It seems like most of the Cadillac dealers around here also have Buick and GMC in the same showrooms.

 

Around here all Cadillac dealers are lumped in with Chevrolet, Buick and GMC. What Cadillac still has not done around here is seperate themselves from their there brands.

Lexus, Acura, Infiniti on the other hand have successfully distanced themselves from their standard brands. When a new buyer goes into a Lexus dealer to buy their shiny new Lexus NX, they do not see Toyotas sitting under the same roof or parking lot. Can't say that for the Cadillac SRX owner.

 

Fair enough. I have no reason to doubt either of your words on that. In your areas (Ontario and Illinois), three or four different GM brands, including Cadillac, may indeed be sold at the same outlet. Here in this DC-Baltimore area, though, with the enormous number of new-car sales of all makes (second in the U.S. only to L.A./SoCal), GM dealerships are usually broken down into Cadillac-only and GMC/Buick/Chevy. I would imagine, though, LexBob (and are you from the Chicago area), that a lot of new cars are also sold there, and that you might also find Caddy-only shops.

 

I'm not saying they are, it will take time but they are headed in the right direction. Changing the names of their models is not going to help that, as it did not with Infiniti.

We certainly also have combination Cadillac dealers in the DC Metro area. Capitol Cadillac in Greenbelt, MD also sells Buick, GMC and sold Hummer.

 

How can you say that the name change has not helped Infiniti? It has been less than 2 years since it was announced and these things take time. We had grown used to the old naming structure so it will take some time (many years, perhaps) to become used to the new names.

It will take a few years but we will get used to the new Cadillac naming structure also.

If there is problem with these new Cadillac and Infiniti naming schemes, it is perhaps that the new scheme is NOT different enough from the old.

Infiniti was banking on the market's familiarity with the "Q" name so decided to name everything Qnn or QXnn. But because it is so similar to an old (but still remembered model), we think Q50 must be the Q with a 5-litre engine.

Cadillac's new naming scheme may be worse. They are banking on the market's familiarity with the CTS so their new scheme becomes CTn. The problem is that, from a distance, CT6 could easily be seen as CTS; the next CT5 (whatever that becomes) is even more easily confused with CTS. Many will start to think that all of Cadillac's models are now named "CTS". They will think that Cadillac then only sells one model, the CTS.

Infiniti and Cadillac should have been more courageous and made a greater change in their model names.

Oh, and don't blame Johan for this; the new Cadillac naming scheme was in the books before he came on board. Caddy may have hired him because he has experience marketing a new naming scheme.

 

if it takes years for customers to get used to it, then it has failed already.

 

True. I haven't been to that one in a while.

 

My Dad bought his 95 STS there. I believe back then it was just a Caddy dealer, but has since added Buick and GMC...

I agree. The issue is that they're already trying to get consumers used to the idea that an Infiniti or a Cadillac can be a tier one car. Now you've taken away that model recognition when they have some good success with the CTS, ATS and the G series at Infiniti. Now they have to wrap their heads around a $70,000 Cadillac sedan, and they have to figure out what the hell a "CT80" is?

What made Audi successful isn't their new names...its making great cars.

 

I do not understand how Lexus isn't dragging Cadillac into a trademark dispute over "CT". Seems to me that "CT" is the identifying moniker for sedans, just like the Lexus CT.

 

I agree that Lexus should dispute the trademark "CT" legally. Then again I think Lexus doesn't think that Cadillac is a threat but either way Lexus has the CT and it's doing well.

Johan is going to have to go back to the drawing board...just keep the CTS, ATS, XTS, ELR, SRX, XLR, etc. monikers. Just change the Escalade designation to be consistent with the rest of the line-up. There you have it! I just made Johan's job that much easier...

 

totally disagree. branding changes ALWAYS takes years.

bmw changing the 3 series coupe to the 4 series was a HUGE change but most consumers probably still don't have a clue that a change was made.

plus a brand like bmw promotes the WHOLE BRAND so people think (ideally) all bmw's are awesome, just different sizes and shapes, with model designations being less important. whether it's a 428, 430, or 435, etc. ... it's still a bmw.

 

I don't agree, BMW only added the 4 series to separate their old 3 series coupe designations. What Cadillac is doing is changing ALL of their designations.

Its easier to explain to customers what a 4 series is than to explain the whole entire naming scheme. It will take more than years to get used to, maybe even decades...

 

No. A suit like that would get nowhere. The judge would probably toss it out as a frivolous lawsuit. How many automakers, for example, over the years, use (or have used) the "GT" moniker?

 

Cadillac will rename SRX and introduce two new utilities to lineup
Source: Autos.ca


Interesting that the Escalade name will live on.

Speaking of trademark infringement, I remember the "XT" as one flavour of the IBM PC desktop personal computer from 30 years ago.

 

I'm fairly sure they could put a good fight. The precedent has been set many times in the past. "GT" is typically used as a trim level so this isn't the same.