What fresh hell is this, you might mutter after hearing what Cadillac’s up to. Not only does General Motors’ luxury division plan to maintain its alphanumeric naming convention on future models, it also plans to add additional badging for the 2020 model year. The badges are numbers, designed to give both the owner and passer-by a sense of what’s under the hood.
No, it isn’t a return to prominently displayed cubic-inch engine displacements. It’s a torque figure.
In newton-meters.
That’s what Cadillac President Steve Carlisle wanted to talk about in Detroit Wednesday, telling journalists that the nomenclature will appear on all models for the coming model year. The first model to gain the exterior numbering is the midsize XT6 crossover.
While previous XT6 imagery showed no hint of this new badge strategy, a press photo handed out at the event shows an XT6 liftgate with a chromed “400” resting just below the right-side taillight. If only it was cubic inches…
Cadillac’s intentions seem legit, though Twitter wags can be forgiven for questioning whether his was all an early April Fool’s joke.
If you’re wondering why the XT6’s standard 3.6-liter V6 warrants such a designation (the mill’s 271 lb-ft of torque works out to 367 newton-meters), it’s because Cadillac rounded up. This will be the case on all models, apparently. The brand doesn’t want any badging that doesn’t end in “00” or “50,” though a “T” will be added to signify a turbocharged engine.
“We’re not talking about displacements any more,” Carlisle said, as reported by RoadShow. “Its purpose is to communicate power and performance, not just for ICE engines, but also for other propulsion.”
Carlisle didn’t saw what type of designation an electric model might gain. Will Cadillac muscle Fiat aside for 500e badging rights? Time will tell.
Addressing Cadillac’s apparent disdain for freedom units, the brand boss said, “It’s metric, it’s universal, it’s global, we have to think about all the markets that we’re doing business in.”
He added, “Engineers certainly prefer newton-meters.”
Not since the Ford Galaxie 500 7 Liter has an American automaker given such credence to the idea that customer-chasing panache can be mined from the stuffy, cold metric system. Regardless, it can be argued that Cadillac’s power designation badges are slightly less confusing and irritating than those found on European-market Audis.
[Image: General Motors]
To mimic Trump, what the hell do they have to lose?
Logical progression:
– Cadillac badges Newton-meters
– Lincoln badges Newton-centimeters
– Chrysler responds with Newton-millimeters
Which of the fullsize truck brands will be the first to use inch-pounds (lb-in) for torque specs??
This is how our country is governed. Well, these are the same people, born on the same soil, received same education. They run their company into the ground just as our gov runs the country into the same place.
Finally, it seems like they have a plan to save the brand!
/sarc
Truly. There is something in the water mains feeding the Silver Silos. This is the silliest thing since converting an Olds 350 to diesel.
“I heard the Lincoln Aviator has 400 horsepower standard.”
“I think this Cadillac does too, it says 400 right there!”
@JohnTaurus: Totally agree – this is most likely a marketing ploy to detract from the gaping power gap between the Aviator and XT6.
And most other Cadillacs vs their competition.
{slow clap}
(Antonio Banderas laptop scene from Assasins GIF)
God…
You actually made me check the calendar to be sure it wasn’t April 1st.
How many of those numbers will be missing by the time it gets out of the Hertz fleet? I look forward to seeing lots of them on the CarMax lot with 4_0 on the tailgate.
If they leave 00 … well.. I know the score
“Cold metric units”? MKS units rule. They make sense. English units are arbitrary and old fashioned. Measuring a horse in “hands”…really?
“we have to think about all the markets that we’re doing business in.”
Guffaw
“Engineers certainly prefer newton-meters.”
Hi, engineer here. Newton-meters are for homework; pound-feet are for cars.
IB..:
Agreed. You beat me to it. “NM are preffered.” Give me a F ing break. This Carlisle Guy must be a buzzword, cool guy. Full of BS.
They are going to keep the XT 4-3–5-2- whatever alphabet soup and further add to the Horse s h * t with NM performance numbers.
I no longer think they might be able to turn this around. They are lead by an new group of imbeciles. This is Breathtaking after the S h * t show that was JdN and Melody et. al.
As someone who ecu tunes vehicles you have to be able to jump from NM to lb-ft of torque. The Ecotec 2.0T tops out at 295 lb-ft or 400 NM.
“Engineers certainly prefer newton-meters.”
BS. This engineer uses foot-lbs or inch-lbs. As IBx1 says, N-m is for homework problems.
Really, Cadillac is mimicking the lawnmower mfrs, who switched from displaying HP numbers several years ago, to displaying torque figures. That “4.0” badge on your lawnmower is NOT horsepower. The HP figure is much lower.
The 369 lb-ft of torque in the XTS Vsport and Audi 3.0T is 500 NM.
“Really, Cadillac is mimicking the lawnmower mfrs, who switched from displaying HP numbers several years ago, to displaying torque figures. That “4.0” badge on your lawnmower is NOT horsepower. The HP figure is much lower.”
