Cadillac's Lost Luxury

Podcast Episode: 0214
How did Cadillac lose its world standard?

    How did Cadillac go from the gold standard of luxury to being just another luxury brand?  AutoLooks takes a look at how Cadillac lost its way and how its trying too recapture the gold standard of luxury again.​  Cause even Cadillac wants to be the Cadillac of cars again.

​       Well, it was the 90s and their vehicles were used in every mob movie you can think of, dating all the way back to the early days. They were synonymous with being a mobster main vehicle. But besides that, their vehicles were known for luxury around the world. They were the gold standard of the luxury world and for the longest time they lived on top. But the 90s began their descent away from the top of the luxury pyramid. Cadillac was once the gold standard in luxury. You'd always used to say you know, it's the Cadillac of things. Today, when you hear that, depending on who you are, most people are just like eh, they're not so good, they're slowly starting to get back up there. But what really happened? They were on top of their game and all of a sudden it started falling apart. The late 70s paved the way for a bad 80s, a rise back in the 90s which eventually led to a massive fallout in the early 2000s. Cadillac its rise to being the number one automotive luxury band out there, to its demise of being just another luxury brand on the market. Today, AutoLooks is going to take Cadillac's rise to the top in its fall from grace. 

​    Welcome back to the AutoLooks Podcast. I'm your host, as always, the Dr T with Automotive Industry, Mr. Everett J., coming to you from our main host website at AutoLooks.net. If you haven't been there, stop by check it out, read some of the ratings, check out some of the reviews and go to the Corporate Links website page. Big or small, we have them all car companies from around the globe, on the AutoLooks.net website. The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by Podbeam.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email. Overwrite email at AutoLooks.net.
 
    So, like I said in the beginning, Cadillac, what's the gold standard in luxury around the world. For the longest time, everybody used to say you know, that's the Cadillac of things. But by the late 90s, people were starting to shy away from that. They were starting to say, oh, it's the Mercedes of it, oh, that's the Rolls of the world. If you want to own something great, that's the Bentley. Cadillac was not it.

    But how did Cadillac get there? Well, Cadillac, if you didn't know this, was originally created by none other than Henry Ford. General Motors had taken Cadillac from being just a standardized, more luxury brand and moved it to the top tier of the pinnacle of luxury. It became the motorcade car for the American president and with its sibling, LaSalle, Cadillac rose to the top of the evolutionary food chain, riding up there with companies like Duesenberg and Pierce Aero. Cadillac had the backing of General Motors food chain, riding up there with companies like Duesenberg and Pierce Arrow. Cadillac had the backing of General Motors, who had Chevrolet and Buick to back it up at the bottom end to ensure that Cadillac stayed on top. And by the 1920s and 30s Cadillac was performing just as well as its competition. Packard, auburn, Duesenberg, pierce Arrow were on top of their game. They were what you consider the North American counterparts to both Rolls-Royce and Bentley. They were the top tier of luxury and Cadillac was there. And if you didn't want the Cadillac, you would move one step higher up and get a LaSalle. The only difference is LaSalle you were very limited on because of its cost. Cadillac was there and they eventually became the gold standard of the automotive industry. ​

​    General Motors during the 1920s and 30s started to rip out the bottom end of Ford Motor Company's stranglehold in the automotive industry. All thanks to William C Durant and his two amazing friends in the McLaughlin brothers from Canada when Durant was outed from General Motors his two favorite friends, or I should say his two favorite Canadian friends, helped him get back on top. And when he rose back to the top, he brought Cadillac with them and he brought it all the way to the pinnacle of the luxury world. Where the 1930s was creating a downfall to all the smaller car companies, General Motors was managing to keep on their feet. With companies like Marquis, Chevrolet, Buick and Oldsmobile still holding up the lower tiers of the automotive world, they managed to pump money back in to keep Cadillac on top of the luxury world and with that Cadillac had the money and Cadillac had the backing to maintain their image. Now Henry Ford didn't like this, considering the fact that he had created Cadillac and now lost it to General Motors. He had created Lincoln to go up against it. Lincoln was becoming a main competitor and similar to that Walter P Chrysler. With this fallout from both the General Motors Corporation and Henry Ford had built his Chrysler Corporation. Chrysler and Lincoln were fighting it out to take Cadillac down a notch, but with General Motors owning more of the American market than any other car company, the other two were in for the fight of their life. But by the end of the 1930s LaSalle had disappeared and Cadillac was now on top.
 
