The number of Cadillac dealers in the U.S. has shrunk considerably in the last few years, with 564 dealer locations currently, as compared to 921 dealer locations four years prior.
During a recent media presentation, Cadillac stated that there are now 564 dealerships across the country, all of which will be “EV ready” as the brand moves towards offering a fully electric lineup by 2030.
Cadillac has undergone significant dealership restructuring efforts as of late as it makes the transition to all-electric powertrains. To that end, Cadillac previously required that dealers invest some $200,000 towards things like on-site vehicle charging stations, new tooling, service upgrades, cosmetic enhancements, and training for sales and service staff.
Alternatively, dealers who opted not to upgrade for the EV transition were offered a buyout package said to amount between $300,000 to nearly $1 million. Back in 2020, roughly 150 U.S. retailers dumped the Cadillac brand in the U.S. in order to avoid the costly upgrades associated with selling and supporting an all-electric vehicle portfolio. Some dealers reported low customer interest in EV products, including some dealers located in more rural areas.
The first all-electric Cadillac to market will be the new Cadillac Lyriq crossover. Specs for the new Lyriq include a single rear-mounted electric motor incorporating GM’s Ultium Drive technology and producing 340 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque. Providing the electrons is the GM Ultium 100kWh lithium-ion battery pack, with range per charge estimated around 300 miles. Under the skin is the GM BEV3 platform.
Pricing for the new Cadillac Lyriq starts at just under $60,000. Production of the luxury crossover is underway now at the GM Spring Hill plant in Tennessee.
General Motors has plans to launch 30 new EV models globally by 2025, with investments totaling some $35 billion for new electric vehicle and autonomous vehicle technologies.
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Comments
The incredibly shrinking GM. Watch closely before it disappears completely.
GM’s market share has already dipped to 13.5%!! Ok, I admit it is prudent to trim some market share to make the company run more efficiently, However, a 20 point drop since 2000 is unacceptable. As early as 2020 GM had a 17.0 % US market share. How do you lose a 2.5% market share in just 2 years! You accomplish this by trimming nearly 250,000 passenger car sales and then replacing them with slow-selling EVs.
I never thought I would see the day GM’s market share was under 15%. This is roughly what Chrysler’s market share was in the mid-70s.
Andrew,
Wow. Only 13 percent market share. Unbelievable. I remember when all the GM execs wore “29” lapel pins to remind them of the company’s goal to get back to 29 percent market share. They’d been at 50 percent in the 1980-timeframe and it had declined down to 27 or so but GM was supposedly fully committed to a corporate goal of getting back to 29.
I honestly thought they were still at 17 percent but with all the vehicles dropped except the big trucks/SUVs, and crossovers and a few low-volume models like the Camaro, it’s not surprising that their share has fallen another 4 percent.
I don’t think the American public is going to bail them out again. If the big EV gamble doesn’t immediately result in big sales/profits and if high gas prices curtail demand for big SUVs, I don’t see a path forward for lowercase gm other than perhaps a merger. After the American people bailed them out and lost $11.5 billion, we should’ve insisted on new leadership. We’ve got two gm lifers (Mark and Mary) running things and both apparently learned well from their predecessors how to fail.
Ci, you and C8 go on and on and on! Obviously you two are retired, as I and have plenty of time on your hands? I loved the 80’s and the 70’s, but seriously living in the past is an exercise in futility. As is hoping the GM will see the error of their ways. Have you considered starting a support group? See J Lo’s other article about GM’s stock, down, down, down! And the hit’s just keep coming!
Why don’t the three of you buy Cadillac, maybe then I’ll get my CT5?
Seriously you guys are trip! You, C8 and David Alan are deep, I can’t believe how involved you guys are in something that you can’t control or do sh*t about. You guys go on and on, whatever!
Yet Lexus with less deals still managed to move more vehicles with less dealers. “GM Lovers” talk about the company shrinking but keep forgetting the company BKed with more vehicles being sold at the time. With that I noticed the recovery of Cadillacs sold as the chip shortage wares off.
I would love to know why you think a luxury automaker having 921 dealerships in one market is a good thing. Keep in mind, some of these jettisoned dealerships sold a handful of vehicles each year.
There seems to be more Caddy dealerships than there are Caddys for sale.
Now I know why Cadillac sales and market share is at an all-time low. Even Acura is selling more cars. Cadillac is not long for this world. The Lyriq will sell just as poorly as the overpriced Hummer EV.
They keep thinning the herd trying to only end up with the best in their transition. Hopefully it doesn’t get them so thin it does them in.
The disappearing dealerships isn’t gm thinning the herd, but maybe they tell themselves that.
