Cadillac and Lincoln

Unstretched limos

GM and Ford belatedly try to resuscitate their luxury brands

See article

Readers' comments



It is an American named Chris Bangle who went all the way to Munich to create a revolution. He changed the face of BMW which until then existed as a an ordinary looking ,if not ugly car without good aesthetics. Cadillac can make use of America's home grown talent and expertise to create cars of exceptional design and performance if it wants. All it needs is the right people to be roped in who can thnk fresh and out of the box.

d4KRDJCpQd in reply to Rajithajayan

Hyundai + KIA refreshed their total line-up aesthetically in 2 years and what a job they did! The USA is very capable but the "luxury" divisions at GM + Ford are still tainted with the clowns from the old guard putting their dumb stamp on important details like the grills on both Cadillac and Lincoln.

DG Reid

You cannot tell the customer, "Our other cars are cheaply made, but this one is high quality." Ford and GM must show they are putting quality into all their cars, and not just a marquee brand.


Writing off Cadillac and Lincoln is premature. Cadillac has been on the rise for quite sometime and Lincoln is only starting now as it's a brand that was neglected for 20 years. It can only go up. As far as I know, it's to be a brand quite different from Ford with different engineering and even sheet metal rather than just be a Ford with leather seats. Keep in mind as well, Lincoln has by far, the best CEO in the automotive business so writing them off now is the same as saying Ford was dead in 2006.


Cadillac has actually been working on its "renaissance" for almost 10 years now. Ushered in under its "art and science" philosophy, the 2002 Escalade (second generation) put Cadillac on the pop culture radar. The 2003 CTS that followed was Cadillac's first rear wheel drive vehicle in, well, awhile and not a bad endeavor. It was at least a clean break from its past. Cadillac's mid-2000 revised portfolio of almost all rear wheel drive base vehicles were at least moderately competative.

Unfortunately, it seems like GM's bankruptcy woes put Cadillac's turnaround on the backburner. Only the second-generation CTS hit closer to the mark than its pervious vehicles.

It seems like with the new '13 ATS, SRX crossover, and '15 CTS down the road, Cadillac is finally getting back on track. The XTS pictured above is just a stop-gap vehicle until a real S Class/7 Series competitor can come online, possibly for the '16 or '17 model year.

Cadillac may not be a BMW or Mercedes, but then again, nobody is making a car right now as bad ass as the 556 hp, 6.2L V8 CTS-V wagon.


In the year 1981 the GM delearship Cadillac went broke.
It did not sell one. In that year we were already in


As a European who has worked for both Audi and Mercedes in years past (the German principles that is, not their NSAs) I now drive a Caddy CTS because it is faster, better looking, better performing and more reliable - and cheaper at 10k service intervals! And yes, sexier too, than those androgynous Euro plush buckets that rsemeble - with every passing revamp - those Lexus and Hyundai chuggers that used to blatently copy from the Germans. The table has now turned full circle, leaving a dog's dinner of girlie styling of almsot all German cars (except Mercedes perhaps..).
Give me the sharp edges and clean masculine lines of a Caddy, Chevvy or Ford anyday. And the smaller service bill, of course...


Detroit does not get esthetical luxury car thing at all. Farm out the design work to young Americans on the West Coast who do not come with the isolated, arrogant, tired, tacky "Detroit car guy" baggage.

Albertican in reply to d4KRDJCpQd

Spoken like a Californian.

I see no reason why people on the west coast would be able to design cars better than Detroit, and plenty of reasons why they wouldn't. Little experience, separation from production facilities, vicious competition with other design industries sapping talent etc.

d4KRDJCpQd in reply to Albertican

It has to do with having a worldly sense of style and taste which neither brands have at the moment. What is the point of having a reliable car with tons of horsepower that nobody in the discerning car world wants. Californian designers have produced some of the most beautiful designs for foreign brands for years now totally void of the clueless Detroit idea of refined and elegant luxury. I would like to see both brands having a hard time meeting supply and demand for the discerning "world" luxury car market. In my humble opinion Ford seems to be on the right track and drawing on their global teams. The prototype Lincoln at the Geneva show is on the right track and getting away from the dumb and vulgar Detroit look.

d4KRDJCpQd in reply to Albertican

It would help if the old Lincoln/Mercury guard let the designers do there thing as it seems to me that they imposed their tacky "tradition" on the final designs. Mercury was the joke of jokes and deserved to be dumped. The small Fords in the USA are really good looking and are a small part of a range of great looking small Fords sold all over the world. GM cannot produce a small car to save their lives. They just re-badge Asian cars with a "bow tie".


Not many American cars were as elegant as the original Lincoln Continental, which drew on a number of strands of primarily European GT styling. Resurrecting that string with a line of lean, limber, lithe and aerodynamically suggestive GTs rather than the the padded bathtubs that pass for haute luxe currently could help them make a number of very positive statements, not least esthetically. Have at it boys - your boss used to make airplanes.

Brian Pelican

Cadillacs have improved significantly over the past decade and actually have a much higher reliability rating from JD Power than BMW or Mercedes.


Latest blog posts - All times are GMT
Alibaba's IPO: Shocked, shocked!
Schumpeter 2 hrs 35 mins ago
World Cup predictions: Scoring ourselves
Graphic detail July 12th, 19:03
Car technology: Turbocharged
Schumpeter July 12th, 9:00


Products and events



