Cadillac is in need of small crossover SUV
Dozens of promising and intriguing vehicles debuted at the Frankfurt auto show last month. One should have been there, but wasn’t.
Where is Cadillac’s small crossover SUV, its sporty and efficient little competitor for such new models as the BMW X1, Mercedes-Benz GLA, Mini Countryman and Audi Q3?
For that matter, where is Cadillac’s big, six- or sevenseat crossover, its answer to such models as the Acura MDX, Audi Q7 and Volvo XC90?
“Crossovers are where the volume is. Just look at the Porsche Cayenne,” said Stephanie Brinley, senior analyst with IHS Automotive. “People like the utility a crossover gives them.”
Small luxury crossovers will pour into the U.S. market over the next couple of years. BMW and Mini already have theirs on sale, and testing Buick’s little Encore was one of the most pleasant surprises I’ve had this year. Audi, Infiniti, Lexus, Jaguar and Mercedes all have small crossovers coming soon.
Despite that, Cadillac’s public focus is on developing a big, high-end luxury sedan to fight German legends, including the Mercedes Sclass and BMW 7-series. The gorgeous Elmiraj concept car Cadillac showed recently hints at the looks and engineering of an upcoming big luxury sedan.
The Elmiraj is the kind of car auto writers and enthusiasts salivate over: Big, beautiful, luxurious and technically advanced. Despite that, building it may not be Cadillac’s best next move.
‘‘ Crossovers are where the volume is. Just look at the Porsche Cayenne.”
Senior analyst at IHS Automotive
Nobody does SUVs better than the American car companies. Cadillac should take that strength and run with it. Why join the parade of Japanese and Korean companies that have chosen to fight established European players for a sliver of the tiny market for cars like the S-class?
Why rush to be a late arrival to an established market when, instead, you can be in on the ground floor of a segment that’s likely to boom?
Cadillac has shown it can build great sport and luxury sedans with the ATS and CTS. Those models gave it credibility to go head-to-head with the global luxury leaders. Adding a big luxury sedan would be nice, but adding one or two new crossovers now should win Caddy more customers and make money.
“Cadillac has done a ton of great work coming back from the dead. They’ve completely revitalized the brand,” Brinley said. “Building on that in the SUV segment gets them more volume, more profit and reaches more new customers.”
Any time a GM brand considers adding new models, it would be foolish not to worry about whether the automaker will fall back into its bad old habit of building lookalike models that compete with each other. That’s a risk, but GM has been very good at differentiating its vehicles since it killed four brands in the U.S.
“Cadillac did an excellent job differentiating the SRX and Escalade” from SUVs that GM’s other brands sell, Brinley said. “The key is being true to the brand. They’ve shown they can do that.”
A six- or seven-passenger crossover, bigger than the SRX, might be seen as internal competition for the Escalade, but it’s unlikely any of the 11,297 people who bought an Escalade or Esca- lade ESV last year will settle for anything smaller less powerful and less able to tow a horse trailer. On the other hand, Acura, Audi and others have three-row crossovers whose buyers would never consider an Escalade.
Acura alone sold 23,765 MDX crossovers last year. Cadillac should use GM’s existing strength in crossovers to go after those cus- tomers before it spends hundreds of millions of dollars chasing the 11,794 Americans who bought a Mercedes Sclass last year.
Note to Cadillac: Once you nail down the luxury crossover market, I’d love to test your super-sedan. Make mine burgundy with Bose audio and autonomous driving for the boring stretches of highway, please.