Saab GB’s Nash excited about Cadillac

Posted by swade on May 2nd, 2008 6 Comments Printer-Friendly

Saab GB head honcho, Jonathon Nash, recently did a rather long interview at Just-Auto (reg req’d) where he goes to great lengths to emphasise that GM are very committed to developing Cadillac as a global luxury player.

I should mention that he’s also the Cadillac head honcho for the UK. And the Hummer head honcho. And Corvette, too, I believe. Anyway, some Cadillac confirmation:

….This move has coincided with a determined effort by GM to really put Cadillac on the map globally…..

….for GM to be able to say this is a global premium brand along the lines of Mercedes-Benz, they had quite a lot of work to do…..

….lots of things that indicate GM is very serious about going global with Cadillac.”

….We’ll be helped by the fact that there is this absolute determination at GM to make Cadillac a global brand which means they will bring product to market quickly which will help me match to product requirements.

OK, we get it.

There’s a lot of talk there. Talk about the analysis they did when the last arrangements with Kroymans failed. Talk about how they didn’t point the finger of blame at anyone (I suspect it was mainly because the finger would have pointed back at Detroit, and they NEVER make a mistake there). Talk about how they’re going to learn from the Saab experience of managing a small brand. Talk about how they’ll be small enough to be personal where BMW and Audi can’t.

Can I just mention something that some management type guy emphasised some time ago, probably in another industry but relevant as all heck right here.

IT’S THE PRODUCT, STUPID!

The product is basically the CTS when it comes in RHD, and when it comes with a new diesel. There’s also the industry-proven BLS, which hasn’t proved itself to be any good, but has provided proof GM’s commitment to Caddy in Europe regardless of what common sense, the market or even my dog might tell them. There’s the STS which is really old and the Escalade which is limited by being LHD only. In short, it’s a fleet of luxobarges in a country where entry to the capital is controlled by a bloke named Red Ken.

Extreme luxury will work in small quantities, but Cadillac isn’t extreme luxury. And what’s more, the overwhelming evidence points to the fact that it’s not wanted, needed, desired or barely even thought of outside of GM walls.

Cadillac are going to try and sell 500 units this year. They’re hoping that they can lift to sell 5,000 units a year in 5 years time.

These modest targets are, of course, revised from the five-figures-by-2010 targets that were set and missed by a wide margin (4.5 out of 5 figures) previously. This was when GM were in partnership with Kroymans, a Dutch distributor who were contracted to sell Cadillac and Hummer in the UK a few years ago.

Kroymans spent big on real-estate for the venture and were planning on 15 dealerships at a cost of around $5 million each when the plug was pulled. How much do you think it cost GM to cancel that contract.

No sales, big costs, and still no appreciable market recognition for Cadillac in the UK, or in the rest of Europe for that matter.

——

If there’s a silver lining in this deity-sized cumulonimbus it reads as if they’re intent on pitting Caddies up against bigger BMW’s in Europe. There’s numerous references to the 5-series and bigger Mercedes Benzes.

Theoretically that would leave Saab to duke it out with the 3-series, but I don’t trust that that will be the case whatsoever, not with the CTS being the poster-child for all things Caddy in the foreseeable future.

If Saab could get just half of the seed and development money GM wasted on Cadillac in the last five years it would have made well and truly more than 5,000 units difference.

/rant…..

…for today, at least.

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J said:

If there’s a silver lining in this deity-sized cumulonimbus it reads as if they’re intent on pitting Caddies up against bigger BMW’s in Europe. There’s numerous references to the 5-series and bigger Mercedes Benzes.

Caddy vs. BMW or Mercedes? I’ll put my Euros on the Euros.

-May 2nd, 2008 at 3:03 am
Saabster said:

Oh boy, another day, another rant about Cadillac. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

-May 2nd, 2008 at 6:20 am
Alex said:

The only way Cadillac will succeed in Europe is if it goes back to it’s pre-WWII market segment. Europeans will NEVER, I repeat NEVER see Cadillac as a true competitor to BMW, Audi, or the smaller Mercedes cars. Cadillac just doesn’t have that kind of sporty, refined reputation over there. When Europeans think of Cadillac, they think of giant plush American land-yachts, not anything near the refined cars that Cadillac would actually go up against.

So if Cadillac wants to have a prayer of being a globally-recognized luxury brand, they need to once again set themselves as “the standard of the world” and work their way down from there. They should build a low-volume car costing ~$100k-200k USD that would compete with the Maybach, Bentley Arnage models and the Rolls-Royce phantom. Base it on the beautiful Sixteen concept and sell it for 1/3 to 1/2 the price of the big models from the other three. Make it big, make it flashy, make it loaded to the gills and sell it with a 16 cylinder engine option and I could easily see Cadillac selling 5-15,000 of these things a year, people would be all over them in Europe, the Middle east, and especially in China and Russia.

From there, move downmarket once the big caddy has made a good reputation for the brand globally. Offer the next-gen STS/DTS replacement and offer the next-gen XLR to broaden Cadillac’s offerings. With luck, you could turn Cadillac into a successful boutique brand for the global luxury car buyers who want something flashier than the German offerings.

But GM is flushing it’s money down the toilet trying to turn Cadillac into the American BMW. It’s never going to happen, and Saab has much better chances (since it actually COMPETED with BMW once upon a time) of getting GM’s hands on BMW/Audi’s market share.

-May 2nd, 2008 at 6:42 am
Troll96 said:

Alex: Very intriguing suggestion, and one which smartly places Cadillac and Saab on mutually exclusive footings.

-May 2nd, 2008 at 7:36 am
Alex said:

Yeah, Cadillac has no future globally in the market segment that it currently occupies, the competition is just too good and anti-American sentiment is just too strong.

That’s why Cadillac needs to get back to it’s roots and become a REAL luxury brand, just as Saab needs to get back to it’s roots as a quirky Swedish BMW-fighter.

-May 2nd, 2008 at 7:53 am
Jeff said:

About the product:
-The BLS has been discontinued, I thought that was reported on here? I think I read that a new RWD replacement was coming, but I could be wrong, they might just put their money into pushing the CTS.
-New STS is coming soon, about the same time as the new 9-5 (or sooner, who knows).
-New Escalade possibly in development, I’d assume they’ll make RHD available what with their European efforts and all.

Alex - I loved the Sixteen, but it will never be built, because GM (and Lutz) thought it was too excessive in an era of downsized engines and $5 gas. GM is trying to pull itself out of the rut it dug for itself with the SUVs, and the Sixteen would not help. Besides that, I agree that Cadillac needs a new flagship to compete with the ultra-exclusive Euros. It just won’t be the Sixteen…which is very sad.

-May 2nd, 2008 at 4:41 pm