Cmicasa the Great

Thank you very VERY much for your personal insight! I'm really glad somebody here owns basically exactly what I'm looking at for their point of view on the car. The biggest issue I have is as much as I want a RWD sporty/athletic car I'm afraid I will be screwed come winter again like I was with my Mach 1. I don't have a place to store a second set of winter tires so a good all-season would have to do. How many miles do you have on yours so far? I was about to say FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.. listen to this guy as he is one of the most honest mofos I have ever come across in my 13 years on these forums. Me an him go back to AWCC and the REAL MT Forums In my testing of the ATSs I would agree that while the 3.6L is up on HP, the 2.0L is a better all around vehicle and can be tuned to exceed the HP of the 3.6L inexpensively. Where as the 3.6L, like most DOHC non Turbos, gets its power up in the band.. the 2.0L has torque and juice almost thru-out. Best advice.. go test both.

ROUGERIVER!!!! I Dare Cadillac to offer VARIANTS. I dare Cadillac to market their vehicles. Priorities are holding the car back. The ATS must come with the same hardware as its 5 most immediate competitors or it instantly loses a sale here.. a sale there. A Convertible at GM, other than at Chevy, should have been numero uno thought when the Alpha Platform was created. With the new Camaro already getting a convertible, it is proof positive that the Alpha platform can accommodate a ragtop. No way in hell a Camaro should have that option and the Flagship brand at GM doesn't have one to speak of in its entire line-up. Mercedes has a convertible C-Class, Eclass, SLK, SL, and S-Class coming. BMW has a convertible Z, 4series, and 6 series, Audi has an A5 Vert, R8, and TT.. Lexus and Infiniti even have a convertible in their entry level vehicle.. not one from the entirely of GM except at Chevy.. which are niche sports coupes mostly geared towards MEN.. the lower car buying demographic. And that's the thing.. the needed product is actually here are coming soon. The ATS and CTS are the foundation of what is coming. They are the building blocks. The suggestion to include a convertible, coupe and wagon aren't about just wanting product for the sake of product.. but covering niche avenues without even having to invest heavily in multiple cars to boost sales and profits. The ATS and CTS should encompass 3 other vehicles within their own branding. There should be a CTS, CTS, CTE, and conversely a CTS-V, CTC-V, and CTE-V.. on top of that.. a CTX (CUV) wash, rinse, repeat for the ATS. How does one get 13,000 3/4series sales? By having product avail for consumption. I've used this example to death.. but I Love Cadillac.. HATE foreign cars.. ALL of them.. but if I absolutely needed a convertible luxury car.. I'm not even able to put my favorite company on the list. I'd have to buy a Bentley, BMW, Audi, Benz, Jag, Lexus, or Infiniti. That's a fact ' AT CADILLAC.. 3000 sales are just a piece of the puzzle that needs to be put together sure.. but most importantly it is a PIECE. No sale should be loss due to lack of product. There in lies the problem.. I have looked at the numbers and voiced my reasons of WHY the CTS, arguably the best in its class.. the ATS.. are struggling in the sales race. I have said it time and time again. Sales are not the gauge of failure unless sales are the only thing one looks to achieve. Cadillac is in the middle of its first real attempt at taking on the leaders in the field. This is in both material and perception. Sales numbers are a gauge of success in the mainstream, more so in the Luxury segment. Personally I am not one who gets excited when they see another Cadillac pulling up resembling mine. I enjoy the inadvertent exclusivity. If I were a 3series owner who bought for the sake of luxury, or exclusivity I'd be pissed. Hell part of the reason why I was OK with getting rid of my Camaro was because I started seeing them too often. But Cadillac, above all others will be lambasted constantly until they go that route, ignoring the fact that they have Buick and GMC for that lifting.. and go into the exact same segments as the Germans as if.. like them.. they were a stand alone company. In fact I have said it on numerous occasions that GM should simply FOLLOW the playbook by VW concerning Audi in their product plans. They can not achieve 500K sales with 4 mainstream cars 1 mainstream SUV and 1 mainstream CUV. They can "niche" all they want, but that simply isn't the way the game or perception is played. The Press.. that is the media.. and even us supposed enthusiasts kno that Buick/GMC/Denali exists.. yet many of us still dog Cadillac out when we look at their numbers versus BMW, Lex, Benz, and Audi. As a 4 time Cadillac owner I have zero issue with them going the way of Audi.. as long as they still offer the kind of vehicles that I enjoy buying as well. To gain traction... Cadillac has already jumped the first, second, and third hurdle. Cadillac is simply better at more things than the German rivals these days. The areas where it lags are fixable, and consistently coming, building.. moving forward. Point blank we are not talking about Lincoln here,, or Lexus. The issues with Cadillac normally can be summed up in lack of marketing, lack of product, and a reluctance to, up til recently, Dare Greatly. CUE is fixed. The larger backseat is coming in 2 years.. not that its a concern to me. Escalade, ATS/ CTS-V, and CT6 will prime the world for the CT7 and CT8. Anyone thinking that this would be a quick fix hasn't looked at the reality of things for a long time. Cadillac isn't just battling within the realm of the segment, but battling within the automotive industry because of its origin. The entire brand actually is a mimic of the Corvette. 95% better than the foreign exotics competition, but marred and historically held back because of where it originated. I hope Cadillac simply builds the better car...

