Cadillac dealerships are finally starting to feel optimistic about the future. A handful of dealers spoke to Automotive News in a Sunday report and said the most-recent dealer meeting in Las Vegas showed more optimism than ever.
Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen was on hand at the meeting and took in additional concerns surrounding the Project Pinnacle dealership restructuring, but many issues have already been ironed out. Dealers have begun to embrace the program after growing pains.
Will Churchill, head of the Cadillac National Dealer Council, said there were some “congratulations going on,” something that hasn’t happened in awhile, he said.
“There’s this little bit of optimism that’s creeping into the Cadillac dealer body,” he added. By no means did de Nysschen or dealers claim victory, but Churchill also said, “it’s nice to have a little bit of wind forming at your back.”
The luxury brand will launch the 2019 Cadillac XT4 this fall, which marks the first new vehicle for the brand in years—and a crucial one, at that. Cadillac has missed out on the crossover market in recent years as the 2018 XT5 props sales up in the United States. Cadillac will also launch the refreshed 2019 CT6 and CT6 V-Sport in early 2019. Next year, we should see two more new Cadillacs as part of the brand’s product offensive.
By 2022, Cadillac should offer four crossover, three sedans and the next-generation Cadillac Escalade.
Comments
I think what you will find is they are happy with the stability they have seen for the last few years. It is giving them a line of products they really needed and with a cohesive vision vs. the past how many years at Cadillac.
For so long Cadillac has been under the thumb of the board. Every Time they tried to fix issues the board stepped In and cut the cost to where they never got much accomplished.
Because of that the leadership of Cadillac had been a revolving door.
It got so bad that Mark Ruess stepped in and had to take over the CT6 and even he was beat down by the board and made to do many compromised on the car he did not want.
This lead to the bringing in a new guy who is not intimidated by the board and a non lifer at GM who has history he has to worry about protecting at the company. It also was why they were given the space by moving to NYC to cut the board just dropping in when ever.
It also has given them their own staff to design and engineer products just for Cadillac and no more working on a Cruze on Monday and CTS on Friday.
These are all thinks that are giving hope and should show better results. It is still too early to predict how well and how fast the changes will be made. It takes time to win the hearts and soul of customers in a tough segment. Cadillac just needs to keep beating on the door with good product and continue to refine it till it is the best with no compromises.
The product we should get to should easily show why the 80’s and 90’s Cadillac was a failure.
What you describe also demonstrates how much of a Mickey Mouse organization existed within GM. This is not how the Germans run their luxury brands and that’s why they dominate worldwide while Cadillac has a measly 3% world market share.
Yes things got really bad at all parts of GM. The problems began to compound and leaders waffled or just were not permitted to do as they should.
Read the Book by Lutz Car Guys and Bean Counters as it is a fair peak at some of the stupidity and disconnect that was going on.
The bail out was really a blessing when the truth be told. It cleaned house of Flawed people, thinking, systems and product. But it still takes time to recover and money.
The Germans have always had their ways and they have at times struggled like at VW at times.
As for Cadillac they will grow in share but they will never be a major volume player in the global market. Nor should they be. Companies like BMW and Benz need to be as they have limited divisions. GM on the other hand has Chevy, Buick, GMC, Holden and others to carry the load.
Cadillac is add on profits. Sell lower volume models at higher prices to pad the profits. That is the goal of a Luxury brand. They do not and should not rely or even consider fleet sales to be taxis in the third world and police cars as the Germans are forced to do.
Cadillac needs to focus on what they need to be and that is the world standard be it a CUV or luxury sedan.
With GM being out of Europe, they are left to being US centric and their partnership in China which dilutes profits.
Cadillac is far, far from being the standard of the world. They are much closer to being insignificant.
JD’s been there how long?? Still last in almost every quality survey. They have nowhere to go but up. It blows your mind when a $25,000 car has better quality than a $65,000 car.
JDN has been here almost 5 years.
If one would take note it takes 5 years min to bring out new products. We are now just starting to see the new product.
Only an idiot would invest in flawed cars and take needed revenue from the products that really matter.
The money invested into the ATS and CTS would never be made back and the hundreds of millions would do more good in a totally new carlike the CT5.
Only a fool would spend money on a dead horse. Take that money for the vet and spend it on a new horse.
Only a crook would continue to sell flawed cars to customers who are acting in good faith.
The dealers should be happy! Cadillac is going to take over the luxury car world! People just don’t want to wait for the process to be completed!
Maybe in the virtual reality world. Lol
The people don’t want Cadillac.