Diesel350

All4Lexus

This is disappointing. GM is willing to cut it's losses and close up shop on something new. It may mean a shift in philosophy and sends a strong message across the GM brands. There must be a demand for the cars and GM needs to be profitable. CT6 is a niche luxury car with not much demand.

I do not think GM can wait out for buyers to show up and idle production. Lexus's GS can be facing a very similar situation by going on the 8th year of a model design. It's waiting around for buyers to suck up remaining inventory (approx 125-130k cars made over 8 years, which is not a very good business proposition when the RX series can make 80% of that in one year.

The CT6 closing will no doubt **** off a lot of hard working people within the industry who thought this new model would help ensure some job stability and be the future of GM. I wonder what it means for the upcoming 2020 CT5 (which will replace the CTS & ATS).

The real disruption in the $50-80k segment may very well be the Tesla Model 3. Every European mfr had their sales suppressed when Model 3 sales surged and deliveries were made. Tesla is in an enviable position to keep up with the demand and grow it. The spring March crossover reveal will keep the demand hot and fresh and Fremont factory running at capacity to be profitable.

CT6 was built on the old school of car manufacturing supply chain and sales process. Design the product, make it, deliver it to the dealership. Pressure is on the dealership to generate sales. Production in done in quanties not to over produce and create an excessive supply problem (unsold cars on dealers lots). There's no real way to gauge demand.
Tesla comes out with the sexy design. Deposits and pre-orders are in place to gauge demand. Production process has to scale to the demand and additional incoming orders. No need for dealer lots to be stocked with unsold cars. Tesla is now in great position to ramp things up higher and globally with their upcoming SUV cross over (based on model 3 platform) and more importantly -- achieve profitability consistently.

While all of this unfolds... I'm sure Lexus is watching very closely. It has great ramifications on what to do for the GS and RX and how best to remain relevant in the competitive auto biz. Do they need to make another sports car appealing to a narrow niche? Audi has their Q5 and Q7 and supercharged SQ5 and SQ7 flavors. BMW has their X1/X2/X3/X5/X7 in various engine flavors. What does Lexus have? Just an RX with only one internal combustion engine option (and a hybrid option). It's quite bland and quickly becoming dated. Toyota's Crown may give a hint of things to come and it would be horse stupid to wait another 3-4 years to the end of the current RX generation to revamp and refresh it. The time is now to make it relevant for the 2020' decade of smart vehicles.

Stroock639

wasn't this launched like, literally not very long ago? i think it looks pretty shaap too

highrev6

All4Lexus

Always easy to blame something. Cadillac lost a sense of urgency to excite car buyers. I was surprised how many models were initially priced at $45k and up. You had to wait for the depreciation to kick in for any real value. Fortunately for the XT4 and XT5 lines, they're getting their act together.

This article is so revealing...
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/te...ugh-2018-11-27

Detroit has an emerging identity crisis. How is it possible could Tesla steal their thunder. Dealership and franchising rules are not ready for the 21st century needs. A car needing less service needs after initial purchase not how GM operates (which is why the volt was so complex and ugly in design). There's a built in maintenance schedule to keep service profits coming into dealers. A pretty prius variant wasnt going to get the job done.) Tesla really wants to define 21st century transportation and GM or any ICE manufacturer will quickly become roadkill if they are not ready for the changing market climate towards e-vehicles and the smart tech that comes with it.

The best analogy is when Apple came out with the iPhone, Microsoft was in denial that it would work and thought it was a gimmick. Billions of dollars later, they had to re-focus on their own areas of expertise. GM is in denial stages and still embracing the dumb car concept. In 5-10 years, the world will have it's major car companies consolidate to a major 5 OEM's capable of handling the e-infrastructure and smart tech involved. Tesla has the first seat at the table. The longer everyone waits, it costs too much to get into the game.

tex2670

If they had a sustainable customer base for their large sedan, and a product that was good competition in the class, they wouldn't need to keep changing the names. They want to distance the new product from the underwhelming DTS/XTS.