Or not- one very popular mower company had several versions of the same mower: push, self-propelled, and commercial all with the exact same engine- same part numbers, same specs. For advertising purposes the push mower was rated at 4.25 hp, the self-propelled at 4.75 hp and the commercial at 6 hp. The truth is they all had a minimum of 7 hp. I owned one of the self-propelled models- it would go through 10 inch high grass like nothing.
Newton-meters? Like wtf.
Brand is so lost.
The Ecotec 2.0T is rated at 296 lb-ft of torque or 400 NM. Bigher numbers always sell.
In that case why not 400,000 N-mm?
Give them time.
Apparently you can’t make this $hit up!
The truth is more delusional than fiction!
From the ‘58 Eldorado to this nonsense!
And people wonder why I drink!
Where is DeadWeight??!! Epic meltdown for shore!
the next step will be to battle Lincoln by changing the speedometer to knots and the length of the vehicles in fathoms.
Leagues, my boy, leagues.
Mustang dashboard display: “You are now traveling at Mach 0.091”
How about reporting speed in warp factors?
A trick badge doesn’t turn a POS into a decent vehicle.
HA! I want an electronic Mo-board and a hot electronic female voice calling out fat-holes. Caddy’s forgot that the driver is always the captain.
Fathoms would be too deep for most people!
Just like brains and Cadillac decision-makers seem to be mutually-exclusive!
The Cimarron was a stroke of genius compared to this!
Why, it’s brilliant!
Tesla got sued for “exaggerating” its effective horsepower ratings. How long will it take for Cadillac to be sued for exaggerating its reported torque ratings?
Cadillac is all in on stupidity.
“These go to eleven.”
Perfect reference!
Steph, I was going to mention the stupid Audi system. Points, man.
How about putting an “EIGHT” emblem on the back, to denote the number of cupholders?
… along with LED bars displaying real-time signal strength for onboard WiFi hotspot.
Good one guys .
…and more LED bars to show the depreciation in real-time.
Have they started making LEDs that beams itself deep underground?
I laughed really hard at the cupholders comment.
Now I am craving Fig Newtons!
Cadillac has been lost in the weeds for what seems like forever, but even I didn’t realize they were THAT lost. I thought the the NYC move and “lifestyle” rebranding was peak cringe-worthiness, but this smacks of 11th hour desperation like little else I’ve seen from them!
Is this REALLY all they can come up with to recapture buyers’ imaginations?
Another new way to try to confuse the general public and then Cadillac throws in the rounding of the newton-metrics too! To much! Advertising lines and lies!
Audi: “Our new engine naming scheme is stupid, confusing, and generally pointless. We shouldn’t use it in America.”
Cadillac: “Hold my beer.”
Bwahahahaha!
“Really, Cadillac is mimicking the lawnmower mfrs, who switched from displaying HP numbers several years ago, to displaying torque figures. That “4.0” badge on your lawnmower is NOT horsepower. The HP figure is much lower.”
Could Cadillac offer a mowing deck as an option. Might make a better riding lawn mower than a car.
I seem to recall a ‘game show’ where people built custom cars for specific purposes… One of the winners was a Fox-bodied Mustang turned into a lawn mower.
Why yes my good man, I drive a Cadillac XT6 400 AWD Premium Luxury.
If they can call their base model premium luxury, I guess anything makes sense to them
.
XT6 Real Luxury We Mean It This Time Limited 4.0T
They should report wheel torque (like Tesla attempted with the Roadster 2.0 reveal), so the figures can go into the thousands.
We all drive torque, irrespective of how many powers of horse our cars apparently have. I’ve redlined my car a mere handful of times. My truck? Never.
Even if you’re on the “torque uber alles” team, Cadillacs honestly don’t even have that much of it until you spend over $70K. Freaking Signature trim *MAZDAS* out-torque most Cadillacs.
This is just like a 5’10 guy stating that he’s ‘178’ tall.
My Caddy has 395 lbs-ft. I barely touch the 400 HP.
That’s cool. I’m not sure what it has to do with Cadillac putting ‘400’ badges on CUVS making 271lb-ft though.
Buick used to do this, but they didn’t round and they used the same measuring system that everyone else in NA did.
After teaching us that bigger is better, Big Blocks best of all, it’s hard to downsize. The 2.0 Turbo now covers economy cars to sport. I drove an Ecotech Mustang that was amazingly fast…with boring stats.
The OE would be so happy if we’d just pay attention to HP, not displacement or how it occurs.
My dividing line remains…six or eight is luxury, four is economy, no matter how hard you squeeze it. (and yes, I know the boxster is a four)
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
We had metric system official since 1917 and still used hp as long as I can remember and no one cared about torque and nm was a total alien notion for us. It was something invented by Euros. BTW we measured wheel diameter in inches too, tradition I guess and natural since even in SU wheels were designed with inches in mind. It was also easy to remember.
