Do you think Cadillac moving corporate headquarters to Manhattan will help increase car sales?

Hey, that works for me.

I wasn’t aware of this. I am assuming moving their headquarters is more than just about sales, but also about costs I would think? Maybe they are getting a huge tax break? Just moving the marketing department is a reasonable idea; although, marketing and design should really work hand and hand.

I will say this, when I went to school in Michigan in the late 80’s it was balringly obvious how Michigan centric the car companies were. It was stunning to me how Michiganders had no clue what the car buying attitudes were along the coasts. It was incredible to me. I would think the people at the top of the companies had to be well travelled just because of their social class, so I really didn’t understand how they could be so narrow regardung the car business. However, it also happened in the New York based retailer I worked for, they sometimes were unaware of how people in other markets think or what was available in other markets. It’s a common theme and something we are taught in Marketing classes to watch out for.

Along with guessing there might be a tax break, my other guess is there international business might be very good and being on the coast might work better. Also, remember it isn’t all of GM, just Cadillac.

Maybe the Cadillac execs would rather not live around Detroit anymore?

@ibstubro What else lead them to want to move to Manhattan? It’s a super high cost area, although it does have a lot to offer. And NYS sucks for being business friendly. Although @dabbler might have hit on a good reason.

It really is embarrassing just how myopic the US auto industry has been in the past. I can remember in the late 60s when GM had a national convention in LA. All the big shots were astonished at the number of Volkswagens and Datsuns zipping along the freeways. They blithely concluded that California “hippies” liked those silly little cars, but when those kids grew up, they’d come back to their American land yachts. That being decided, they went home to business as usual.

Interesting insight, @JLeslie. I think the costs are likely to be higher in NYC. I heard about the move on NPR, and the pundit’s thought was that Cadillac has had a tendency to have either the engineering right or that advertising right, never 2 in sinc. At the moment they appear to have a superior product that is not producing sales.

When I brought this up with friend, @dabbler, that was the first ting brought up…perhaps the executives would rather live in NY.

Access to “Madison Avenue” and the ultimate ‘cosmopolitan’ way of life, I can only guess, @Adirondackwannabe.

Yes, @stanleybmanly, and at a time when US production values were in steady decline. Of course an American would only buy an American made car, reliability be damned!

Cadillac for me in the US is older people and black people. Maybe the generation of older people who used to buy it are dying off and so market share is going down. I see a lot of older people drving Toyota and Lexus now.

My father who was raised during the depression, made a life habit of buying quality, but at the lowest price he could, because he knew in the long run it paid off. His attitude was, “Use it up, make it last, wear it out.” He bought me a Honda almost 40 years ago, and years later bought himself a Toyota. Land yachts be damned!

To me, Cadillac has become almost synonymous with conspicuous consumption, and in that light should be doing very well in today’s market.

They have had some tremendously sucky advertising campaigns. Remember the duck? Really A cartoon duck advertising a luxury car?
Catera

As much as I despise everything General Motors, and the old guard Cadillac mentality (not too old guard as ancient Cadillac made electric start standard first). HELL, Cadillac was the first to offer a proper steering wheel, instead of the tiller control issued by all other manufacturers (almighty Karl Benz included). do suck on that loli.

Modern Cadillacs at least _look pretty badass. Pure direct and honest driving dynamics are still absent. Sure the CTS-V comes with a Corvette motor in, but that doesn’t even come close to forgiving the ropey shifter action and the fact that moderate bumps confuse the living shit out of the front suspension for what seems like hours

Modern Cadillacs are doing a far better job of attracting new buyers than other dying GM divisions and the once phenomenal, now pathetic Lincoln division of
Ford.

Cadillac is is potentially a great American manufacturer almost, but not quite, yet they are years ahead of their American competition.

Buy Acura/Honda’s RL-X instead. I stake my net worth on your being more pleased.

Acura’s automatic climate control system is connected to the GPS and clock. As a result it is able to determine the car’s more sunlit side. The AC system automatically sends a touch more aircon to the side facing the sun.

The wood trim is the RL-X is genuine wood, built up through a costly process by Tendo of Japan, a well established bentwood furniture maker of many decades. The detail intensive process includes bonding the glossy wood to an aluminum subframe for durability and the reduced risk of splintering in a severe crash.

General Motors designers have not even had dreams about ideas like this.

The second-buyer market worries about repair costs of the innovations, @SecondHandStoke.

Then buy Certified Pre Owned.

50K all inclusive warranty.

Not like service cost of Hondas are that cray anyway.

Also, in typical Honda fashion, they do not offer their innovations until rigorously proven.

For example, Honda’s game changing VTEC patent:

No real world failure has ever been documented.

Indy Series racecars equipped with Honda engines have never once failed to place due to an engine issue. Ever.

Detroit’s racist population would rather see it die than be gentrified.

Cadillac, like all others with any sense, is getting out.

@JLeslie‘s first comment almost made the move make sense to me, @SecondHandStoke. I can see where moving headquarters to NYC actually might increase car sales. Provided headquarters is self governing, meaning that the ad people and the execs that will green-light the ad campaigns are living in NYC.
If the GM board is in Detroit and has final say, they’re likely moving for naught.

@ibstubro:

The God awful Catera was shilled not by a duck but by a heraldic charge called a merlette. They were grouped in threes to represent the holy trinity.

“Merlette” is sometimes used by Italians to mean “blackbird”, yet the bird in the Cadillac commercials was red. WTF?

The Catera was a prime example of GM’s lazy badge engineering habit. as it was actually an Opel Omega. Pathetic.

The current logo is a streamlined version of the coat of arms of Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, who founded Detroit in 1701. Gone are the merlettes and the laurels. The latter being deliciously ironic.

At least the damned thing wasn’t a Cimarron

Rebadging:

How stupid does General Motors think we are?