It’s dealers wanting to sell cars that people actually buy, so they switch brands.
When you cannot easily beat Infiniti and Acura in sales you know you have big problems. Barra and GM management created this problem and they have nobody to blame but themselves. The stock market is finally waking up to GM’s EV shenanigans and its stock price is declining accordingly. Morgan Stanley recently downgraded GM’s stock for the reasons mentioned here.
What is worst is that GM has now fallen behind Toyota in domestic sales. It is getting so bad that I find it hard to even follow GM news stories.
This is a nightmare!
How did it go so wrong?
Is China in control of GM?
GM in general had too many dealers for decades. They end up competing against each other and end up hurting each other’s.
In most markets there are 3 Chevy dealers or more per Toyota. Same applies to Benz, or BMW vs Cadillac.
GM tried before the bail out to cut dealers, during the bail out they tried to cut dealers and today they are still working to remove weak dealers.
This will be very important for Cadillac as they need dealers willing to invest and handle the new EV products with the trained staff and correct equipment. If a bunch of dealers do this half hearted and do not invest properly the programs will fail.
To do this tight they need less dealers and ones profitable enough to afford the service and treatment the customers should be getting at this price point.
Too many Cadillac dealers were just add on dealers to a Chevy dealer and these customer were short changed on the experience they should be getting.
Removing dealers is very expensive and difficult. That is why it has taken so long.
The too many dealers was not just a GM opinion but the market experts have for years stated they needed to cut dealers nearly in half.
You have to realize bigger is not always better anymore. Things need to be right sized.
Just the same with all the divisions. Today 2-3 divisions are what most companies run not 7 that GM was doing when they went broke.
Times change as do market plans. The Sloan era is dead.
C8.R.
Your argument does have merit. But the reality is that Cadillac is struggling now. In fact struggling like White Motor. Both were king of the hill at one time. I see several parallels. Bunkie Knudsen tried to save White Motor after Henry Ford II fired him.
You need a person like Lee Ioccocca at the controls of GM. Not Mary Barra an electrical engineer.
I personally have a gut wrenching knot in my stomach about Cadillac’s and GM’s future. I see a merger with a foreign automaker imminent.
Your thoughts?
This is not my argument it is what has been stated and has been being done.
White motors was a whole different product in a much different era.
Mary is the best they have had and who we got. The Lido’s just don’t come around often.
Mary generally know the balance and has been given the task of moving EV.
My expectation is that GM for once is leading the Change in the market and is doing it well funded for once.
In the past GM made all their changes under funded like in the 80’s the move to FWD. they had too many divisions and generally delivered a number of cars that were under whelming, under developed and were nearly all the same.
When it came to the tough decisions no one would make them.
The truth is the two companies best positioned for the EV move from ICE is GM and VW.
Toyota will catch up but they are behind with the late move to EV.
Stellantis Has the product but is weighed down with Fiat issues.
Nearly everyone else is looking for partners.
We will see more mergers and some failures but GM will be one to make it as long as they execute the new products with no major hiccups.
Even Lee had more failures than successes. The Pinto, Granada, the TBird lost its way. The K car was a mess only saved by the mini van. Chrysler for the most was only saved by their trucks and Jeep. Yet they were still sold off twice since the bail out while GM invested in the future.
While we the enthusiast may not like what is going on GM is right where everyone is attempting to go and they are equipped to do it on their own.
Toyota got where they are with good, safe and reliable vehicles. None were that exciting but it was what people want and will buy.
Hyundai never really did anything exciting but they grew on price even with out great reliability.
Like it or not Mary and Mark have had to clean up 60 years of poor management. Things were bad long ago but they were so large it took half a century to fail.
Imagine if they had taken the wasted money from Saturn, Pontiac, Olds, and Buick since 1980 and used it to make Chevy and Cadillac what they really could have been vs just one more badge engineered model?
To add to that Saturn was supposed to fold into Oldsmobile. GM made a lot of silly decisions in December 2000, the biggest ones were Olds was to be cut and the Sigma platform was to be Cadillac only instead of Olds, Caddy, Buick and Holden originally.
Saturn originally was to be an independent company from GM but that never happened.
Olds had one car by mid 80’s that sold and that was the RWD Cutlass. They killed it for the Corporate FWD and killed the company. They even named three cars Cutlass of some kind and fooled no one.
Pontiac was originally set to die but the sales of the Grand Am gave them a reprieve and moved the target to Olds.
GM had no clue what yo do with these divisions and no real money to let them be more than a styling exercise. Imagine that wasted money going into Chevy and making a Monte Carlo that really was worth a crap. Or even something better than the Lumina?
