Cadillac is gaining momentum on the competition with new models like the ATS.
After a disappointing finish to 2012, Cadillac got some much-needed momentum when its new ATS compact luxury sedan was named North American Car of the Year. That big boost from a panel of 50 U.S. and Canadian journalists is clearly paying off.
Along with the traction it’s gaining from other new and updated products, such as the flagship XTS sedan, Cadillac is beginning to regain some of the ground it has lost in recent years to imports like Lexus, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi.
And with a remake of its mid-range CTS set to debut later this month, General Motor’s flagship brand is finally seeing some upside after years of decline, sales for the first two months of this year climbing by nearly a third over the same period in 2012.
Sean McAlinden, executive vice president of research at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, noted Cadillac is also benefitting from the broader revival of GM’s product development efforts. “This is the year GM product development catches up,” said McAlinden.
The launch of the Cadillac XTS in Shanghai.
GM’s product development had virtually been shut down during the bankruptcy era in 2008 and 2009 but now an assortment of products are starting to ship and Cadillac has benefitted particularly well.
The success of the Cadillac ATS is instructive. “The ATS looked like it was designed for China. But it’s actually finding a market in the U.S.,” McAlinden noted.
The ATS is the smallest offering Cadillac has had in decades, and stands in sharp contrast to the legendarily bad Caddy Cimarron of the 1980s, a small sedan that almost single-handedly shattered the marque’s image of excellence. The ATS has won a variety of awards, beyond the coveted North American Car of the Year trophy, and is generally seen as the first American offering to give serious chase to the segment benchmark, the BMW 3-Series.
Sales of the ATS started disappointingly slowly last year but have rapidly begun to pick up in recent months. And that’s driven the brand’s overall momentum, Cadillac sales increasing by 20% in February and 32% percent for the first two months of the year. The maker’s numbers have now reached their best level since 2006, according to GM spokesman Jim Cain.
Skeptics might have dismissed that improvement in recent years, Cadillac frequently turning to fleet markets to help buoy its business. But, as with GM on the whole, Caddy has trimmed fleet sales. More compelling is that fact that it is winning over import buyers.
Cadillac XTS conquest sales are pushing 40%, and “are exceeding our expectations, with the Jaguar XJ and Lincoln MKS the top trade-ins,” Cain said.
The replacement for Cadillac’s old DTS and STS models was expected to appeal mainly to the legion of Caddy loyalists, largely older buyers who have traditionally been more conservative, less affluent and less well-educated compared to the import competition.
The ATS, in particular, had it strongest sales months since launch in February, becoming Cadillac’s best-selling passenger car model. More than three-quarters of ATS buyers are new to Cadillac, nearly 60 percent are new to GM, and the top trade-ins included the BMW 3-Series and Lincoln MKZ, Cain said.
Cadillac also has several new models in the pipeline.
GM has promised it will show off the redesigned Cadillac CTS at the New York Auto Show at the end of March. The introduction of the CTS follows the rollout of the Cadillac ELR, the brand’s Volt-like extended range electric vehicle, during the NAIAS in January. Still under wraps is the replacement for the Cadillac Escalade, which should surface towards the end of the year.
(Check out TheDetroitBureau.com’s spy shots of the 2014 Cadillac CTS. Click Here.)
Some of Cadillac’s competitors are beginning to feel the heat. While Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Porsche chalked up sales increases in February, Acura, Lexus and BMW sales actually fell in a relatively strong market.
Meanwhile, GM is pushing ahead with Cadillac’s global expansion.
Last month, the maker announced it has begun building a slightly longer Chinese version of the XTS in Shanghai and has nearly doubled the number of dealers it operates in that booming Asian nation.
General Motors Co., which hopes to triple Cadillac sales across China over the next three years, has begun producing the new full-size Cadillac XTS at the sprawling production complex in Shanghai that it shares with its principal Chinese partner SAIC.
(For more on Cadillac’s production launch in China, Click Here.)
Cadillac sold 30,000 vehicles in China in 2012 and has set sights on topping 100,000 sales annually by 2015 as it adds new models, including the ATS and Cadillac ELR. “We are reaching the next level of Cadillac growth in China,” said Bob Ferguson, Caddy’s new vice president of global marketing.