GM Spending Big to Buff Up Caddy
Cadillac, once the cream of the crop among luxury automobiles, has fallen far and fast: No. 1 just 2 1/2 years ago in U.S. luxury sales, it is No. 6 so far this year, trailing marques such as Mercedes-Benz, Lexus and Lincoln.
To put a stop to the slide and, it hopes, boost Caddy back to the top of the heap, General Motors Corp. is spending nearly $4 billion in the next several years to polish its luxury line’s image with a new fleet of cars and trucks.
The first of them is the entry-level 2003 CTS sedan, unveiled Friday at Pebble Beach, site this weekend of the world’s leading classic car show and the new “in” spot for luxury car debuts. (Ford Motor Co. took the wraps off the 2002 Thunderbird there last year.)
The CTS offers sharp-edged styling that looks little like anything on a previous production Cadillac but a lot like the company’s well-received Evoq and Imaj concept cars. The sedan is aimed at luring younger customers to a brand whose average buyer is 62, prompting jokes that Cadillac’s chief competitor is a casket, not another car.
Reviving Cadillac is the first plank in a companywide program to stem GM’s loss of market share.
“It is all about product,” said Wayne Cherry, GM’s vice president for design.
The auto maker’s recent recruiting underscores its commitment to that theme. GM just hired former Chrysler product guru Robert Lutz to head its product planning efforts. Cadillac’s general manager, Mark LaNeve, was recruited from Ford unit Volvo Cars of North America, where he helped transform the brand’s image from safe but boxy to safe and sleek.
Reversing Cadillac’s fortunes won’t come easy, because buyers of luxury vehicles have come to expect Teutonic engineering and handling and Japanese quality and price.
Ron Zarrella, president of GM North America, said Cadillac’s planners know this and designed a car that can run with the best of the pack--a far cry from the overweight, underpowered and undistinguished Catera sport sedan the CTS is replacing.
The CTS will have a 3.2-liter, 220-horsepower V-6 engine in the U.S. and will come with either a five-speed automatic or a five-speed manual transmission, the first manual in a Caddy in 20 years.
LaNeve said the base CTS will start in the low $30,000s but that most will slot into the $35,000-to-$40,000 range with competing small Mercedes-Benz and BMW models. Cadillac expects to build about 30,000 of its entry-level model next year, most of them earmarked for North America.
