Cadillac Now Operating as a Separate Global Unit

[RichardJensen]

Is a car "unobtainable" if nobody wants it?

[sullynd]

And here's an interview with the other half of the...uh...."Cadillac revival," Uwe Ellinghaus.

 

http://blog.caranddriver.com/cadillacs-marketing-boss-calls-germans-sterile-doesnt-care-how-much-you-hate-alphanumeric-badges/

Please tell me his wife is named Connie.

[Fgts]

"They rank them by volume and financial impact," de Nysschen said. "if you put Cadillac into that kind of judgment it will always be compromised because it is about 4% of total business but it is 100% of Cadillac."

 

Audi, where he worked previously, and Mercedes don't have that problem. "That's why financial accountability is so important."

 

Is he essentially saying that Cadillac needs to operate without any accountability to the parent corporation regarding costs and return on investment? If so, how long is that state of affairs going to last, particularly given the historic inability of GM management to take a long-term view?

 

Every luxury brand depends heavily on a parent corporation that sells less expensive vehicles, or sells plenty of those less expensive vehicles itself. Audi still shares platforms with VWs, and Mercedes is not relying solely on the S-Class to stay in business. Visit Europe and you will see plenty of Mercedes C-Classes and E-Classes vehicles being used as police cars and taxi cabs. Daimler-Benz also sells lots of trucks throughout the world.

 

Mercedes, in particular, has GLOBAL reach. Plenty of rich Asians, Arabs and South Americans want to drive a Mercedes S-Class or E-Class. It's easy to talk about "global profits," but Cadillac is simply not a global brand at this point. Given that Americans aren't exactly lining up at the dealership to buy ersatz BMWs with Cadillac badges, does he believe that this will be any different in other countries where both BMW and Mercedes are already entrenched? Lexus has been having a tough time expanding beyond the United States.

 

Even Packard relied on less expensive models - the Single Six in the 1920s, and the 120 in the late 1930s - to pay the bills. It would have gone under by 1934 if it had relied solely on super-luxury vehicles, as most of its competitors who relied solely on the luxury market and who weren't part of a larger corporation did.

 

I just can't see Cadillac generating sufficient profits with vehicles that don't share much with lesser GM vehicles to justify continued investment in the brand. Unless we're going to soon see ATS police cars and CTS taxi cabs plying the streets.

Remember Benz and Bimmer don't move as many trucks as GM do or have a "Chevy" like volume brand so most of their money comes from the 3 and C-Class. Camaro being put on Alpha will help cost control alot.

 

What people don't realize in the U.S. that those police and taxi Benzes and BMW in Germany are not only stripped-out but subsided by that country government and leased by the manufacturer otherwise a C-Class or 3 series would be just as expensive there as it is here.

[OHV 16V]

Please tell me his wife is named Connie.

LOLOLOLOL

[nruggiero]

More crazy talk: http://blog.caranddriver.com/johan-de-nysschen-cadillac-diesels-in-2019-possible-911-fighter-in-a-decade/

 

GM is playing the same game with Cadillac as it did with Oldsmobile, and we all know how that saga ended.

Edited November 23, 2014 by nruggiero

[RichardJensen]

Diesel is the fastest, most cost-effective way to reduce CO2 and emissions

 

 

If you do a high-performance car like the 911, R8, or AMG GT too soon, then you run the risk of being too far removed from where the epicenter of the brand is, so it struggles to have relevance for people.

 

 

If you replaced this guy with a mustachioed robot that wore a suit and said things that were either wrong or meaningless, could anyone tell the difference?

[AlRozzi]

 

 

If you replaced this guy with a mustachioed robot that wore a suit and said things that were either wrong or meaningless, could anyone tell the difference?

Maybe. Mr. Roboto has more common sense regardless that it has parts made in Japan.