one that you own), albeit in different sizes. Luckily, the overwhelming majority of the market doesn’t share your tastes, and needless to say, you are quite upset about it. In not offering boats on wheels, you feel like Cadillac is taking something away from you, right?

      Furthermore, in your distortion field, the fact that the overwhelming majority of people prefer sport-luxury vehicles is because they are being told to buy them by automotive journalists.

      The journalists are rally bad, terrible people… almost a mafia… FORCING normal, unassuming people to buy luxury cars that handle well, are fun to drive, and are comfortable at the same time. They must be dealt with!

      All hail the couch on wheels, via the Drew distortion field 😉

      With love!

      Alex
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      1. 

         Hi Alex Luft – the “Drew distortion field”? Sounds like I am being compared with Steve Jobs, so I’ll gladly accept that compliment. The sales numbers for August are the numbers. The XTS sold exactly twice as many units in what should arguably be its worst year (i.e. prior to a refresh), against a CT6 in what should be its best year (first full year of production). You can talk about prices and fleets, but that is what it is. At no point in my comment did I say Cadillac should stop making the CT6, but I do (and did) question the wisdom of ending the XTS.

         As far as the values I’d like to see for Cadillac, I’ve stated those many times. Not for them to make DTSes forever, or any of their 20th century cars. Modern Cadillacs with real Cadillac values – roomy, comfortable riding, powerful-engined, reliable, refined, well-powered, up-to-date electronics, with bold angular styling. Furthermore, I feel that all models should have true luxury content, rather than cheapening the base models in order to sell “Cadillacs in name only” to the cheapskates. Can we agree on these basic values?

         As far as the “sports” Cadillacs, I’m ok with those as long as they don’t ruin the Cadillac ride in order to yield “sporty handling”. Some people here have said that there’s no trade-off between a comfortable ride and sporty handling, that a flip of a switch can accomodate both. I don’t see that happening in any Cadillac models at this point, but I’m open to the possibility in the future. Others have suggested that perhaps a hydro-pneumatic suspension (such as pioneered by Citroen) would be a way to yield both comfort and handling, perhaps still a possibility for Cadillac – but more likely it will be a computer-electronic version of MRC that could yield such results IF Cadillac embraces the values that made them successful in the past, rather than chasing BMW values instead.

         Specific to the CT6, I would like that to succeed, but I don’t think Cadillac aimed high enough. For one thing, the name itself does not aim high enough. If this is supposed to be an S-Class or A8 competitor, the number is too low. I’d of course prefer a real name, in order to make a statement that this is a flagship that is not meant to imitate anyone else. It doesn’t have to be a name from the past like Fleetwood, although that would be better than CT6. Given that JDN wants to stay with his naming conventions (except for the Escalade), at least name it CT8 or even CT10.

         But there are other ways in which the CT6 didn’t aim high enough. It’s not really long enough to be a Cadillac flagship worthy of the S-Class, and the back seat legroom is too small as a result, or at least due to the RWD layout. Also it’s bad to have the base model with the buzzy underpowered engine, that’s not worthy of Cadillac, especially in a flagship.

         If Cadillac were going to do the CT6 right (besides changing the name to something more impressive, at least a higher number), in addition to a bigger back seat, they’d essentially eliminate the lower trim models. The top of the line models seem great in the reviews, albeit they could be more softly sprung, or an adjustable “comfort” setting. But I’d like to see all of the flagship sedan models have MRC and active 4 wheel steering. Perhaps all with AWD if that is the only way to make 4 wheel steering work, since I personally see no benefit to RWD vs AWD (other than weight, but then again all CT6’s should have the TT V6, with an upgrade path to TT V8). The TT V6 should be the base engine. The Bose (or will it be the Harman) Panaray should be standard. And so on.

         So really the CT6 didn’t aim high enough. When people see it on the road (and I do like the exterior styling), they should not wonder if you have the cheap-o model or the one with the features that make it Cadillac’s flagship sedan. It should be big enough to play with the big boys also, as noted. As well as big enough to justify the Cadillac name. So one problem now is that the CT6 is currently like a broad line of cars, with a broad line of prices. You say the CT6 is in the class with the MB S, and maybe that’s true for the top trimmed, optioned out CT6, but the bare bones base is clearly not. You can’t crow about sales approaching those of the S-Class if substantial numbers of those are the bare bones models.

         Furthermore, a real CT6 (I still hate that name) should be an advertisement for Cadillac at its best. Eliminate the lower trim levels and you won’t have the problem of “Yeah I rode in a CT6, I was unimpressed” when they were simply in a bare bones model.

         Now if Cadillac did all of this, they couldn’t say the CT6 was “starting at $55k” or whatever it is. It would be more like “starting at $88k” or so. And that’s fine. They should still offer the XTS or equivalent, though with a more powerful engine, especially for those who want it with AWD (even though I consider that unnecessary vs. FWD, but it’s not all about me). They should also make the trunk opening wider, perhaps even a liftback, but that’s another matter.

         What I think Cadillac is doing is eliminating their best riding and best snow-performing sedan (XTS), and in its place you can get a base CT6 for about the price of a loaded XTS. And then you can load up the options and raise the trim levels to make the CT6 what it should be, as a flagship. But I happen to not agree with this strategy, because it will be missing XTS-type sales, and reducing the cachet of the CT6. So there’s your distortion field post of the day. I don’t know how I can make my views any more clear.
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5. 

   The heavy lifter is called XT5 , it shows that Cadillac can actually build what the public likes . Cadillac is in transition right now and the people interested in what is coming want it to happen right now . The revamp of the XTS should help sales to the public in ’18 and the update for the CT6 with Cadillac’s new face in ’19 , Escala-esk , should really give us a look at JDN’s vision .
   There is a You Tube video currently that shows this guys rendering of what the new 7 passenger SUV will look like , it’s basically an Escala with SUV perportions that is kind of interesting .
   For the CT6 sale to be in decline for the month can’t make Cadillac feel good about , it’s there flagship . Either customers aren’t warming up to the design , or the price . I don’t think the blame can be because of SUV sales .
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   1. 

      We rendered the Escala SUV a while ago. Here you are:

      http://gmauthority.com/blog/2016/10/cadillac-escala-crossover-suv-photo-rendering/

      The segment in which the CT6 competes was down in August. I’ll post a comparison link shortly.
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