GM Announces Switch to Quarterly Sales Reporting
As of March 2018, GM has announced that they will be switching to a quarterly reporting of sales. Before this, as you can tell from our recent posts, GM reported sales monthly. This change is GM taking a step away from a long-standing industry tradition.
The reason given was that month to month changes are…
As of March 2018, GM has announced that they will be switching to a quarterly reporting of sales. Before this, as you can tell from our recent posts, GM reported sales monthly. This change is GM taking a step away from a long-standing industry tradition.
The reason given was that month to month changes are more volatile and a quarterly report will help even out the variations and give a better view of the company's performance. However, they have always reported a month compared to the same month the year before - which handles most seasonal changes. But, they are correct that there are differences year to year that don't get adequately explained. For instance, a month in one year may have a small increase or decrease in selling days - which might impact the numbers. Of course, this is also true of quarterly numbers.
As likely is that GM worries that they are spending too much time looking at the very short-term and how that may impact decisions they would make (it is hard to experiment with marketing methods or incentives to dealers if you only have 4-ish weeks and a mistake could look very bad for a model or brand or the company).
Additionally, as models launch - this change would allow GM to roll out a new product as it is ready without as much worry about how slow initial sales would be reported in the media. So, while we will attempt to report on sales changes in a relatively timely way - our sales reporting posts might slack off as a result of this change. Despite this change, our report of Cadillac's March 2018 sales will hit soon. But expect us to also spell out how the entire first quarter looks - since that is how the sales will be reported going forward.
Johan de Nysschen Out!
Suddenly, as of yesterday (April 18), former Cadillac head Johan de Nysschen is out. Replacing him for now will be, former head of GM-Canada, Steve Carlisle.
de Nysschen was recruited to run Cadillac after a short stint heading Nissan's Infiniti division…
Suddenly, as of yesterday (April 18), former Cadillac head Johan de Nysschen is out. Replacing him for now will be, former head of GM-Canada, Steve Carlisle.
de Nysschen was recruited to run Cadillac after a short stint heading Nissan's Infiniti division where his most significant fingerprints were the change to the confusing Q and QX naming convention. Before this he headed up the VW group's Audi brand in the Americas.
While at Cadillac since 2014, he pushed for a controversial move of the headquarters to New York. He also quashed the positioning of Cadillac's Omega chassis sedan as a flagship. It became the CT6 and plans are in the works for something even better above it. Speaking of CT6, he will be remembered for pushing a new CT and XT naming convention that may be scrapped now that he is gone.
It does seem that GM management never can allow Cadillac to execute a complete vision before getting cold feet and removing the brand's top executive. We will regret not getting to see Johan de Nysschen's vision for the brand fully developed.
Cadillac XT6 Crossover Spied
The good folks over at C&D have spotted a larger Cadillac crossover undergoing tests in Michigan.
Built off the C1XX chassis (née GM's big unibody Lambda platform) that underpins the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave.
The good folks over at C&D have spotted a larger Cadillac crossover undergoing tests in Michigan.
Built off the C1XX chassis (née GM's big unibody Lambda platform) that underpins the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave. This means a 3.6l V-6 as the base engine is practically a lock.
A V-Sport model with turbo V-6 power is also something that wouldn't be out of place with a Cadillac badge.
This model is expected to bow within a year and may also be a good indication how committed Cadillac, as a brand, is to the current move to the CT# and XT# naming convention. Given that the cross-town rivals at Lincoln have rediscovered the value of true names on products (something even Cadillac has been flirting with given recent rumors that a production Escala might see production and keep the Escala name). Along with the recently debuted XT4 - Cadillac sales are sure to surge with this new product in showrooms.
Source - Car and Driver
Best of YouTube: Burnout: The First Ever 2016 ATS-V Coupe by Cadillac
Burnout: The First Ever 2016 ATS-V Coupe
Now you see it. Now you don’t. See it all November 18. Discover more about the Cadillac ATS V Series: http://ift.tt/1pKmRA2 To connect with other Cadillac fans, visit http://ift.tt/1qN6roW or follow @Cadillac on Twitter. To view other Cadillac videos like this, visit or subscribe to: http://ift.tt/1xFrb2i
*tap* *tap* *tap*...Is this thing on?