     After the war people remembered how Cadillac was the top tier. Lincoln was starting to move there. Same with Chrysler, but they were more of the standard luxury vehicles. It really wasn't until the 60s that both Lincoln and Chrysler started moving further up the American luxury food chain. Cadillac was it. And in the 1950s, that's what you wanted and Cadillacs became it. Cadillacs becomes that's what you wanted and Cadillacs became it. Cadillacs became so synonymous with businessmen and mobsters alike that they became the ultimate in luxury. If the top food chain of the financial world all cruised around in Cadillacs, they got to be good and they got to be doing something right. 

​    Compared to the competition, where both Lincoln and Chrysler were fighting to try and maintain their luxury image but only producing premium feel, Cadillac was holding its own. Cadillac was doing it with both big sedans and even cruisers, and they did this just before everybody came back. The 62 convertibles from 1948 paved the way for the image of General Motors vehicles of the 1950s and eventually the 53 Le Mans and 59 El Dorado were setting the stage for luxury in the American marketplace. Tail fins on the 59 El Dorado set it apart from the competition. It not only gave us that appeal of luxury, but it gave us that full image of luxury in the world and, with movie stars mostly owning Cadillacs, it became the gold standard in the automotive industry.
 
     Following through into the 60s with the Coupe de Ville in Fleetwood and bringing along the Eldorado, Cadillac was maintaining its image with massively oversized vehicles and the provision of being a gold standard around the world from dignitaries and global leaders utilizing their vehicles. Cadillac held on to being that top tier brand, even with the likes of the Lincoln Continental taking the title of the American luxury presidential vehicle, of the American luxury presidential vehicle, continental even branching out to form its own brand similar to that of Chrysler in the Imperial nameplate. These luxury brands were only dedicated luxury brands that compete against Cadillac on their own turf. Chrysler had a hard time competing against Cadillac, same with Lincoln, but their products, the Imperial and Continental, were the products that could compete with the entire lineup of Cadillac when the Coupe de Ville, the Fleetwood and the El Dorado ruled the day, with businessmen and mobsters alike utilizing their vehicles on a daily basis, seeing them in movies and having them roll up with somebody coming out of an El Dorado full black suit. 

    ​Cadillacs were it and rich oil tycoons from Texas were rolling around in them, the big, burly convertibles, all that chrome and those hard luxury lines. Cadillac was it. They were on top, they were luxury. All you had to say is you owned a Cadillac and people's legs just fell from below them. They wept. That was luxury, even though the competition had products of better quality, better design and even better features than what Cadillac was providing in the 60s. But during the growth of the 1960s and each division of General Motors being completely separated from every other one, companies like Oldsmobile and Buick would start encroaching on Cadillac's turf and with that the image of Cadillac would slowly be brought down.
 
    By the 1970s, Cadillac was still considered the gold standard, creating some of the biggest luxury vehicles in the marketplace and even battling it out and saving these big, burly vehicles. Through the oil embargoes and the gas crisis of the 1970s, Cadillac managed to maintain its image of being the top tier brand. With both Imperial and Continental brands disappearing from the marketplace, Cadillac had it all to their own. Chrysler was having trouble building luxury cars to go up against them, and so was Lincoln. They built luxury cars, but it still didn't have that same feel as saying you owned a Cadillac, but the 1970s were giving us something new. 

​     The Germans were coming in and Mercedes a gold standard on the other side of the pond was moving in on Mercedes territory. The standard products from Mercedes were not really taking out Cadillac's game, but their diesel products were. Cadillac didn't have a diesel, and when the gas crisis hit, all the people who were left with these big, burly V8s in their Cadillacs were starting to feel the pinch, and Wall Street started filling up with Mercedes. Their diesels were cheaper to operate than the Cadillacs and their luxury features where above par. Mercedes was moving in and taking away the glory of Cadillac. Sure, you still saw the American president and some of the most famous mom bosses of all time rolling around in Cadillacs, of the most famous mob bosses of all time rolling around in Cadillacs. But Mercedes was moving up and the rich oil sheiks who were bringing us our cheap oil from the Middle East now were more inclined to buy a Rolls Royce, a Bentley or a Mercedes over a Cadillac.
 
