Cadillac Has A Problem

"JR1" (type35bugatti) 08/28/2015 at 11:57 • Filed to: Cadillac SRX, CUV

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We are living in weird times. Ad men on Madison Avenue have successfully convinced the car buying public that a CUV is a rugged lifestyle vehicle to climb the highest mountains while also returning wonderful fuel economy with a spacious trunk. This idea of a desirable CUV has killed the SUV market and continues to plague the traditional car market as well. To answer the demand every automaker has created a plethora of CUVs to poison the hopes and dreams of car buying enthusiast make families happy.

Cadillac has fallen quite far behind the CUV game. In 2015 the SRX is long in the tooth and soon to be killed and replaced with a new Cadillac CUV. But will it be enough to satisfy this demand in the market for CUVs?

Odds are it won’t be. It appears that while Cadillac was off beating its entire life savings on silver the smart money moved to gold. Mercedes made the GLA, BMW made the X1, Lincoln made the MKC, and even Buick made the cute little Buick Encore, which sold !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! cars last year. Compare that to the much bigger and more desirable SRX which sold !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! units. Even the Buick Enclave is selling better than the SRX with over !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! moved in 2014.

If you watched the short YouTube video made by Lincoln you might have noticed at the end Lincoln had a slogan #inthemoment. With two competitive new CUVs on the market and the disgusting MKT it appears Lincoln in one crucial area might be a step ahead of Cadillac. Yes Lincolns sales are behind Cadillac but at least they are offering two competitive CUVs and a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to the buyers. Maybe it is time for Cadillac to take a page from Lincoln and Buick and to expand their CUV range. Once they do that I have no doubt they will be a world beating luxury car company.

Photo Credits:

http://automiddleeast.com

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MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > JR1 08/28/2015 at 12:01

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Have you sat in the MKT?

It’s fucking glorious in there. And a bonus - you can’t see the outside when you’re in it.

Also, the SRX sucks balls. this rendition of the SRX was terrible from day 1. It doesn’t fit the look and feel of Cadillac at ALL. All Caddy’s are hard edged and look great, then here comes the blob ball SRX with a sharp corner or two.

Doesn’t cut it and customers noticed.

GhostZ > JR1 08/28/2015 at 12:06

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They haven’t fallen behind, they’re willingly ignoring the market in favor of the huge moneymaker, the Escalade, which still outsells the Cayenne in the US and at a (likely) higher markup. The SRX’s sales are more than respectable, too.

Furthermore, why the hell would Cadillac, who already has the Escalade, make a smaller CUV when Buick has the Enclave/Encore? If Cadillac sold a CUV they’d just be cannibalizing Buick sales.

I don’t see what the problem is here. Encore < Enclave < SRX < Escalade.

Maybe there’s room somewhere between the Escalade and the SRX, but I just don’t see the point from a marketing perspective. They’d have to kill the Escalade off first.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 08/28/2015 at 12:12

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Yes, I have.

The middle seats, yes. The back and drivers seats, I don’t know. Front passenger seat was not a fun time. Agreed on the looks—it looks like a whale, all flat tail at the back and baleen at the front.

It’s an Equinox in an ugly frock. Fancy, but still somehow worse looking than an Equinox. Now that’s a feat...

The problem is that the "traditional" Caddy buyer didn't notice. All the effort into scaring off the old folks and then they produce that thing. Every one I see has someone in it whose head hair has finished migrating to their ears and nose.

JR1 > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 08/28/2015 at 12:21

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The MKT does have an awesome interior but they haven’t ever been able to sell more than 8,000 units a year. Why? Well the exterior might make it one of the ugliest cars on the market today.

JR1 > GhostZ 08/28/2015 at 12:24

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I disagree. Cadillac shouldn’t be worried about cannibalizing Buicks sales. A person doesn’t cross shop a Mercedes and a Buick they would cross shop a Mercedes and a Cadillac. If anything the Buick Enclave should have been a Cadillac Enclave.

And they would make a smaller CUV because it would sell. Bigger? That would hurt the Escalade sales but a smaller CUV should be a no brainer for a company that needs to expand its portfolio to compete with the Germans.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > JR1 08/28/2015 at 12:25

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I’ve never minded the exterior as much as most people do. I think I was woooed by the interior.

JR1 > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 08/28/2015 at 12:27

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Well I would rather have the Ford Flex. I think that has an awesome interior as well as exterior.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > JR1 08/28/2015 at 12:32

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See, I’m not a huge fan of the look of the Flex Exterior!

JR1 > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 08/28/2015 at 12:32

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To each their own I guess!

