The (Possible) Future of Cadillac
Car and Driver commented on a possible future for Cadillac this week. As one of the Four Core Brands being kept around by GM, Caddy will undoubtedly fight for the prize of being the Great American Luxury Automobile. One of the best pieces of new to come from this article is that Cadillac’s XTS model could be the new flagship of this particular make. Expect to see more modern and slightly smaller Caddy’s in the near future – with better MPG ratings.
XTS Will Not Replace DTS—It Will Fight the Lexus ES
If everything goes to plan, Cadillac’s future sedan lineup could look more conventional, as the brand has stated its desire to avoid “tweener” cars such as the current CTS, which competes with both the BMW 3-series and 5-series. The new sedan strategy would encompass the following models: a full-size flagship to replace both the STS and DTS; an all-new, appropriately sized 3-series fighter; the CTS, which would be freed up by the smaller car to truly gun for the 5-series; and a mid-size Lexus ES competitor to be called the XTS.
But there have been obstacles. A large rear-wheel-drive sedan based on the Australian Zeta platform, which underpins the Chevy Camaro and soon-to-die Pontiac G8, was the most prominent casualty of tightening fuel-economy standards. The platform would have made an excellent top-of-the-line sedan for Caddy, but its weight and rear-drive layout aren’t particularly efficient. The project, internally dubbed DT7, is basically dead.
With that project’s demise and with the Northstar engine—and the DTS and STS models that use it—going out of production next year, a significant gap will need to be filled at the top of Cadillac’s lineup. Cadillac recognizes the need to offer a vehicle above the CTS; one insider says the brand wants to avoid becoming the “CTS brand.” That flagship, our sources indicate, could be derived from the SLS, a stretched STS sold in China. For U.S. duty, the car would be reskinned and use a version of GM’s small-block LS V-8. This makes some sense, as a rear-drive eight-cylinder car on the Sigma architecture would be a better competitor to the German heavyweights than a soft-riding car based on some version of the Epsilon platform—which underpins the Chevy Malibu—as other reports have indicated.
Jul 9th, 2009 at 10:43 am
[...] http://www.cadillacpedia.org/the-possible-future-of-cadillacThat flagship, our sources indicate, could be derived from the SLS, a stretched STS sold in China. For U.S. duty, the car would be reskinned and use a version of GM’s small-block LS V-8. This makes some sense, as a rear-drive … [...]