Cadillac is in the midst of its turnaround, and we’ll soon see the first piece of new sheet metal from the brand after GM earmarked $12 billion for its expansion. All of this comes under President Johan de Nysschen‘s watch, and he told WardsAuto in a report published last Friday that things are absolutely on track.
“Judge 2017 in the context of the long-term execution of our strategy,” the executive said.
Although last year was far from a banner year regarding sales figures, the U.S. will play a very important role in profitability. With numerous new vehicles in the pipeline, de Nysschen said global sales will likely reach 600,000 and profitability will increase by 100 percent in the U.S.
The vision is a stark contrast from the present. Cadillac delivered the fewest cars since 2012 last year. However, de Nysschen said there’s more to Cadillac’s success than just sales numbers. “The measurement of success is far more multidimensional than the sales score,” he added.
Cadillac has remained incredibly disciplined over incentive spending, which has lead to a healthy increase in residual values. Brand building is forefront, and average transaction prices have actually climbed 15 percent in the past three years. Even better news on the brand building front, the average buyer age is slowly falling into the mid-50s and out of the geriatric ward.
But, the certified pre-owned program may be the most underrated success at Cadillac. de Nysschen pointed out that Cadillac CPO sales reached 480,000 units. CPO vehicles can be a crucial entry point for buyers and is a chance to build life-long customers.
“The long-term prize is very valuable,” the executive underscored.
Comments
While I understand that Cadillac is hopefully going about it the right way this time around, their upcoming CUV lineup cannot get here soon enough for them.
It’s easy to brag about CPOs sales but that does not include the money paid out for a CPOs service contract (warranty work)…I’d imagine the average vehicle would have several thousands in repairs and in some cases, may actually lose money if say a CTS-V’s engine needs to be replaced…If that CTS-V wasn’t a CPO, JDN wouldn’t have to spend a penny to fix it…
If you can’t get at least 100,000 miles on a Cadillac without rear differential vibration, rear differential leaks like our 2014 ATS. Or engine head gasket leaks like my moms 99 Deville. And Cadillac said out of warranty sorry. Good luck, hopefully they can sell a hole lot in a short order because when they fail and they tell you “We are sorry to here that your satisfaction is very important to us”, and than do nothing, there numbers will just fall again. And I am one of those 49 year old owners. I have owned 1996 Deville Northstar 200,000+ had trouble with electrical switch stuff nothing big, My mom 1999 Deville Nothstar 95,000 Head gasket Head bolts no warranty, still have it after I installed bolt kit crap. Now still have 2004 CTS 3.6 v6 140,000+ Great car 1 coil pack 105,000 but I’m sure the timing chain is stretched I get the code once and a while. Sold this spring our 2005 SRX, AWD Northstar 140,000+ ,Great car, transfer case chain 78,000, no warranty, all 4 electronic shocks and compressor 105,000. And now 2014 ATS sits in the garage with under 100,000 rear end dripping on the floor, RH axle seal, no warranty. “O” yeah my moms brother, my uncle, now drives Mercedes. His son, my cousin, Audi, My sister Lincoln, my nephew BMW. We were all GM owners. Customer Service you get it yet. Owner Loyalty. Do something.
“Even better news on the brand building front, the average buyer age is slowly falling into the mid-50s and out of the geriatric ward”
So I guess the age of the buyer matters so much. I always learned that money was money. Saying that’s like saying “buyers are slowly becoming more and more light skinned and poor people are buying fewer cars”. How screwed up is that?! Personally I wouldn’t give 2 shits how old the other guy in the showroom was, as long as he was actually buying a car and not just playing around, and buying some cheap, old used car like most kids do nowadays.
GM has the cash, they should have simply bought out/settled with many of the smaller dealers. They have way too many dealers to consistently offer the type of service and attention to detail demanded by luxury vehicle buyers. One of the big things is….time. Luxury buyers value their time as much as anything else.
The other thing is how painfully slow GM/Cadillac moves with regard to new products. The XT4 should be at dealers right now, same with the 3 row CUV? XT6? Why does it take so long? A few years ago, the BK was a valid excuse, but that event is soon going to be 10 years ago!
I agree somewhat, The small dealer just can’t hire the quality tech. But if GM would have any support behind that, you know call someone who knows, it would work. You are absolutely correct on the value of time, I will get my recall work done on me $70,000 Denali 2500HD, when I get my oil changed not an extra visit, It is my time.