      Now why? Because those vehicles were able to perform in the ways that they needed. Those Mercedes were good in the back roads and deserts of Middle Eastern countries where Cadillacs could get stuck. They were heavy, they were big and they were low. They weren't as versatile. They were good for a limo in the big city. And in North America, with all of our roads and a massive amount of infrastructure that was developed during the 50s and 60s, by the 1970s we had roads everywhere and we didn't need to create vehicles for these back roads. Mercedes, Bentley and Rolls-Royce all understood these markets and they started going after them. If you actually go back and watch the original Cannonball Run, the rich oil sheep who races in the Cannonball Run in the first movie is driving a Rolls-Royce and he's driving a Rolls-Royce outfitted with rally lights. Because this Rolls-Royce has the same power as the Cadillac but a higher grade of luxury and better stability on the back roads. The Rolls was moving up Now. Rolls Royce had always been a top-tier luxury make, providing vehicles that would last a century to its customers. When you buy a Rolls, you buy it for life. The Cadillac didn't have that. 

​    As the 70s slowly blended into the 1980s and the gas crisis and brand-new safety features were bringing along a need to bring down fuel consumption, Cadillac needed to get out of its mind of these big, burly vehicles. People still liked them, but not everybody wanted them, and with BMW releasing the 2002 and Mercedes bringing in the C-Class. Cadillac needed a fight. They needed a smaller model. They needed to fight the Mercedes diesel. Well, in comes the Seville and the very short-lived Cimarron. Yes, a Chevy Cavalier as a Cadillac.
 
     Cadillac wanted to go after all of these different markets. They wanted to go after every portion of the luxury food chain instead of just the top tier. By the late 80s, the Eldorado had turned into more of a mid-sized convertible and the Coupe de Ville was getting smaller. The 80s was a time for change, but it was also a time that the American marketplace got caught off guard, where countries and car companies from around the globe had a better understanding of what was happening in the world, not just what was happening in their backyard. And when they came a knocking on the American marketplace, America answered. They saw superior, built quality products. General Motors, up until the mid 80s, still owned 50% of the American marketplace. But this was all crumbling underneath of it so many different divisions to keep track of and keep all these updates. There was so much platform building and so many vehicles just merging between lines.
 
     Cadillac was losing its image as General Motors was trying to keep all of its divisions intact. They were trying to fend off the new competition from both Europe and Asia, and while doing this they blended R&D and everything for each division all together. Where Cadillac was once a separate entity of General Motors, Cadillac was now working with the same people who were working on both Oldsmobile and Buick products. Hell, they had Chevrolet designers working alongside Cadillac. So, Cadillac's vehicle started to look more like a generalized General Motors, and even into the 90s this took place with only the Eldorado and even the Seville branching out from General Motors designs. The North Star V8 became its only main space.
 
Cadillac was losing its image. It was still seen as a Wall Street and mob vehicle. You watch movies from the 1980s and 90s. It was still showcased and utilized in those settings. Cadillac was there, but they weren't as big as they once were. A failed attempt to go after the Mercedes SL with the Cadillac Allante, with it costing so much and General Motors losing so much on it. Even with an amazing design and high-end appeal, it never hit the market. 

    Its second attempt to break into the compact marketplace of the Catera, a Holden-branded Cadillac, didn't take off either. The Cadillac was being seen as the old man luxury car. The Cadillac was what your dying parents bought as their last vehicle and they only chose the Cadillac over the Buick because they had a bit more money. Their image was waning and even though the Eldorado seemed like it was fun and fast car and you would see it in all kinds of cool movies Hell, go back and watch the re-release of the Italian Job with Mark Wahlberg, and they have the Seville and the Eldorados in there. They're the cool cars that you see. As you know, all these top-tier people drive around in. Cadillac was spending tons of money to do this but wasn't winning. And in 1998, with the SUV rise, all thanks to the Ford Explorer, the first generation of the Escalade hit the market. Cadillac was moving up.
 
