4 Door 1954 Cadillac Fleetwood With 60,000 Original Miles on 2040-cars

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Despite De Nysschen saying it won't, Cadillac cuts struggling CTS prices

Ah, well that didn't last long. Not even two years after elevating the price of the then-new third-generation Cadillac CTS by $7,000, the company is now stepping back, telling dealers it will be slashing the price of the 2015 model by anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000. It seems that there are two reasons behind Cadillac's move. First, and most obviously, are its slumping sales, down seven percent last year. That figure is made worse, Automotive News reports, by the seven-percent gain made by the greater luxury market, not to mention gains from fellow American luxury brand Lincoln. Cadillac, meanwhile, also likely faced pressure from its dealer body, which AN reports hasn't been so keen on the price increases. The price reduction is something of a surprise following statements made by Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen shortly after he took office. In September of last year, the 54-year-old exec, who took charge of Cadillac in July of 2014, defended the company's decision to raise prices, telling Automotive News a price cut was "not going to happen." It seems current conditions contradict de Nysschen's statements, though. "We're taking what we've seen are the more desirable optional features for customers and making them more readily available," Cadillac's Dave Caldwell said of the price cut. "Once a car has been on the market for a while, it's not unusual to look at the customer behavior and try to optimize for it." In what's sure to be a pleasant surprise for anyone in the market for a CTS, the most expensive models are getting the biggest price cut, with the price on the Premium and Performance Collection sedans dropping $3,000, AN reports. The 2.0T will get a $2,000 drop, while certain optional extras will now be standard on the Luxury trim, including a panoramic sunroof, navigation and Bose stereo.

Confident new Cadillac marketing boss ready to take on Tesla, BMW

When there's a former BMW executive heading Cadillac's efforts to boost sales of its only plug-in, it's a pretty safe guess that the marketing emphasis won't be on environmental friendliness and tree-hugging tendencies. The General Motors luxury brand has appointed ex-Bimmer executive Uwe Ellinghaus to be its marketing chief late last year, and the German-born Ellinghaus is now saying that he's targeting potential customers of Tesla Motors, in addition to BMW, for potential growth in sales of the Cadillac ELR extended-range plug-in. Appointed to Cadillac's head of marketing last November, Ellinghaus recently told Advertising Age that GM needs to highlight the Cadillac's looks and performance. He complimented Tesla for putting more emphasis on those attributes in the Model S than on its lack of emissions or lack of refueling costs (but Tesla hasn't shied away from highlighting the EV's savings). Ellinghaus says that trying to gear advertising "for people who are tree-huggers and green-wash an entire brand" won't be successful. You don't say. So far, the ELR hasn't made much of a dent in US car sales. Through May, Cadillac, which spent about $280 million on all of its US marketing last year, sold 293 units, whereas Tesla had been approaching the 11,000-unit figure for the Model S. With that in mind, Cadillac may be working on a sportier version of the ELR, as spy shots of a test vehicle from May revealed larger brakes and wheels. You can read our First Drive impressions of the ELR here.

2015 Cadillac ATS Coupe favors cleanliness over radical lines

Though you might not know it from looking at vehicles like the XTS and Escalade, if you take a broader look at history, you'll see that Cadillac models have gotten a lot smaller from the tail-finned highway cruisers of old. At least when it comes to coupes, anyway. The Eldorado, in particular, kept getting smaller until it disappeared, its place taken in recent years by decidedly more compact XLR, CTS Coupe and ELR hybrid. What you see here, however, is Cadillac's smallest coupe yet.
Revealed today at the Detroit Auto Show is the new 2015 Cadillac ATS Coupe, the brand's first compact two-door coupe, and the first production car to wear the brand's all-new crest. It shares the same platform and wheelbase as the existing ATS sedan, but packs a wider track and unique bodywork that's decidedly more conservative and less unique in its angular styling than the CTS Coupe that it's likely to ultimately displace in the Cadillac lineup. Styling aside, the all-American luxury marque has engineered the ATS Coupe with a focus on reducing weight to the benefit of both performance and fuel economy, giving it near 50/50 weight balance front to rear with underbody aerodynamic elements helping it cheat the wind.
Buyers will be able to choose between two engines: a 2.0-liter turbo four and a 3.6-liter V6.