“You’ll see some V-8s in trucks and high performance cars in the future, but they’ll be priced to discourage people from buying them,” GM Car Czar Bob Lutz told reporters in a recent interview. “In 5 to 10 years, the 4-cylinder will be the predominant engine.” This maximum prognostication is hardly a shocker when applied to GM’s mass-market offerings. But what about Cadillac? Motor Trend reports that The Standard of the World is working on a new model to replace the laughable, deeply unloved, front wheel-drive, Euro-spec, Saab 9-3-based Cadillac BLS. GM’s next attempt to take on the 3-Series couldn’t possibly do any worse will be based on GM’s new rear wheel-drive “Alpha” platform. According to Automotive News [sub], the new Caddy will be offered with, gasp, a turbocharged four-cylinder engine. Or not. “There is a big debate as to whether it is four only. I think that is a bridge too far,” says Cadillac General Manager Jim Taylor. “There is a piece of the team who is thinking, ‘Well, with this whole fuel economy and gas thing, we ought to go all the way, say, to fours.’ We are resisting that at this stage.” As the BLS and BLS wagon prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, at GM, resistance is futile.
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Cadillac might as well go with a turbo four, assuming it’s good. Cadillac has already alienated its name so badly that a four cylinder car isn’t the blasphemy it might have been years ago. The Cadillac of old, that people get all nostalgic over and stuff, is long dead. Cadillac is GM’s luxury/premium brand. It is not necessarily the big-V8-in-a-huge-boat brand.
As Arnold says, “I say, build it!”
The only thing we need now is an entry level Cadillac based on the Cruze-platform, and it’s 1982 all over again.
But perhaps it would be a wise choice to sell the Volt as a Cadillac, considering the price and amount of cars produced under its first cycle?
scrubnick – Cadillac might as well go with a turbo four, assuming it’s good.
Sure, why not? Audi does it, the Sweeds do it, why not Caddy? The 260 HP 2.0 liter from the Solstice GXP would motivate a small sedan nicely.
Supercharge a 4-cyl.
Buicks and Caddys should use superchargers for that instant gratification, while Saturn should start mixing in some of Saab’s turbos.
Now that looks like a hearse….
I’m all for the 4-pot turbo (DI?) as an entry-level Caddy engine, and not against a V6 as an alternative engine for the Alpha. Say, the 260 – 275 hp 2.0T, to Caddy’s 300-310 hp DI V6. Or maybe Saab’s 2.8 V6 boosted to 300+ hp.
Engines will be getting smaller as the price of gas goes up and regulations take hold, so we might as well make them popular for all price points. I’ll praise GM if they can put a good 4-cyl (must be FI!) into a good platform for a good entry-level Caddy.
“Cadillac might as well go with a turbo four, assuming it’s good. Cadillac has already alienated its name so badly that a four cylinder car isn’t the blasphemy…”
What?
I kind of think Caddy is doing very well.
It and a few other GM models are what’s keeping shoppers around.
And I think 6 AND 4s are the future.
Even Porsche is (thinking of) going back.
If Toyota canput a 4 into the Highlander, so can Caddilac!
Good Greif.
…not sure if it goes with todays Caddy sizes and weights.
GM deserves a lot of credit for not abandoning their small RWD platform.
The 260 HP version of the ecotec is amazing, and if GM doesn’t completely fuck up the Alpha platform I might have to buy this thing.
Right now in the luxury/performance car market front wheel drive carries much more stigma than a good inline-4.
If Cadillac makes another FWD car then they are dead (the BLS doesn’t count because it wasn’t sold in the US, and the DTS doesn’t count because its remaining buyers only use it to carry corpses or drunk limo passengers, neither of which can distinguish FWD from RWD).
The only thing we need now is an entry level Cadillac based on the Cruze-platform, and it’s 1982 all over again.
In as much as…
* the next 9-3 is being downsized onto the Delta platform.
* the last BLS was based on the 9-3
* the Delta will underpin the Cruze
…that’s probably a certainty. Whether Cadillac will sell it here, or just continue to sell it in Europe in a half-assed attempt to kill Saab compete with European premium marques remains to be seen.
GM doesn’t get it. Europeans already have a bazillion brands available to them, why would they need/want Cadillac and Chevrolet? Why not just work on making Opel and Saab better? Does GM really want to fracture and dilute it’s European market the way it’s done North America?
I thought the Alpha platform was dead? now it’s underpinning a miniCaddy, can they make up their minds at all at GM or is this part of the money burning plan.
I thought 4’s outnumbered 6’s & 8’s for ages….or no?
Aren’t pretty much all the 10-20k bargain cars that are the most popular, 4’s?
Back in the ’80s Mazda offered a model with a teeny-tiny V6 (I forget the model name, sorry). I don’t know why Cadillac couldn’t do that, and avoid the stigma of a 4 banger.
I like hearses!
Alpha platform you say? Let me guess, it’s due in 2010?
Mazda’s small (K8) V6 was in the MX-3 GS, 1991-1998. 1.8L, DOHC, 130 hp.
IIRC, the very first Caddies had 2 cylinder engines.
Funny. Just about a month or so ago I read posts stating that Acura needs a RWD V8. Now this. What’s the right answer anyway?
What’s the right answer anyway?
Make the best car possible, make sure that there’s actually a market for it, and that you can actually build, market and support said car.
QED.
Build it I say. The CTS is already sized to compete with the mid-sized offerings from BMW, Mercedes and Audi anyway, even though the price is 3 series friendly. Take on the 3 series size wise with the Alpha Caddy and perhaps, upgrade the turbo four to more than 300hp. If anything make a V series performance version with a turbocharged version of the CTS’ 3.6 V6.
Man….so many ideas.
“In 5 to 10 years, the 4 cylinder will be the dominant engine”.
Isn’t it already? Maybe not as much in the US, but worldwide, don’t 4 cylinder cars outnumber pretty much everything else?
Looks like a Pontiac Vibe with a Caddy front end grafted on.
I would be interested to know if anyone posting in this article has actually bought a Cadillac? Anyone laid down the actual money for one? If not, how can they have any intelligent opinion about 4 cylinder Cadillacs?
I’ve owned several Cads. Cads should be aspirational vehucles, and aspirational vehicles don’t come with 4 cylinder engines, turbo or not.
And, the first Cads were 1 cylinder cars, not 2s. Leland fired Henry Ford because he was fixated on 2 cylinder engines. Hence the first Ford looked just like the first Cad, except it had a 2 cylinder engine.
Bob
The Caddy wagon above is HOT.
So the car manufacturers are saying gasoline will continue to be expensive enough that people will want fuel economy?
Oil prices are falling. So gas prices will follow?
Will oil stay “cheap” through next year or will it start climbing again?
Surely the big car makers have an inside line on the future of really, really important (to their business) information like the oil prices 5-10-15 years down the road?