What was General Motors first idea, when they invented the Cadillac?

This

Gotta admit, that’s one fine looking ride for its day!

Gm didn’t invent the Cadillac. Cadillac was its own company, founded by a guy named Henry Martyn Leland. Leland had invented a very nice engine that he had tried to market to several automakers. Its great innovation was the precision machining of it’s parts, which made it easy to replace parts from stock instead of having them custom fitted into the engine.

Leland got a chance to purchase a failing car company, the Detroit Automobile Company, and began building the Cadillac around his engine.

Later GM bought the brand, but kept Leland on to head it up. GM’s market strategy was to sell consumers their first low-end cars, and then keep moving them up into higher end cars as they matured and became wealthier. The Cadillac was, from the beginning, seen as the end of that upgrading process.

I’d say both, John. They were a standout with those tail lights ! Add to that a “high” pricetag and you’ve got Elvis hooked. lol It seems to me the tail lights were called fins? Or I may be confusing the caddy with the fins of a ‘57 Chevy Belair.

Looking at most Cadillacs, I would say they are bought by people with no taste! I think they were designed to be excessive just because they could. I think a lot of people get excess mixed up with prestige. It’s a bit like people buying a Hummer- in Australia it is considered that people buy them to make up for anatomical lack.

Real prestige is in quality- such as an Audi or similar. By the way, @thorninmud is correct that Cadillac was bought out by GM.

I just purchased a Cadillac because my wife fell in love with it. I don’t know about prestige but I do know that the car handles much better than the Acura, Lexus, and BMW’s that we tried. It is a car that can make Americans proud. The best point is that it makes my wife happy.