Cadillac continuously says it won’t chase the German luxury recipe for success and the move to New York City freed the brand of various General Motors shackles. But, Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen doesn’t discredit German luxury brands for their success. In fact, he acknowledges their focus and says it’s something Cadillac needs to hone.
The boss at GM’s luxury division spoke with Car and Driver about the German standards set in the luxury automotive space and says much of their fortune comes from greater autonomy from parent companies. ” Their luxury brands have the benefit of focus. That’s all they did. Over the decades, one really saw that focus in Mercedes, BMW, and, in later years, Audi, when it was given a lot of autonomy within VW Group,” he said.
Although Cadillac doesn’t want to be a German copycat, he admits Cadillac wants to take a page from the Germans’ focus.
“That focus is what we’re trying to emulate here at Cadillac. The German brands haven’t had the distractions of also having to deal with the demands and intricacies of mainstream customers and the competitive cost pressures and different product attributes.”
He added the geographic separation between GM and Cadillac is necessary to “get Cadillac firing on all cylinders.”
“If we didn’t create geographic separation, I’m afraid we’d face the consequences I saw earlier in my career, which is that nothing changes. The meetings stay the same; the people in the meetings stay the same; and, guess what? The decisions and outcomes stay the same.”
Cadillac will introduce its first all-new car under de Nysschen next year with the XT4 crossover. de Nysschen previously stated the XT4 will wear Cadillac’s refined design language, likely akin to the Escala concept vehicle. In the future, Cadillac will introduce two new products every year through 2020.
Comments
Focus is important here as JDN has repeated this.
He again clearly states why they moved Cadillac to give them the Autonomy they need to focus on making their own decisions.
We will see over time the changes needed at Cadilkac to let them operate as their own brand vs the gussied up Buick they had become.
The focus he speaks of is the designs crafted br stylist dedicated to Cadillac. The Engines we will see in time dedicated to Cadillac.
The decisions that need to be made by the dedicated staff at Cadillac not the GM board.
This is the deal the Chevy LT engine is a great engine but could and should Cadillac not create and have something better? Same goes right down to simple things like door handles etc.
The CT4 is only the first step to get some of the changes. We have more changes to come with each model.
The only thing we will see shared over time will be platform basics and systems that are not seen.
Time for the critics to really get what the message of Focus really means.
And that’s all I ask for out of Cadillac! NOT to emulate German products by solely benchmarking their driving characteristics, but to emulate their drive, focus and passionate approach to engineering and developing the best luxury products they can! While still maintaining their uniqueness and individuality within the market! Be THE alternative to the Germans, not an “American take on already-established luxury products!” Show the world that America can be competitive in the market by playing on its strengths!
I’m most certainly all for Cadillac to be autonomous from its corporate parent, and to maintain that separation as they continue to bring new products to the market!
JDN does not focus on the weaknesses of the German brands, their complexity.
Owners of these high end brands are almost scared to own them past their warranties because of the problems that occur. A remarkable portion of a Mercedes-Benz is classified as a “wear” part that MB cheerfully advises an owner to replace, at a cost obviously. The end result is high depreciation.
As Cadillac heads towards a subscription type of usage, should they not go further and offer an extended warranty and or service arrangement that would allow Cadillac to advertise that they have confidence in the longevity of their products? Sure the first owners may not retain the vehicle long enough to benefit from these warranties or service contracts, but it shows confidence in the product.
I think what you miss is this. European cars often have been high strung and high maintenance in some models but in others they have been just change the tires add new brake pads and go $200k with little drama.
The cost of any repair is expensive just because they can get it.
GM as a whole generally run forever. Sure they may have random issues but they keep on running. Any high school parking lot will bare this out.
Depreciation on all these cars are poor due to cost to operate but also because many lose interest if it is not the latest model since most are purchases as a status symbols not just transportation only.
The truth is adding a longer. Warranty is not going to be cheap and it will not add enough sales in this low volume segment to pay for it.
Better just to take the money and use it to just invest in better parts for the car in the first place.
So many of these cars are leased anyways.
Now where a warranty might better serve is at Chevy in the cars that people have less income to spend on repair and really need the high trade value to replace it.
Cadillac is going to dominate the luxury market
From your mouth to gods ears!
Next year, right?
Always next year.
p a t h e t i c