Whither Cadillac

After the vette thread where we diverged into Cadillac I thought it possibly productive idea to start a new thread on the subject. Below are my criticisms thoughts and ideas. You can shoot the messenger
but fact is that while the name Cadillac is still used in modern english to denote top tier standards, the cars today dont really sell. I know the talent is there and cadillac and should be the lux car we all want.


I will start by saying I think Cadillac now makes some "objectively" great cars with excellent possibly class leading underpinnings, but they still seem to miss the mark.

It seems to have been a good idea to separate Cadillac from Detroit so as to have more independent and crisp decision-making.


It all seems to fall apart though on vision and execution.


I can’t fathom NYC as the headquarters for Cadillac and to me this is symptomatic of the whole Cadillac problem a car company run by luxury branding people who don’t especially like, buy or drive cars, living in city where people don’t like cars and think of a car as something painted yellow with a light on top..


I get that Cadillac is a luxury brand and brands are about image, I get that NYC is luxury brand central, but it’s not hip car brand central even remotely and here then it falls apart.


There is also the great saying that there is nothing wrong with a car company that great product cannot fix.

Yes, I know the v series perform great, but v series are niche within a niche, probably better sold as corvette brand.


I contend that Cadillac should not be making tier 2 Audis but should be making Cadillac’s. No, I do not mean bloat barges from the 70's let Lincoln do that.


However coming from a Cadillac family let’s look at what was great about Cadillac’s and see what good elements might transfer to a 21st century car. If you ever drove a caddy with he 500 or 425 cube engine you’ll know it was smooth smooth smooth, the gas pedal oozed out more power as you squeezed it. Ride in an old 77 or 78 Fleetwood and the oil-filled shocks and +5000lbs gave a superlative ride, while steering had zero feel you could belt down the highways and it held great line at 85+ through sweepers and was stable. The transmission the old THM 400 was gem, smooth luxurious shifts intuitive. Yes, the dash was Gm plastic crap, but the leather seats felt like leather not slimey plastic, it also did not look like a generic car.


A same era Mercedes 450sel, its was smaller inside, was hard cold quality, and the interior was hard and cold the motor and handling were far better but in the 55mph 70s that was not such a big difference, the transmission was jerky. Since then well a Mercedes s class had evolved on all fronts, same with the E.


Now lest look at Cadillac today. I will start with the Ct6. Its seems to have the size, from what I hear its competent handler with very good ride, so unlike the smaller Cadillac’s they seem to have the luxury car dynamics right here.. However, you slice it though the Gm corporate v6 is just that and not that great. Transmissions which hang on to high hears for fuel economy and don’t want to shift down without a big kick of the pedal may not be evident in paper numbers but you can feel them in a bad way when driving. GM products are serial offenders here.


Then we have styling. The CT6 has some presence from head on, esp. at dark because of the headlights, otherwise its blah meh generic car design, could be a Hyundai. Actually, let me take that back because the Koreans seem to be getting some great design even in their cheap cars. Know why they hired a stylist and said do some great designs.


Cadillac was great when Ed Cole did engineering and Mitchell design, because they were the product of car people who had talent and the authority to design great cars within their price range. They were not clinic or committee products.


Now new Cadillac’s are not cheap, I am sure Gm has great talent but something is seriously wrong because there is no inspiration and who really wants a tier 2 Audi. Is super cruise going to sell otherwise invisible cars in the luxury segment, only a boring corp exec would think that.



The one standout Cadillac is the Escalade, and while it is really, a Silverado underneath at least it is allowed to have Cadillac virtues. Powerful motors, size recognizable crisp styling with mass and a name. It sells because there is nothing foreign in its size class, yet. That it still has a solid axle, 3rd row that does not fold and cheap bits says so much about Gm, following from behind.


Fact is if you buy a Mercedes S. E. c. etc. you know you’re buying a Mercedes, just a different sized one, but Mercedes means something beyond just badge, same with BMW 3 4 5 6 and 7 series, they are different sizes of a coherent car offering.


Now calling a Cadillac a CT this and a CT that means nothing because Cadillac means nothing and the cars are not even coherent offerings.


To start I would bring in in some styling, no, I do not mean shock styling I mean some classy elegant and recognizable styling. Bentley managed to do this as did even rolls with the ghost. In fact, the rolls ghost and Bentley continental are two cars of the size and presence Cadillac should have. They are not the ostentatious 60s Bentleys or rolls’ of past days they are modern 21st century cars, that have styling appeal, are luxurious perform great and are comfortable. Hell Chrysler pulled that off over a decade ago with the 300.


As a corvette is a to a Ferrari, (i.e. all the performance, better styling, with ever slightly less build/luxury for less than half the price) so Cadillac should be to a rolls ghost or Bentley.


Why not take the Ct6, let’s do a great motor, the new quadcam may be it, but not a 4.0 let’s do a 6.0 tuned for lots of tq because that’s a Cadillac virtue. Something smooth almost silent to 4k rpm after that it can howl.

A transmission that works like a Mercedes 7 speeder, is does not hand onto gear or try fake things, is smooth and selects the gear basted on throttle rate and position. Let us say the ride and handling are already Ok.


Now lest clothe it is something special, something that says Cadillac not in crass loud way from the 70s, but still looks like something you would be proud to pull into your driveway. Let us have leather that smells like leather, alcantera if not suede headliner. No cheap hard plastic corporate bits. Switches and knobs that seem like well old precision pieces, if an 85 Celica could do this switch part so can gm. A car which from one end to the other feel all of a piece. It’s in the details, that’s a big part of luxury car.


Great screens that can hide away, Get Fcking cue out of there, it sucks. BTW, muscle memory means knobs work great for things like fan speed, radio volume. Buttons work great to set temperature and seek scan stations. If Honda could scrap their lousy all screen interface for a button screen combo in 2 years why does Cadillac still have cue, answer that and you know everything that’s wrong with Cadillac. It’s not lack of talent or apparently investment, its poor understanding of what makes a great luxury car from America in the 21st century and poor execution while thinking some electronictrikery will make it sell...


if the Germans could revitalize Bentley and rolls while still retaining their essentials and britishness in a 21st century luxury package, then you know those are the German traits caddy should be emulating i.e. vision and execution, as opposed to building a tier 2 copy of a German A6. Or e class.