Cadillac BLS Bags Winter Car 2007 Award
Recently at the 77th Salon International de l'Auto Geneve (77th annual Geneva International Motor Show), Tekniikan Maailma magazine, one of the leading automotive publications in Finland named the 2007 Cadillac BLS 4-door compact sedan as the recipient of their Winter Car 2007 Award. Martti Merilinna, Chief Editor of Tekniikan Maailma handed the award to Cadillac General Manager Jim Taylor.
In the past 12 months, the Tekniikan Maailma conducted a winter test drive for 20 European vehicle models, including the newest models from Volvo, Honda, Peugeot, Skoda, and other European brands. Tekniikan Maailma crew brought the vehicles in a winter test track located Ivalo, a village in Northern Finland. The Ivalo village is noted for hosting some of the largest winter sports events like down-hill and cross-country skiing, snowboarding, and slalom skiing. Moreover, the place is also one of the areas in Europe with the most harsh winter driving conditions.
The Winter Car 2007 Award aims to determine which of the 20 vehicles could: "… in this sparsely populated land of the cold and dark winter… take us to our destination in safety, comfort and warmth."
Among the 20 competitors, Tekniikan Maailma has chosen the Cadillac BLS sedan as the winner because of the vehicle's impressive performance in winter driving conditions. The Tekniikan Maailma winter test crew made their selection based on certain criteria including low-grip handling, braking stability, grip on uphill starts, headlamp performance, and the ability of the vehicle to "heat the interior to a comfortable 15 degrees in just 10 minutes from a sub-zero startup".
The Cadillac BLS scored high during the evaluation, bagged the Winter Car 2007 award, and most of all, achieved what the Cadillac BLS design and engineering team aims, which is to integrate with the "toughest European driving conditions." The Tekniikan Maailma winter test crew commented: "Here is the best ever Cadillac one could hope for in winter use."
The Europe-only Cadillac BLS compact sedan was released in 2006, based on GM's Epsilon vehicle platform and was built in Cadillac assembly plant located in Trollhättan, Sweden. The car features the very first turbo diesel engine from GM's luxury brand. It also comes with elegant exterior design and GM parts like GM mud flap, comfortable interior features, as well as impressive vehicle driving and handling performance. The Cadillac BLS sedan has a starting manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of 19,000 Euros or about $25,000 USD.
By Noah Scott.
Visit the Blog about cadillac greensboroCadillac's Proposed Exciting New Coupe
Automaker Cadillac has a rich tradition of building exciting, highly regarded sedans as well as coupes. However, changes made to its line up over the past decade have resulted in a fleet of vehicles that now consists exclusively of sedans, crossovers, and sport utility vehicles. Gone are the days of the super size Eldorado and the Coupe de Ville, vehicles that long stood for Cadillac quality and excess. Today, plans are underway to bring in a coupe to compete against European rivals Mercedes, Audi, and BMW. Please read on for more information about the proposed CTS derived coupe.
The proposed CTS coupe being planned by Cadillac will not be an Eldorado nor will it be an updated version of the Coupe de Ville. As a large midsize two door model, the CTS coupe will be larger than its European competitors, but vastly smaller than preceding Cadillac coupes.
A 2008 Calendar Year Introduction
Slated for an overhaul for the 2009 model year, the CTS sedan will be the basis for the new coupe, thus virtually all of the parts will be shared between the two cars with the majority of the differences showing up in the roof pillars. Cash strapped General Motors wants to produce the car badly, but they don’t want to go overboard with development costs. Thus, the coupe and sedan would share an overwhelming majority of the same components.
Downsides to the New Coupe
The CTS coupe does have at least two downsides to it. First of all, the luxury coupe market isn’t that large and it has been shrinking. Second of all, the CTS will be larger than its European competitors more along the lines of the biggest cars from Mercedes and BMW. This could cause confusion for buyers, especially if the CTS is aimed at smaller cars but is sized with the larger models.
Upsides to the New Coupe
On the positive side, the CTS coupe throws open an important and profitable area of the car market to Cadillac. As part of its ongoing appeal toward harnessing younger buyers, the CTS will do for Cadillac in 2008 and beyond what the Escalade did earlier in the decade: lower the average age of Cadillac owners. The younger the buyer is, the better the chance that Cadillac will have them as customers for the long haul.
GM’s Money Woes Could Scuttle the Project
Of course, GM’s financial woes could cast doubt on the new model even though the CTS sedan is a go. Plus, it isn’t certain yet just how many coupes Cadillac would have to sell in order to turn a profit. Yet, if the car is built it could further signal GM’s commitment to building cars that buyers really want, a complaint that some consumers have voiced as reasons why they have left the general behind.
The smart money says the CTS coupe will be given the green light. Cadillac needs this car and consumers want a luxury coupe to light up their world. Who better than Cadillac?
By Matthew Keegan.
