Z-06

Mercedes makes a few strong products, Mercedes' strength (aside from manufacturing efficiency) is marketing and brand imaging.  It could sell dog poo on wheels, and as long as it has that "tri-star" badge on it people will buy it.  The S-Class has been a huge marketing symbol for Mercedes, and it is a car that is only good at one thing, but since the S-Class is (considered) the gold standard of luxury it makes people think all Mercedes vehicles are luxurious.  I personally think Mercedes are ugly and would never buy one, but they are pretty tech-filled and expensive to maintain, and the E-Class and C-Class are roomy and the build quality is decent.

Sounds similar?

High-end racing and luxury brands go hand-in-hand these days.  Infiniti is part of the Red Bull F1 racing team.  Ferrari, of course, is the pinnacle of such endeavors.  Cadillac does participate in some form of racing in the SCCA and Pirelli World Challenge.  But Cadillac should make it a long-term goal to perform at the highest level of racing in the global economy to show it truly is the Standard of the World.  The deal was made to have a Ferrari engine power the US F1 team for the 2016 season.  Perhaps a future replacement of a Cadillac engine would be the best move to make the brand a true standout from anything else GM would do.

I will not disagree that Cadillac should be an active participant in racing. In fact if you would have said this statement few years ago, I would have wholeheartedly agreed with you for GM to be in F1 as a Cadillac. However, as the recent developments of F1 have turned out it is nothing but a monopolistic organization run by a megalomaniac Bernie Eccentric-stone. Besides, F1 participation, will not directly precipitate into sales. No point for GM to make millions of $$ of "investment" to be part of the "elite" club.

If GM had balls, it would help create its own racing league in Asian and Pan-American countries and break the hegemony of F1. There are manufacturers who have openly dissented with F1 governing body. Bring them together and we have a good for racing league than a circus the current F1 has turned into. While not far-fetched, it is a tall order.

Before you start jumping again, please go back and justify your previous post.

Mercedes in September posted its best global sales month ever.  Their biggest growth sector is the S-class up 105%, granted it is a small volume product at 76,000 sold globally so far this year.  The A-Class, B-class, CLA, GLA combined have sold 335,000, but they have sold 261,000 E-class alone.  GLK, ML, and GL sales combined at 250,000.  Their #1 selling product line is still the E-class.  The A/B-class chassis cars are mainly getting their numbers from China and emerging markets.  In the USA the CLA is 7.8% of Mercedes sales (barely outselling the S-class), but it gives them a model to bring in younger buyers.

Again, what does this have to do with Cadillac? If you talk about numbers, let me be a necromancer and re-ask you the question I constantly prod you in other topics when you talk about Mercedes sales - Toyota sells tons of Rav4, Corolla, Camry - is it the best manufacturer? You have always skirted that issue, do not post till you respond to it.

Yes, E class sells - but for this:

or this:

or this:

or this:

or this:

or this:

OOPS MY BAD! I thought we were talking about taxis.

Inevitable.

Wonder how much Transformers helps sell this little subcompact?

None, drive this and you will realize it is a solid effort from GM. Packaging in general is done good by General.

Congo-rats, a good choice.

What is the status of your other rides?

Mercedes just won the Formula 1 world championship Sunday. 

WTF has F1 championship to do with this argument in Cadillac? Are you just trying to prove how omniscient you are? And since you are bringing the pony in this show, Mercedes took 5 years to win that championship as a Constructor and Engine supplier with possibly the biggest budget since it returned in 2010. Shame on Dieter! I would have expected him to win with Michael Schumacher in the 2010 season. Before that Mercedes won as an engine supplier when you had Mika Hakkinen destroying everyone in 1998 and then in 1999 after being let pass by Schumacher, returning from injury in the final Suzuka Gran Prix. Schumi just did not want Eddie Irvine to be first Ferrari driver in 20+ years. Get your facts straight SMK.

 

Audi benefits from a big budget and having other brands above and below them at VW, so there is a lot of money and resources to pull from.  When you don't have the money, Cadillac is forced to pull from the Chevy parts bin

Didn't you just contradict yourself there? So much for NOT the moving goal posts. So Audi and Porsche get a pass for pillaging the VW parts and bins because the company as a whole has a bigger budget? Do you even proof read your own garbage?

 

Cadillac will never have the R&D budget that Mercedes or BMW do, and

Engineering is NOT who has bigger budget. Engineering is who makes the MOST out of the budget he gets. It took more money to make the movie Gravity than for India to put a Mars mission. And with such a big budget, where is the US government with moving the country forward?

Basically an expensive Corvette competitor.

Awesome Cort. Keep it up - success is just another heartbeat away.

A bit removed from $60,000.

Also, a wage comparison would be worthwhile.

You just asserted the fact that commodity price AND wages are playing a critical factor in the purchasing power.

There is a sense of entitlement across the cross-section of the society. Not any exceptions to Generation Z, Y, X, W, etc.

