Jump to content
Create New...
  • William Maley
    William Maley

    Who Is In Charge At Cadillac?

    Cadillac has been one of the few brands at General Motors to mostly avoid the Ignition Switch recall drama, but that doesn't mean they have their own set of problems. The brand has seen sales slip 2.2 percent within the first five months of this year, a bit surprising considering the luxury market is booming.

    “The brand has not grown as well this year as it did last year. They do have a greatly improved product line, but they need to have that produce results. They need to connect more with the consumer,” said IHS Automotive analyst Tom Libby.

    Not helping matters is the question of who leading Cadillac at the moment. Bob Ferguson, Cadillac's global chief and former lobbyist for the company was sent to Washington back in February to work on the political fallout over the ignition switch recall. Rumor has it that Ferguson will not return to his post as Cadillac's global chief.

    “He was asked to step in on an obviously urgent project there for the CEO. How long that goes and how much that continues into the future, I just don’t know,” said Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell to the Detroit Free Press.

    Then the past week, Cadillac’s head of U.S. sales, Bill Peffer stepped down. Peffer held this position for just a year.

    A possible answer is that GM President Dan Ammann will hold down the fort for the timebeing. Meanwhile Kurt McNeil, GM’s head of U.S. sales operations is the interm vice president of sales and service for Cadillac, a position he held until 2012.

    Source: Detroit Free Press

    William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

    User Feedback

    Recommended Comments

    Cadillac needs to stand firm on pricing as long as they feel their cars are worth the price, feature for feature, relative to the competition.  Let the people hunting for a deal on a luxury car go to Buick or get an Impala.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    The incentives have favored new customers over existing customers. Honestly, if I can't get the same deal as the next guy then I will look at other brands. If Cadillac isn't loyal to me they shouldn't expect me to stick around.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    The Cadillac brand has lacked leadership and focus for the past 10 years or so.  They started on a plan in the early 2000s to dump the FWD boats and bring out the CTS, the first SRX, the STS and XLR.  The idea was great, a pair of rear drive sedans to take on the Germans, a badly needed crossover giving them an SUV priced below the Escalade, and a convertible halo car.  The execution was just poor.  Now Cadillac is sort of back to square one, the ATS is getting crushed by the Germans and the IS350, so they missed the mark there.  The CTS and XTS cost the same, similar to the failed STS-DTS strategy of 10 years ago, and they have no convertibles or sports cars.  Cadillac doesn't have any hybrids or diesels either so they are missing on the "green" crowd, with the exception of the ELR which no one is buying.

     

    Lexus has loads of hybrids which can sucker people in, and it makes it seem like Lexus is cutting edge technology because they were the first luxury company doing hybrids.  The Germans have a wide range of body styles and engines to hit every niche there is.  You can't build a luxury brand on gas V6 powered sedans: see Acura, Lincoln and Infiniti for proof.

     

    As far as profit margin goes, it is hard to say if Cadillac is successful because GM doesn't seem to break down the numbers of where the money is made.  Audi makes about $5,000 profit per car, Porsche makes a staggering $23,000 in profit per car sold which is an 18% margin.  A 10% margin is what the luxury brands strive for, Mercedes actually has the lowest profit margin of the German brands, they have been between 6-7% the past few years, but they also aren't dressing up Volkswagen's like their neighbors are.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites



    Join the conversation

    You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
    Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

    Guest
    Add a comment...

    ×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

      Only 75 emoji are allowed.

    ×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

    ×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

    ×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • google-news-icon.png



  • google-news-icon.png

  • Subscribe to Cheers & Gears

    Cheers and Gears Logo

    Since 2001 we've brought you real content and honest opinions, not AI-generated stuff with no feeling or opinions influenced by the manufacturers.

    Please consider subscribing. Subscriptions can be as little as $1.75 a month, and a paid subscription drops most ads.*
     

    You can view subscription options here.

    *a very limited number of ads contain special coupon deals for our members and will show

  • Community Hive Community Hive

    Community Hive allows you to follow your favorite communities all in one place.

    Follow on Community Hive
  • Similar Content

  • Posts

    • I am not aware of travel cases for internal drives. Usually you have the drive and once you have made sure you own static electricity is discharged on your body, open the computer and unplug the power cable and data cable to the HD. Then you unscrew the screws holding the drive in. Put the drive into an Anti-Static bag and then usually into a box that has foam padding on all sides to protect the drive and then tape it up to close it.  With both drives in their proper storage bags, you can then have both drives in between foam insulation for handling any dropping of the box, etc. Pack them in a box and tape shut, should then easily handle going through your carry on or checked in luggage. To ship a hard drive, you need to: Secure the hard drive in its original packaging or anti-static bag. If you don't have an anti-static bag, place the drive into a zipped freezer bag to prevent any moisture getting into the drive during transit. Sandwich the drive between foam or wrap it in bubble wrap to absorb any minor shocks. Put the hard drive in a padded shipping box. Close and seal the box. Label your package. Amazon.com : hard drive shipping box This is pretty much all you need.
    • Either a co-pilot first time landing or something truly went wrong on the plane.
    • The incoming rectangular lamps on many GM cars in that era made them much more attractive.  They made a big difference. Now, as far the powerplant went, the notion of 500 cubic inches was mindboggling even during the malaise era.  If you want to see someone's jaw drop, tell a European that their engines have 8200 cc or 8.2 liters.  For those who aren't driving the occasional Mustang or Camaro you see, they freak out at anything over 2,500 or 3,000 cc.
    • Thank you for the response. I want to reinstall them into the computers, especially the "newer" one.  The old one has been a real champ.   The reason for not leaving them in the desktop is that the basic tower might have to be transported ... and not by me.  That means it will be out of my possession for a while.  Since the HDs would be traveling with me, they'll have to get scanned through airport security a time or two.  I'm guessing that shouldn't mess with the data.   I've already backed up the C drive on several large 1 TB portable hard drives.  I don't want to touch the basic functions and files on the computers since I don't know how that all works.  I stay away from the drives and files I am not familiar with. I tend to donate other things to charity.   I did give the Regal I once owned to charity.   A good friend told me that, about a month or two later, he saw it being driven around the city by its new owner and we had a good laugh. This is what I want to do.  I'm just trying to figure out if the guy or gal at Office Depot can size a case based on looking up the unit and the HD in it.  Any ideas on that part?  Or should I do that and approximate the size and weight of the part to get the cases?
    • I'm wondering about a lot of things related to this.  I am sure that, sadly, the passengers inside were jolted.  This is way different from a rough landing. Why was it even necessary to do it?  What was going on at the airport property at that time?  How does one even pull this off?  I've seen some vids of where they barely touch and then go off again, but this one looks way more complicated.
  • Who's Online (See full list)

    • There are no registered users currently online
  • My Clubs

×
×
  • Create New...

Hey there, we noticed you're using an ad-blocker. We're a small site that is supported by ads or subscriptions. We rely on these to pay for server costs and vehicle reviews.  Please consider whitelisting us in your ad-blocker, or if you really like what you see, you can pick up one of our subscriptions for just $1.75 a month or $15 a year. It may not seem like a lot, but it goes a long way to help support real, honest content, that isn't generated by an AI bot.

See you out there.

Drew
Editor-in-Chief

Write what you are looking for and press enter or click the search icon to begin your search

Change privacy settings