How do U kno? Just wondering. Your comment about an unknown mule means zero; and quite frankly I'm quite confident that with GM's Platform engineering even if the vehicle was on C2xx there is no guarantee that it will not run circles around the German SUVs. What Benz and BMW should really worry about, in terms of performance, is if Cadillac does use Alpha or Omega.

Has this guy seriously decided to go on record as supporting the weird looking, awkward POS that Mercedes, I still believe, yanked from Nissan? Seriously. The CLA is every negatiive thing that they tried to say that the Cimmaron was 34 years ago. I mean come on.. can anyone here tell me that the CLA is a better car than the new Cruze.. hell the Old Cruze or Verano?

While the Germans continuously seem to be targeting Chevy and Honda

BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, and Audi have all pulled off those numbers by moving down market into Buick territory... so if you want to include that market, merge the Buick and Cadillac numbers. If you don't want to include that market, drop the 1/2-Series, GLA/CLA/B-Class, A3 and low end lexuses. Edit: and possibly GMC Denali numbers... The CLA costs more than a Buick LaCrosse, and no BMW or Mercedes or Audi costs $21k like a Verano. The Germans have more up market products, say $75k and up, than the American and Japanese brands also. The Escalade and The LS460 and LX570 are it. Interesting that U did not include the CTS-V which hits above $100K.. the CT6, which even without a V8 hits in the high 80s..

@ Drew.. I said the same thing in post #11. He ignored it. If Cadillac is going to be compared to Audi, Benz, Lexus, and BMW.. one must absolutely realize that GM hits the luxury car field in the same way they do except it utilizes its brands fully in its strategy. Denali, for example, is a luxury brand within an already near lux brand named GMC. GMC sits on the same showroom as Buick in many cases. Denali, last year, was pushing almost 25% of its 559K GMC sales, equaling out to 139K Denali sales... add that to Cadillac all by it self and the two pulled in 314K sales last year. If GM fleshed CAdillac out to sell just 300K in the U.S. + Denali/GMC+ Buick.. it will be unstoppable On to what was said by Smk and CUVS.. Cadillac... this is what U should be doing. 45% of your offerings should be CUVS.. and that's with at least a whopping 16 products to sell versus your measly 7. It truly makes the idiot in me... the IDIOT.. in me wonder how the hell is Mercedes outselling Cadillac 2:1 (343K vs 175K) with not just double.. but 10 more vehicle available to the buying public.. in more variants to boot How is that even possible?? and would that have more to do with the Benz brand being supposedly better and not just having more product? So the question remains... if Caddy had 16 products.., not 7, even with the variations they currently have of their products (no diesel.. not one effin convertible.. no wagon) would they be able to sell at least equal to Benz?

