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What if the mid-engine Corvette is really a Cadillac?

Call me crazy, but I'm not convinced the mid-engine Corvette is the next Corvette. The rumor is strong, yes. And, contrary to some of the comments on our site, Car and Driver - leader of the mid-engine Corvette speculation brigade - has a pretty good record predicting future models. But it's another comment that got me thinking: or maybe it's a Cadillac. There is clearly something mid-engine going on at GM, and I think it makes sense for the car to be a Cadillac. First off, check out how sweet the 2002 Cadillac Cien concept car still looks in the photo above. Second, there are too many holes in the mid-engine Corvette theory. There are too many holes in the mid-engine Corvette theory. The C7 is relatively young in Corvette years, starting production almost three years ago as a 2014 model. Showing a 2019 model at the 2018 North American International Auto Show would kill sales of a strong-selling car before its time. Not to mention it would only mean a short run for the Grand Sport, which was the best-selling version of the previous generation. More stuff doesn't add up. Mid-engine cars are, in general, more expensive. Moving the Vette upmarket leaves a void that the Camaro does not fill. There's not much overlap between Camaro and Corvette customers. Corvette owners are older and enjoy features like a big trunk that holds golf clubs. Mid-engine means less trunk space and alienating a happy, loyal buyer. Also, more than 60 years of history. The Corvette is an icon along the likes of the Porsche 911 and Ford Mustang. I'm not sure the car-buying public wants a Corvette that abandons all previous conventions. And big changes bring uncertainty - I don't think GM would make such a risky bet. Chevrolet could build a mid-engine ZR1, you might say, and keep the other Corvettes front-engine. Yes they could, and it would cost a ton of money. And they still need to fund development of that front-engine car. I highly doubt the corporate accountants would go for that. But a Cadillac? Totally. Cadillac is in the middle of a brand repositioning. GM is throwing money at this effort. A mid-engine halo car is the just the splash the brand needs to shake off the ghosts of Fleetwoods past. And it's already in Cadillac President Johan De Nysschen's playbook. He was in charge of Audi's North America arm when the R8 came out. A Caddy sports car priced above $100,000 isn't that unreasonable when you can already price a CTS-V in that range.

Dealers mobilize to protect their margins from automaker subscription services

Six individual auto brands — Lincoln, Cadillac, Porsche, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo — have established or are trialing a vehicle subscription service in the U.S. Three third-party companies — Flexdrive, Clutch and Carma — run brand-agnostic subscription services. And three automakers — Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and General Motors — have also launched short-term rental services. Dealers, afraid of how these trends might affect their margins, are building political and lawmaking campaigns to protect their revenue streams. So far, three states are investigating automaker subscriptions, and Indiana has banned any such service until next year. It's certain that those three states are the first fronts in a long political and legal battle. Powerful dealer franchise laws mandate the existence of dealers and restrict how automakers are allowed to interact with customers to sell a vehicle. On top of that, Bob Reisner, CEO of Nassau Business Funding & Services, said, "Dealers and their associations are among the strongest political operators in many states. They as a group are difficult for state politicians to vote against." In California earlier this year, the state Assembly debated a bill with wide-ranging provisions to protect against what the California New Car Dealers Association called "inappropriate treatment of dealers by manufacturers." One of those provisions stipulated that subscription services need to go through dealers, but that item got stripped out when dealers and manufacturers agreed to discuss the matter further. In Indiana, Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a moratorium on all subscription programs by dealers or manufacturers until May 1, 2019, to give legislators more time to investigate. Dealers in New Jersey have taken their campaign to the state capitol, asking that the cars in subscription programs get a different classification for registration purposes. Automakers run the current subscription services and own the vehicles. Sign-ups and financial transactions happen online or through apps, leaving dealers to do little more than act as fulfillment centers to various degrees, with little legal recourse as to compensation amounts when they're called on to deliver or service a car. That's a bad base to build on for business owners who've sunk millions of dollars into their operations.

Cadillac CT6 to get twin-turbo V8

Say what you will about his decisions at Infiniti and now Cadillac, but Cadillac CEO Johan de Nysschen knows how to deliver a compelling interview. During an online Q&A session with Jalopnik readers, de Nysschen offered substantial hints at what's coming for the brand. By dropping coordinates on the brand's star chart, in reading the entire thing and connecting the dots you can see a Cadillac that is much grander than the one we know now. The CT6 that got revealed during the Oscars telecast? Answering the question of whether it would have the performance to compete with a Mercedes S550 or BMW 750, de Nysschen said the big sedan's "lightweight body structure allows us to achieve formidable performance even with a twin-turbo V6. Imagine how this car would perform with a twin-turbo V8." In clarifying a subsequent question that also dealt with how the CT6 would compare to German rivals, he wrote that the CT6 would have "a very wide mix of engines, starting with a two-liter turbo, up to, eventually, a high-performance advanced V8 turbo." Patience and the future and the word "eventually" were heavy themes. The brand will embrace diesel engines as well, de Nysschen writing, "We will have four-cylinder and six-cylinder diesel engines, but not before 2019." As to the return of something like the XLR, which was Corvette muscle underneath a Cadillac body, he wrote, "I think in the fullness of time, we will get around to developing a high-performance, very-emotive sports car as a halo for the Cadillac brand. But we have so many projects to occupy us through 2020 that this will have to wait a little while." And on the design language across model lines, which enthusiast Cassandras have warned is too similar (as if that hasn't worked out for the Germans), he wrote that it is "undergoing gradual evolution and you will notice stunning new designs in future models, which remain unmistakably Cadillac and reflect our DNA but which take our sophisticated Art and Science design to a new level." But of course he would say that, which is what brings us back to patience and the future and eventually, when we'll see what this all really means. It all reads well enough, and we'd love to see it happen. One thing we won't see are the ducks that once adorned the Cadillac crest; when a reader asked if he could have them back, de Nysschen said, "No, you can't have them back. I play with them each night in my bath." Head over to Jalopnik for the full read. It's worth it.