     By the early 2000s, Cadillac was starting to be seen as a luxury make, once again, sitting a little bit higher on the echelon compared to its Lincoln and Chrysler counterparts. Cadillac was moving up the food chain, but so was Chrysler. But how can they set themselves apart? Concepts could do it, with the Cadillac Cien concept and even the 16 concepts, bringing back plush products from its past, trying to go after something new. Cadillac had an idea Maybe let's reinvent ourselves for a new generation. And with it came the Cadillac CTS Brand new naming convention. Seeing that Mercedes had the A, b, c, you know, they had the letter combinations and BMW had the number combinations and Audi had the number-letter combinations, Cadillac thought, oh, maybe we should do a letter combination and they brought out the CTS, utilizing big names. In the rise of the Matrix series, the CTS was pushed to the forefront of being a fun, fast luxury car for a future generation, and its edge styling was ahead of the curve.
 
     General Motors saw that they needed to bring Cadillac back to what it once was the gold standard of luxury around the world. But with 20 years behind it of problems, it was going to take some time. The CTS was going to be its start. From that, Cadillac was given another light. Ten years after the failed attempt of the Allante, Cadillac was given a tuxedo-bodied Corvette, swapping out the Corvette V8 for a NorthStar V8, the XLR hit the market to go up against the likes of the SL class, again not hitting the mark. But this time they weren't losing money; they were making more of a pre-existing platform. From here Cadillac tried to move up its game with the STS, the XTS and eventually trying to enter the compact marketplace again with the BTS. Enter the compact marketplace again, with the BTS utilizing its edge styling, bringing in the first SRX as a crossover counterpart to try and enter a new marketplace outside of the SUV marketplace.
 
     With the Escalade, giving the Escalade a truck variation of the EXT and even a wagon version of the CTS, Cadillac was moving up its A-game. The CTS second generation came out and with it came a coupe and wagon and then again with it it came V-standards performance products, one of the fastest performance wagons ever created in North America. Dodge had the Magnum but Cadillac had the CTS wagon. They were moving up the luxury food chain and with the Escalade taking a notch away from the Navigator who started the luxury SUV craze. The Escalade was moving up but unlike everything else in the Cadillac stable, the Escalade was a name product where everything else wasn't. There's the XTS, the ATS, the ELR, the CTS. Everything was all a standard letter combination. Hell, they had the SRX, but it wasn't working. This naming convention was falling on its face. 

​     Mercedes and BMW started that way, so they didn't have to change Mercedes. Cadillac was trying to change to be like the Germans, but that was its problem. It wanted to be like the Germans, but that was its problem. It wanted to be like the Germans. And even though Cadillac was used as the American presidential vehicle and the Escalade being the pinnacle of luxury SUVs, beating out the Mercedes G-Class and BMW X7s, the Escalade was it. It was luxury and it's what you saw all the top-tier businessmen driving around in. They cruised around in either an Escalade or a Yukon Denali. They didn't roll up in a G-Class.
 
     Cadillac owned the market for SUVs, but its sedan and crossover marketplace was still faltering. But what was it doing wrong? Why couldn't it become the gold standard of luxury again? Cadillac couldn't figure it out. For nearly 20 years, since the creation of the CTS, they couldn't figure it out. Then, all of a sudden, they decided to give it another shot, going from the CTS to the CT5, thinking a letter-number combination would work in its favor. Hell, it was working, for infinity Acker and Lexus had it working with the letter thing. How come Cadillac couldn't do it? Well, Cadillac had forgotten one thing about its luxury pass.
 
     Cadillac was known for its luxury nameplates. Even though Chrysler managed to get the 300 in and keep their product lineup as the 300, they didn't try and run with it when they created the Pacifica. The 200 was okay, but they didn't do it. Lincoln realized this a little too quick as well when they started moving over. The Zephyr became the ZDX, the MKT. It was mind-boggling. And then Lincoln thought of it. First, they beat Cadillac to the punch. They realized the American public saw luxury vehicles as luxury names, not luxury numbers. Letter number combinations were better inclined for both European and Asian marketplaces, where the letter combination or number combination signified where it was in the marketplace. But in North America we like names. We like names like El Dorado Hell. Snoop Dogg had created the Snoop Deville. Why didn't Cadillac have that anymore?
 
    Lincoln figured it out when they brought back the Continental, even though it was short-lived. It was the one American luxury car that was stealing customers away from the German and Asian counterparts. The Continental was king and it was winning the day. Unfortunately, ford was too blinded by the SUV craze to keep it going and completely pulled the plug on all of its sedans. Why? Because they thought the world was going to a CUV-SUV crossover marketplace. They didn't feel there was a world for sedans. Now they're starting to realize they made a mistake. The Continental was king and should have been kept around, similar to that of the Navigator nameplate. See, Lincoln never got rid of the Navigator name, same with the Aviator name, where Cadillac never got rid of the Escalade name. 

