Bye Bye DTS!
It was only a short story buried on page 6 of the 14 May 2007 issue of Automotive News: "Cadillac may drop DTS or STS". GM has indicated that its future plans will in include a car smaller than the upcoming second generation CTS and something larger than it too. What does that mean?
Cadillac isn't giving much detail but let's go back to what Maximum Bob Lutz, GM's Vice Chair, has stated regarding Cadillac. Mr. Lutz wants Cadillac to be a real competitor to BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Lexus and Infiniti. And Mr. Lutz has openly pitched the idea that Cadillac should have a large rear drive sedan that is its flagship. The DTS, currently Cadillac's largest sedan, falls very short of flagship status.
A few years ago, Cadillac showed the stunning Cadillac Sixteen concept car. Cadillac got universal praise for the car and Mr. Lutz practically bust his nut waxing about how great it was. But the Sixteen is a no-go for Cadillac. It would be much too expensive to produce and it wasn't exactly environmentally friendly. But it did sow the seeds of the idea of a flagship sedan for Cadillac -- something to be on par with the great German luxo-barges.
The lame DTS, introduced just 18 months ago, didn't set the luxury car market on fire. It's either a livery vehicle or a rental car here in LA. The DTS' sister, the Buick Lucerne, is nearly non-existent on the streets of LA. I don't even see that many Lucerne rentals. No one around here would lament the demise of the DTS.
At the beginning of 2007, GM introduced its Cadillac flagship sedan into the Chinese market. I wrote about the Chinese Cadillac SLS sedan last November. [Cadillac gets it right -- in China] It makes perfect sense that GM would kill the DTS in favor of producing a true flagship sedan, the SLS, which can be produced on the same STS assembly line in GM's Lansing Michigan Grand River Assembly plant. GM has already spent the engineering budget to make the SLS real. Please bring the SLS to the US!
Repositioning Cadillac in the upper premium range with the SLS puts Cadillac squarely in the same market as a Mercedes S-Class, Audi A8, BMW 7-Series and the new Lexus LS460L. I think this is a great idea and it has Mr. Lutz's fingerprints all over the idea. From the press photos, the SLS looks like it could compete with the major market players. Cadillac needs to start somewhere. Why not with the SLS?
If GM really wants to get serious with Cadillac, it should redesign the STS to be more distinctive from the lower CTS and refocus its marketing against the bread-and-butter mid-sized luxury sedans like the Mercedes E-Class, BMW 5-Series and the Audi A6. Right now, the Cadillac STS isn't even a blip on the radar screen for current luxury sedan shoppers. It's over-priced and simply not good enough to compete with the Germans and Japanese.
GM believes that the new CTS and the rumored family of related products (a coupe, wagon, etc.) are good enough to take on the benchmark BMW 3-Series. It also better be good enough to take on the all-new 2008 Mercedes C-Class which is here now.
I'll be the first to toast the death of the DTS. The DTS is the last vestige of 30 years of mediocrity from GM/Cadillac. It needs to be killed. Cadillac should move forward with all rear-drive cars. [All-wheel drive can be an option as is currently planned.] That's the direction of all the other luxury marques and it should be the direction of the once-great Cadillac division of GM.