Interesting numbers.. and look at that.. only ONE member of that group is pulled it off with one SINGLE CUV

NOt to mention.. Audi is currently selling in its numbers due to a hecka avail product quantity versus Cadillac. Even with the CT6 now on.. Cadillac is still only selling about 60% less nameplates than Audi, with those nameplates of Audis numbering 3X that of Cadillac in CUV segement. To the Mid-Car; A6 and CTS are damn near on par in sales.. barely 300 sales apart.. that's while the XTS continues to siphon sales away from it.. and now the CT6, which seems able to pass the A8, and wouldn't be surprised.. A7 combined in coming months

Lowest priced Camaro is still barely on lots. I don't kno what the f@#k GM is doing on that car, but if they want to regain the bottom sales they need to bring it. The 2.0L is just now hitting lots. Outta the 16,000 Camaros on sale.. Cars.com is reporting that only 1900 are 2.0L, and many of them are in transit It was done because I was comparing MID-LARGE sales between Caddy and Audi because I happen to own a CTS. There is a 2.0T at my dealer... 41k(marked down to 37k). WTF? Why would that car optioned that way be stocked? I understand it can be optioned and built like that but it doesn't seem like THAT is how many people will be buying them. For 41k you can have a well packaged SS...which is what any sane person would do. Bottom line is that the Camaro isn't cheap. U want performance?? U are gonna pay for it. A friend of mine just bought his son a WRX and paid $38K for it.. They live in New Hampshire and wanted AWD. I don't even have to get into the fact that the Camaro really is a Cadillac. GM is getting its investment back via Chevy.. as it should have been doing from git. Had the CAmaro come out first.. on Alpha.. before the CTS and ATS.. I would haven't thought any worse of it. Its only American cars that get dumped on when platform sharing comes into play

I have owned two GM cars, I had the air conditioner condenser go out on both of them around 100k mile, I had 3 different power windows break on my Aurora, I had to replace 3 engine mounts on the Aurora, and the GM dealer admitted they break all the time, because the mounts GM used were not strong enough for the torque the V8 made when the engine would lift. Under-engineered, designed with save a buck parts. If GM cars were so bullet proof in reliability they wouldn't have lost all their market share, when people left for Toyota and Honda for better reliability. Lexus went from not existing to outselling Cadillac and Lincoln in about 10 years time, that is a pretty big accomplishment, and they did it because of reliability. My car has the same engine, transmission and air suspension of the 07 S550, and between the previous owner (via the carafe report) and me, the engine powertrain repairs have been a small oil leak that was about $200 to fix and a cam shaft sensor went bad, that was about $200 as well. That is it in 90,000 miles on the engine. That engine has incredible reliability. The negative to Mercedes is it costs $425 to change the transmission fluid. To change the spark plugs and wires is about $400 for a V8. Some routine maintenance is expensive. Are U comparing a $700 Air Condenser issue with a $3000 cost of changing of the Timing Chain in the FLAGSHIP Benz? I'll add that his Benz didn't even remotely have 60K on the odo.. even worse is that when he went to trade that German PIECE OF $h! in it was worth $26K. Let me say that again.. $26K on a car that cost him almost $95K seven years prior. To your POS Benz.. my previous GM vehicles have all been 60K+ with the SUVs (previous 00 Yukon, '07 Tahoe) having upwards of 120-150K.. never an issue that cost more than $50 outside of tires.

As to the dependability.. and cost should go hand in hand... My uncle had an '07 S550. He traded it in on a '14 Platinum XTS VSport. Even I asked him what made him trade essentially down from the Benz Flagship to the XTS VSport and his response, to my amazement considering how he talked the Sclass up when he first bought it was: "After 7 years with the top dog Benz I now kno what Bruce Lee was talking about when he said:" Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them "That car cost me way more than the $93,000 I talked the salesman down to. I know I spent minimum $105K once that warranty was gone." In defense of the numbers. He did have to have a big job done to it concerning the time chain.

To the bolded.. Who is able to spend $46K on a CTS and not spend a measly $7K on a new E350? Who are those people? U??? Are U one of those people who have a hard time figuring out if $7K is gonna fit in your budget? LOL... f@#k outta here. Its so comical its downright stupid that U try those underhanded put downs.

