Article
Date posted: 10-19-2006
DETROIT — General Motors has conceived plans for a compact entry-level Cadillac to help raise awareness of the brand and drive sales higher in Europe. Or at least it is if you believe the company's product boss, Bob Lutz.
Designed to sit beneath the BLX, the company's existing front-wheel-drive entry-level model built by Saab in Sweden and sold across Europe, the new hatchback model is planned to sit on a secret new rear-wheel-drive platform.
Details about the new platform are sketchy, although it is likely to be engineered by GM unit Holden in Australia. That's the same company responsible for the Zeta structure planned to serve as the basis for such linchpin cars as next year's Pontiac Grand Prix successor and the reborn Camaro due out in 2009.
Lutz cites the success of the BMW 1 Series as the prime reason behind Cadillac's plan to venture downmarket into Europe's hotly contested premium-small-car market. He says he's confident that GM's upmarket division can broaden its appeal and increase sales by delivering a car designed expressly to meet the demands of European car buyers.
"The BMW 1 Series has been extremely well accepted in the marketplace and shows what can be done," Lutz said at the recent Paris auto show.
Lutz was careful to play down suggestions that the new compact Cadillac is already in the new-model pipeline, saying, "Nothing has been signed off," although he suggested he is "working hard" to ensure it happens.
While remaining coy on details of the new car, Lutz makes no bones about its layout.
"We are looking at the possibility of rear-wheel drive, but nothing is decided just yet. [This layout] provides the best possible basis for agility," he said, adding it would also "be required to support four-wheel drive." This hints at a car similar to the BMW 1 Series, with a longitudinally mounted engine.
When questioned on whether the new Zeta platform would provide a suitable basis for the new car, the GM product guru was short and to the point. "It doesn't make good engineering sense to take a large platform and [scale it] down." As a result, attention has turned to a still secret rear-wheel-drive platform first hinted to by the Holden Torana TT36 concept revealed in 2004.
While Lutz stops short of confirming as much, it seems credible that it will form the basis of the next-generation BLX, with the new small Cadillac borrowing the same structure — a move that would mirror the approach taken by BMW with the 1 and 3 Series.
What this means to you: Lutz is ultra-interested in pushing Cadillac into new market segments, and while a compact rear-wheel-drive hatchback is unlikely to set sales records in North America, it would undoubtedly lift the appeal of GM's upmarket division in Europe, where the likes of the BMW 1 Series sell in big numbers.