Better yet a Mini Van in that era that someone really wanted. Boring but profitable cars that left a ton on the table.
Imagine if they took that money and Made Cadillac back then that was not just another corporate chassis. The STS was not as good as we like to remember it. It needed AWD and RWS on its in platform with a DOHC V8 that had proper development.
Much of the better styling at Pontiac could easily have had Chevy badges with a slight grill change.
C8.R,
How can they have profitable dealers with no vehicles to sell that the public wants. If I were a Cadillac dealer and offered the chance to bail and get paid for it, I would. The brand has no future. They may keep it around so as to sell “American luxury cars” to the Chinese, as they’ve done with Buick, but the comeback we’ve all long hoped for here isn’t happening. I think everyone needs to accept that.
First Cadillac has committed to the EV future. The ICE models are just to keep them viable till they get their dedicated products.
Will the new products do it? Don’t know. I feel they can do better than Tesla as Tesla lacks styling and quality of materials.
Let’s face it if Tesla was ICE would anyone care?
We to this point know little of what is coming so we will all see it in the next 10 years and the market will decide.
Tesla was the first but they never set the bar high. GM has the scale to bring more models to the market in 3 years than Tesla has since they started.
GM must make sure they do not have any mistakes or failures that could brand all their products that are coming. This challenge will face all automakers as this change is a reset for all.
Being committed to the EV future just makes them another car company like all the rest.
Too many people aren’t going to care what they make because they are too busy buying cars somewhere else.
Nate you are missing that every mfg is going EV. Some may hit hybrid on the way but they are all committed in the major mfg segment to being EV in about 20 year.
There is little option staying ICE as the cars you can offer will not be what people want do to small engines and very small cars.
No one will be offering a Hemi V8 full size sedan.
“Nate you are missing that every mfg is going EV. ”
I literally already said that.
The Hemi is already being replaced by a twin turbo straight six. One that is planned to be hybrid in the future.
That will be replaced with a EV. It is not a long term solution. Also it will only hit a couple vehicles with RWD.
Stellantis is one of the biggest investors in EV
Note the In line will be in an HD truck that will be one of the last ICE vehicles years from not. GM Also has not stated the date of the last ICE truck yet have they?
This EV thing for GM is a do or die thing. Mary Barra and Mark Reuss have the entire company bet on EV acceptance and Brandon getting re elected. This to me is dangerous gut wrenching sleepless nights corporate planning.
If the power players can rig the 2024 national election which is plausible like they did in 2000, all will be well.
Barra and Reuss in the meantime must have cast iron stomachs.
The 2000 national election was a masterpiece in planning and rigging. I’m banking that the executive suite in Ren Center knows a whole lot more than us minnions.
David it is donor die for all. Each mfg is in the same boat and will be judge on how they execute the change over.
Matters little what they did but what you do now.
I suspect the move by Honda to use GM platforms on their new CUV models is an endorsement of GM’s coming engineering. They could have partnered with anyone but they chose GM.
C8.R
As Lido stated in his book, Honda was his favorite automaker. Honda is exceptional and stellar in all products they produce. From autos, lawnmowers, rototillers, generator sets, etc. Their small gasoline engines are the power unit of choice for OEMs making small construction and industrial equipment. Remember their CVCC engine? This drove Richard Gerstenberg nuts. The Honda Accord is the vehicle of choice for theft. Wonder why?
GM has a lot of learning and homework to do.
You, Ci2Eye and myself should visit Ren Center directly, all together, on a gratis basis produce a white paper together, gratis, and provide perspective and guidance to Mary and Mark to help GM in it’s objectives. All I want is a couple of hours with them and a cup of coffee. I’ll wear my best jeans, flannel shirt and cowboy boots.
As a group we will do GM and America proud. Also to do my Dad RIP, proud, who was a total patriot and who fought in New Guinea and the Phillipines during World War II.
How bout it Mary, Mark, C8.R and Ci2Eye? Are all you guys game? Lemme know.
BTW: In my opinion Toyota is the smartest and savviest automaker on the planet. My first car in 1968 was a Toyota Corona Mark II with an 8RC engine. This choice was after evaluating the Vega and Pinto for my college campus car at the University of Cincinnati. Alma mater of Pete Estes RIP.
And Honda is slowly sliding the small engine market as small engines for Amy things like lawn equipment are regulated out.
If you think you could tell Nary s thing or two have st it and leave me out.
She can also supply you with stacks of issues that she has to deal with that you are not even aware of.
You vastly underestimate all that goes into running GM and if it were all that easy then why have we had 60 years of failed leadership? Ford and Chrysler have not done much Better with market change’s.
