May15
Cadillac’s future lineup will include three sedans, with a model positioned below the CTS and one positioned above it. That means General Motors will either axe the DTS or STS, Troy Clarke, president of GM North America told Automotive News.
The simplified lineup will see the elimination of front-wheel-drive, although the company could elect to keep the DTS in name only.
Consumers should expect to see “something less than the CTS, something around the CTS and something bigger than the CTS” in the future, Clarke said.
GM is widely expected to expand the CTS lineup to include a coupe, and maybe even a wagon. A recent report citing inside information indicated the CTS would get a refresh in 2010 to better align it against the BMW 5-Series and Mercedes E-Class.
This would then make room for a new rear-wheel-drive Cadillac built on the company’s Alpha platform to take aim at the BMW 3-Series and Mercedes C-Class in 2011. Cadillac would likely use the BLS name for this car.
Somewhere along the line the company will launch a replacement to the STS and DTS, designed to rival the BMW 7-Series or Mercedes S-Class.
Cadillac General Manager Jim Taylor previously stated GM could keep the DTS nameplate, but build its replacement on the Zeta platform.
Although the Zeta platform — which underpins the new Camaro and Pontiac G8 — has yet to be used for such a large vehicle, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz recently told The Car Connection this would be possible.
“What you’ve got to understand is that we’ve got this modular product architecture kit where we have two different lengths of center underbodies, two different lengths of front rails and two different lengths of rear overhang. So we can modify those elements any way we want. In the case of the Camaro, it’s long short, short. If, for instance, we wanted to do a very large rear-wheel-drive Cadillac with more than eight cylinders you could do long, long, long,” Lutz said.
Cadillac needs to drop their 3 letter names and go back to real words for their cars that are memorable. You wouldn’t know a DTS from a SLS or ETC or XLR unless you owned one…even then, there would still be alot of people who would get it confused.
@Madcapp, I was JUST thinking that. BLS also has bad juju in Europe. It works for some companies (Audi, Aston, Jag), but they’ve been using alphanumerics since forever ago. Most GM vehicles have names, but it seems like they’re moving away from that.
Names aside. This is a good idea in my opinion. Either can can be dropped it doesn’t matter as long as they engineer the top model to seriously compete.
Now that the CTS is positioned to compete directly with the 5 Series and the E Class, they definitely should get rid of one of the larger cars (STS or DTS) because it seems that they are overlapping.
I also have to agree with the 3 letter names - every luxury contender is doing it nowadays but it’s very confusing (DTS, CTS, STS, XLR, MKZ, MKX, MDX, RDX, etc.)
down with the DTS, i also agree that the letters are quite confusing, theres the ABC,DEF, GHI, JKL and so on
I believe that there should be an elimination of the two but that their two philosophies should be merged. Unless Cadillac wants to be an American version of Acura, they need a large brash flashy flagship to compete with the S-class and A8 and LS. The next flagship should have the RWD and technology of the STS but with the size and comfort of the DTS. They need a sedan version of the Escalade. The Sixteen concept was such a car and its style and proportions could easily be adopted for production. Use the next generation Northstar as the engine and with time perhaps introduce a V12 and Hybrid version.
Yeah, the lettering is not so great, but its worse for Lincoln: everything with Lincoln begins with MK. No one is trying to come up with good names anymore, and it’s spreading: see G5, G6, G8. I’d be much more interested in the Pontiac Gs if they were named after ferocious beasts, natural disasters, or action verbs.
Well, if it’s between DTS and STS: keep STS, but they really should hold on to both. Some [old] people like FWD luxury, & they got dough. GM has plenty of vehicles they need to nix, and the STS and DTS are not in that category.
Old people who want luxury won’t know the difference between FWD and RWD. I would say just give it AWD so that they have the lowest chance of putting it ass backwards in a snowbank.
why not do a heavy bls truck they can call it the blsht or bull****.
Isn’t there already a refreshened STS kicking around somewhere? Cadillac is looking good those of us years away from needing Metamucil. Drop the old-school DTS, keep the Cadillac brand fresh and let the old folks buy Buicks.
The current DTS looks bland as hell anyway (a shame after its impressive predecessor), it should just be dumped.
Drop the DTS.
And ….. doesn’t BLS sound a little too much like “bull****?”
4 posts up ricardo i beat you to it.
..it does doesnt it bl****.
.
drop the dts and bring the sls here for the people who need a larger car instead of the dts.
these posts are too funny! hahaha
Cadillac small car = MIC
Cadillac medium car = KEY
Cadillac large car = MOU
Cadillac truck = SE
who do we love?
My money is on DTS to be dropped. STS will go to ZETA platform allowing Sigma to be used as it was originally intended, for mid-sized cars.
Alphanumerics aren’t arbitrary; they make the layman call it a Cadillac instead of a name.
And who here is under 30 or even 40 and really would like to have a Seville or a Deville or an Eldorado over an STS or a DTS? Some names just get old; letters don’t. The Z or the 3-series will never be outdated.
Anyways. Ditch em both. The DTS is tired and the STS, for whatever reason, never took off. (I liked its styling better than the CTS when they first came out, but apparently the auto world didn’t agree with me). If they’re gonna make the CTS bigger, then whatever slots above (keep the STS name) should be big, American, and unapologetic. Bring in a vastly improved BLS underneath and you have yourself a lineup.
Hope they don’t use the BLS name. Sounds stupid in English.