But despite all that I find metric system very logical (as french would say) and extremely easy to use and understand. Imperial system is confusing to say the least. Humans have 10 fingers, how someone could come up with 4, 8, 12, 24? Did it come from ancient aliens with 4 fingers? For me it is impossible to measure anything less than inch in inches. I simply cannot figure it out (e.g. 1.17”) without converting it to mm.
I’m also a fan of the metric system and how it’s easier to use. I have to admit that some English units just work a bit better for daily use. I prefer miles to kilometers, Fahrenheit for outside temperature, inches seem better than millimeters for most uses, etc..
Yeah in every day applications cups, inches and etc may be easier to understand than 240 ml or cms. I wonder if Europeans use kilowatts or still hp? In Russia even though it is 100% metric country still no one can comprehend kilowatts while using hp is common. When I came to America I converted distances from miles to kms to get the idea how far it is. Now I do the opposite – convert kms to miles because I have a feel how far it is if distance is expressed in miles. So it is just matter of getting used to.
In Australia it is all kilowatt and Newton metre. Holden Secial Vehicals used to put the kilowatt figure on the back of their hotted up Commodores, pretty sure they’ve dropped it now they only sell sticker packs for diesel Colorados.
I can understand a preference for one measure over another, depends what youre used to, but I’ve never understood how anyone can think fractions are better. What is 1mm what is 3mm what is 2658mm, some stupid fraction.
It appears that Steve Carlisle is Canadian … Does that have something to do with it?
For kicks, I went to the Cadillac websites of Canada and the UK.
Cadillac of Canada advertises its vehicles’ specs in HP and lb-ft, with HP apparently being primary.
Cadillac of the UK advertises specs in HP and Nm. (That’s a weird mix.) But they only sell 3 vehicles there anyway – CT6, Escalade, and CTS-V.
Not really a weird mix. HP gives a bigger number than KW. NM gives a bigger number than ft/lbs. Bigger numbers sell cars. The system that drives me crazy is that used on tyres. The diameter in inches and the width in millimetres. It’s a bit like buying a piece of 2X4, 2 metres long.
I bought a 2×4 the other day and it measured significantly less than 2 by 4… scratches head…
Bah. Who need the metric system? My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that’s the way I like it!
Hahaha
Pounds/ft vs newtons/m? I get it, but “HP” is universal, everyone can relate, no need to covert to anything else. But engine output announced in electrical impulse is just weird, and for no good reason other than to be different from US standards?
I must admit I got a chuckle from then commenter complaining about the metric Newton Metre designation on a 2.0T engine. Is a 2 litre engine not a metric description?
I think it doesn’t really matter how Caddy assign numbers to their model naming conventions.
In this day and age of turbo engines it makes sense.
The metric system makes sense as its the universal system of measure globally.
Who cares is a vehicle manufacturer uses torque.
@BAF0 – Torque is a much more accurate measure relative to the driving experience you’ll have. Just knowing “HP” leaves you with a few questions.
A 180 badge on the back of a 2.0 turbo diesel Jaguar F-Pace representing its horsepower would tell you a lot more about the driving experience than a 431 (or rounded 450) for the Nm torque. It’s going to be S L O W.
Think about the time and money going into this and it seems doubtful that anyone outside of Cadillac will care.
On the flip side this vehicle has been criticized for it’s interior…seems like the money would have been better spent there???
They truly are lost.
Cadillac.. farewell to thee .. Carlisle is a buffoon, coming up through the insider clueless and aged ranks in GM, to destroy the brand. Well done GM, well done!
Poor Cadillac ..
Again, someone stole my 2017 XC90 and put a different nose on it. Are we really out of design language ideas Kia and Cadillac?! They should call it the XC-sclade or the Elda-90
I think they should go for it, and I wish them luck.
I mean, I won’t ever be buying one of their vehicles. If I want to spend that much on something that is either aping a European car, or a snazzier GMC, I’ll just buy the real thing.
Silly numbers won’t bring me to the showroom. Giving me the opportunity to buy an El Dorado with some cool retro styling would at least put it within the consideration set.
369 pound foot = 5 002 968 242.9 dyne centimeter
schmitt,
That rounds to 8 billion, right? LOL.
What do you do when the other “premium” dead brand walking starts turning things around with SUVs/CUVs and gives you a powertrain thumping? You pick the number that inflates the best on conversion!
I’m ordering 563 badges for my SS. Oh wait, the rounding, make that 600 badges (even though I should round down to 550!).
This is truly pathetic, and I hope Lincoln has slightly more class.
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the passing of DeadWeight. He was killed by an aneurysm after reading a TTAC story about Cadillac putting optimistically rounded Nm related badges on their cars. His family pleaded with him to stop reading stories about GM. He just couldn’t quit, and now he’s gone to that great pick n’ pull in the sky.
F