Back to the dealers look at the numbers and if you can’t see that Cadillac needs 1/3 the dealers they have then you just don’t get where the market is today.
Dealers selling 60 cars is no way to run a franchise. Cadillac should not be add on sales for a dealer. This shows it is not their priority or the customer is going to be a priority.
Someone’s living in a dream world, cowboy! You think Ci, C8?
Some folks just only know what they know.
Cadillac only sells 150,000 vehicles a year in the US. They simply cannot afford to lose any more dealerships. The Camry alone outsells the entire Cadillac division by nearly a 3 to 1 margin. Cadillac will probably sell 3000 to 5000 Lyriq’s this year, which will do very little to help the brand’s current sales dilemma.
It just gets worse every year.
It is not the number of dealer you hav3 but the number of cars each dealer sells.
Just how many dealers do you need?
You do not need a Cadillac dealer on each corner. You need them regional.
The BMW Group sales organization is represented in the U.S. through networks of 348 BMW passenger car and BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers, 145 BMW motorcycle retailers, 121 MINI passenger car dealers, and 38 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers.
There are 383 Mercedes Benz locations in the United States as of March 29, 2022. The state with the most number of Mercedes Benz locations in the US is California, with 49 locations, which is 12% of all Mercedes Benz locations in America.
There are 244 Lexus locations in the United States as of March 21, 2022. The state with the most number of Lexus locations in the US is California, with 39 locations, which is 15% of all Lexus locations in America.
Jaguar The company employs almost 38,000 people globally, with 330 in the U.S. they do not even list the number of dealers.
There are 116 Maserati locations in the United States as of March 23, 2022.
Audi has more than 280 dealerships in the United States
Bentley began 2020 on a roll after 11,006 vehicles were sold in 2019, 2,913 of them in the 50-plus dealerships in the United States, Bentley’s No. 1 market.
Lincoln now has about 1,100 U.S. dealers including in smaller markets.
Cadillac currently operates 924 dealerships across the United States; 463 dealers sold less than 50 cars.
The key is location, location, location. The dealers need to be regional in areas where they are needed. Many small markets selling less than 50 cars are more a liability than a benefit. Most buyers will travel to get the car if they want one.
Take an area like Cleveland, Akron, Canton and Youngstown Ohio. There are 3-5 dealers in each city and none are great as none sell a ton of Cadillacs. A region dealer in the area would be strong and sell just as many or more cars by delivering better service and facilities. Many of these dealers are in the same building or lot as a Chevy dealer.
As you can see Ford has the same issue with a Lincoln.
Part of the deal with luxury is to deliver an element of exclusivity but still enough volume to make money.
You guys can complain about the number of Cadillac dealers but the numbers above are proof they have too many dealers and don’t need that many dealers.
Now ask your self what kind of service are you going to get at a one of 380 Cadillac dealer vs a Chevy dealer selling 50 or less Cadillacs. Will Benz, BMW or Audi in their regional dealers give a much better experience and will they prove to be more profitable vs splitting the sales 6 ways to Sunday with so many other dealers.
Cadillac got rid of their best asset – the vPerformanceLabs and associated marketing events.
I attended one by invite a few years ago, got to drive the (then new) CTS-V and ATS-V. That event still rings true in my mind as a great event for GM and the brand.
I’ve also attended driving events for Porsche and will soon for Lexus. There’s no better way to connect customers or potential customers with your brand than to put them on a track, give them instruction, and have them feel your products in person.
As far as the sales network, GM should try to mirror Lexus for Cadillac, and probably GMC as well (given their price points). I paid double for 2 GMC trucks that my wife paid for her Lexus, and the experience in buying, service, and general brand engagement couldn’t be more different. When we replace her car in a couple years, we won’t even consider another brand but Lexus. I did try to get her into a Cadillac XT5, but she wisely vetoed that choice after a dealership visit.
Lexus that is fine. 244 dealers is a bit low but a marked difference from 900 plus.
As for the clinics. Cadillac. Sells about every v series they can build now. The trouble is selling the rest of the products.
Also I have been invited and attended a number of different clinics. Like most I had fun but never rushed out to buy a specific vehicle due to these events.
Add the car shortages and bad economy companies in general cut back on these.
Cadillac is entering Hyper car in Europe to restart there with Electrics. This will be a reset for everyone and may be their best shot if they get it right this time. Will they? Not sure as we know too little of what they plan to do yet.
GM US is following the path of two former #1 General Motors subsidiaries: Opel & Holden. They once outsold rivals, brought in boat loads of cash with Opel saving the Company in the 1990s yet due to poor planning, cost cutting, and a refusal to match rival’s offerings they are gone.