GM Brands - Live or Die?
It's strange to me how a company that is as large and successful as GM, is the only one of the 'big 3' that isn't either in serious trouble or for sale...is considered by so many journalists as a failure.
So, Toyota sold more cars world-wide than GM in the first quarter of 2007...okay. The margin is still tight and with GM's turn-around plan fully in motion, there is no reason to believe that their market share slide will not slow, stop, or even turn around soon.
But, let's accept for a moment the concept that they have not changed enough structurally and need to do more drastic things to match the Toyota machine...do they need to slice off brands and shrink down to a more manageable size?
Fortune suggests killing off Saab, Hummer, Buick, and Pontiac. Moving GMC to a commercial-only vehicle brand, repositioning Saturn as a Scion killer, and leaving Cadillac and Chevrolet as full-line brands to compete against Lexus and Toyota.
Well - I doubt I'd go nearly that far. But, the idea of bringing some coherency to the GM lineup has some appeal.
Here's my plan for GM's brands:
Saab - this brand has no place in GM's future. As a global luxury brand - it competes with Cadillac. As a competitor to Volvo - it ends up in the no-mans land between Buick and Cadillac. As a beloved quirky brand of hatchbacks and a favorite of college profs everywhere...you're killing me with a lack of attention/attempts to mold the brand into something it isn't and shouldn't be. Find a company that could understand what Saab is about and sell it to them ASAP.
Hummer - the brand everyone loves to hate, but a success story if ever there was one. Who would have ever thought that GM could have a viable competitor to Jeep so soon after launch. Sure, there are other GM brands with trucks, but Hummer has such focus and such credibility as a producer of off-road vehicles that this brand will go down as one of the success stories of the early 21st century.
Will it sell in huge numbers? No. Should GM keep it anyway? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. This brand shows exactly what laser-like focus on a brand's mission gives you. Everyone knows a Hummer on sight, everyone knows what it can do, and it is true to these brand traits from top to bottom.
Not to mention, that it doesn't cost a lot to keep them around and they don't compete at bit with anything else GM sells (incremental profit - thy name is Hummer).
GMC - in the dictionary under 'redundant'... GMC sells rebadged Chevrolet trucks and, in the case of the Acadia, a rebadged Saturn. I understand this brand is cheap to maintain and successful in certain markets...but unless GM is serious about 'Professional Grade' enough to drop the crossovers and light-duty trucks from GMC and drop all heavy-duty trucks from Chevy - leaving GMC as a heavy-duty and commercial truck division, then just kill them and let Sierra buyers get Silverados. I can't imagine that the extra dealer body and marketing efforts are made up for by the incremental GMC buyer who would not ever buy a Chevrolet.
Chevrolet - full line, all the time. Assuming that Chevrolet keeps their truck line (it will), then Chevy can easily become the full-line brand that Toyota is. Chevrolet should be your source for everything from micro-cars through leather-lined Impalas. It is a hodge-podge brand that can be just about anything to anyone with a smattering of high-performance products, mainstream front and rear-drive product, trucks, etc.
Cadillac - 'Standard of the World' in the making. Cadillac will be a major beneficiary of a lean, mean GM. The money saved by not supporting Saab product development and GMC can be funneled into an expansion of Cadillac into a true Mercedes/BMW killer. A smaller-than-CTS sedan and coupe, a CTS coupe and wagon, a smaller-than-XLR sports car, a small SUV, as well as an ultra sedan and coupe on the upper end would book-end GM's offerings on the upper end.
Pontiac - focused like Hummer only for the on-road enthusiast. Word is that Pontiac is going all rear-drive. This is going to tick off the Pontiac dealers that are used to being a sporty Chevy...but the success of Pontiac needs to be by offering something focused. A rear-drive line, from a sub-compact through a Grand Prix sized rear driver (the new G8) in sedans/coupes/convertibles...allowing for a resurrected GTO, the Solstice, and possibly a Firebird (as more of a 2-seat, smaller, V-8 equivalent to the GTO) - then Pontiac will mean something. Think of Pontiac as a rear-drive Mazda without the SUVs and minivans and you will see the idea.