I had a friend tell me that after he came back from Vietnam in 71 at an age of 23, bought himself a good used two year old Corvette 427 from the money he had saved while serving. Can a modern day GI do that with a Z-06?

I have always expressed reservation of Mulally even when he was the CEO. I consider him to be a Smoke and Screen kind of guy. All he did was create perception of how good Ford is. To his favor he had limited resources as well.

If Fields does not follow his footsteps or take genuine measure to fix Ford, we will start to see chinks in Mulally's armor cropping up.

In general, spread of average age of buyers from lowest of 48 to highest of 61 is not a good sign of health of economy of this country. The purchasing power is hugely lop-sided.

Another Audi, another sedan, another uber-bored manatee face looking at you and another not-sedan name. Damn Germans.

SMK, take some time off the site to have a Dulcolax to release all the Mercedes garbage you have been eating.

How do you know pretty much everything has been done? When you have seen nothing about the car?

The ATS gets outsold like 5 to 1 by the overweight 3-series.  I know Cadillac is trying and I can appreciate the effort put into cutting weight, but it isn't translating to sales.  The Jaguar XJ has always been a lightweight, they have done full aluminum bodies for over 10 years, and the Lexus and the Germans outsell it still.   If they make the CT6 more luxurious and better equipped than an Escalade platinum with performance like a CTS V-sport they could be on to something.  But this car better have a V8 too.  The big boys have V12s, Cadillac at least needs 8.

 

More than anything in this segment you need brand image, brand cache, whatever you want to call it.  A car called CT6 is going to be as anonymous as the Infiniti Q60 or Q70.  Cadillac should have dug into the history books and brought back Fleetwood and Eldorado so they could do some heritage marketing and at least have instant name recognition and build some emotional appeal. 

Just like Camry outsells Mazda6. It is perception of how good the cars are in the mind of brand whores like you. Mercedes Benz may manufacture a re-badge Malibu and you will still call it better than any Cadillac offering.

Take that A3 out and it is basically flat. I wonder how long A3 will sustain this brand before decline starts.

 

 

 

First and foremost the K900 is no Cadillac. It is at most a strong Chevy SS contender, which is high praise considering that the SS is a damn nice Zeta.. which is the platform for larger and more luxurious Holden offerings of past.  In reality Kia could have kept the name Quoris, but instead then traded that name in here for what brings quick to me visions of a German Sheppard.. as in K9..

 

As far as Caddy is concerned I agree that a higher number may have shut some people up, but I think the idea is that CT6 gives them other avenues to cross. Its funny though. Since the 7series is a 7 do people see it as less than the A8, because its an 8? I haven't seen that. Ever. The naming scheme at Cadillac seems to being going in the opposite way of BMW. Sedans get Even and Coupes get Odd. The possibility of a CT7 seems plausible. It being the same car as the CT6 it will get the Halo/Flagship rep the same. This is similar to how the S-Class Sedan and the Coupe, once CL, did it. The CL was always more expensive too

 

 

May be I should have stated better. The NAME CT6 is as anonymous as K9000. The car just exists without any siginificance. There was no comparison of actual cars intended.

 

As far as second comment, may be again, I should have stated better. You have a number 6, which has no significane whatsoever, and is possibly associated to the biggest car in the lineup, what numbers the smallest cars are going to see? -1, -2, -3? At least give yourself room for expanding at the bottom if you are going to be stuck with the logic of using CT and a number.

 

It is funny de Nysschen is poo-pooing about the name change and how it is important to the brand. And here we were giving him a free pass for being hired after the trademarking of names.

 

I think there's room for that expansion: CT6 and CT5 have been trademarked; we now know what CT6 is, and CT5 could either be a 4-door coupe or an Alpha-based (or Omega-based - that's what I'd do to maximize the 'milking' of both the Alpha and Omega architectures) 2 door to sit between what is now the CTS sedan and the CT6. I expect the CTS to become CT4 and the ATS to either become CT3 or CT2. Don't see the need to go further down than one notch below where the current ATS is; Buick can and should handle that.

 

You may not, but GM sees the need to build a RWD car smaller than ATS. According to Uwe Effinghaus.

 

First and foremost the K900 is no Cadillac. It is at most a strong Chevy SS contender, which is high praise considering that the SS is a damn nice Zeta.. which is the platform for larger and more luxurious Holden offerings of past.  In reality Kia could have kept the name Quoris, but instead then traded that name in here for what brings quick to me visions of a German Sheppard.. as in K9..

 

As far as Caddy is concerned I agree that a higher number may have shut some people up, but I think the idea is that CT6 gives them other avenues to cross. Its funny though. Since the 7series is a 7 do people see it as less than the A8, because its an 8? I haven't seen that. Ever. The naming scheme at Cadillac seems to being going in the opposite way of BMW. Sedans get Even and Coupes get Odd. The possibility of a CT7 seems plausible. It being the same car as the CT6 it will get the Halo/Flagship rep the same. This is similar to how the S-Class Sedan and the Coupe, once CL, did it. The CL was always more expensive too

 

May be I should have stated better. The NAME CT6 is as anonymous as K9000. The car just exists without any siginificance. There was no comparison of actual cars intended.