Actually the DTS,even in base trim level is impressive in several ways. The ride is the best ever for a Deville 4 door. It does have great bounce control. The steering is too slow though. I drive an STS V8 so I’m used to a more responsive handler. The main thing with the DTS is the styling. While greatly improved over the previous Deville, it still looks like an unsuccessful amalgam of various Cadillac elements.
Cadillac small car = Cimarron
Cadillac medium car = Seville
Cadillac large car = Fleetwood
Cadillac truck = Rapper’s D-Lite
I’ll take mine with a V8-6-4 diesel
Hell, Lexus forced Mercedes to play around with its nomenclature for a decade. Mercedes had numeric alphabetic designations for decades then turned it around and upsidedown. It used to be SEL/SEC for Mercedes sedan and coupe then they dropped 2 letters. They put the letters first then changed the letters and changed the middle number for half liters of engine displacement. Confusing.
I miss the class names. Bring back Eldorado, Seville and DeVille. Lets go old school with the “Brougham” edition with a Landau roof lol. Actually I think Brougham was a carraige company back during the turn of the century. Not sure what style they were though
hey i say a dts the other day with an old school vinyl roof, i bet that will look great in 10 years peeling off and rusting.
The DTS has been begging to be dropped for some time now. Just when I had lost hope in Cadillac they start thinking straight again. The entire Cadillac lineup, except the CTS needs to be rethought. I would love to see the Sixteen made as a sixteen cylinder model as it was proposed as it has some neat technology in the engine bay. Yes, I know the world is in the throes of an energy crisis, but the Sixteen would be for those with plenty of discretionary income. If you can come across the Top Gear video (Top Gear has been requiring that sites like YouTube take the video down) then you can see an excellent mini-review and road test of the Sixteen. I was able to save the video so I watch it occasionally.
http://www.tubearoo.com/articles/84585/Top_Gear_Cadillac_Sixteen.html
I think Cadillac names were dropped because of ethnic connotations. Perhaps some names have lost their cache from over use on mediocre cars. But come on, if Cadillac ever produced a true rival to the Mercedes CL the name Eldorado or Biarritz would not keep people from buying it. Biarritz is after all a real place in France and Cadillac is a French sir name. Seems appropriate. Remember, Gottlieb Daimler chose to name his car brand Mercedes, a Spanish name.
jdepould, I have to chuckle as I reside near an affluent retirement community. I can tell you that there are some very elderly people who are pretty hip, and drive some very expensive automobiles that are not at all large or synonymous with the negative connotations of “old age.” Then again, everyone here is heading in that direction.
STS/CTS/BLS
I noticed how Lutz name-dropped the Sixteen without actually naming it at the end of the article.
Get rid of the DTS, screw old people put them in a Chevy Aveo hatchback
BLS/CTS/New Name
Get rid of the STS name, get rid of the DTS name, especially the DTS name, and give us a brand new, full size, S-Class competitor.
@F451 No doubt that there are some people who fit that description who know their stuff, but the vast majority . . .
Get rid of the DTS, Cadillac, the STS is way better anyway.
There is already a blending of the STS and DTS philosophies.. larger RWD sedan with the interior spaciousness of the DTS.. but it’s only available in China. The SLS looks like the way of the future, I’m almost certain it will replace STS and DTS in the US market in its next generation, since the new CTS is almost the same size as the current STS, inside and out.
http://www.leftlanenews.com/cadillac-sls-long-wheelbase-sts-for-china.html
The SLS is still too small to compete with the Germans and the LS460/600h but it’s a step in the correct direction.
a turd will always be a turd, no matter what name u label on it… face that, cadillac…
if the guys would start building good cars again, gm might even sell their cars for some reason other than having the cheapest-ass price tag…
Drop the present QCS - quality control team.
Drop the present IDT - interior design team.
Build a CFT - Cadillac fight team.
The CFT will fight every white collar idiot at GM that tries to cheapen any Cadillac product in any way. The CFT will build a premium product with premium quality.
That BLS has a fighting chance.
Any of you ever driven an Opel? I see them everywhere in Greece, and they’ve evolved into tight sporty sedans with awesome performance and excellent execution.
If they can bring that over unmolested (NOT like the Catera debacle) and really go to town on the design then the BLS has half a chance against an A4 or even 3-series. ESPECIALLY if they find a way to shoehorn a V8 in there. The interior of the Escalade shows that when they try, they can pull off something damn near world-class. My Audi driving buddy sat in the Escalade and thinks the ergonomics and F/F are par with the A4.
The BLS is a Saab though.
first off, kill the DTS, keep the STS. Secondly, if theres only going to be one sedan above the CTS in the future, whats all this talk of a V12 supersedan?
there is a gm comercial i saw last nite and in one of the pics was a badge that said v12 bi-turbo, wtf has anybody else seen it?
CTS, from what I understand the commercial was of a Mercedes V12 bi-turbo badge, and it faded to I think a Saturn Green Line badge. It’s meant to signify the changing market or something.
That commercial should show a Tahoe badge morphing into a malibu or an Impala badge, thats the real change thats going on. No one who can pay $150k for a car really cares at all about fuel prices, or the price of anything.
thanks primeGTP, it had me going, i thought it was a merc but was hoping gm had something up their sleeve.
Don’t worry, if rumors are to be believed, we may see a GM V12 yet. It used to be rumors were just that, rumors. But in the past couple years, it seems like most of what Lutz hints at actually happens.
I like the fact that Cadillac moved away from using stupid ass names like… Fleetwood… what the hell is a Fleetwood anyway? Most importantly I like the way there cars look and the fact that there trying to bring back rear wheel drive!
^fleet sales and as boring as a lumberpile^^^^fleetwood.