The Reverse-Opening Front Armrest Of The Cadillac CT6: Feature Spotlight
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The Cadillac CT6 has so many positive and redeeming qualities that it’s nearly impossible to list them all of them at once. So we thought we’d cover them one at a time. Let’s start with the front armrest, as first seen on Cadillac Society.
First and foremost, the armrest serves its primary purpose of providing a comfortable, ergonomic, and attractive place for the arm/elbow of the driver and passenger alike. But it goes beyond that, as it can be opened either towards the driver or towards the (front seat) passenger.
Cadillac CT6 Front armrest in closed position
Cadillac CT6 front armrest open towards driver
Cadillac CT6 front armrest open towards passenger
The GM Authority Take
Cadillac interior designers deserve a hand for a well-executed feature that will hopefully be appreciated. It sure was appreciated by us during our time with the CT6.
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Thumb drive are a pain, the GM system does nor recgonize a lot of the formats that various pc’s load on them, tablets do not have USB ports so that is a waste
New laptops are coming without DVD drives.
It is guys like these that are forcing needless unwanted change on the consumers.
Just more proof everytime a comment is made trying to justify a decision without any research or proof.
Kind of like the 1849 gold rush, No there can’tbe any gold there, I never saw any. Says the drunk at the bar in the East.
No they are not! thumb drives are very simple! Every car including GM recognizes mp3 format. There’s android auto, Apple auto, if you don’t want a thumb drive.
You have gone threw every possible scinenoio to justify having a CD player and they all are b.s.
So let me ask you how long should they have CD players?
Brian, I am not sure about thumb drives, but when I tried to load an an album onto an SD card in a car I was test-driving, it had a couple of problems.
First was that the tracks were played out of order. For example if there were 12 tracks, it would play track 1, then track 11, the track 12, then track 2, then track 3, etc.
The second problem was that it put gaps between the tracks, even though I didn’t want gaps there. I often listen to live concert music, which sould play seamlessly without gaps between the tracks. CDs play without gaps, the SD card added them. If other forms of digital play add gaps, that’s a big negative.
Bottom line though, in a luxury car you should have choices. Deleting the CD player gives the driver fewer choices. That’s not a positive. But at least they get a two-way armrest, to make up for it.
You want options
Do you think drum brakes should be a option? They are outdated!
Do you think carberators should be a option? They are outdated!
How about a bench seat in the front? They are outdated!
What about a tape deck? They are outdated!
I could go on but most people get the point there comes a time when you have to move on!
Maybe we just have to wait until the old guys and gals die off and we don’t have to worry about what they want anymore!
I think Cadillac has figured out that selling to younger people will pay off in the long run. Instead of trying to corner a market that won’t be around in 5 to 10 years!
What would you rather have 5 good years of sells or 20?
You are making a big deal for no reason. Thumb drives, SD cards, they all work the same. Just download the songs, setup play back setting so they play in order, and select no gaps between songs and you are all out of excuses.
Whast are you going to come up with this time to justify keeping a CD player? A old ladies opinion that is going to be in a old persons home in a few years? Or a person that has 20 to 30 years left of actually driving cars?
I can’t wait to hear this one, but you had better hurry you ticker is running out of ticks!
I am sorry that you have to resort to those kind of options to try and make a point. The items you talk about are nothing that effects the customer’s perception of the car. Other than a tape deck, which caused endless problems for service departments, the CD was a Great advancement!
For the most part the customers want a car that is comfortable, quiet, and goes when they put their foot on the peddle.
For many years Automakers including GM would put the same engine and transmission in a car and change the body, the Federal Government changed that with emission controls, and when you look at those standards, they are Way out of date, but that is the Government for you.
So now instead of spending engineering money on design, we spend money on satisfying how armrests are made.
Granted people die off and another generation comes to take their place.
Keeping the “Good things” and updating others is a wonderful idea. Changing things because someone thinks a customer no longer needs it, is not the right approach.