As far as second comment, may be again, I should have stated better. You have a number 6, which has no significane whatsoever, and is possibly associated to the biggest car in the lineup, what numbers the smallest cars are going to see? -1, -2, -3? At least give yourself room for expanding at the bottom if you are going to be stuck with the logic of using CT and a number.

It is funny de Nysschen is poo-pooing about the name change and how it is important to the brand. And here we were giving him a free pass for being hired after the trademarking of names.

 

I think if Cadillac's goal was to draw in new customers while simultaneously alienating their existing customers, they may just have a success on their hands here!  At what point does GM's renaming insanity stop?  They have to get out of the mindset that they make garbage product and therefore have to rename each model when the new generation comes out so the new car isn't tied to the negative brand equity.  That "old GM" thinking should have been left with "old GM."  I hate to say it but while the execution plan may be better than Infiniti, I still predict this will turn out poorly for the brand.

 

 

Second.. the CT6 is not a renaming of any existing car. Its a name for a new product completely. The whole line-up at some point will have new naming "scheme" granted, but the reasons for sticking with the "CT" part was to keep in relation with the oldest and best known CAR product still in the line-up. The issue at hand is whether or not the name CT6.. the "6" portion being worthy of being the flagship. Furthermore the true focus of the Cadillac brand should be is focusing on the BRAND CADILLAC. This is what the original reason they went with alphanumeric in the first place. NO ONE.. and I mean NO ONE.. ever tells me they drive a 3series,, 5series,,, 7series... EClass.. XTS. They always say "oh that's my BMW.. my Benz.. my Cadillac." Well. unless its the Escalade.. which is essentially a brand in and of itself similar to the Corvette. 

What does CT6 signify? If it was building up from CTS then why a 6? Why not an CTL - for Luxury, CTZ for being top of the line, or even an CTR. Why a CT6? It has no history, no continuation, no logic, or no panache; it is like a Kia 9000, just an existence. If Cadillac wanted to change naming, even ATS would have been converted to CTA or something like that.

If it was path going forward for the brand, then again why a CT6? Heck a CT8 or CT7 or a CT12 sound more convincing for a luxury car. If it was CT12, SMK may have thought it to be a V12, even if it did not have one.

If GM wants to rename entire Cadillac lineup, by God by all means do it. If all vehicles are going to be called with CT and a number, where do ATS, CTS, the RWD smaller car, coupe will fall? They should be certainly below the CT6 since it is the flag-bearer. Are we going to have CT-1, CT-2 if Cadilliac decides to expand the lineup? But then consumers will confuse the negative sign for GM changing the name and adding a dash. How about naming the crossovers?

Also, all that brand equity of three generations of CTS will be going down the toilet with a name change. Incoherence is one word to explain the madness of naming. As lame as LTS sounded for some rather than having a real name, at least it had some logic.

If chaos is what sells in luxury market, then Cadillac may have a winning formula. Probably that is why Hyundai is struggling because it gave the luxury car a real name.

No B Pillarz!!

 

 

What am I missing?

 

A new car. LOL.

 

Check the tie rods, my car had the same issue a year ago, found out it was the tie-rod. Also breaks can cause the problem.

 

 

Have you seen the 2015 Toronados?!  They are to die for!

 

I'll take a look and have it checked.

Yes they are wonderful. However, I did not say new Toronado, just a new car.

What am I missing?

A new car. LOL.

Check the tie rods, my car had the same issue a year ago, found out it was the tie-rod. Also breaks can cause the problem.

I can see someone with three breasts, but three kidneys a little overwhelming, don't you think?

Nevertheless, this is huge for GM. That LS7 always makes me smile when I start it. To me it is technologically superior than the Germans 6.2 M156 or 4.0 S65.

 

A logical progression of model names?

Calais, Seville, Eldorado, Deville, Fleetwood, Fleetwood Brougham. Escalade,

 

You know what I could have gotten on board with?  A return to the Series names.

Cadillac ATS Coupe = Cadillac Series 32

Cadillac ATS Convertible = Cadillac Series 33

Cadillac ATS Sedan = Cadillac Series 34

Cadillac ATS Wagon = Cadillac Series 35

 

At once classic and also in line with the expectations of the import crowd...

Using Series makes far more sense to me a 46 year old Cadillac lover than the CT crap that I feel cheapens the line.

 

Taking nothing away from Corvette, but  you have a C6 corvette and now you want a CT6 100K lux sedan? This cheapens the branding to me, does not help it.

 

C6 or C7 is more of a generation number, not a car name. GM does not sell the car as a C6 or C7, but a Corvette or Corvette Stingray. Unlike CT6, which if it materializes, will be a name of a vehicle.