Earlier, Farago was repeating on the report that GM may (maybe) delay or cancel the new Buick LaCrosse and Cadillac CTS Coupe. Never mind the fact that “LaCrosse” means to masturbate in French Canada. Dear Leader ends the post with, “and who the Hell would buy a CTS coupe anyway?” When i read the query, it seemed odd. I like the CTS, as it possesses the best face of any American car since Cord went out of business. How to make it better? Well, you can either drop in a 556 hp supercharged V8, or cut off some of the doors. Oh, you can add another door, too (Caddywagon!). Yeah, so, an insanely good looking Caddy with two doors– who the hell wouldn’t buy it? And then I checked the comments and everyone agreed with me. To quote gamper, “CTS coupe = flippin beautiful.” Hear hear (here)! Right?
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As a fan of the site I was honestly surprised at Robert’s comment (!!!). The CTS coupe would be wicked awesome and I don’t see how anyone could disagree.
I have to go with Robert. I know I’m in the minority but I simply despise the styling of the CTS coupe and I like the CTS sedan. The front has way too much space between the wheel arch and hood, the hatch looks goofy, and the proportions are generally all wrong. As such I can’t imagine that it would be a sales success. As for the Buick, it seems a little ambitious to try and re-start the brand in the US after shutting it down 15 years ago.
hahahaha, it was funny how the subject of the post got changed in a matter of couple of seconds…
Jonny, you can’t call your boss names, don’t you know that already?
:))
I’ll agree that the CTS wagon looks a bit weird. Then again, I don’t care for wagons.
I don’t think Cadillac’s new styling direction is an acquired taste; most people either love it or hate it. I felt something about the original CTS’s exterior styling was “off,” the 2008 redesign fixed it, in my perspective. It looks far more modern and aggressive.
I believe the CTS coupe is gorgeous. No compromises, pure aesthetic bliss. But that’s just my opinion, and styling is always subjective. Regardless, there’s a market for the CTS coupe. Given the chance, I’d seriously consider it.
It depends on if you like their styling theme or not. If you don’t, it doesn’t matter what they make, it’s always going to have that garish, hard-edged look to it.
No one has ever accused GM of making good business decisions. At least not for some fifty years or so…
The problem here is not that the CTS Coupe isn’t a given seller, the problem here is GM’s lack of funding. And it must be a sign of the times that everything seems to be postponed to after 2010. And then what? If GM can’t afford to produce this CTS Coupe, they are so god damned finished… Reminds me of playing poker once, when I couldn’t afford to raise the stakes with a full house on my hand. And that’s what’s happening to GM right now. They don’t have enough money to stay in play. Bye-bye GM, it was a nice hundred years…
It knocks the hell out of the Bentley GT which seems to be widely praised for it’s appearance. I really like the CTS coupe and would be happy with the 3.6L six. Of course, happy is relative…556 hp would make me much happier. If I had the money…there must be other products GM can prune.
I really liked the looks of the CTS too, so I took one for a test drive, and found that I liked the way it drove as well. But then I got stuck waiting for a train, and my attention drifted down to the centre console. The panel gaps were wildly uneven, pressing the little silver buttons to set the clock produced a horrible squeaking plastic sound, and so forth. This is not what a $50k (I’m in Canada) Cadillac should be like.
The CTS lost its place on my wishlist after that test drive, I’m afraid.
The CTS Coupe with a V-series engine is probably the closest thing the average upper middle class person is ever gonna get to owning a Lamborghini.
name it the CTC and allow after market tuners to put lambo doors on this, and this car could be an absolute vagina magnet.
I think this car MUST be produced and in limited numbers – I believe the desire for them would be high enough to demand $5000 more than the CTS.
I would seriously pay $50,000 for this car if it had the V-series engine.
It does not look all that hot for my taste. Furthermore, if GM market it or not there not that many takers on their products during recession (depression). And it does not look like GM will be in business long enough to see recession end.
I would seriously pay $50,000 for this car if it had the V-series engine.
Too bad a CTC-V would start at $60k+ before options and dealer markup.
As for Robert’s comment, I assumed he meant the wagon. There is/will be a market for the coupe. The only major criticism of the styling would be that it’s too loud, which comes with the territory at Cadillac.
