GM News: GM's Mark Reuss Talks About Cadillac and Chevrolet

[William Maley]

Whenever you get the chance to sit down and chat with General Motors' executive vice president Mark Reuss, you know that some interesting tidbits will come out of it. Case in point is a piece published by Car and Driver where Reuss shoots the breeze on Cadillac and Chevrolet.

What are GM's priorities at the moment? Reuss explains it like this: “to grow Cadillac, and get Chevrolet back in the car game, really feed Buick and GMC, get Opel straightened around, and get our international operations profitable.”

Now New York put Cadillac in the spotlight with the introduction of the CT6. Reuss explained that CT6 isn't the brand's flagship and “there’s a car above this.”

Car and Driver asked about the possibility of a sports car for Cadillac. Reuss squashed that idea.

“The brand’s got to be ready to do something like that. Right now it’s not. I don’t think doing a car like that is going to change the brand image today, either."

Reuss was also adamant about where the luxury brand currently stands.

"Year one. I think we’re talking to ourselves if we think that we’re on the consideration list of people, in volume, in the luxury segment. So let’s get real about it, and keep hammering, and keep building great cars and trucks, and people start to notice and want to try something different, and that’s our opportunity. There’s a whole generation out there whose moms and dads drove BMWs and Audis and Mercedes, and they didn’t drive Cadillacs. We need to get on that consideration list with great cars and trucks. In that sense, from a product-development standpoint, we’re more than year one. From a brand standpoint, we’re year one.”

As for Chevrolet, Reuss revealed the fate the long-rumored Chevrolet Code 130R: It isn't happening.

“We looked at that and we looked at our competitors who were doing things like that and what the market told us was that was not a good idea. The volumes of those things were terrible."

Source: Car and Driver

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[David]

Interesting and I totally agree with him on Cadillac and the 130R. I know there are those that would love a sporty 2 door 130R but the market is not supporting it. Leave it to Miata.

[regfootball]

FRS / BRZ sales are in the crapper. Better to make the best Camaro you can and make it broad appeal than to develop a new model that will cannibalize from it.

[Robert Hall]

Speaking of coupes, I'm surprised they didn't make a Cruze coupe..would have been a small investment compared to the 130R...Honda still has a Civic coupe, after all...but not enough market anymore, I guess...

[David]

Market dynamics have changed with technology and people want to have their friends and be face-booking even when cruising. 2 door Coupes are out of date except for pony cars I think.

[aurora97]

The coupe market is great on the high-end like BMW, Infiniti, Jaguar, and every muscle car incarnation.  But it won't work at the low-end.  It will be interesting to see if there is success with the ATS/ATS-V coupe to justify Cadillac making a sports car at the next price-point.  But then again, how will it be different from a Corvette?

[Robert Hall]

A Cadillac sportscar would have to emphasize luxury like the Merc SL and have Cadillac styling.

[smk4565]

Cadillac needs a sports car badly.  They have no brand image because all they make are 4 door sedans and SUVs.  They need some excitement in there.

[William Maley]

The coupe market is great on the high-end like BMW, Infiniti, Jaguar, and every muscle car incarnation.  But it won't work at the low-end.  It will be interesting to see if there is success with the ATS/ATS-V coupe to justify Cadillac making a sports car at the next price-point.  But then again, how will it be different from a Corvette?

 

What if Cadillac did a mid-engine something akin to the Cien concept? Would give it some space from Corvette.

But then again, I'm just dreaming.

[Robert Hall]

 

The coupe market is great on the high-end like BMW, Infiniti, Jaguar, and every muscle car incarnation.  But it won't work at the low-end.  It will be interesting to see if there is success with the ATS/ATS-V coupe to justify Cadillac making a sports car at the next price-point.  But then again, how will it be different from a Corvette?

 

What if Cadillac did a mid-engine something akin to the Cien concept? Would give it some space from Corvette.

But then again, I'm just dreaming.

 

Who knows..if you believe the mags, Chevy is doing a mid engined Corvette Zora in the not so distant future..

[Robert Hall]

Maybe more so than a sports car, Cadillac needs some additional bodystyles in its current ranges, esp. a convertible.  The one thing they are missing that all the competition has is a compact convertible, i.e. an ATS convertible.  Not huge for sales but good for image... and maybe eventually a large coupe, convertible ala the BMW 6 series and Merc S-class.  And a 4dr coupe like the A7 and CLS..

[aurora97]

I want to know if a new V8/Northstar engine that is exclusive for Cadillac will come along.

[David]

I want to know if a new V8/Northstar engine that is exclusive for Cadillac will come along.

I do not expect an update to the Northstar but I would expect an exclusive new V8 for Cadillac.

[smk4565]

There should never be a mid-engine Corvette. But a mid-engine Cadillac sports car like the Cien is a good idea. They won't sell many but they don't need to, it is a vanity project.

There should be a new generation Northstar V8, maybe no name or a new name, but they need a V8.

[57caddy]

I think Cadillac needs to dig deeper into their advertising and marketing campaign.  They are limiting themselves, when they talk about this whole new generation that had parents driving other makes and models. 

 

They really need to Reach Out to the new generation and prove to the public at large that Cadillac truly was THE car to drive and it still is for generations to come.

 

Their new designs bore me.  I say bring back the old school, add today's  cutting edge of new technology and watch the younger generation eat it up. 

[aurora97]

It will be interesting to see who wins the fight for the alleged mid-engine monster; Corvette or Cadillac.  Either way, the thing will be based on a 15 year old internal concept.

 

 

Northstar 2.0 or no Northstar, Cadillac needs some exclusive v8 [block/architecture/etc] to power many of its cars.

[ZL-1]

Maybe more so than a sports car, Cadillac needs some additional bodystyles in its current ranges, esp. a convertible.  The one thing they are missing that all the competition has is a compact convertible, i.e. an ATS convertible.  Not huge for sales but good for image... and maybe eventually a large coupe, convertible ala the BMW 6 series and Merc S-class.  And a 4dr coupe like the A7 and CLS..

It's coming though it won't likely be called an ATS convertible.

[hyperv6]

The 130 was DOA when we saw the new Camaro was announced to be getting a Turbo 4. The original plan was to save the 4 to put in the 130 nut with the tanking of the other small RWD cars the project was shelved. If they could have adapted the Alpha we may have seen it but they just could not justify a small platform for such a low volume in todays market.

 

The Sports car at Cadillac will come later on. Right now they want to get their car line up and SUV line up set as theses are the cars that pay the bills. You put the cart before the horse and you make it a greater risk.

 

Also they will want their own V8 by them. Yes the N star is dead and gone and they will not speak of it again.

 

I do expect in 10 years a super like sports car and a more simple 2 seat roadster. The Folks at Cadillac has spoken of this but stressed it is at the end of the  new product not the start.

 

The mid engine deal could be in the works much like Audi and Lambo with two different models on the same platform. Chevy is the first to get it out of the box and Cadillac will come later.

 

There is a lot of work yet to do at GM and a lot of new product to come. The key will be to get product that are not misses and provide a solid income while providing a solid rebuilding of their reputation.

 

The first model to do that I believe will be the Malibu. I have a feeling that this car will be the home run they need. With what we know on weight loss and styling it already is ahead of the game. The real key will be refinement and price. and right now it is looking like they have both. There was great effort to control the price in what they did but still they spent the money to finish this car unlike the short cutting they have done for a long time.