Lowest priced Camaro is still barely on lots. I don't kno what the f@#k GM is doing on that car, but if they want to regain the bottom sales they need to bring it. The 2.0L is just now hitting lots. Outta the 16,000 Camaros on sale.. Cars.com is reporting that only 1900 are 2.0L, and many of them are in transit It was done because I was comparing MID-LARGE sales between Caddy and Audi because I happen to own a CTS.

Why did you not include A4 and ATS sales figures in your summary? Because it specifically says MID-LARGE.

I'm not talking about global.. I am talking about US sales. Furthermore it is well known that in most areas Audi is competing pretty much on par with Cadillac.. and BUICK.. which then tells a different sales story

Cadillac vs Audi in 3 Key Cars: A6+AllRoad ( 1619+147) vs CTS (1335) A7 (543) vs XTS (1521) A8 (330) vs CT6 (285) Audi 2492 sales vs Cadillac 3141. The A7 is really the only weird match up due to price... but still.. how is Audi still getting a pass and Cadillac gets blasted for its mid/large car sales?

LOL Are you kidding me? They literally went after you for your Cadillac saying you should buy a Benz. That's almost offensive how they would target you like that. I do think it's funny that they know you have a CTS but no clue you buoght the biggest and baddest CTS and they're trying to put you in a 300hp E Class.. That isn't 650hp of badass. No thanks. as U can see.. my first impulse was to rip that $h! up and toss it in the trash.. then I decided to scan it and let U guys see the tactics they use.

How ironic that on the day I return to posting.. after being in mourning since last Thursday.. I get this in the mail and endeavor into this page of the thread. Benz is trying to get me to get rid of my CTS for an Eclass.. using the New CTS 2.0L @$45K as a reason I should buy.. LOL.. a Certified E-Class for $1000 less. They are putting out the VALUE proposition thinking that I would.. if I had a 2.0L.. get rid of it for a f@#kin E-Class

Your attempts to rile me up are laughable. The ATS essentially replace the CTS in the Cadillac line and only the name goes back to what the second gen CTS was. The CTS currently is for all intents the STS from before. Thus.. no coupe. IN terms of sales the product mix: 2011 Coupe 27% 2011 Sedan 70% 2011 Wagon 3% 2012 Coupe 27% 2012 Sedan 70% 2012 Wagon 4% 2013 Coupe 29% 2013 Sedan 68% 2013 Wagon 3% 2014 Coupe 29% 2014 Sedan 69% 2014 Wagon 2% with almost 30% going to coupe sales 2011 55,042 2012 46,979 2013 32,343 2014 31,115 Means that almost 15K were coupe sales in 2011. BMW's 3series sales, when it was a coupe and convertible were 15% of that mix. Meaning that Cadillac sold almost double.. by percentage.. of CTS Coupes than BMW did coupes and convertibles combined Now go post a video or something clown

Excellent job by the entire company.. and Thanks El... Prince will be missed. With the current decline of music, perhaps more than we realize

The CTS Coupe stopped production in 2013 only leaving the CTS-V Coupe in production til the 2nd quarter of 2014. That might explain some of those numbers... as it wasn't even being produced in 2015, and just selling off what was left.

Awesome job. Keep on track and see profits rise as new cars start pumping in over incentive driven sell-offs like the SRX and Cruze Limited. The new XT5, CT6, and Cruze should push profits and sales north.

DETROIT -- General Motors' first-quarter pretax profit surged 28 percent -- even while its global sales slipped -- as the company aggressively cut costs in troubled regions and sold pricier vehicles across its key markets. GM said today its pretax operating income -- the figure the company considers most reflective of its underlying performance -- rose 28 percent, to $2.66 billion. That amounted to a pretax profit of $1.26 a share, hurdling the $1-a-share average forecast of analysts, compiled by Reuters. The improved results were broad-based: Each of GM’s four operating regions posted a stronger bottom line, even as economic headwinds made it tougher to do business in several markets globally. That was especially true in South America, where GM shored up its losses to $67 million, from $214 million a year earlier, despite a 26 percent slide in sales there. GM narrowly missed breaking even in Europe, posting a $6 million pretax loss, vs. a $239 million loss in the same period a year earlier. The company has long targeted 2016 as the year it finally stanches the flow of red ink there. Autonews View full article