Filed under: Spy Photos, Sedans/Saloons, Cadillac
Cadillac peek on 60 Minutes turns out to be next CTS
When Bob Lutz gave the television viewing audience of 60
minutes a sneak peek at an upcoming Caddy, the enthusiast community was abuzz at which model’s artfully designed
headlight assembly and grille we were shown. The Car Connection has snapped a pic of the 2008 Cadillac CTS that would
seem to confirm the sports sedan is the car under wraps in question. As was previewed on 60 minutes and is illustrated
in TCC’s shots, Cadillac is taking “Art & Science” to a new level with the new CTS. Its signature
design language has been turned up a notch yet translates into a simpler skin with less superfluous trim. And check
those afterburner taillights out back… so much for fins. [Thanks CoreyTheGent for the tip]
[Source: TheCarConnection]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
laserwizard 8:59AM (4/24/2006)
Cadillac would have to take its so-called "Arts and Scientology" design philosophy to the next level - it is already in the sewer. Never has a company so flubbed up an exterior of an entire branding of cars and trucks like Cadillac has - though BMW has tried to make the ugliest vehicles sold. Cadillac would like to call what it does to the exterior of cars as "design", but anyone with sight knows that this mishmash of planes and creases and woefully proportioned headlights and gaps between the headlights and grill is nothing more than an amateur, boyish attempt to get attention. And for a company which artfully crafted the Sixteen Showcar, this company is pulling all of the worst aspects of that car and are pimping them like a cheap whore. Never has a company tried so hard to produce a line of cars so damned ugly and talentless looking. Yeah, you can spot a Cadillac from a distance - but you can also smell a cowpie from the same vantage point.
Connection?
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David 9:05AM (4/24/2006)
Congratz to Cadillac for concentrating on the important stuff like superfluous trim and headlight treatments instead of silly, useless technology like hybrid powertrains or building cars that people might actually buy.
Funny thing is, Cadillac is actually getting some interest in Europe with a smaller car based on the Saab platform and with a -- get this -- diesel engine! Four cylinders. It is small, eonomical and apparently a gas to drive. Why not sell it here in the U.S.?
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Tim 9:14AM (4/24/2006)
Laser. I don't think you could have been more wrong regarding the design of the cadillac if you tried. If I had a chance to own a CTS I wouldn't say no. The blend of agressive styling and luxury and most importantly performance would have me smiling the entire way.
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Gooch 9:27AM (4/24/2006)
I LIKE the Art and Science design language. It didn't translate as well on the first CTS as it will on the second generation. The creases, folds and sharpness are elegant, a break from the blobmobiles of the 80s and 90s (how come only Audi got those right?). BMW's flame-surfacing may have led to some unusual looks on the trunks, but I defy anyone to confuse a Bimmer with anything else -- and it is the same with Art & Science.
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Stone Floyd 9:28AM (4/24/2006)
Cadillac thinks they're some big shot, but they're only big in the U.S. and that's pushing it. No one cares about them in the global stage.
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Philbert 9:29AM (4/24/2006)
Man, Cadillac was hot before but this should really be big for them. If GM can do with its other divisions what it did with Cadillac then GM will be in excellent shape.
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Rich 9:30AM (4/24/2006)
Hater Alert! Hater Alert!
Geez guys...it's just a car. Amazed you can muster up this kind of froth over same.
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Jack Mehoff 9:54AM (4/24/2006)
Why on 60 MInutes? Because Caddy still know it's target age group is the 60+ crowd. No one young watches 60 Mins.
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Vinny 9:54AM (4/24/2006)
I think the spelling in the title of this article should have been "peek" not peak. Unless that was intended to be a very clever pun, in that, "Cadillac business PEAKED many decades ago." Or could have been a Freudian slip.
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I like this car 10:02AM (4/24/2006)
Just ignore their juvenile hate-fueled rantings.
I did not even have to read their posts to know that their posts would not be positive or intelligent for that matter.
Instead, they post acting as if GM killed their family and burned their houses down.
Then, they use their "oh so witty" wordplay to really display their intelligence for the autoblog community.
Just remember their names and remember that whatever they say will be pure garbage.
Always read names before posts. I always do.
Getting back on topic.
This car looks to be the first truly competitive CTS. Judging from the photos we've seen from the 60 minutes segment, the brand is going in the right direction and is very serious about competing with the best.
Lutz is saving GM one vehicle at a time.
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MadeinDetroit 10:03AM (4/24/2006)
Personally I like it. I like the bold, brash American styling of the Cadillacs. And thats what Cadillacs should be all about, un-apologetically American. Not the bulbous-96 Taurus inspired styling on many of the me-too luxury import sedans today. But Im not about to start foaming at the mouth like some other people over something I dislike.
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EJ 10:15AM (4/24/2006)
It always amazes me when people attack overall design decisions of an automobile manufacturer. There are certainly strong opinions either way about the look of their whole line of cars, but a few things are true:
- Cadillac actually employs professionals to design their cars. There is a reason we are just repsponding to blog posts.
- Cadillac wants to make money. They're not going to willing make a piece of junk.
I live in Chicago, which is not a domestic brand kind of town, and there are plenty of CTSs, Escalades, and SRXs rolling around. People of all ages seem to like them. Isn't that really what its all about?
Honestly there are very few companies doing anything original with design. Nissan has done some cool stuff over the last 5 years, but most people are just tooling along in the status quo.
