Quote: “Are Europeans simply taking their time to warm up to Cadillac?”.

Why would we? With BMW, Mercedes and Audi we have way better and more advanced cars then Cadillac will ever make. And don’t get me started about the design that is more eighties then The A-team or Knightrider.
Back to the drawing board and try to get some modern looks when you’re at it.

…also, is it just me or does anyone else think a model name like “Cadillac BLS” is too close to Cadillac BS?

The CTS V-Series with its Corvette engine is the only model I would remotely consider and I’m American. The car has had some very good reviews, the drivetrain has a great heritage and while a BMW M5 may be a better car overall, that particular Caddy isn’t a bad choice.

I can’t say anything about the rest of the lineup. Not interested.

I agree with #1, it is an Ok car but does not offer anything that would make someone to trade his/her Audi/MB/BMW for a BLS.

People in Europe would rather buy a Saab in its original form than a Saab-based Cadillac, makes sense to me. That and the name is horrible, who thought of BLS, really? Were they eating a BLT at the time?

Jon.

[...] Source: Left Lane News [...]

As much as I want caddy to succeed… it looks like the kia in a german world of hondas.

If GM were smart (they’re not), they would follow in BILL FORD’s footsteps: Take the platform of the Cobalt, spruce it up, and sell it as a ‘premium compact’ Cadillac!!! (see JAGUAR X-TYPE for an X-ellent (ha!) example of this strategy! or the Volvo S40!). Now that type of leveraging takes VISION. It takes SIGHT. It takes FORETHOUGHT. But, being GM, this advice will fall on DEAF EARS.

Think about THAT, you.

Who would have guessed a Cadillac would of flopped in Europe. (Apparantly everyone but GM’s CEOs).

Its not a flop yet (notice the question mark). But it is off to a very poor start. Should have been RWD.

I like it, export it to N.A. and sell a bunch GM !

Does anyone know the BLS pricing? Does it use the same engines and powertrain as the Saab?

I thought the BLS styling looked good, but the Saab platform is already starting to get long in the tooth.

Big Lump of ****?

A Cadillac based on a Saab! Not as bad as a Saabaru! Come on! Who will leave a BMW/Audi/Merc/Jaguar to buy this quick-fix car! As far as I understand though none criticised it heavily, nobody was particularly impressed either. Its design was considered fresh though! The 9-3 is available from quite some time. Basing a new car (a new brand too for Europe) on a not-so-new fwd platform was not a brilliant idea to begin with… And then to expect it be a success against the 3, C-class, A4 etc is… err… strange!

GM…. What does Saab mean by the way?

It stands for svenska aeroplan aktiebolaget or svenska automobilen aktienbolaget (sweedish plane (or car) factory)

… not factory, corporation actually.

nice dame edna

Thanks Onur… I was wondering whether GM knows it!

I guess GM thought Europeans wanted a break from well designed sporty sedans with good styleing. I guess they were wrong.

I agree with Jon. I prefer a Saab 9-3 than a Cadillac BLS. But I think European people are getting full of Mercedes and BMW’s. So my opinion is that it will sell a little more than what they are selling right now. (Sorry, my english is not so good)

BLS = Englands Cadillac Cimmaron…

Funny thing is the Chrysler 300c seems to sell quite well becuase it isn’t trying to be a swedish drag queen in american clothing. Its a head to toe american car and design so deserves the sucess it has unlike this peice of ****. kILL THE BRAND IN EUROPE

I bought a Caddy BLS.

We found one person! If this were America, the rest of the rejects would end up at Hertz rentacar. Do they do that over in Europe?

Edit: I just read that Bob Lutz and Rick Wagnor each recieved roughly 349 new Cadillac BTS sedans. Something about taking the badging off and marketing them as GMC’s?

Cadillac has to try and sell the BLS in Europe (with diesel engines) because not as many Europeans as Americans can buy one of the real Cadillacs – CTS; STS; XLR; SRX or DTS. And why not? Because European governments believe that car buyers are meant to be milked for any number of reasons by charging them a sales tax of 15-25%, plus a 10% import duty, plus an 80% tax on a liter of petrol. When you combine these high car taxes with lower paychecks (once again because Europeand earn less and pay more in taxes) it makes it much harder for the average European to indulge a passion for a big engined torquey petrol Cadillac. So no wonder Cadillac sells 250K Cadillacs in the US and 1500 in Europe. And as we all know, BMW, Mercedes and Audi sell more 6 and 8 and 12 cylinder cars in the USA than any other country.

This car is just a souped-up Vectra at double the price, why bother ??

Dodge will be a lot more succesfull with the Caliber, they have a better strategy to enter Europe