Lastly, “Here here” = “Hear, hear”
The thing with the CTS for me is the front is awesome. I can’t NOT stare at one. But the rest of it just falls apart, so bland & boring. Just a single person’s opinion, but keeps me from buying one… aside from not having the money.
Little known fact, but lacrosse rather than hockey is Canada’s national sport. Ahem, cough.
Jonny, would you quit dumping on Robert? He has a tough enough time keeping the site going, fending off autoblog, and the rest of those, uh, sites that are still shifting gears with POWERGLIDE!!
Seriously, I don’t particularly like the theme of contemporary Caddy styling, or maybe the theme is OK but they execute it badly. But this coupe is a pretty good execution. I’m having trouble believing it, but I think I actually like it. If they offered it with a clutch–they don’t, do they?–and I had the dough, well, I’d probably go for a 3 series or a Cayman, but if I had that wanna buy American thing going on, I couild see it.
That wagon looks way cool!
Meh, the coffin nosed Cord was fugly too. There hasnt been a decent lookin’ Caddy since the fins were done away with.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
I just don’t get the frenzy over this car. The CTS is a great looking vehicle, but with the coupe, the proportions are just off…It looks like the fat, overweight American cousin of the M3.
This coupe is a stunner. There are sections I would adjust, however. The rear decklid isn’t long enough, so the rear proportions come too close to a hatchback for comfort. The car generally feels dominated by the front half, and the body-colored lip on the front spoiler is too prominent. By contrast, the rear wheel arches don’t have enough definition relative to the rest of the car, so the rear feels like a bit unfinished.
http://www.autoblog.com/photos/cadillac-cts-coupe-concept/685767/
The featureless rear.
http://www.autoblog.com/photos/cadillac-cts-coupe-concept/685768/
Hatch proportions.
And yet, despite all that, it’s still gorgeous. While a 550 HP LSA version would be shockingly fast, I’d rather see it with an LS7, or even an LS3 to slot it between the price of the V6 and the CTS-V sedan. Say, 40K well-equipped with the six, 50K for the V8, and 60K for the supercharger. Given that BMW is around 60K for an M3 with 420 HP, I can’t imagine they’d have trouble selling the CTS for 10K less at feature parity.
Yup, CTS Coupe = HOT!
Like I said in Robert’s blog, CTS Coupe = AMC AMX.
No dice. Gag.
My vote goes to hot!! I would make some changes but all in all a job well done. It won’t save you, but at least the saying that the best cars you’ve built were on your deathbed will ring true.
«Never mind the fact that “La Crosse” means to masturbate in French Canada.» Not exactly. “Se crosser” would be more accurate and even then, it’s very familiar slang. A crosse is amongst other things, the grip of a gun. Can’t be more american than that! Even better, it is the pastoral stick of a bishop. It is also an aboriginal sport which is a bit like hockey without the ice. IAC, I was surprised they renamed it Allure in Canada. Probably not a bad car either, in the Camry sense of a car. I have a neighbour who traded a Legacy GT for one. I thought that was weird.
The CTS Coupe is like that old cartoon of a mouse giving “the finger” to a diving eagle ready to strike: “The Last Great Act of Defiance”.
The car is so beautiful/ugly/polarizing that one hopes Cadillac survives, ’cause “They Got Balls”.
And if I was rolling in cash, I would certainly consider one (In Blue, Please).
But it may be too late for this “statement” to save the Mother Ship.
Gorgeous but missing the rear trunk; with the trunk unbeatable regardless what’s under the hood.
Eh. The coupe is passable whereas the wagon is ungainly.
Looks aside, the bigger question would seem to be whether there is a sufficient market for coupes to justify spending scarce capital. My guess: No.
I really like the CTS coupe but what I like (and most other enthusiasts for that matter) really isn’t the issue. The root of the matter is whether or not people will buy a coupe and I’d say not likely, at least not in any great numbers. Just look at how few are made anymore, they’re just not popular the way they were in the 60’s & 70’s.
“…the bigger question would seem to be whether there is a sufficient market for coupes to justify spending scarce capital. My guess: No.”
So, coupes are dead? Why do I see all those 3-series, CLK’s and A5’s all over the place? Not to mention the G35’s and whatnots from Japan? The Coupe is not dead, it’s just dead coming from a domestic.
A coupe should be more expensive, faster and perhaps less practical than its sedan equivalent. But above all, it should be more beautiful. Or at least distinctive. The Audi A5 is drop dead gorgeous. The CTS Coupe is drop dead gorgeous as well. And distinctive. But tell me another sedan-based american coupe that is as beautiful as those?