Even if they're going down the wrong path, at least they're trying. If someone wants to complan, complain about what GM has done to Saab. From quirky to bland.
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doug 10:37AM (4/24/2006)
Lest some forget (or are too young to remember), Cadillac has been working towards this for almost 20 years now. The first STS trim level came about 1989 on the square Seville. Then 1992 came the new Seville with the Northstar and so on. The first RWD CTS and STS are basically toes in the water. They have been well received and now we have the next gen coming. I expect they will be fully competitive. Cadillac is also working on overseas sales. They have to get the size correct, as well as the engine lineups. Rome wasn't built in a day, but let's give them credit for progress made.
If only we could get Ford to make such a long term committment. Ford hasn't shown it can do something as simple as get a common grill across it's range of cars, let alone come up with a 20 year strategy to have it's North American cars competitive with the world.
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Michael Karesh 10:39AM (4/24/2006)
Wasn't there a blog entry about this a few days ago?
Over at http://www.gminsidenews.com they've been debating why the headlights on 60 minutes and in this spy shot DO NOT match up. They're either two different cars, or those in the spy shot are not the production design. It's even more possible that the tail light in the spy shot is not at all production, but is just something thrown together to give the prototype the necessary lights.
One other possibility I ventured was that the 60 minutes car is a coupe, while the spy shot clearly is of a sedan. Lutz has said he wants a coupe and convertible CTS. Both BMW and Infiniti give coupes their own sheetmetal, so Cadillac might do the same.
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Roy 11:15AM (4/24/2006)
I never had a problem with the exterior of the CTS, but the interior was awful. From the photos I have seen, Cadillac may have gotten it right this time. I can't wait to see one.
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Optimus Prime 11:44AM (4/24/2006)
I think the best Cadillac can do is PREVENT the loss of sales to other 'foreign' luxury brands. Someone who's shopped BMW, Lexus, etc.. all their lives wont be looking at anything domestic. And, it still wont sell outside of NA.
Good luck to GM. There's a lot of very good cars in this market: BMW 5, MB E-Class, GS, M45, Audi A6, TL, etc. (this is too, too, big of a car to be in the same range as the 3-series, no matter what GM tries to puch).
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Jason 12:22PM (4/24/2006)
No one here can compare a corpulent Seville or El Dorado of the late 90's with a new CTS/STS and say they are not working to compete in the market.
Cadillacs don't need to please everyone. They have to be distinctive for the market that includes BMW, Mercedes, Infiniti, Audi and Acura. Love them or hate them, none are bland vehicles. Even though none of these upper brands sell collectively as many vehicles as the Toyota Camry (exaggerating a bit), they do represent a market that will not settle for a watered down half hearted design. This is a *big* lesson for GM to learn; a lesson that GM needs to take to all of their divisions. But they have to learn it somewhere first.
So congratulate them on their continued refinement of design *and* their risk taking. You may not like everything theyve done, but at least acknowledge that GM is finally starting to fight.
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Devin 12:24PM (4/24/2006)
6. Why on 60 MInutes? Because Caddy still know it's target age group is the 60+ crowd. No one young watches 60 Mins.
Wow your wrong. I am 17, and my brother, who is 15, and I watch it every sunday.
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DarkKnight67 12:39PM (4/24/2006)
More than likely, the lights on this are "Frankenstein" units designed primarily for use on test tracks.
As for all the haters, they just can't get over the fact that Cadillac (and GM in general) has really started listening to the public.
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Bob Miller 1:10PM (4/24/2006)
I like the new Cadillac designs. The latest STS being a huge improvement (from a design standpoint) over the current CTS, and pretty much my favorite car in the lineup (with the AWD system and V8 of course). It looks like this new CTS is a smaller version of the current STS, which is cool.
But here is the major Caddy problem for right now: pricing. GM has gone and priced themselves WAY too high to compete with BMW, Mercedes and Lexus. Unfortunately, years of mismangement and not listening to customers during the 80s and 90s has turned them into perceived also-rans when compared with BMW and Toyota (Lexus). Something that GM executives in the 70s and before would have laughed at if someone were to tell them this was going to happen. But anyway, in order to get some "cred" again, they have to come in aggressively priced and get people to actually consider the purchase (they need to do this more effectively with all their brands actually, which apparently they're trying to do, but we'll see how effective it ends up being, I still think a lot of their models are still too much). The new STS was *NOT* priced aggressively, and thus they have a 100 day supply of them now. (I'm not sure what the supply is on say, a Lexus GS430, but I'll bet it's half that).
GM should take a cue from Chrysler and price the new STS and this new CTS like Chrysler did with the 300. They'll be sales hits then, not just great cars that cost too much.
The new CTS should start in the high 20s like it does now, but with a lot more standard stuff. The STS shouldn't go over 50k with the V8 and AWD - but it goes well over 60k with all of the options currently. Stupid. Yes, Cadillacs are pretty sweet now, but it's still too soon to be that proud of your new rear wheel drive chassis. You're not going to convince a die hard Bimmer driver or Lexus driver to get into a $63,000 Caddy this soon. But, a $48,000 V8 AWD STS, fully loaded, hmmmm, now that's a little easier to swallow (compared to a $63,000 BMW 5 Series).
Of course, I think spending $50k on a new car, no matter what it is, is a little insane. But hell, you never know, I just may be crazy enough one day to think that $1000 a month payments are okay.
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