Use Q as an example. Put it in all the cars, and force customers to take it or buy something else. Which is exactly what they did.
Had they put in as an option, everyone would have loved it and clamored for more.
It is easier to pull a rope than push one,
It seems Cadillac is trying to push a rope down the road.
Luxury car customers have the options of many different seating positions, many different steering wheel positions, use of paddle shifters or not, different “sport modes” or not. They also have various buttons on the steering wheel which are duplicated elsewhere, such as volume control. Remote controlled locking, or internal locking. Keys to open or key fob (or key fob with internal key). As far as music, even if they delete the CD option, there’s bluetooth, USB, and various external “over the air” sources.
According to you, that’s way too many choices. One choice for everyone should suit the customer base. One seating position, one way to access music, one driving mode, maybe just one type of music too (only Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Ariana Grande and other heroes of Millennials). Sounds like you would have been comfortable in the old “no choice” Soviet Union (look it up).
If I merely live to be the age of my maternal grandfather, I’ll have another 35 years of car-buying ahead of me. He had a 2 year old large luxury car when he died. I have a lot of money to spend, and I expect to have a lot more as the years go on. But I won’t be buying an Cadillacs once they have JDN’s stamp fully upon them.
As for the idea that you can sell something to young people and have them as customers for life, I don’t think so. People’s tastes can change as they mature. Many people love hot dogs and bubble gum when they are young, yet they no longer like those but like fine wine and filet mignon when they are older.
Cadillac has decided to give up it’s classic American luxury values including a 1st Class ride, with the idea that they can pursue young people’s tastes instead. The problem is, not many young people are buying Cadillacs, and Cadillac will no longer be making cars that appeal to mature tastes. Sales will nose-dive to 9th or 10th place in US luxury sales under JDN, and he’ll say “that’s great, those were wrong driveways anyway”.
It’s a shame that Cadillac has decided to cater to the Justin Bieber-loving crowd, and is eschewing the Heinrich von Biber appreciating crowd, but that’s life. I can take my dollars elsewhere, and I will. I’ll still be buying new cars long after JDN has been fired from GM, even though they seem willing to give him another 10-15 years to show positive results. I do feel bad though for the GM shareholders, who would be making a lot more profit under a different strategy.
By the way, you wrote “A old ladies opinion that is going to be in a old persons home in a few years?”, and “… you had better hurry you ticker is running out of ticks!”. Yet you also whined “Last time I check I was told we were not allowed to call people names on this site. Has the rules changed?” (September 19, 2017 at 6:58 am).
Those comments are Way off base.
None of those things are what I have been trying to tell you guys.
You have thin skins and take offense to the truth.
Just proves to me, you have no clue what our customers want.
If you did, Cadillac sales would not be sliding as they are.
I am going to enjoy watching you eat your words when in the coming years Cadillac will start climbing the sales charts. While doing it the wrong way as you say!
I used those examples because it just shows how ridiculous it is for someone to still want them. One day we will all look back at these cars and say why did we keep installing CD players in cars! What a waste!
You don’t ask old people what the future should be like, you ask that question to young people! Because they are the ones that will be here.
You have tried to come up with every excuss possible to keep them and they all have been proven to be crap reasons!
It’s time to learn how to use the new technology or you get left behind!
Brian, Cadillac’s removal of CD players in cars is a probably just a small factor in declining Cadillac sales, but as Steve pointed out it’s a symptom of Cadillac ignoring what a sizable portion of what the customers want.
Cadillac was the number 1 US luxury brand when it had its own standards, used its own naming conventions, just built great cars for Americans, regardless of what the Germans did. But starting in the 1980’s, Cadillac started looking in the rear view mirror and his been adopting piece by piece what the Germans are doing, with disastrous results every time. The V8-6-4, the Cimarron, the Catera, all disasters thanks to imitating the Germans instead of remaining true to Cadillac.