​    These were luxury nameplates In North America. We love those nameplates. We love the names like Coach and Gucci. Sure, it's cool to say you have a Mercedes S-Class, but it's way better to say you have a Maybach S-Class, because people understand that Maybach is more luxurious than a standard Mercedes. Audi has realized this by trying to bring back the Hoch name. BMW, unfortunately, hasn't gotten in there, but they own Rolls-Royce, so they're not willing to go higher up the food chain.
 
     Cadillac has finally realized this. And the Escalade, which never got its name changed, even though they could have gone to the EXT nameplate as the truck variation utilized. That would have been a lot easier. They decided that a brand-new generation of cars for the brand-new alternative fuel world that we're moving into would go back to its luxury roots and with that, Cadillac would give us the luxury names we all loved. Now, sure, the names they're giving us are weird the Lyric and the Celeste, and now the Cadillac Escalade IQ. They don't embody luxury like the Eldorado or the Seville or the Deville or the Fleetwood, no, but they do embody a more luxurious appeal. The Lyric on a Cadillac logo gives more of an embodiment to a luxury appeal. The Celeste is a step in the right direction to bring back the appeal of the original Cadillac nameplate and, hell, even move it into LaSalle territory. It once was Bringing back names like that the O'Meara, the Escala, the Cien. Cadillac has realized that names sell and hell, they even had a luxury vehicle called the Ciel. Luxurious sounding names are what sells and luxury names are what they need.
 
    Over the past 10 years, Cadillac has moved back up the luxury food chain. The CTS helped it bring back its luxury appeal and with the addition of products like the ATS and now entry into new markets like China with the GT4, the XT4, Cadillac is creating the embodiment of luxury products once again. But as we move into an alternate fuel, future names are coming back to Cadillac. Well, we see the great names of Deville, Seville and eldorado once again. Maybe not it's the last time they were used. They were on old grandpa looking vehicles. But so was the XTS, so was the BTS. I can't even use BTS because when you think of it you think of a boy band. I'm sorry, just do. Cadillac needs to bring back the names.
 
     Lincoln has realized that Names are what sell the luxury market and if Cadillac wants to keep Lincoln and their Nautilus, navigator and Continental nameplates from surpassing it in the luxury world and becoming a new gold standard, Cadillac needs to move up it in the luxury world and, becoming a new gold standard, Cadillac needs to move up. Their new Celestiq is not a super luxurious name but is a very luxurious looking vehicle. It's the embodiment of pure luxury. It shows us where luxury is going in the future and, with the only major counterpart being the lucid air, Cadillac may soon become the gold standard for luxury, at least in the American climate. Once again, Lincoln is moving that way. Lucid well, with better sales, will eventually get there, but not if Cadillac can get there first. Their rise back to the top is going to still take some time, but they are moving in the right direction and they finally realized that names are what they really need. 

    So, do you think Cadillac can actually take hold and become the gold standard of luxury in the world again? Well, it's kind of a tall order considering the fact that Mercedes is playing off the Maybach name to go after that. And everybody knows a Rolls Royce is built for life. So, unless Cadillac can get that built for life gold standard added to them is built for life. So, unless Cadillac can get that built for life gold standard added to them, they'll never be the Cadillac of cars ever again and only be the rolls of cars. But maybe with products like the celeste and its new counterpart, the coupe model, which could be coming up before too long, the Escala and the Escala wagon concepts, Cadillac may be moving into a new luxury field in the American marketplace, which could put it back into the same range of Rolls-Royce and Bentley, as long as they get their quality back up, something that Toyota is realizing with their Century brand. Maybe Cadillac could move up the food chain, but not before they make some changes.
 
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    The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by Podbeam.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email. Write email at AutoLooks.net. The AutoLooks podcast and the AutoLooks.net website is brought to you by is produced, created and owned by the one and only Mr. Everett J. So, for myself, the Ecomm entertainment group and the AutoLooks.net website, strap yourself in for this one fun wild ride as we watch Cadillac climb the luxury ladder to the top. 

Everett J.
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