GM’s fall to Toyota in the US was a long time coming and can only partially be blamed on chips or Barra’s focus on margins. Next FoMoCo will surpass GM in sales because, while nearly tied in profits, they focus on more than truck based SUVs and lead with Explorer, Bronco Sport & Bronco.
GM operates 4 brands, offers the equivalent of Traverse, Nox, Tahoe under four name plates yet only make a couple hundred million than Ford yearly which points to GM being a distressed OEM.
Cadillac has a lot of dealers left over from an era when they were the most popular luxury make in America and could sell over 375,000 units per year. It was also a time when the mega-dealer model wasn’t in existence and instead a coast-coast network was favored where a smaller dealer was always nearby. Cars today are far more reliable and need much less attention but at one time traveling across the county in a Cadillac with its vast network of dealers to attend to any service needs was reassuring.
I don’t disagree that they have too many stores for today but how low should they go? As I see it, at best Cadillac is headed to niche territory where only a few urban dealers in major markets will be necessary to sell their limited lineup of EVs. Further, given how much Buick has shrunk too, perhaps all Cadillac dealers should be BuickGMC/Cadillac dealers. That way, GMC could keep the dealers viable. Sad to think of but realistic. I just don’t see how a place like Casa de Cadillac is sustainable in the future selling only a few models of Cadillac-branded gm EVs.
Cadillac should be in the 375 range give or take.
The others are at this point or less.
Cadillac should not be a high volume brand as it then just becomes another cars. What makes the others special is it is not a car for everyone.
Would Ferrari be special if it were on every corner? Maserati used to be some thing special today it is just another car you see daily. Bentley also is becoming sone what common here even in Ohio. I see them out in the snow at Borders Books.
I owned 2 Cadillacs. Both caused more headaches than anything else I owned. I needed a dealer nearby. I would never buy another if I had to travel for service – and repairs!
Ci2Eye:
I’m sure there is a complex logarithmic computer program used by automakers and Accenture that quantifies and specifies dealer amounts and territories based on demographics, sociology, past buying histories, current buying histories, ethnic breakdowns, vocational breakouts, buying choices and preferred styles, incomes, vehicle ages, vehicle owner ages, financial activities, leasing vs. outright purchase, transaction detail, registered vehicle amounts, percentage of industry share in a given geographic area, etc. If not, let’s develop one.
I betcha Toyota and ADP has this in their toolboxes.
GM is in a clear and present danger by going all in on this electric vehicle, plug and travel thing. Toyota is playing it very cautious at this stage in the game.
This European War has been an overnight game changer for energy. Germany is going back to thermal coal electric power plants since they have been jacked by the Russians and Putin with an overnight high price hike increase in natural gas prices. Germany wants stable fuel prices versus shock prices due to a war. Very wise.
In America at present the entire electric infrastructure is in shock right now. No pun intended, with the offing of coal fired power plants. There is no way on God’s green earth that the USA power grid now and in the future will be able to support 160+ million electric vehicles simultaneously all charging together overnight.
Let’s get in a reality check now folks.
Don’t let the facts get in the way of a feel-good story.
About the only thing I look forward to in eventually owning an EV is the end of oil, coolant, transmission fluid changes.
David Alan,
The power grid is many things or to put it differently there are many components to it. Most folks look at generating capacity and ponder whether it can support all those EVs. However, a secondary component is the transmission capacity from the high voltage transmission lines and substations down to the neighborhood service lines. Virtually every neighborhood in America was not conducted to support charging two or three EVs at each house every night. And those gm EVs are real power hogs with their 200 kVH batteries. Right now the system is working because one home out of 100 has one Tesla but it would be dramatically different if there were the equivalent of three Teslas at every home on the street. Reconducting the neighborhood for such high usage would be expensive and disruptive and someone would have to pay for that.
Of course we have to build-up the generating capacity too and coal, nuclear, and natural gas or other fossil fuels are all off-the-table so that seems like a hurdle to me. I’m sure I’m not as smart as Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, or Mary T. Barra but if I were in charge, I’d solve these challenges first, build out a network then I’d move on to flooding the market with the actual vehicles. Seems to me they’re approaching it backwards.