And it’s gotten worse since then, in terms of trying to imitate the Germans and sales falling further as a result. With JDN, a guy with two decades at Audi but who had very little to do with Audi’s success in the USA, has been handed the reigns at Cadillac to complete the transition into entirely a German wannabe. JDN/Cadillac now uses only letters and numbers like the Germans, instead of real names they used as a leader. JDN only wants to copy the existing German cars spec-for-spec (“proper” cars, some call them), instead of making something unique. JDN only wants RWD cars in the future, all of them “sports” riding (aka “driver’s cars). JDN is ending Cadillac’s distinct angular styling (arguably the best part of Cadillac today), in favor of bland German rounding.
In the current century, although Cadillac has reduced itself to being a shadow of what it once was in the prior century, the most successful cars have been the Escalade, the DTS, the CTS of the first two generations (the “tweener” CTS), the second generation SRX, and now the XT5 (which is essentially a continuation of the second gen SRX).
So what is it about the above models that made them sell well? The Escalade is the SUV version of the old “land yachts”, plus some angular Cadillac styling and interior touches; it also is the only Cadillac that retains a real name. The DTS was the last Cadillac sedan to fulfill the Cadillac core values, especially the roomy comfortable ride and strongly powered refined engine and smooth transmission; it’s also FWD which is favored by many people who don’t write professionally for auto blogs. The CTS of the 1st two generations was a unique “tweener” rather than a “proper” copier of German specs, plus attractive angular Cadillac styling. The third generation CTS and the first (and only) generation ATS which replaced the CTS are “proper” German spec copiers and do not sell well. The 2nd gen SRX/XT5 have attractive angular styling and FWD.
As you can see from the above 21st century success stories, none would make the cut as a new car under JDN. JDN is going to make the brand entirely a German car clone; if the Germans aren’t already doing something, he’s not going to do it either. How does that make Cadillac climb back in the sales charts? If people want a German car, they are going for a German brand. If they want a car from a leader, unfortunately that no longer includes Cadillac.
Brian there is no possible way that JDN will succeed at doing anything but driving sales lower. Obviously you are tickled that Cadillac is aiming cars at your demographic. But the fact is, there aren’t enough of you with enough money that love JDN’s Cadillac to move the needle. Cadillac is 5th and sinking. You are the one who will eat your words in the future, as Cadillac sinks further and further. You will come up with excuses and will say that JDN is really on the right track, even though he isn’t. And eventually, as you get older, wiser, and richer – you’ll buy something other than a Cadillac. Because Cadillac stopped being the classic American luxury leader, in order to pursue the Hot Wheels and bubblegum crowd.
As I’ve said before, I will not enjoy seeing the demise and death of Cadillac as a brand. But it’s clearly happening, and JDN is gleefully driving in the stake through Cadillac’s heart. The future is inevitable to anyone with even a modicum of foresight. Unfortunately wisdom tends to come only with age and experience.
If you do gain some wisdom in the future Brian, one day you’ll look back and say “Drew was so right about Cadillac, and it’s so obvious now that there was no other possibility under JDN’s direction. For now, you can imagine that I’m wrong, until time proves me right. Watch those US sales numbers and US market share numbers decline further and futher, under JDN.
You are full of it! Like I said before it’s going to be great watching you and all the others eat your words when Cadillac starts climbing the sales charts!
Just like the people who said to new Chevy full size truck would never be a sales hit! Where are those loud mouths now?
60,000 trucks a month is not to bad!
Well good lord!
Climb down off the cross, Drew, – somebody else could likely use the wood!
I bet the neighbors are just lovin’ this!!
Ps-
Checking: $42,600
Savings: $122,000
Money market: $467,800
CD 1-7 ~ combined = $52,000
LOC1: 100,000
LOC2: 100,000
LOC3: 25,000
401K: 2,475,500
Checking 2: $155,000
Savings 2: $8,900
Savings 3: $725,000
Christmas club: $ 9.75
“I am going to enjoy watching you eat your words when in the coming years Cadillac will start climbing the sales charts. While doing it the wrong way as you say!”
