Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Cadillac moves to trademark LTS, is it for a rear-drive flagship?

Car and Driver is back with more info on the potential future of Cadillac, having discovered that our finest domestic luxury brand has filed a trademark application for the name "LTS." The reasoned speculation: that since Cadillac tends to use the names it files to protect, LTS could be applied to one of the two rear-drive sedans expected to arrive soon – either the eventual successor to the just-introduced XTS or an Omega-platformed top-tier flagship. Another possibility is the name XLS.

More interesting are the dimensional roles that Car and Driver predicts for the coming lineup. With the CTS growing in order to put some girth between it and the ATS, making it a straighter comparison to the BMW 5 Series, the XTS replacement would fit between the 5 Series and 7 Series, and the flagship "would exceed even the long-wheelbase 7 in size." That might leave the flagship no larger than the current DTS, which is already 2.4 inches longer than the 760Li, but if the report is correct it will be interesting to see how Cadillac differentiates that middle sedan from the other two.

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/06/14/c...rive-flagship/

Fizzboy7

Cadillac's model positioning is a complete disaster. It all started when they pigged out with the second gen CTS. To stand out in its class, it got too large and that set off a chain reaction of models that no longer match the competition. I can't be the only one who noticed this. Taking a model's position and moving it to a completely new position is rarely done and extremely risky business. If it's happened before, it's when ALL makes in that class move up, not just one.
GM = still doing things the hard way.

caddyowner

American car companies have always tended to have size creep with each new generation of small / midsize cars until a major redesign occurs. If you look back over the past 50 years, you can see it happen over and over. Something in domestic automakers' DNA always tells them that bigger must be better.

Some notes on Cadillac naming:
Cadillac used to use three letter designations for premium levels of the Seville and DeVille models. There were the top luxury models: Seville Luxury Sedan (SLS) and DeVille High(?) Sedan (DHS). There were also the top "sporty" models: Seville Touring Sedan (STS) and DeVille Touring Sedan (DTS). When it was time to upgrade the Catera, a rebadged imported Opel with a poor reliability reputation, Cadillac decided to build the car domestically at a new plant in Lansing, Michigan based on a new platform (but with a carryover drivetrain for the first year). During the launch, Cadillac decided to restructure their product naming to just the 3 letter designation, hence was born the CTS, instead of Catera Touring Sedan. (Some supplier parts of the 1st gen CTS still had "Catera" embossed on inside surfaces of the plastic.) The Seville became the STS with the major change in 2005 (moved to RWD platform and production moved to Lansing). The DeVille became the DTS with that model's 2006 refresh.

T0ked

iTrader: (2)

This article makes no sense. Why would Caddy be looking to replace the XTS when it just came out. How many times does GM need to clarify? ATS=3 series, CTS=5 series, and their future large rear drive flagship sedan (maybe LTS)=7 series. The XTS is a DTS replacement. It has no real competitor... maybe Lincoln models.

And the CTS got too large? It was always offered as a larger alternative to the 3 series for the same price or as a cheaper alternative to the 5 series. It was marketed to straddle the difference. Now they seem to be focusing it more clearly to be a direct competitor to the 5 (which had also been slowly ballooning in size and weight). If anything, the CTS and caddy in general seem to be clarifying their positions.

Fizzboy7

^
Vehicles that fall in between catagories historically sell in low numbers. When people can't wrap their first thought around where it belongs, half those people end up losing interest and look elsewhere. First impressions are everything. People want to make sense of a car at first blush, not think long and hard what it is or where it fits. We are a lazy society, and that is magnified in the circle of car shopping.
The proof is in the sales. While Cadillac is busy trying to reinvent the catagory, BMW, Audi, and Mercedes are comfortable with consistently strong sales.

T0ked

iTrader: (2)

Cadillac has had great success with the CTS. It's the one model outside of the escalade that pretty much had been keeping the marque afloat. It's the other models that didn't really know where they belonged or who their competitor was. I don't think people need to figure out where the CTS fit. Caddy hoped if they were in the market for a 5, they would find the CTS offered a competitive package size wise for a much cheaper price or offered more car than the price of the 3. In this regard, they succeeded with the CTS, not in that it put a dent in the numbers for BMW or Benz but brought more sales to caddy. I agree caddy lineup was pretty confusing with the STS, DTS, XLR, and Catera back in the day but the turn around started with the CTS and now it's basically the core of caddy around which they will hopefully build a complete and competitive lineup. And their new lineup seems very straight forward in terms of categories.