Filed under: Aftermarket, Car Buying, Trends
It's the Cadillac of bikes
In a quirky marketing move by GM's hot-selling luxury marque, select bicycle shops in the U.S. and Canada and a few dealerships in Canada are now selling Cadillac-branded bikes produced by Kent International, Inc. In some instances, the bikes are being thrown in to close a sale or awarded to sales personnel who meet or beat goals. In the past three years the average age of Cadillac's customers has plummeted nearly a decade to the mid to late 40s, and the availability of a premium line of bicycles is designed to attract a buyer around the age of 35. Models come preassembled and range in price from $500 to $1,900. The high-end two-wheelers feature carbon-fiber composite and aluminum frames with disc brakes. GM was involved in every step of the bike's design to ensure that the now strong Cadillac brand image was represented well in a two-wheel counterpart.
_opt_thumbnail.jpg)
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Stuart Waterman 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
you have to admit the bike design shows a fine sense of irony. how else to explain the strategic placement of the cadillac crest underneath the customer's butt? brilliant.
Reply
Bob Zeliff 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
i don't think the bike idea is a bad one. but the choice of kent shows that their marketing people are not close to this market. trek, cannondale, lemond, etc would have a superior bike with an american made tie. good product reinforcement. ps the cadi bike rack fits a cts-v perfectly and is solid to 100. well done! the next step is to have an cadi addvert with a bike on top. got enough guts for that??? ps
Reply
rygar 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
enough of auto companies "making" bikes. m-b, porsche, jeep, hummer, caddy, etc. . . they're usually over-priced, under-performing rebadged crappy bikes. buy a bike from a bike company you can trust. if you're buying a bike cause it's a benz, than you're an idiot doing it for the image and chances are you couldn't even ride the damn thing. it's like everytime i go trail riding and i see some schmuck in their full racer-wannabe grape-smuggler outfits pick up and carry their $4000 full-suspension titanium bikes cause they don't (or can't) ride over a 4" branch on the trail. makes me want to puke.
a good bike-car marketing effort was the ford focus/kona edition (although i wish you got a kona stinky with it) and the vw/trek edition. those two companies did it right, quality products with classy tie-ins, not a craptastic re-badge.
but then again, gm is the kings of the craptastic re-badge.
Reply
james Omar 11:06PM (12/18/2005)
I have used bmw for sale interested contact me is a very good condition if you need pics i can send you.
Regard
Omar
Reply