Lead by example. Go to your local Cadillac dealer and cut a check for your very first new Cadillac.
Ranting and raving on here does not put a penny in the Cadillac division’s till.
“I can’t wait to hear this one, but you had better hurry you ticker is running out of ticks!”
Drew is the same age as JdN. If Drew is too old for Cadillac the division chief is as well.
Try to make substantive contributions. Ranting and raving adds nothing to a discussion.
Until you spring for a new Cadillac lol
Wrong. I just delivered a young lady, a previous customer, picking up a New 2017 $85000 + Escalade, Paid Cash. She said she would not buy a car that did not have a CD player, She put in her Eagles CD that she bought at one of their concerts. She said, I love my CD’s, I do not want to get involved in copying to something else.
You guys forget, What makes for successful Sales, is: Giving the Customer What THEY want.
Not what you want. I guess that is what makes us different, I try to give the customer what they want.
When you forget that, you are done.
Great post Steve. Unfortunately JDN seems uninterested in giving Cadillac customers what THEY want, he is intent on making cars that HE likes personally. If the customers don’t like what JDN likes, then he calls them the “wrong driveways”.
Meanwhile Cadillac is headed toward 7th place in US luxury car sales, down from 5th place last year, and down from 1st place in 1998 and prior. And even that is with cars like the XT5 and XTS, which JDN has said will have no future with the brand (as both are FWD and both have angular Cadillac styling instead of German rounding).
Sounds an awful lot like Congress and their reaction to the Donald trying to drain the swamp.
Christ said a Man’s enemies would be those in his own household.
Your quoting bible verses about a car! Now this is really ridiculous
It does not matter where the quotes come from, The Bible has been a standard for wisdom and knowledge for the last 2000 years, at least for those that care to read it.
“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.” – Theodore Roosevelt
Perhaps a better example is this: Take all the Spouse’s favorite CD’s and hide them, then also take all her jewelery and hide that.
When she asks, Honey where are my CD’s?
If you reply, “I got rid of them, there is an app from the app store, that you can use.
That will save me lots of money!”
When you wake up in the ER, and your bride is standing over you smiling, asking, “Honey, Where is my jewelery?”
That answer will not fly there either.
I have the 2017 CT6 and I absolutely love it. Let me be clear,- I am a car nut. I currently own five vehicles 2011 or newer. I have three old muscle cars. In the past I’ve owned two other Cadillac’s and currently own two. My prior caddys include a 2007 Escalade and the 2007 XLR-V. I currently own the CT6, a 2017 Escalade, 2016 S63 (wife) 2011 Jeep, and 2015 F250.
Prior to the wife’s S63 she drove the 760i – 2007. My XLR was one of my all time favorite cars. So much fun, and so fast!
Anyway,- the CT6 is a fantastic vehicle which was around $75K.
Of course the wife’s S63 is also wonderful with a price tag of $118K. There are things each vehicle does exceptionally well. There are things both vehicles shine equally with. Now, specifically regarding the CT6,- during my research I was a little taken aback regarding no option of the V8. – That lasted until my test drive and now it’s a non-issue. You can switch from mode touring, sport, and weather. Two of the models are turbocharged. My V6 provides 404HP, and when in the sport mode rides like a super train on rails. My favorite things include the very impressive night vision options and the real time extended rear view mirror live feature. The vehicles technology is outstanding, and its connectivity and voice recognition is on par with all other top vehicles I’ve operated. The rear passenger doors and rear window have sliding sun visor placements. The CT6 also has heads up display with several pictorial view setting options. The vehicle has its own wireless hot spot network with capabilities of connectivity to 7 devices which is fantastic during long trips and in poor reception areas. In short- go drive the car before you open mouth and insert foot.