C8.R,
I disagree that GM has had 60 years of failed leadership. Sixty years ago would obviously be the Spring of 1962 and from that time until the mid-1980s, GM had their best years. In 1980, GM had a 60 percent market share for domestically built cars. They simply dominated Ford, Chrysler, and AMC. Overall, including foreign-built cars, they still had a 50 percent market share. They were very successful with many great and still-loved products built in the 1962-1985 era. I consider it GM’s heyday. I know you’ll say the proliferation of models and complexities amassed during that time laid the seeds for problems to come. Perhaps there’s truth to that but all those brands and models worked well for the company until other management decisions made in the early 80’s caused sales declines which then made the abundant lineup a liability. As I stated a few days ago, in 1979, GM had five divisions with Chevrolet selling roughly 2.3 million units, Oldsmobile about 1.1 million, Pontiac more than 900,000, Buick over 700,000 and Cadillac nearly 400,000. The brands and models made GM successful; it was a company that truly built a car for every purse and purpose as Sloan had pledged and they were rewarded for that.
About 40 years ago, not 60, the mismanagement began as I see it and GM has been ever-shrinking since with market share down to less than 15 percent now. I think GM ceded their design leadership in the early 80’s and rushed head-first into all-FWD with diminutive proportions and those two factors, along with dramatic quality lapses, began the downfall.
The mismanagement continues to this day. Leader after leader has pursued the same strategy that gm can simply cut and shrink its way to success. That’s always been their answer and yet it has never really worked. Barra has continued with this failed endeavor by exiting more markets, eliminating more brands, more plants, and a slew of models. Sometimes one has to prune the tree and cut out the dead to allow for new growth so it isn’t an entirely bad idea but the more “dead” gm cuts, nothing new grows from it; the company continues to die. As with a tree sometimes the answer is to quit cutting and instead try feeding it. Buick and Cadillac especially are being starved and have been cut-back to nearly nothing. I would suggest infusing them with world-class, no compromise products instead. Sadly that’s not how Barra was trained to operate. She arrived 40 years ago at the beginning of the fall and was apparently only thought how to prune.
You can disagree but that is when things started to change and GM did not react to it.
Cadillac was turned from an exclusive car to just more like a Buick.
Then they failed to have a good small car for Chevy and styling was abysmal as was performance in the 70’s.
The 80’s panic to corporate platforms and engines robbed the divisions of their identities. Then when they should have cut divisions or made them more specific for specific cars they just restyled each and slapped a different badge on them.
Then the 90’s and on we know the failure that sapped the money from the company.
None were gapping winds but more like a death of 1000 paper cuts.
The way forward today is to take a step back to move forward. GM had too many models, divisions, employees, dealers etc.
Better to get with the strong divisions then try to do the all half a$$.
As for Mary she has been tasked with changing the culture and sins of the 60 years. It is not easy.
She has gotten most things right. Cadillac was the greatest mistake as they lacked one vision and direction changing like every 3 years.
But now they are focused on EV. Like stated above. Will it work? None of us know as too little is known to judge them on. Based on what I do know they have a good shot but only more info will confirm that.
I do know they were on the wrong path for decades.
As for now I presented the numbers for the competition and Cadillac is way over the limit on dealers as is most of GM. It is clear they have 2/3 more than needed.
Ci2Eye:
Excellent spot on comment dissertation on a brief history of GM.
My step son’s father-in-law was the factory representative to GM for Control Data in Minneapolis during it’s heyday. GM purchased and used a lot of Control Data equipment.
He shared with me that during GM’s heyday, the sixties and seventies it operated like an ol boys college fraternity. He mentioned that politics, favoritism and cronyism were in the extreme. He further mentioned that in his time in serving GM he felt this would do GM in. Ross Perot came on board as a GM director when GM purchased his Electronic Data Systems. Ross saw the politics and inbreeding. He was rogue to GM’s style and culture. Perot predicted the demise of GM into bankruptcy, which did happen.
The drama and politics within GM after the great post World War II era, post Sloan, would make a terrific Harvard Business School Case study.
GM is now going into what I feel is dangerous uncharted waters and risky new chapter by going all in electric. Warren Buffet should unload his holdings.
Brandon and his administration have the national scene in a terrible mess.
If GM survives what it is doing without taking on a merger, it will be a miracle.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of GM. Not a gloom and doomer. I knew Charles DeLorean, John’s brother, when he owned and operated DeLorean Cadillac on West 117th Street in Cleveland. Chuck DeLorean is now spinning in his grave along with his brother seeing what has unfolded and is unfolding at the General.
We are at the edge of a storm and nobody knows it. It has started with the Russo-Ukraine War.
God help us.
GM and Cadillace needs someone to run the place that understands the business not everyone wants an electric car ok there marketing is
Well stinks the cars are nothing to write home about exterior design is non
Existence I grew up at GM my dad
Put 44 years in at the Tech Center in
Engineering he is rolling over in his grave over what Mary has done to a once great automaker I own stock I want her GONE NOW
My great uncle was a top engineer from the late 20’s to the early 60’s. He was of the Sloan era and often preached its virtues.
