Following tweaks to Project Pinnacle for 2018, dealerships are beginning to embrace the dealer overhaul program, first announced in 2016 by Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen.
Automotive News reported on Monday that after years of growing pains, the structure is starting to settle.
“I think it’s settled in, and I think it’s becoming a way of business now,” Will Churchill, dealer principal at Frank Kent Cadillac in Fort Worth, Texas, said.
He said dealers have stopped fighting the program and have begun to figure out how Project Pinnacle works best for them. However, the changes for 2018 eased many qualms dealers had. The smallest Cadillac dealerships are not required to include virtual reality showrooms and can keep physical inventory on hand; dealers do not have to provide 24-hour roadside assistance and do not have to work with brand reputation consultants.
Other areas the 2018 requirements tweaked were customer satisfaction indexes and retail sales objectives.
Although dealers are growing accustomed to the structure, 2018 will likely be another tough year. The 2019 Cadillac XT4 won’t roll out until late this year, which means the greater majority of 2018 will see an identical Cadillac lineup at dealerships. It’s especially difficult for some dealers as consumers move to more crossovers and away from sedans.
Comments
“Brand Reputation Consultants”
Have you seen the news on Cambridge Analytica lately? How they follow your cookies into every single aspect of your life?
Why are you only learning of data mining and predictive custom user algorithms now and not 5 years ago? You think Google and Apple aren’t mining consumer data to custom tailor a user experience that makes them more likely to buy something?
Way to be asleep at the wheel.
While I totally agree that this has been ongoing for years, in your examples I think you need to actually read both terms of service. One of those companies is far, far more intent on keeping data private and secure than the other.
Not a good photo. It shows the orange peel in the paint.
Not the photo that’s the problem. The should never be orange peel paint on Cadillacs or any other GMproduct for that matter.
Concept car. Not production. It may be clay underneath that.
Can’t even blame it on an old badge & wreath vehicle – that’s a new(er) one, showing early signs of cellulite.
Please bring back the names, no one without a Cadillac list has a clue what all the letters are for, even Lincoln is switching back. Same goes for Acura, the Legend, Integra, etc, were all good names and people knew what cars were attached to them.
I’ll save you the trouble. Cadillac has had more ordered and logical hierarchy names for far longer than they have had ‘names’.
Every human on Earth (yes, even you) is hardwired to see the obvious numerical difference between an XT4 and an XT5. The difference between 4 and 5 tells you one number is larger than the other and therefore the two Cadillacs are different in size, with one being larger than the other. You don’t even need to see them to know that there is a size difference between the two.
You don’t even need a ‘Cadillac list’. All you need to know is how to count from 1 to 10.
And I wouldn’t use Lincoln as a yard stick to measure Cadillac by. Pricing themselves beneath Cadillac is not something to emulate or uphold as earth shattering.
And don’t make up crap about Acura reusing old names again.
Yeah, but is a CT6 bigger or smaller than a CTS? Is an XTS a car or an SUV? Why is there an Escalade? Shouldn’t it be an XT7?
Their naming scheme does not make sense anymore and the names are totally confusing. Everyone knows what an Escalade is. Names are much easier to remember.
There is nothing confusing. The three letter models will go away in favor of alphanumeric successors.
People by now should know which vehicle is which and have a better understanding the hierarchy with future models.
The Luxury leaders rarely use regular names…
Whether the next full size sedan debuts as the “CT8” or “Escala”, it’ll have nearly zero impact on sales…
I’d like to hear from former SRX owners who got stuck with the stripped down, problematic XT5. I personally detest mine and many of the issues with it are not fixed, I just receive excuses from service writers.
2009 or 2010 SRX
2010, 2012 and a 2015.
Right or wrong, GM Corp hired JDN who convinced him on his vision to elevate the Caddy brand…Right or wrong JDN is implementing his vision, he moved Caddy to NYC, he implemented Pinnacle no almost no one likes as even the comment from the dealer above wasn’t exactly a positive one…Continuing on this trajectory has and will continue to have an affect on sales as evident by the GMA story here: http://gmauthority.com/blog/2018/01/nearly-half-of-cadillac-dealers-sold-less-than-50-cars-last-year/
Yet there’s one angle that few consider which was just reiterated today, JDN main focus is global, not the states…While JDN and small dealers battle over providing 24 road side assistance, Caddy just announced a $12B investment to expand globally…Was stated “new dealers will include a highly trained staff, luxury amenities and ways to better service current customers in the future.”. This is why JDN is keeping the sedan ratio higher than the US market, this is why the Escala that very few was green lighted…JDN would most likely be happier if one Escala was sold versus a dozen base XT4s…
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2018/03/new-cadillac-showrooms-coming-to-middle-east-as-part-of-global-expansion/
Went Cadillac does get a full line of crossovers sales will rise, global and here in these states. How would they sale more Crossover’s/car’s in these states and globally went they don’t have any yet ? These escala is Cadillac flagship/supercar. CT6,CT5,CT4,CT3, CT7 (Coupe), XT3,XT4,XT5,XT6,XT7,XT8. (XT5-next gen RWD/AWD), ( XT6-next gen RWD/AWD), XT7/XT8/-RWD/AWD.