Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

GM cuts price on most Cadillac CTS sedans amid weak demand
Reuters
17 hours ago

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co's <GM.N> luxury Cadillac brand has cut the price most customers will pay for its 2015 CTS to counter slumping demand in the United States for the marquee sedan.

The largest U.S. automaker told Cadillac dealers on Wednesday that it was cutting the price of the three best-selling packages of options on the car by as much as $3,000, a spokesman confirmed.

"After Cadillac launched the entry-level ATS, it got too aggressive on moving the price up of the redesigned CTS – and too optimistic about the sales volume at that price." AutoTrader.com senior analyst Michelle Krebs said. "Despite the CTS being a solid vehicle, the Cadillac brand still does not have the cachet to charge such high premiums yet."

The base price of the 2015 model remains unchanged at $46,340, but the price for the luxury, performance and premium packages was reduced by $1,000 to $3,000, Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell said. The cuts affect the "vast majority" of the CTS sedans sold, he said.

The cars affected sell in the range of the low-$50,000 range to the low-$60,000 range, Caldwell said.

CTS sales fell almost 18 percent in December and were off 3.8 percent all of last year in a rising luxury market. GM's inventory of CTS cars as of December 2014 was 102 days supply according to Ward's.

Cadillac chief Johan de Nysschen had previously said the brand would not cut base prices, but left the door open to repackaging options so that buyers would pay a lower price overall. Luxury car brands are reluctant to cut sticker prices because that could hurt the image of the brand and the value of vehicles already on the road.

Cadillac was the only major luxury brand that lost sales in the U.S. market in 2014, when it sold 6.5 percent fewer cars than the year before. Volkswagen's <VOWG_p.DE> Audi luxury brand overtook Cadillac last year, knocking the GM brand to 5th in the U.S. market.

gymratter

repost

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/car...risons-15.html

mmarshall

The CTS is arguably Cadillac's best American-market product, especially compared to the unimpressive XTS, but the CUE system and finger-slide-controls does turn some potential buyers off. That system is one of GM's few recent flops. With a redesign of the video and some of the center-dash controls, it would probably sell much better.

Fizzboy7

I've said it a million times. You do not take a entry car and transform it into a mid-level car with the same name. It is the most backward and inefficient way to do business. This is exactly why the CTS struggles and needs a price cut. People are still used to thinking the CTS is the entry car and have a heart attack when they see the sticker. It will take twenty years for this problem to fix itself. Poor poor poor business decision that continues to cost GM major money.

SW17LS

We all said at the time the CTS was way too expensive.

I also agree about the name. And now...all Cadillacs are going to be "CT-" so...now everything is going to be named coming from this model car that is a sales disappointment? Makes no sense to me.

Why the CTS isn't the STS and the ATS isn't the CTS is beyond me.

mmarshall

That's because they simply aren't doing even the most rudimentary homework and checking before they go shopping. Is that Cadillac's fault? Cadillac clearly displays the entry-level ATS alongside the CTS, not only at auto shows (at the D.C. Auto Show, Cadillac even sometimes has a local test-drive circuit), but also at their own dealerships. The ATS and CTS are clearly illustrated and explained on Cadillac's website. Auto reviewers explain both models to the public when they do reviews. And Consumer Reports also clearly explains the difference between the two cars in their publications.....not to mention the large number of Internet auto forums like our own here in CAR CHAT. So if virtually any Cadillac buyer, today, doesn't know what he or she is looking at, then as far as I'm concerned, it's their own negligence, not GM's.

And, if one compares CTS prices to comparable offerings from BMW (5-series), Audi (A6), Infiniti (Q70), and Mercedes (E-Class), it's probably not out of line.....although I'll admit that CTS prices do clearly run higher than comparable sedans from Lincoln. However, except for the nice Lincoln MKC, Cadillac, today, usually does better vehicles than Lincoln.

spwolf

yep... but hey, they have new hot shot CEO that will run another brand into ground, yay! lol.

SW17LS

Of course it is! At the end of the day its Cadillac's job to sell their product and market their product to the consumer, if customers aren't understanding how their product fits in with their competitors, that is THEIR fault. When selling something, failure to sell it always rests with the person doing the selling...not the consumer. The consumer shouldn't have to do research to understand your lineup lol

If this is your mindset and you ran a business...you'd be out of business and deservedly so.

"People aren't buying my product because they're too stupid to understand what it is". You have salespeople on unemployment lines all over the country spouting that BS...its actually that they are poor salespeople...and Cadillac did a poor job naming, pricing, and packaging the CTS and it shows in their sales.

I shopped the CTS, optioned like my GS a CTS is about $10k more...with pricing very similar to a similarly optioned 535. Thats insane. For $70k...I and anybody else are buying the 535.

Allen K

iTrader: (4)

Cadillac has had issues pricing other cars as well. ELR anyone?

corradoMR2

Until the day a comparably equipped 5-series, A6, E, and GS are more expensive, the CTS will have a hard time even though the product is as good.

Toys4RJill

I think we can now conclude that Cadillac does not belong in the same discussion , category or tier as Lexus, MB, and Audi. The proof is in the pudding; low sales, confusing line up and sub par products.

mmarshall

I have to at least partially disagree. If no research was needed, not only would there be no Consumer Reports, but probably no enthusiast magazines like R&T, C&D, etc..... and we wouldn't even be talking about it here in a car-chat forum.

What's more, Cadillac does a pretty good job on is website of differentiating the CTS from the ATS. But the public has to actually LOOK at the website.....and the other sources.

No. It has nothing to do with me or a so-called "mindset". You are overlooking the true reason the CTS isn't selling.....the CUE system. It's also affecting other Cadillac sales as well.


And, if what you say here is true, VW would probably be out of business for the way they attempted to sell the Phaeton here in the American market.

SW17LS

The bottom line is that in business it is the business' job to reach and sell their products to the consumer. It is never the consumer's job to seek out the business. Any failure to get the product through to the consumer is a failure on the part of the business providing the product or service. Thats business 101.

If the public isn't looking at the website...then the website isn't good enough.

I don't think its that at all, I don't think people are even getting to the point where they are looking at the CUE system.

Why would one model put VW out of business? They tried something, failed, and took the product off the market.

Business is business, and I will put my knowledge of business up against anybody's anyway. How many businesses have you owned and operated? I've owned and operated 4, by the way. Two sold. two I still own. Any business that feels that a consumer should seek them out and its not their job to reach the consumer is doomed. As Cadillac has learned, its not enough to build a great car. Lexus is guilty of this too, look at the GS. Its a great car, why doesn't it sell well? Because consumers don't know what it is, understand the benefits over the ES, and its Lexus' fault for not educating them.

mmarshall

OK, from a PURELY (100%) business sense, I can at least partially agree with where you are coming from. But we aren't dealing with pre-schoolers here, or with illiterate peasants from Third World countries. We're (hopefully) dealing with adults that can read and write.



With all due respect, do a little research yourself.......CR, J.D. Power, etc..... The CUE is generally the main complaint on the latest generation of Cadillacs, though I personally found the XTS deficient in some other ways, too.



The CTS, though, has been very successful up until the latest version.....the 2Gen even more so than the 1Gen. If all that is bogging sales down is the CUE, I don't see any need to take it off the market.

Admittedly, cutting the price is indeed a long-proven way to stimulate sales. Let's see if sales will pick up even with the CUE system. The price cut came where it might (?) be needed the most......many people can stomach a stiff price if it includes more equipment at a lower or reasonable cost. [/quote]

bagwell

hum $13K discount, you can pick one up for $29K...not bad...of course there's no way in hell I'd pay MSRP.



or $16K discount...