Cadillac wants fewer, stronger dealerships
LaNeve intends to lower U.S. store count to 425
By Charles Child
Automotive News / August 25, 2003


DETROIT - Mark LaNeve, marketing general manager of Cadillac, wants 75 fewer Cadillac dealerships in the top 50 U.S. markets.

The brand has about 500 stores in the top 50 markets, he said.

By slimming that total to 425, the remaining dealerships will be stronger financially and better able to deliver high-quality service to customers.

Having fewer but stronger dealerships is one part of LaNeve's long-term plan to compete with the top global luxury brands, BMW, Lexus and Mercedes.

"Is Cadillac back?" LaNeve said. "No, not yet. But we have turned the corner."

Needed: CTS variations

Speaking to the Automotive News staff here on Monday, Aug 18, LaNeve also said:



Cadillac's most pressing product need is more CTS variations. "We need coupes, convertibles, crossovers. Now we have the sedan and one powertrain." In contrast, BMW substantially boosts 3-series sales by offering a convertible, coupe and various engines, he said.


General Motors' top officers, including Robert Lutz, vice chairman for product development, and Gary Cowger, president of GM North America, want to create an "ultraluxury car" for Cadillac with a sticker above $100,000. But no program has been approved.


Cadillac will never be No. 1 again in luxury brand sales because it won't offer cars smaller than the CTS to compete with cars such as the 3 series, he said.

Cadillac's mission is to go further upscale with cars such as the XLR roadster. Its base sticker is $76,200.

As the brand moves up, Cadillac probably will not sell 300,000 vehicles per year again, LaNeve said. Sales in 2002 were 199,748. Its last year above 300,000 was 1986, when it sold 304,057 cars.

Cadillac's TV campaign, featuring the tagline "Breakthrough" and the music of rock group Led Zeppelin, will be phased out eventually. It sends the message that Cadillac is changing, he said, but advertising needs to communicate product features and the brand's exclusive image.


Spending on TV advertising will continue to decline as Cadillac shifts money to magazines and direct mail. "I'm not convinced premium brands need a lot of TV," he said. "Our customers are not watching a lot of TV."

Buyouts are tougher

LaNeve gave no timetable for when the number of Cadillac stores in major metro markets will fall to his goal of 425.

Cadillac is not purchasing and retiring stores; nearly all reductions come when one Cadillac dealer buys out another.

The brand has about 1,400 dealerships nationwide, many in small stores with small volumes.

Cadillac's recent success has caused dealership values to rise and has slowed buyouts, he said.

The angular styling on the CTS has been well received. Well-known athletes and rap musicians have embraced the Escalade, lending cachet to Cadillac.

Last week, GM plants were preparing to ship to dealerships two new nameplates with angular styling, the XLR and SRX sport wagon.

Through seven months of this year, Cadillac sales rose 5.8 percent over the year-ago period, compared with a 3.5 percent rise for Lexus and BMW and a 5.7 percent gain for Mercedes.

 

I like the talk of the CTS - Coupe variant (CTC?)

 

That's interesting....especially after reading this from Reuters.

http://web.camaross.com/forums/showt...hreadid=161182

 

Isn't the CTS a 3-series competitor??.

I like the part about only going upscale.

 

If you counted the trucks, I thought they were #1.

 

The CTS is in the 3 series price range (27k-50k) but is sized more like a 5 series. I think a smaller/less expensive (25k-35K) caddy would be nice. They would probably sell a ton of them if done right.

 

A coupe and convertable CTS would be really cool, especially a CTSv coupe of some kind. and for that above 100,000 dollar car, the Sixteen was cool but i still think the Cien would be perfect, especially in helping turn caddy's image around from lackluster to performance luxury.

 

Good info and good article, guionM. Caddy is on the way up and I have to say its a bit nearsighted to say what Caddy can't or won't do. They seem to be doing everything and anything so to say they won't have a true BMW 3-series fighter is suprising.

Sigma (CTS) could be shortened and used for a coupe, or convert!

I wouldn't put it past them...

 

If Cadillac wants a true statement car, all they have to do is build Cien

 

yea, after they prove that they can make quality competative lux vehicles across the board, else it might be percieved as a "one off" car..

 

Anybody want to guess as to how high the price would be for a production Cien? They would obviously target Lamo's Murcielago, Ferrari's Enzo, and the upcomingMercedes-Benz SLR & Porsche Carrera GT. So a target price of around $400k-500k wouldn't be outrageous.

And how about the weight?
A Caddy supercar would need to keep the luxury interior which bumps the weight up so my guess would be around 3500#. In order to be competitive, they would need all the 750hp from the concept. That would give a power to weight ratio of 4.667:1. Compared to Enzo's is 4.621:1 & Porsche GT's 4.98:1.

The only car out of reach might be Bugatti's 1000hp Veyron, but at an estimated $800k+ each, it can be king.

Anyway, I think Cadillac could use a "budget supercar" after the Cien comes out. Doesn't GM partially own Lotus? Remember the $80k 350hp twin turbo V8 Esprit? Shouldn't that platform be due for a make-over by now? My thought is to make a Caddy version with the 425hp Supercharged Northstar we've been told that will go in future V models. A good price would be around $125k to undercut the competition. It would be a heck of a competitor to the Ferrari 360, 911 Turbo and other cars in that range.

The only big problem I see is that the Corvette Z06 is also in that class, but at about half the price. But, personally, I think some internal competition with the Vette would be good. A baby Cien would probably have more of a fighting chance than the '87 GNX though

 

If they were to do a Caddy "supercar" it would be in about the 700 hp range or so from a V12 most likely. I am also guessing the cost to be around 150k-175k and that would put it in competition with the Ford GT, baby Lambo, Farrari 360. They wouldn't do a budget car that would be near anything else because that would defeat the purpose of the car and the whole philosophy of moving upscale. It would be great to have the Cien perform with the new Carrera GT and the Merc. SLR but undercut them by over 100k in price.

 

maybe they mean in North America? if Caddy sales in Europe and elsewhere take off, i'm sure the 300k/year mark would be easily surpassed.

i have to say that so far, Caddy is the only GM brand that's looking on the up to me. they're doing the right things. such as making good cars (WOW, who'd have thought?), making/keeping the brand "clean" by setting it apart from the rest of GM and looking forward to new product development. They're the bleeding edge of GM. hopefully what we're seeing in Caddy is a view of the future of GM.