Now looking back it worked early in his career but when the market changed GM did not change with it. While he was part of what worked early on he became part of what started to kill GM.
The cold harsh reality is to meet the future EV is about the only option at this point. Think not then why are all the automakers now working that direction. Hybrids are only a short term fix and buying time for some companies that can’t make the change on their own.
It also not just Washington anymore either. Globally many Regions, Countries and Cities are making rules that will prevent anything but EV.
This is a matter of survival not a matter of just making change for the sake of change. The Globalist are regulating the auto market to one direction.
Much like the currency. I expect a push for a global unit before long. A global economic crash could bring it sooner than expected.
Much of this could be seen coming when Europe formed their union as it gave them leverage to force some of this.
We are in some very volatile times.
The question now should be whose worst Mary Barra or Roger Smith?
Roger Smith – 35% market share – Lost 2% market share
Mary Barra – 13.3% market share – Lost 7% market share
I don’t want to open up a new chapter in all this history, but Roger is the one who, after seeing AT&T broken up, decided that he needed to re-organize GM before the federal government did it. In my opinion, the re-organization was a 5 year disaster resulting in much upper level in-fighting, cookie-cutter cars that were shunned by the public and musical chairs at the upper levels of CPC and BOC while the Board tried to figure out who is qualified to do what. A semblance of normalcy returned when GM finally figured out the buying public wanted to tell the difference between Chevrolets, Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, Buicks & Cadillacs.
My college education came from GMI. I plied my trade for 31+ years in a Fisher Body plant and remain ever grateful for the opportunity. The only thing I give Roger credit for is buying EDS. Unfortunately, Ross Perot was included. To cap it all off, Roger relinquished GM’s control of GMI which to many was akin to cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Thus endeth the lesson.
Robert Woodside:
Roger Smith saw a mechanical GM and sought to digitize it through the acquisition of Electronic Data Systems. Rodger was also an isolated loner at the top of the General and made huge calls solo. Ancient multi floor factories with surplus capacity were torn down. Example, the huge Fisher Body Plant on Coit Road in Cleveland, Ohio. Also plants in Flint and Lansing.
Roger wanted to streamline and modernize GM. He unloaded Detroit Diesel to Roger Penske for $30 million dollars. Penske sold it to Daimler a few years later for $2+ billion. Daimler wanted the Detroit Diesel North American dealer network. Detroit Diesel has been a huge winner for Daimler. Roger also unloaded Terex and Electro Motive. Electro Motive was purchased by Caterpillar and is struggling. Caterpillar is demolishing the huge EMD complex in LaGrange, Illinois. Caterpillar exited the on highway truck diesel engine business in 2007, which has been picked up by Detroit Diesel Daimler and Cummins which has been fabulous for them.
Sadly Roger in his solo decisions made several mis calls with the combination of Oldsmobile – Pontiac – Buick into one unit.
Sadly Roger Smith struggled with several health issues during his reign. Thank God GM was saved by Barrack Obama who covered for Roger’s gross errors by cash infusion big time.
Bronco Bamma “saved” GM but hosed the taxpayers and shareholders in the process. GM could have and should have declared bankruptcy and reorganized.
Jim: General Motors did declare bankruptcy and recapitalized with new stock shares, bonds, and loans.
The old GM stock shares chilled, Waggoner was greased, many dealers were terminated. Bosch Motors in Winnemucca, Nevada who pouched GM customers in Reno, Nevada was terminated as an example. Bosch was protected for years from termination by Nevada State Franchise laws. During the bankruptcy reorganization GM shuttered many plants in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. The GM Parma Ohio Metals Center survived because it has the biggest stamping presses in the GM system. Mansfield, Ohio stamping plant was closed. Lots of big time pruning occurred.
Isn’t it ironic how GM pioneered the electric car (EV-1). It went through great lengths to kill it off, crush them, sweep them under the rug.
Now it wants nothing but fully electric? 🤔
Billy if you understood how the EVI was not really a production car nor was it really cost effective. It was more a proof of concept and nothing more.
Like the Chrysler Turbines in the 60’s it was not really for prime time.
If GM had charged the real cost no one would have paid the price. This is why it was a limited time lease and why they brought them back at the end of the term.
This is one time GM was smart not to force out technology before it was ready.