BMW can manage to spawn an unacountable number of cars from just three platforms. The 3-series has spawned a two-door coupe, a four-door sedan, a five-door station wagon, a SUV, a two-door foldable hardtop convertible, plus a two-door two-seater roadster and coupe. And even an entire line of cars, slightly beneath, the 1-series, is based off the 3-series. And that is from only one of BMWs platforms.
Is it too much to ask for, for GM to make a drop dead gorgeous coupe above its only sedan? How come BMW can produce such a vast number of different cars, and still sell at numbers to justify the diversity, while GM can’t afford to produce a given seller?
It’s only ugly in the sense that a lot of modern cars are ugly.
“It’s only ugly in the sense that a lot of modern cars are ugly.”
“It’s only an island if you look at it from the water” to quote one of my favourite police chiefs…
Sorry but I think the CTS is ugly. I hate the high waist and small window area and can’t stand the butt-in-the-air styling fad of so many cars today. Yes, the edgy lines are polarizing. So when everyone who likes it has one, who is left to buy? Just look at the Chrysler 300 sales for the answer.. The coupe would just be more of the same and possibly even less attractive because its”sporty” and therefore smaller greenhouse would be wildly out of proportion to the rest of the car.
Cadillac should be building luxury cars, period. Cars like the CTS should have gone to Pontiac. And all of the truck/station wagon/suv models with a Cadillac badge should have been badged as GM. None of it matters now, of course, because who in their right mind would lay out this much money for a car that might be orphaned in another 6 months?
Ingvar: Certainly one can point to brands that have done well with coupes. But in general the market is has significantly shrunken over the last decade. Not everyone who enters is going to do okay — even if they don’t make many mistakes. Said another way: Just because a coupe is well designed doesn’t guarantee strong sales.
For example, I haven’t seen sales figures for the A5 lately but would guess that they aren’t setting off fireworks. Or consider the faux pony car market. Ford has done quite well with the Mustang. However, can Mustang, Camaro and Challenger all squeeze out a decent profit in a market that may be shakier during an era of volatile gas prices?
I don’t have inside information, but I’m skeptical. And if GM is having trouble generating sufficient volume then another niche product that fades away after the styling is no longer fresh — and coupes have notoriously short shelf lives because they are primarily styling exercises — may not be the highest and best use of limited dollars.
It’s interesting that you point to BMW’s diverse lineup. In recent years the brand has, in my view, over-extended itself with too many models. So far that apparently hasn’t pushed BMW into the red, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they prune their offerings a bit in response to the recession.
I don’t think the market for coupes has shrunken, it has just diversified. In the low end, whe have the Mini, Audi TT, Volvo C30, BMW 1-series. In the middle, the BMW 3-series, Audi A5, Mercedes CLK, Infiniti G35. In the high end, we have Mercedes CLS, BMW 6-series, Maserati GT. In the filthy rich category, we have Aston Martin DB9, Mercedes CL65, Ferrari 612, and the likes.
The perception of what categorizes a coupe has changed. But they are still stylish, expensive (compared to the base material), hip, neat, and unpractical. The time of the luxo barge coupe died with the Lincoln Mk V. The point is, even if the market has shrunken, GM could invent a new market, as BMW did with the Mini, or Mercedes did with the CLS. A stylish and drop dead gorgeous AMERICAN coupe could be a good start. An even better start would be a shooting-brake, and hey presto, Cadillac would be first on the block with such an offering.
Being a me too contender doesn’t make you a style leader.
Just because a car exists doesn’t mean that anyone is buying them.
The MINI is a hatchback.
I want a luxo barge coupe. A new Lincoln Mark would be beautiful. They could use the platform to develop a new Thunderbird too.
I’m getting tired of “sport” sedans/coupes/SUVs/trucks/etc. We have to fire all of the boy racers who occupy the auto design and marketing today.
Yeah, I know the Mini is a hatchback. But so is the Aston Martin V8 as well. My point was just that, that the perception of a coupe has changed. I would say that those who buys a Mini nowadays largely consists of people who before would have bought a coupe. The coupe is not dead, it has just transformed slightly. And my point is, that leaves a gap or opportunity for Cadillac to fill. If they had the money…