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > GhostZ 08/28/2015 at 12:33

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You’re completely wrong.

And the proof of that is the Sierra and Silverado.

RallyWrench > JR1 08/28/2015 at 12:33

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I heard an interview with Johan de Nysschen on NPR Marketplace this morning, about the NY move. I still don’t really care for his management style, but I’ll never be able to buy a new Cadillac anyway. He was extolling the virtue of NY as the hub of luxury consumerism, and about positioning Cadillac to benefit from the Gen X & Millenial market by moving there. The best part was when the interviewer asked “But Detroit is “cool” with the kids now, why leave?” JDN did mention isolating Cadillac from GM’s management structure, which does make some sense. Cadillac designers and engineers have to work on the rest of the GM line as well, which takes focus from the Caddy product, and if they’re to return to the “Standard of the World,” that won’t cut it.

JR1 > RallyWrench 08/28/2015 at 13:05

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Cadillac desingers and engineers should be bespoke to Cadillac. I wonder why GM doesn’t understand that yet?

Death By Cornbread > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 08/28/2015 at 13:12

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I think the Sierra and the Silverado is more the exception, than the proof.

Every single one of us lambasted GM and their abhorrent “badge engineering” that swept the lineup. Do we really want to go back to the days where it was rampant, rather than just enough?

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Death By Cornbread 08/28/2015 at 13:14

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The SRX is badge engineered NOW

Death By Cornbread > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 08/28/2015 at 13:17

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I never said it wasn’t. It is also far differentiated from its platform-mates.

I said their current level is “just enough”. We don’t need more of it just so Buick and Cadillac can sell what amounts to the same car.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Death By Cornbread 08/28/2015 at 13:19

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What I was originally saying is that GhostZ said he didn’t want Caddy selling a CUV at all because it would hurt Buick, unless I’m misunderstanding his theory.

MUSASHI66 > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 08/28/2015 at 13:36

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I thought SRX is the BEST selling Cadillac out of all the models on sale right now?

RallyWrench > JR1 08/28/2015 at 13:39

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Because they haven’t met Benjamin J. Rolland yet.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > MUSASHI66 08/28/2015 at 13:40

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Ugh I forget customers are idiots sometimes, you’re 100% correct, it is their best seller.

GhostZ > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 08/28/2015 at 18:05

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I wouldn’t compare any normal truck or sedan to the luxury CUV market, but Cadillac has played by different rules than GMC/Chevy has, so has Buick, traditionally.

GhostZ > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 08/28/2015 at 18:12

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I’m saying it doesn’t make sense from a financial standpoint for them to invest in a small luxury CUV when Buick already has 2 of them and Cadillac already has the SRX. Putting a small CUV in the cadillac lineup doesn’t fill any more holes, but also cheapens the brand, and would introduce more caddy brand engineering (which they’re really trying to avoid right now) and most likely just cannibalize Buick sales. It’s likely a factory issue where they have to do a lot of logistics to ship the cars around and give them new body cladding, and the like, and the Encore/Enclave would require a huge investment to pull that off with.

I imagine people dead set on a mid-tier German CUV are not going to shift to the base-tier Cadillac, as a small CUV under $37,000 would likely be the cheapest (or at least close, depending on options) Cadillac offered.

It’s the same argument why they don’t use the alpha platform for a Buick sports sedan. The ATS has that cornered and they don’t want to make Cadillac just a chromier version of Buick. Cadillac is Sexy, and CUVs aren’t Sexy, so let Cadillac’s un-sexy brother, Buick, carry them.

Nauraushaun > JR1 08/30/2015 at 23:32

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even Buick made the cute little Buick Encore, which sold almost 50,000 cars last year

This is not a fair comparison. You said yourself that:

In 2015 the SRX is long in the tooth

And it’s true. The Encore however was only launched in 2013, last year was its first full model year.

The fact that the SRX, launched about the same time as the iPhone 3G, is outselling the fresh new Encore says maybe the situation isn’t as dire as you think. Or maybe the Encore sucks.

Either way, it’s a bad comparison. Apples to oranges.

JR1 > Nauraushaun 08/31/2015 at 09:33

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I was making an example that a small CUB would be beneficial to Cadillac. I also comapared it to the Enclave which is equally old and it selling better.

Nauraushaun > JR1 08/31/2015 at 23:36

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But your example shows a small CUV that’s much newer, yet selling worse than the SRX. If an ageing model can outsell a much newer small CUV, maybe they should stick with the bigger one ;)

The Enclave is a more telling example.