Buick or Saturn - pick one. As you have likely heard, Buick is going after Lexus (but given Lexus is totally in Cadillac price territory...why?). Saturn is expanding with sophisticated and stylish product to compete against imports (how antiquated a niche is that in this day and age?). Both are aiming at front-drive for the majority of the lineup. However, Saturn is going for everything from mid-teens hatchbacks (the Astra) through mid-30's crossovers (Outlook).
Buick is at the early stages of a resurgence with the Enclave SUV (based on the same platform as the Saturn Outlook) and will have mid and large sedans (and coupes?) as its basis.
GM needs to make a decision here. Buick or Saturn, but not both.
Saturn is becoming a full-line manufacturer (which seems to get in the way of Chevrolet). However, on the plus side, they have a young buyer and a great reputation through their dealer body and no-hassle philosophy.
Buick, on the plus side has decades of history, loyal buyers, and would carry a stately, elegant, American Jaguar aesthetic quite well. As a softer, less sporty, front-drive alternative to Cadillac's rear-drive lineup - it could work. However, with its aging buyers and less focused niche, I'm not sure how it will fit in with smaller Cadillacs and larger Chevrolets.
I can make a case for either, but better if Chevrolet is limited to softer, middle-of-the-road, tuning for their larger stuff and by merging Buick and Saturn into a single entity that sells sophisticated, stylish, near-luxury product.
So, for me, the ultimate GM would be one that sells Saab, kills GMC, merges Buick and Saturn, moves Pontiac into a hard-core sports brand, and gives the savings to Chevrolet and Cadillac to compete with Toyota and BMW, all the while spending a little bit of money giving Hummer 3 or 4 models that are various sizes of the hard-core off-roader concept.
It isn't as shocking and likely to get me press as Fortune's story...but it might be the one that gives GM an even better shot at long-term success.
Kappa + Zeta = Alpha? Pontiac G6 to go rear-drive
For some time now, we've been hearing that GM planned to take the Pontiac line in a rear-drive-only direction.
The Solstice, while an example of this, certainly was no proof. Then the Grand Prix replacement went to the Zeta chassis as the G8 it started to look like there might be something to all this talk.However, it has always bothered me that the G6 could not easily make the transition. It is based on GM's Epsilon global front-drive platform. Even though the 2nd generation Epsilon2 is supposed to have all-wheel drive as an option...all-wheel drive just isn't the same as rear-wheel drive. Especially to enthusiasts. How did GM plan to take a mid-sized sedan to this new rear-drive Pontiac ethic?
Now, word comes that GM is far into development of a new platform...part Kappa, part Zeta...and going by the name 'Alpha'.
This chassis will serve as the basis for both the next generation G6 as well as it's Euro-cousin in the Cadillac lineup, the BLS.
Now that this puzzle piece has fallen into place, we can only hope that we will soon hear rumblings of a Kappa based small sedan/coupe to replace the current Cobalt-clone G5...perhaps with the G4 name.
Ah, a fun time to be a GM fan no matter how you slice it.
Winding Road: GM's Next RWD Platform: Alpha
$100,000 Cadillac?
$100,000 Cadillac? I bet you never thought you'd see the day.
However, it's not the planned ultra-luxury sedan that Bob Lutz wants so badly...in this case it is the V-series version of the XLR roadster. It's MSRP is $100,000 including destination (I'd certainly hope!).
The XLR is the retractable hard-top convertible, based on the same chassis as the C6 Corvette. In it's normal trim, it is powered by a 4.6l Northstar V-8 pushing 320hp through a rear-mounted 6-speed automatic.
The XLR-V uses a supercharged 4.4l version of the Northstar that puts out 443hp. Also featured on the XLR-V is an upgraded interior with Zingana wood trim.