They need a product that is compelling, and not just from a driving dynamics perspective. Most people don't know/don't care about that.

UDel

2016, so on the market for less then 3 years and they are already going to kill it which makes no sense. Huge loss. Why not improve it, especially the interior and price it right so it will sell instead of giving up so soon? Nobody is demanding or will be buying electric/hybrid cars from GM or Caddy so it makes even less sense to kill regular cars to invest more in electrics.

It is a pretty nice design, not nearly as good looking as the escala concept but unfortunately they made some enormous mistakes launching it like pricing it way too high(88K for awd 6 cylinder turbo, 58K for a 4cyl?), giving it a 4cylinder standard, no 8 cylinder option at launch, and the interior is just not up to snuff in this class/price range. Cadillac lineup is confusing, several sedans have similar names, CTS, XTS, CT6, people don't know what is what, the flagship should be named CT8

RNM GS3

Very sad as the CT6 is the best American sedan along with the CTS-V.

GM as usual really messed up with the CT6.
1st the name is IDIOTIC! What the hell is CT6 stand for and how is that acceptable for your flagship car?
2nd the interior was crap along with CUE. How do you design a beautiful car with RWD, aluminum chassis etc and then put a crap Interior in it?
3rd the pricing is outrageous.
4th the base engine is a 4cylinder and no V8 offered.
5th is there is not of enough separation compared to CTS.

I’m just flabbergasted sometimes how inept the marketing and product development folks are.
The bean counters run the show and nobody has any long term vision to build brand equity.

tex2670

What was the last Caddy sedan (heck--any GM sedan) that had a high-quality interior? It's really a miracle that Caddy has lasted this long.

mmarshall

The Verano (now discontinued) and Regal both have durable, high-quality interiors...but they are not American-designed. They are rebadged German Opels. I thought that the Saturn Aura and its Chevy Malibu cousin (of that generation) also had nice interiors....but the Aura was also Opel-based.

tex2670

"

"Nice" and "durable" just doesn't cut it. GM has just never strived to be a class-leader in this area; or they did strive, and failed repeatedly. And what is "nice" for Buick is below average for Caddy--especially in the CT6.

The XT4 is a prime example. I haven't seen one in person, but the pix look nice--way nicer than the ATS, for example. But I've seen 2 reviews of the XT4 so far, and both were disappointed with the interior. For a car that competes with X1/X3, Q3/Q5, XC40, etc, you have to bring your "A" game. GM just--doesn't.

LexBob2

I just read a C&D review of the new XT4 and in their recap under "lows" they said, "Haunting specter of fit and finish problems, middling performance, interior doesn't match price.".

MattyG

Agree with the other opinions here. GM's marketing/naming types kept churning the name game wheel over and over and left befuddled consumers trying to sort out this bizarre mish-mash of names. The CT6 got lost in all of this despite its excellent underpinnings and a decent six cylinder drivetrain that was also unfortunately optional vs just being standard.

The other problem of course is the oddball styling that looks strange, even in person. Cadillac stylists never quite got the sedans right and so at the prices GM wants for the CT, shoppers just look elsewhere. In this end of the market the competition is so intense that looking at a CT6 is just a casual cross shopping exercise vs seriously looking at it as a purchase.

JDR76

I like current the Cadillac styling and I am, for the most part, okay with their powertrains and their interiors. My issue is with the pricing. I don't see them as a value. Right or wrong, I view Cadillac as a compromise, or a step down from the Germans and most of the Lexus lineup, yet they are not substantially less expensive. If I have to pay a Lexus/BMW/Mercedes/Audi price, I am going to get a Lexus/BMW/Mercedes/Audi, and not a Cadillac.

LexBob2

The Price As Tested of the XT4 in the C&D review quoted above was $56,835. That seems very aggressive to me but Caddy has been doing that with most of their models.