I currently own my 15th and 16th Cadillacs, a 2017 CTS 3.6 Luxury and a 2017 XT5 Platinum, both have been excellent and flawless since the day we picked them up from Davis Chevrolet Cadillac. Davis is an excellent Dealership here in Gainesville, Florida. I have loved each and every one of my Cadillacs including a 1997 Catera and a 1988 Allante. I also had a couple of Coupe Devilles, Sevilles, CTSs, SRXs and an El Dorado…All GREAT Cars. My issue is with Advertising. If Cadillac doesn’t advertise they won’t sell cars. The best selling cars in this country are the ones that advertise the most. Its marketing 101. Mr Ellinghaus didn’t get…I hope his replacement does.
YES, YES, YES, Susan you get a prize. The coffin nail was GM/Cadillac customer service. Their function is to back up any lying service manager. And I’m glad it has only happened to me once. Flat out Lying. GM should find out the truth and it shall set you free. Not even a bad dealer but just a bad Service Manager. You know one of those who knows NOTHING about a vehicle just $$$$$. FrankR I too have loved each and every one of my Cadillacs, and they are all great cars. Its the Customer Service By GM that is terrible. Why do they even give you a number to call, they never do anything NOTHING. Frank I am curious on how many miles the average one had at the time you changed it. Let see 70 years old 2 of you 4.37 years per car etc. my main question is did you run any out of warranty, or trade every 36,000 to 40,000 miles. I asked the Cadillac dealer when we were getting rid of our 2005 SRX AWD and getting our 2014 ATS AWD. “Do you think the transfer case chain will go out on this ATS around the same time as our SRX” (78,000). He replied “Well we just haven’t seen any transfer case chains go out”. And I replied. “That’s because all the cars on your lot only have 36,000 to 50,000 miles on them”. My point is I am simply not going to spend $70,000 for a Vehicle I can drive only 36,000 miles.
Lying service managers/advisors can be found at almost every dealership…Ha ha
A message for JDN ,
The only way you are going to get the American market to help you sell more cars is to build what this country wants and quit looking to see if it will also sell in China . I realize you want to be a global car company but you have neglected your home market to a point that even though you have you new products in the pipeline do you think you will be able to bring in new customers if they don’t even know they exist .
I would go to places on the internet like YouTube and look at some of the comments made on Cadillac , It’s disturbing to see how alot of people look at Cadillac as an old mans car , even your top luxury car the CT6 is looked at as an older persons car but give high marks for the car you want to get rid of the XTS .
Soon you will have to find a Marketing Officer to replace Ellinghous ( who I hope gets well soon ) and what your first question should be if this new person knows anything about what American’s expect from our countries luxury brand . Does the person know Cadillacs history and what it was that gave they division of GM the title as ” World Class ” and what do you need to do to regain that title .
Americans want nothing more than to see Cadillac start to build high quality cars with their own styling and the latest in technology that you can claim is an industry first .
You had a 12 billion dollar budget and I hope you saved some of that cash to advertise your new products , this is where you should Dare to be Great again .
Gm ‘s marking stinks when was the last time you saw a GM advertisement were it explained great aspects about the models . look what happened to Oldsmobile when the commercial was ( this is not your fathers Oldsmobile ) —-a good commercial had to dropped because not all Chevys are not built in the USA –wasn’t that a proud statement ( see the USA in your Chevrolet )
Not everyone watch’s TV commercials, though…
Ya know for some reason, a lot of my Cadillac comments are not posting…
“Even better news on the brand building front, the average buyer age is slowly falling into the mid-50s and out of the geriatric ward”
So I guess the age of the buyer matters so much. I always learned that money was money. Saying that’s like saying “buyers are slowly becoming more and more light skinned and poor people are buying fewer cars”. How screwed up is that?! Personally I wouldn’t give 2 shits how old the other guy in the showroom was, as long as he was actually buying a car and not just playing around, and buying some cheap, old used car like most kids do nowadays.
Truth of the matter is, Cadillac is building engaging cars now. I see all age groups driving Cadillacs who are old enough to pass a license and have enough dough to buy them from ATS to Escalade.
People are forgetting that the older buyers are not going to be doing frequent buying especially since the car is the second most expensive thing on the budget on the backside of the house. Second, the older buyer is dying off.
I don’t see what was wrong with the comment from Cadillac stating half of younger buyers driving Cadillacs.
WTF, why are all of my comments “awaiting moderation”?