Declining market share in an expanding market is a huge red flag for long-term investors and the financial community. You may be able to prop up the bottom line by slashing costs and line-up but eventually you run out of things to cut and are left with too little product and a failed strategy. An honest look at GM will also point out that for all their cutting, they’ve failed to gain any areas in the remaining brands. Cutting Oldsmobile did not translate into those buyers moving to Buick. Same with Pontiac, their clients didn’t move to Chevy, they left the GM fold. As with Ford and whatever Chrysler is this week, dumping almost all passenger cars may have made sense in 2018, but now leaves their dealers starved of product for the buyer who does not need or want an CUV/SUV. No Chevy Impala, Cruze, even Buick Verano or LaCrosse sent many of those customer to Toyota for a Camry or Avalon. Ford dumping the excellent Focus and Fusion instead or refining those products did the same to their customers. Toyota, Hyundai/Kia, even VW are picking up share where the domestics abandoned the market, once they’ve hooked a customer in on their reliability/warranty/driving dynamics, they ain’t going back to Chevy until they need a Suburban or Silverado. Short sighted leadership designed to prop up quarterly profits to please the analysts via quarterly earnings calls will eventually drive GM to a merger or more likely be acquired by one of the Asian or European monsters. Don’t think it can’t happen, look at Chrysler’s history the past 40 years.
Expanding market?????
Only China has shown any growth as the rest of the markets are the same or in decline.
So keeping Olds was a better Idea? They were in decline and there were few profits. Most did go to Pontiac and Buick but there were few to send over as the customers were gone before they shut the doors.
GM let the Impala, Cruze, even Buick Verano or LaCrosse sit on lots and rot as new one bought them. They brought the new Regal and even offered a nice wagon but no one cared in a CUV strong market.
Just a hint the auto makers still offering sedans are offering models sold globally and do not rely only on North America. This is their advantage. If they all had to rely only on NA markets they too would cut the cars as all are in decline in sales even the Accord.
GM is far from merger as financially they are on more stable ground than they have been in decades. Also they have value in the top end of the market unlike other brands that struggle to crack $10-20 a share.
There are also the unseen variables like chip issues and global economic issues that will play a role. But GM is in place they can and will sell technology to others and license it as many MFGs can not go it alone.
Their deals will be like with Honda where they will sell tech not buy or merge. Honda can not afford to do the SUV models on their own so they made a deal with GM not only to use their tech but GM will assemble them in Springhill for them.
We will see more of this as time moves on.
The wild cards will be Sony and Apple with their cars as well Foxconn. They are very capable and we have yet to see the card they will play.
Yet Ford still has not paid off the energy loans and they also still have bank loans on their plants. They are just now working for a common EV platform. They are years behind. Yes they have two EV cars but nothing is shared with either and or any future product.
GM is engineering a system on common power, common motors and common parts that will be used in variation to create a number of vehicles. The combinations will be varied and wide. This will let them build SUV and trucks while also building lower volume cars again with a number of body configurations they can not do now in low volume.
There is much to learn and see and based on what we do know there are many possibilities. Yes we will lose ICE but in other ways we will gain back some things we lost due to the cost of keeping ICE alive.
C8, who is we?????
R.I.P. – Cadillac. May soon join Oldsmobile, Pontiac & Saturn.
Having been involved in the car business for several decades, those Caddy dealers who took the buyout did the right thing.
Do something about it, don’t just talk about. You three are a trip, I swear! Start that support group, please!
“We don’t need no stinking electric cars!”
The stupidity in the comments here never ceases to amaze me. Thanks for the laughs!
No sh*t, huh DT! The main three especially, you know who they are! They give me hours and hours of continuous laughter. I don’t know how much more I can take?
Can you guys stop already??????
Outside of the Escalade, not many people care about anything Cadillac offers. Even worse, the large suv segment is dying as many around me have switched to pickups and midsize SUVs. The gas prices and new government mpg standards aren’t helping either. The internet “YouTube” has also exposed Cadillac as nothing more than a Chevy and GMC badge swap. My sales consultant told me that I wouldn’t believe the lies that were told to customers just 10 years ago. I have said for years that it is just too much badge swapping going on at GM and it has finally caught up with them. Another downsize like 08 is probably on the way and GM will eventually offer two brands like Toyota and Ford. I can’t remember the last time I saw a stand alone Buick store. I’m thinking Chevy and Cadillac in the future. Mary Barra & GM bringing back the Hummer brand and the money they have blown trying to bring back Cadillac’s glory days shows that they really suffer from visions of grandeur.
Dam fools! Motorheads have destroyed a beautiful company general motors which had Oldsmobile Pontiac Saturn Saab Buick Chevrolet GMC the whole damn thing is falling apart.
How could they not make an affordable fuel efficient desirable automobile that’s also reliable and fun?
It makes me so mad!!!